quantifiés

Quantifiés is a term used in linguistics and formal semantics to describe expressions that express quantity and the constructions in which a variable is bound by a quantifier. In natural language, quantifiés include determiner phrases such as every, some, no; numerals such as three or twenty; measure phrases such as three liters of; and other forms like “the number of” or “the amount of.” In formal semantics and logic, quantified expressions denote the scope of a binding operator that applies to a variable within a proposition.

In logic, a quantified formula contains a quantifier that binds a variable in its scope. The two standard quantifiers are universal (for all, denoted ∀) and existential (there exists, denoted ∃). Examples include statements such as For all x, if x is a student then x passes, and There exists an x such that x is a philosopher. Quantifiers determine the truth conditions of predicates and interact with negation, conjunction, and implication. Quantifier scope—the range of the formula over which the quantifier operates—can affect meaning and truth conditions, leading to phenomena such as scope ambiguity.

In linguistics, quantification investigates how different languages encode quantity and how quantifiers interact with the structure of sentences. Generalized quantifiers extend beyond simple all or some to include most, few, many, several, and counting expressions like three, five, or at least two. Quantification plays a central role in areas such as sentence meaning, discourse semantics, and natural language processing, influencing how information is stored, retrieved, and interpreted.

See also: quantifier, generalized quantifier, quantifier scope, formal semantics.