Subtype Universes

We introduce a new concept called a subtype universe, which is a collection of subtypes of a particular type. Amongst other things, subtype universes can model bounded quantification without undecidability. Subtype universes have applications in programming, formalisation and natural language semantics. Our construction builds on coercive subtyping, a system of subtyping that preserves canonicity. We prove Strong Normalisation, Subject Reduction and Logical Consistency for our system via transfer from its parent system UTT[?]. We discuss the interaction between subtype universes and other sorts of universe and compare our construction to previous work on Power types

Coherence and transitivity in coercive subtyping

The aim of this thesis is to study coherence and transitivity in coercive subtyping. Among other things, coherence and transitivity are key aspects for a coercive subtyping system to be consistent and for it to be implemented in a correct way. The thesis consists of three major parts. First, I prove that, for the subtyping rules of some parameterised inductive data types, coherence holds and the normal transitivity rule is admissible. Second, the notion of weak transitivity is introduced. The subtyping rules of a large class of parameterised inductive data types are suitable for weak transitivity, but not compatible with the normal transitivity rule. Third, I present a new formulation of coercive subtyping in order to combine incoherent coercions for the type of dependent pairs. There are two subtyping relations in the system and hence a further understanding of coherence and transitivity is needed. This thesis has the first case study of combining incoherent coercions in a single system. The thesis provides a clearer understanding of the subtyping rules for parameterised inductive data types and explains why the normal transitivity rule is not admissible for some natural subtyping rules. It also demonstrates that coherence and transitivity at type level can sometimes be very difficult issues in coercive subtyping. Besides providing theoretical understanding, the thesis also gives algorithms for implementing the subtyping rules for parameterised inductive data types

LFTOP: An LF based approach to domain specific reasoning

Specialized vocabulary, notations and inference rules tailored for the description, analysis and reasoning of a domain is very important for the domain. For domain-specific issues researchers focus mainly on the design and implementation of domain-specific languages (DSL) and pay little attention to the reasoning aspects. We believe that domain-specific reasoning is very important to help the proofs of some properties of the domains and should be more concise, more reusable and more believable. It deserves to be investigated in an engineering way. Type theory provides good support for generic reasoning and verification. Many type theorists want to extend uses of type theory to more domains, and believe that the methods, ideas, and technology of type theory can have a beneficial effect for computer assisted reasoning in many domains. Proof assistants based on type theory are well known as effective tools to support reasoning. But these proof assistants have focused primarily on generic notations for representation of problems and are oriented towards helping expert type theorists build proofs efficiently. They are successful in this goal, but they are less suitable for use by non-specialists. In other words, one of the big barriers to limit the use of type theory and proof assistant in domain-specific areas is that it requires significant expertise to use it effectively. We present LFTOP ― a new approach to domain-specific reasoning that is based on a type-theoretic logical framework (LP) but does not require the user to be an expert in type theory. In this approach, users work on a domain-specific interface that is familiar to them. The interface presents a reasoning system of the domain through a user-oriented syntax. A middle layer provides translation between the user syntax and LF， and allows additional support for reasoning (e.g. model checking). Thus, the complexity of the logical framework is hidden but we also retain the benefits of using type theory and its related tools, such as precision and machine-checkable proofs. The approach is being investigated through a number of case studies. In each case study, the relevant domain-specific specification languages and logic are formalized in Plastic. The relevant reasoning system is designed and customized for the users of the corresponding specific domain. The corresponding lemmas are proved in Plastic. We analyze the advantages and shortcomings of this approach, define some new concepts related to the approach, especially discuss issues arising from the translation between the different levels. A prototype implementation is developed. We illustrate the approach through many concrete examples in the prototype implementation. The study of this thesis shows that the approach is feasible and promising, the relevant methods and technologies are useful and effective

Coercive subtyping: Theory and implementation

International audienceCoercive subtyping is a useful and powerful framework of subtyping for type theories. The key idea of coercive subtyping is subtyping as abbreviation. In this paper, we give a new and adequate formulation of T[C], the system that extends a type theory T with coercive subtyping based on a set C of basic subtyping judgements, and show that coercive subtyping is a conservative extension and, in a more general sense, a definitional extension. We introduce an intermediate system, the star-calculus T[C]^@?, in which the positions that require coercion insertions are marked, and show that T[C]^@? is a conservative extension of T and that T[C]^@? is equivalent to T[C]. This makes clear what we mean by coercive subtyping being a conservative extension, on the one hand, and amends a technical problem that has led to a gap in the earlier conservativity proof, on the other. We also compare coercive subtyping with the 'ordinary' notion of subtyping - subsumptive subtyping, and show that the former is adequate for type theories with canonical objects while the latter is not. An improved implementation of coercive subtyping is done in the proof assistant Plastic

Semi-simplicial Types in Logic-enriched Homotopy Type Theory

The problem of defining Semi-Simplicial Types (SSTs) in Homotopy Type Theory (HoTT) has been recognized as important during the Year of Univalent Foundations at the Institute of Advanced Study. According to the interpretation of HoTT in Quillen model categories, SSTs are type-theoretic versions of Reedy fibrant semi-simplicial objects in a model category and simplicial and semi-simplicial objects play a crucial role in many constructions in homotopy theory and higher category theory. Attempts to define SSTs in HoTT lead to some difficulties such as the need of infinitary assumptions which are beyond HoTT with only non-strict equality types. Voevodsky proposed a definition of SSTs in Homotopy Type System (HTS), an extension of HoTT with non-fibrant types, including an extensional strict equality type. However, HTS does not have the desirable computational properties such as decidability of type checking and strong normalization. In this paper, we study a logic-enriched homotopy type theory, an alternative extension of HoTT with equational logic based on the idea of logic-enriched type theories. In contrast to Voevodskys HTS, all types in our system are fibrant and it can be implemented in existing proof assistants. We show how SSTs can be defined in our system and outline an implementation in the proof assistant Plastic

Formal semantics in modern type theories with coercive subtyping

Abstract. In the formal semantics based on modern type theories, common nouns are interpreted as types, rather than as predicates of entities as in Montague's semantics. This brings about important advantages in linguistic interpretations but also leads to a limitation of expressive power because there are fewer operations on types as compared with those on predicates. The theory of coercive subtyping adequately extends the modern type theories and, as shown in this paper, plays a very useful role in making type theories more expressive for formal semantics. It not only gives a satisfactory solution to the basic problem of 'multiple categorisation' caused by interpreting common nouns as types, but provides a powerful formal framework to model interesting linguistic phenomena such as copredication, whose formal treatment has been found difficult in a Montagovian setting. In particular, we show how to formally introduce dot-types in a type theory with coercive subtyping and study some type-theoretic constructs that provide useful representational tools for reference transfers and multiple word meanings in formal lexical semantics