LANGUAGE AND EQUILIBRIUM PRASHANT PARIKH Language and Equilibrium Language and Equilibrium Prashant Parikh TheMITPress Cambridge,Massachusetts London,England 62010MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology Allrights reserved. Nopart of thisbook maybereproduced inanyform by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or informa- tionstorageandretrieval)withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher. Forinformationaboutspecialquantitydiscounts,pleasee-mail [email protected] ThisbookwassetinTimesNewRomanandSyntaxon3B2byAscoTypesetters, HongKong. PrintedandboundintheUnitedStatesofAmerica. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Parikh,Prashant. Languageandequilibrium/PrashantParikh. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-262-01345-1(hardcover:alk.paper) 1.Pragmatics. 2.Grammar,Comparativeandgeneral—Syntax. 3.Game— theoreticalsemantics. 4.Semantics(Philosophy) I.Title. P99.4.P72P365 2010 401'.43—dc22 2009015862 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Avani and Neal riverrun,pastEveandAdam’s,fromswerveofshoretobendofbay,bringsusbya commodiusvicusofrecirculationbacktoHowthCastleandEnvirons. —JamesJoyce,openingofFinnegansWake Awayalonealastalovedalongthe —JamesJoyce,closingofFinnegansWake Weshallnotceasefromexploration Andtheendofallourexploring Willbetoarrivewherewestarted Andknowtheplaceforthefirsttime. —T.S.Eliot,LittleGidding Contents ListofFigures xi Acknowledgments xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Information,Meaning,andLanguage 37 3 SituatedChoice 71 4 EquilibriumSemantics 123 5 Indeterminacy 195 6 NounPhrases 231 7 Conclusion 283 AppendixA:TheMathematicalModel 303 AppendixB:AnExercise 327 References 329 Index 339