Scopeless quantifiers and operators (Q689081)

This article is about characterizations of the variable-binding operators \(F\) satisfying the equations (S) for arbitrary operators \(G\) and functions \(\phi\) of suitable types: \[ (Fx)\;(Gy)\;\phi(x,y)=(Gy)\;(Fx)\;\phi(x,y).\tag{S} \] In the case of unary generalized quantifiers \(G\) and binary relations \(\phi\), (S) is shown to be satisfied by exactly the ultrafilters with a certain completeness property, which in many cases amounts to principality. This result is extended to arbitrary operators occurring in functional type hierarchies, of which some examples are briefly discussed. The final section of the paper gives a characterization of scopeless operators that do not involve variable- binding. The appendix contains an application of one of the results to natural language semantics, viz. the analysis of infinitive embedding verbs of perception.