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INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
Programming languages are, first and foremost, languages. Languages have been studied by philosophers for several thousand years. It seems appropriate to begin our study of programming languages by reviewing the more fundamental ideas of language.
Language is fundamentally associated with representation, communication, meaning, and truth. These same issues arise in programming languages, although they are rarely discussed in the literature.
Modern studies of language attempt to study language in a systematic way, often using mathematical formalisms. A group known as logical positivists that included Bertrand Russell, Ludwig von Wittgenstein, and Rudolf Carnap was particularly influential. The positivists are important ...
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