Updates and Subjunctive Queries

AbstractA subjunctive query of the form φ > ψ, means "if φ were true in the knowledgebase, would ψ also necessarily be true?" We propose the following semantics for subjunctive queries: φ > ψ, will hold in the current knowledgebase T if ψ holds in the result of updating T with φ. This is known as the Ramsey test in philosophy. We adapt the model checking approach of Halpern and Vardi: A knowledgebase is a finite set of finite sets of positive facts interpreted in a closed world setting. We then use Winslett′s possible models approach to give semantics to knowledgebase updates, and we introduce a query language which is essentially propositional logic, augmented with a subjunctive conditional that has an intensional interpretation in our model. We show that query answering and update can be performed in time polynomial in the size of the knowledgebase. However, query equivalence is shown to be complete in polynomial space, and this is also the complexity of query answering as a function of query size. We give a sound axiomatization of query equivalence and show that the update operator satisfies the postulates for updates adapted by Katsuno and Mendelzon from the Alchourrón-Gärdenfors-Makinson belief revision postulates

Should a conditional marker arise ... : the diachronic development of conditional sollte in German

Like other Germanic languages, German has a modal verb that, when used in the protasis of a conditional, does not have one of the modal meanings it has in other contexts, but only seems to underline the conditional meaning. The current paper looks at the diachronic development of conditional sollen, and shows how the past (subjunctive) form sollte, particularly in V1-protases, is in the process of developing into a pure conditional marker. Following Breitbarth (2015) and Breitbarth et al. (2016), this development is analysed in a framework combining Roberts & Roussou's (2003) Minimalist approach to grammaticalization with a cartographic analysis of modality and conditionals based on Cinque (1999) and Haegeman (2010b)

Shakespeare: editions and textual studies

Shakespeare: editions and textual studie

Shakespeare: editions and textual studies

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in The year's work in English studies, following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Egan, G. (2002) Shakespeare: editions and textual studies. The year's work in English studies, 81 (1), pp. 291-352 is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ywes/maf00

An interpretation of paradigmatic morphology

The thesis has as its goal the extension of current approaches in the description of natural languages, based on logics of partial information, to the area of morphology. I review work in a number of areas which may inform the study of morphology. I define a system for the representation of lexical and morphological information similar in descriptive aims to the system of Word and Paradigm (WP) morphology developed by Matthews, although somewhat different in technical details. I show that this system has a simple mathematical structure and indicate how it is related to current proposals in the field of feature value logics for linguistic description. The descriptive use of the system is demonstrated by an analysis of verbal paradigms from Latin.The attested shortcomings of WP are reanalysed in the light of the formalization developed above, and I show that, contrary to previous claims, the structures developed for the formalization of WP may be both adequate for describing the morphology of non-inflecting languages and concise in so doing. These assertions are supported by sample analyses of the morphology of Turkish, taken as an exemplary agglutinating language, and of Semitic