6 research outputs found
Dynamic reasoning without variables
A variable free notation for dynamic logic is proposed which takes its cue from De Bruijn's variable free notation for lambda calculus. De Bruijn indexing replaces variables by indices which indicate the distance to their binders. We propose to use reverse De Bruijn indexing, which works almost the same, only now the indices refer to the depth of the binding operator in the formula. The resulting system is analysed at length and applied to a new rational reconstruction of discourse representation theory. It is argued that the present system of dynamic logic without variables provides an explicit account of anaphoric context and yields new insight into the dynamics of anaphoric linking in reasoning. A calculus for dynamic reasoning with anaphora is presented and its soundness and completeness are established
Plural pronominal anaphora in context : dynamic aspects of quantification
This dissertation presents a formal model of plural pronominal
discourse anaphora. It focuses on the question of how to model the
contextual interpretation of plural pronouns. Specifically, it develops a
non-representational dynamic semantics of quantification.
A quantificational sentence has several sets associated with it, each of
which is a potential antecedent for a subsequent plural pronoun. Three
such sets play an important role in the thesis. If `D(A)(B)' is a
quantificational sentence, where `D' is the determiner, `A' the
restrictor and `B' the nuclear scope, then we say that `A' is the
maximal set, A^B is the reference set and A-B is the complement set.
It is argued that one of these sets, the complement set, is
only accessible through inference. This is in constrast to the
other sets, which are contextually introduced by quantificational
structures as salient antecedents. The formal model of context and
context change presented in this work deals with these sets made
salient by quantification and, as such, excludes the possibility
of reference to the complement set.
A complicating factor in constructing the model is that quantificational
structures do not only introduce (singular or plural) individuals in the
discourse; they also introduce dependencies. That is, pronouns have access
to correspondences between salient sets. Accordingly, the notion of context
has to involve structure. Furthermore, it turns out that a more complex
account of the accessibility of (dependent) antecedents is also called
for.
Consideration of these and other issues ultimately leads to the
development of an incremental dynamic semantics of quantification.
Specifically, a variable-free formalism is proposed where the introduction
of an individual in discourse boils down to incrementing a stack with this
individual, following Van Eijck's 2001 framework of incremental dynamics.
It is shown that adjusting the framework to enable it to deal with plurals
succesfully solves some serious problems of more standard approaches.
Moreover,
as far as empirical coverage is concerned, the formalism is comparable to
the popular discourse representation theory of plural reference in Kamp and
Reyle 1993. In contrast to this theory, however, the formalism proposed here
is in no need of operations on representations in order to obtain certain
kinds of anaphora. In fact, it is in no need of a level of representation
at all.
This study is of interest to researchers concerned with the formal
semantics of quantification, plurality and anaphora, and to scholars
interested in more general issues concerning the semantics and
pragmatics of discourse anaphora
Contexts in Dynamic Predicate Logic
In this paper we introduce a notion of context for Groenendijk & Stokhof's Dynamic Predicate Logic DPL. We use these contexts to give a characterization of the relations on assignments that can be generated by composition from tests/conditions and random resettings in the case that
we are working over an infnite domain. These relations are precisely the ones definable in DPL if we allow ourselves arbitrary tests as a starting point. We discuss some possible extensions of
DPL and the way these extensions interact with our notion of context