Sema Hypothesis: Difference between revisions

Sema Hypothesis (view source)

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'sema' is plural

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 [[File:Sema.png|alt=A circle inside a pair of square brackets, with a squiggly line underneath|thumb|160x160px|[[Kuna|Kuna's]] symbol for a sema]]
-In Toaq semantics, the '''Sema Hypothesis''' refers to the idea that pronouns denote ''intensional pluralities of entities'', also known as a {{Dr|sema}}. That is, an expression like {{Dr|hó}} may refer to more than one entity as in [[plural logic]], and moreover the referents may be different in different [[Modal|possible worlds]].
+In Toaq semantics, the '''Sema Hypothesis''' refers to the idea that pronouns denote ''intensional pluralities of entities'', also known as {{Dr|sema}}. That is, an expression like {{Dr|hó}} may refer to more than one entity as in [[plural logic]], and moreover the referents may be different in different [[Modal|possible worlds]].
 For example, imagine that {{Dr|hó}} refers to the members of Mary's band. These may be just [Mary, John] in the real world, while in the possible world where Charles and Sue had joined the band instead of John, these may be [Mary, Charles, Sue]. In other words, not only can the exact referents vary, but even the ''number of referents'' can vary.
 The sema is taken to be the common "type interface" used throughout Toaq's system of binding and anaphoric reference, and therefore is a cornerstone of the theory of semantics used in [[Kuna]].