2,108 research outputs found
A generic operational metatheory for algebraic effects
We provide a syntactic analysis of contextual preorder and equivalence for a polymorphic programming language with effects. Our approach applies uniformly across a range of algebraic effects, and incorporates, as instances: errors, input/output, global state, nondeterminism, probabilistic choice, and combinations thereof. Our approach is to extend Plotkin and Power’s structural operational semantics for algebraic effects (FoSSaCS 2001) with a primitive “basic preorder” on ground type computation trees. The basic preorder is used to derive notions of contextual preorder and equivalence on program terms. Under mild assumptions on this relation, we prove fundamental properties of contextual preorder (hence equivalence) including extensionality properties and a characterisation via applicative contexts, and we provide machinery for reasoning about polymorphism using relational parametricity
A Frobenius Algebraic Analysis for Parasitic Gaps
The interpretation of parasitic gaps is an ostensible case of non-linearity
in natural language composition. Existing categorial analyses, both in the
typelogical and in the combinatory traditions, rely on explicit forms of
syntactic copying. We identify two types of parasitic gapping where the
duplication of semantic content can be confined to the lexicon. Parasitic gaps
in adjuncts are analysed as forms of generalized coordination with a
polymorphic type schema for the head of the adjunct phrase. For parasitic gaps
affecting arguments of the same predicate, the polymorphism is associated with
the lexical item that introduces the primary gap. Our analysis is formulated in
terms of Lambek calculus extended with structural control modalities. A
compositional translation relates syntactic types and derivations to the
interpreting compact closed category of finite dimensional vector spaces and
linear maps with Frobenius algebras over it. When interpreted over the
necessary semantic spaces, the Frobenius algebras provide the tools to model
the proposed instances of lexical polymorphism.Comment: SemSpace 2019, to appear in Journal of Applied Logic
Type-Based Termination, Inflationary Fixed-Points, and Mixed Inductive-Coinductive Types
Type systems certify program properties in a compositional way. From a bigger
program one can abstract out a part and certify the properties of the resulting
abstract program by just using the type of the part that was abstracted away.
Termination and productivity are non-trivial yet desired program properties,
and several type systems have been put forward that guarantee termination,
compositionally. These type systems are intimately connected to the definition
of least and greatest fixed-points by ordinal iteration. While most type
systems use conventional iteration, we consider inflationary iteration in this
article. We demonstrate how this leads to a more principled type system, with
recursion based on well-founded induction. The type system has a prototypical
implementation, MiniAgda, and we show in particular how it certifies
productivity of corecursive and mixed recursive-corecursive functions.Comment: In Proceedings FICS 2012, arXiv:1202.317
An Improved Implementation and Abstract Interface for Hybrid
Hybrid is a formal theory implemented in Isabelle/HOL that provides an
interface for representing and reasoning about object languages using
higher-order abstract syntax (HOAS). This interface is built around an HOAS
variable-binding operator that is constructed definitionally from a de Bruijn
index representation. In this paper we make a variety of improvements to
Hybrid, culminating in an abstract interface that on one hand makes Hybrid a
more mathematically satisfactory theory, and on the other hand has important
practical benefits. We start with a modification of Hybrid's type of terms that
better hides its implementation in terms of de Bruijn indices, by excluding at
the type level terms with dangling indices. We present an improved set of
definitions, and a series of new lemmas that provide a complete
characterization of Hybrid's primitives in terms of properties stated at the
HOAS level. Benefits of this new package include a new proof of adequacy and
improvements to reasoning about object logics. Such proofs are carried out at
the higher level with no involvement of the lower level de Bruijn syntax.Comment: In Proceedings LFMTP 2011, arXiv:1110.668
Language, logic and ontology: uncovering the structure of commonsense knowledge
The purpose of this paper is twofold: (i) we argue that the structure of commonsense knowledge must be discovered, rather than invented; and (ii) we argue that natural
language, which is the best known theory of our (shared) commonsense knowledge, should itself be used as a guide to discovering the structure of commonsense knowledge. In addition to suggesting a systematic method to the discovery of the structure of commonsense knowledge, the method we propose seems to also provide an explanation for a number of phenomena in natural language, such as metaphor, intensionality, and the semantics of nominal compounds. Admittedly, our ultimate goal is quite ambitious, and it is no less than the systematic ‘discovery’ of a well-typed
ontology of commonsense knowledge, and the subsequent formulation of the longawaited goal of a meaning algebra
Extending Nunchaku to Dependent Type Theory
Nunchaku is a new higher-order counterexample generator based on a sequence
of transformations from polymorphic higher-order logic to first-order logic.
Unlike its predecessor Nitpick for Isabelle, it is designed as a stand-alone
tool, with frontends for various proof assistants. In this short paper, we
present some ideas to extend Nunchaku with partial support for dependent types
and type classes, to make frontends for Coq and other systems based on
dependent type theory more useful.Comment: In Proceedings HaTT 2016, arXiv:1606.0542
Types and forgetfulness in categorical linguistics and quantum mechanics
The role of types in categorical models of meaning is investigated. A general
scheme for how typed models of meaning may be used to compare sentences,
regardless of their grammatical structure is described, and a toy example is
used as an illustration. Taking as a starting point the question of whether the
evaluation of such a type system 'loses information', we consider the
parametrized typing associated with connectives from this viewpoint.
The answer to this question implies that, within full categorical models of
meaning, the objects associated with types must exhibit a simple but subtle
categorical property known as self-similarity. We investigate the category
theory behind this, with explicit reference to typed systems, and their
monoidal closed structure. We then demonstrate close connections between such
self-similar structures and dagger Frobenius algebras. In particular, we
demonstrate that the categorical structures implied by the polymorphically
typed connectives give rise to a (lax unitless) form of the special forms of
Frobenius algebras known as classical structures, used heavily in abstract
categorical approaches to quantum mechanics.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figure
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