---
tag: 4CB33BZK9Y
kind: concept
name: Alternative semantics
aliases: [hamblin-semantics]
sources:
  - wikipedia: en:66422858@r1319521975
    locator: Alternative semantics
    note: adopted
    mention: wikipedia://en/66422858
    sections: [Summary]
same_as:
  wikidata: Q105226785
  wikipedia: Alternative semantics
inventory: [89WVVHS3DV]
---

## Summary

**Alternative semantics** (or **Hamblin semantics**) is a framework in formal semantics and logic. In alternative semantics, expressions denote *alternative sets*, understood as sets of objects of the same semantic type. For instance, while the word "Lena" might denote Lena herself in a classical semantics, it would denote the singleton set containing Lena in alternative semantics. The framework was introduced by Charles Leonard Hamblin in 1973 as a way of extending Montague grammar to provide an analysis for questions. In this framework, a question denotes the set of its possible answers. Thus, if $P$ and $Q$ are [[propositions|0ZGC7ZESYN]], then $\{P,Q\}$ is the denotation of the question whether $P$ or $Q$ is true. Since the 1970s, it has been extended and adapted to analyze phenomena including focus, scope, disjunction, NPIs, presupposition, and implicature.