<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Montague</span>

Richard Montague

<p><b>Richard Merritt Montague</b> (September 20, 1930 – March 7, 1971) was an <a href="/en/Americans" title="Americans" class="wl">American</a> <a href="/en/Mathematician" title="Mathematician" class="wl">mathematician</a> and <a href="/en/Philosopher" title="Philosopher" class="mw-redirect wl">philosopher</a> who made contributions to <a href="/en/Mathematical_logic" title="Mathematical logic" class="wl">mathematical logic</a> and the <a href="/en/Philosophy_of_language" title="Philosophy of language" class="wl">philosophy of language</a>. He is known for proposing <a href="/en/Montague_grammar" title="Montague grammar" class="wl">Montague grammar</a> to formalize the semantics of <a href="/en/Natural_language" title="Natural language" class="wl">natural language</a>. As a student of <a href="/en/Alfred_Tarski" title="Alfred Tarski" class="wl">Alfred Tarski</a>, he also contributed early developments to <a href="/en/Set_theory" title="Set theory" class="wl">axiomatic set theory</a> (<a href="/en/ZFC" title="ZFC" class="mw-redirect wl">ZFC</a>). For the latter half of his life, he was a professor at the <a href="/en/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles" title="University of California, Los Angeles" class="wl">University of California, Los Angeles</a> until his early death, believed to be a <a href="/en/Homicide" title="Homicide" class="wl">homicide</a>, at age 40.</p>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">American mathematician</div>
<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1066479718" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}</style><div class='mobile-collapse'><header class="mobile-collapse-header mobile-collapse-btn"><b>Quick facts: Richard Montague, Born, Died, Nationality, Al...</b> <span class='arrow'>▼</span></header> <table class="infobox biography vcard mobile-collapse-element"><tbody><tr><th colspan="2" class="infobox-above" style="font-size:125%;"><div class="fn" style="display:inline">Richard Montague</div></th></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><span class="mw-default-size"><a href="/en/File:Richardmontague.jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" data-hash="File:Richardmontague.jpg"><img loading="lazy" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Richardmontague.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="100" data-file-height="123" data-file-type="bitmap" height="123" width="100" alt="Richardmontague.jpg"></a></span><div class="infobox-caption">Richard Montague, at UCLA, c. 1967.</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Born</th><td class="infobox-data"><span style="display:none">(<span class="bday">1930-09-20</span>)</span>September 20, 1930<br><div style="display:inline" class="birthplace"><a href="/en/Stockton,_California" title="Stockton, California" class="wl">Stockton, California</a></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Died</th><td class="infobox-data">March 7, 1971<span style="display:none">(1971-03-07)</span> (aged<span>&nbsp;</span>40)<br><div style="display:inline" class="deathplace"><a href="/en/Los_Angeles" title="Los Angeles" class="wl">Los Angeles, California</a></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Nationality</th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/en/Americans" title="Americans" class="wl">American</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Alma<span>&nbsp;</span>mater</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/University_of_California,_Berkeley" title="University of California, Berkeley" class="wl">University of California, Berkeley</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Era</th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/en/Contemporary_philosophy" title="Contemporary philosophy" class="wl">Contemporary philosophy</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Region</th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/en/Western_philosophy" title="Western philosophy" class="wl">Western philosophy</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/en/List_of_schools_of_philosophy" title="List of schools of philosophy" class="wl">School</a></th><td class="infobox-data category"><a href="/en/Analytic_philosophy" title="Analytic philosophy" class="wl">Analytic philosophy</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Institutions</th><td class="infobox-data org"><a href="/en/University_of_California,_Los_Angeles" title="University of California, Los Angeles" class="wl">University of California, Los Angeles</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/en/Thesis" title="Thesis" class="wl">Thesis</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><a rel="mw:ExtLink nofollow" href="https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/21753101" class="external text" target="_blank"><i>Contributions to the Axiomatic Foundations of Set Theory</i></a><span>&nbsp;</span>(1957)</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><a href="/en/Doctoral_advisor" title="Doctoral advisor" class="wl">Doctoral advisor</a></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/Alfred_Tarski" title="Alfred Tarski" class="wl">Alfred Tarski</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Doctoral students</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/Nino_Cocchiarella" title="Nino Cocchiarella" class="wl">Nino Cocchiarella</a><br><a href="/en/Hans_Kamp" title="Hans Kamp" class="wl">Hans Kamp</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Main interests</div></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/Mathematics" title="Mathematics" class="wl">Mathematics</a> (<a href="/en/Axiomatic_set_theory" title="Axiomatic set theory" class="mw-redirect wl">axiomatic set theory</a>, <a href="/en/Model_theory" title="Model theory" class="wl">model theory</a>), <a href="/en/Philosophical_logic" title="Philosophical logic" class="wl">philosophical logic</a>, <a href="/en/Philosophy_of_mathematics" title="Philosophy of mathematics" class="wl">philosophy of mathematics</a>, <a href="/en/Philosophy_of_language" title="Philosophy of language" class="wl">philosophy of language</a></td></tr><tr class="note"><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Notable ideas</div></th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/Formal_semantics_(linguistics)" title="Formal semantics (linguistics)" class="mw-redirect wl">Formal semantics</a>, <a href="/en/Montague_grammar" title="Montague grammar" class="wl">Montague grammar</a></td></tr><tr class="note"><td colspan="2" class="infobox-full-data"><div class="collapsible-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="text-align: left;">
<div style="line-height: 1.6em; font-weight: bold;"><div>Influences</div></div>
<ul class="mw-collapsible-content" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin-left: 0;"><li style="line-height: inherit; margin: 0"><div class="center" style="width:auto; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;"><a href="/en/Alfred_Tarski" title="Alfred Tarski" class="wl">Alfred Tarski</a></div></li></ul>
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Richard Merritt Montague was an American mathematician and philosopher who made contributions to mathematical logic and the philosophy of language. He is known for proposing Montague grammar to formalize the semantics of natural language. As a student of Alfred Tarski, he also contributed early developments to axiomatic set theory . For the latter half of his life, he was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles until his early death, believed to be a homicide, at age 40. 