Towards a probabilistic semantics for natural language

This thesis has two aims: firstly, to explore the possibility of using probabilityntheory to give an account of meaning (as in intension) for natural language and,nsecondly, to provide formal probabilistic semantics for several paraconsistent logics.nThe first aim results in the sketch of a probabilistic evidential role semantics fornnatural language, which is presented in Chapter 8. The second aim results in formalnprobabilistic semantics for First Degree Entailment (FDE) and the Logic of Paradoxn(LP) presented in Chapter 6, together with semantics for the relevant logics, B+ andnB, which are presented in Chapter 7.n The thesis falls in two parts. The first part, from Chapters 1-5, explores severalntheories of meaning for natural language with the view of identifying importantnconcepts and lessons that can be used to develop a probabilistic account. The secondnpart consists of Chapters 6-8 where the semantic theories are developed.nn