2,497 research outputs found
Invariant Generation through Strategy Iteration in Succinctly Represented Control Flow Graphs
We consider the problem of computing numerical invariants of programs, for
instance bounds on the values of numerical program variables. More
specifically, we study the problem of performing static analysis by abstract
interpretation using template linear constraint domains. Such invariants can be
obtained by Kleene iterations that are, in order to guarantee termination,
accelerated by widening operators. In many cases, however, applying this form
of extrapolation leads to invariants that are weaker than the strongest
inductive invariant that can be expressed within the abstract domain in use.
Another well-known source of imprecision of traditional abstract interpretation
techniques stems from their use of join operators at merge nodes in the control
flow graph. The mentioned weaknesses may prevent these methods from proving
safety properties. The technique we develop in this article addresses both of
these issues: contrary to Kleene iterations accelerated by widening operators,
it is guaranteed to yield the strongest inductive invariant that can be
expressed within the template linear constraint domain in use. It also eschews
join operators by distinguishing all paths of loop-free code segments. Formally
speaking, our technique computes the least fixpoint within a given template
linear constraint domain of a transition relation that is succinctly expressed
as an existentially quantified linear real arithmetic formula. In contrast to
previously published techniques that rely on quantifier elimination, our
algorithm is proved to have optimal complexity: we prove that the decision
problem associated with our fixpoint problem is in the second level of the
polynomial-time hierarchy.Comment: 35 pages, conference version published at ESOP 2011, this version is
a CoRR version of our submission to Logical Methods in Computer Scienc
Discourse-pragmatic variation in Paris French and London English: Insights from general extenders
This paper examines the use of general extenders (GEs), such as and stuff in English and et tout in French, in Paris French and London English. We aim to compare the social and the linguistic conditioning of extender use in the two languages, discuss the different kinds of spread in the two cities and reflect on the specificity of discourse-pragmatic variation.
The study shows that GE forms as well as frequencies vary across factors such as gender, age and ethnicity, while some variants also appear to be grammaticalising and acquiring new pragmatic functions. The analysis includes a comparison of different age groups, and finds that different types of generational change may be occurring in both languages.
In London, forms such as and stuff and and that diverge along ethnic lines, whereas in Paris et tout is becoming the dominant variant across the board. While different variants in both languages are indirectly associated with different social categories, they perform similar pragmatic functions such as hedging, marking solidarity and appealing to common knowledge between the speaker and the interlocutor(s)
Presenting and predicating lower events
The effects of different forms of predication have been insightfully (and almost exclusively) studied for 'simple' cases of predication, of which the 'presentational sentence' is maybe the paradigm instantiation. It is the aim of this paper to show that thc same kind of effects as well as in fact the same kind of structures are present at embedded levels in thematically and otherwise more complex structures. Beyond presentational sentences, 'unaccusative' experiencing constructions involving a dative subject, 'double object constructions' and - to a lesser extent - spraylload constructions are discussed. For all of these, it is argued that they comprise a predication encoding the ascription of a transient temporal property to a location. On this basis, a proposal is made as to how the scope asymmetry between the two arguments involved in the colistructions can be explained. Furthermore, a proposal is made as to how what has been called 'argument shift' is motivated
The effect of negative polarity items on inference verification
The scalar approach to negative polarity item (NPI) licensing assumes that NPIs are allowable
in contexts in which the introduction of the NPI leads to proposition strengthening (e.g., Kadmon &
Landman 1993, Krifka 1995, Lahiri 1997, Chierchia 2006). A straightforward processing prediction
from such a theory is that NPI’s facilitate inference verification from sets to subsets. Three
experiments are reported that test this proposal. In each experiment, participants evaluated whether
inferences from sets to subsets were valid. Crucially, we manipulated whether the premises
contained an NPI. In Experiment 1, participants completed a metalinguistic reasoning task, and
Experiments 2 and 3 tested reading times using a self-paced reading task. Contrary to expectations,
no facilitation was observed when the NPI was present in the premise compared to when it was
absent. In fact, the NPI significantly slowed down reading times in the inference region. Our results
therefore favor those scalar theories that predict that the NPI is costly to process (Chierchia 2006),
or other, nonscalar theories (Giannakidou 1998, Ladusaw 1992, Postal 2005, Szabolcsi 2004) that
likewise predict NPI processing cost but, unlike Chierchia (2006), expect the magnitude of the
processing cost to vary with the actual pragmatics of the NPI
No value restriction is needed for algebraic effects and handlers
We present a straightforward, sound Hindley-Milner polymorphic type system
for algebraic effects and handlers in a call-by-value calculus, which allows
type variable generalisation of arbitrary computations, not just values. This
result is surprising. On the one hand, the soundness of unrestricted
call-by-value Hindley-Milner polymorphism is known to fail in the presence of
computational effects such as reference cells and continuations. On the other
hand, many programming examples can be recast to use effect handlers instead of
these effects. Analysing the expressive power of effect handlers with respect
to state effects, we claim handlers cannot express reference cells, and show
they can simulate dynamically scoped state
Heavy Hands, Magic, and Scene-Reading Traps
This is one of a series of articles in which I examine errors that philosophers of language may be led to make if already prone to exaggerating the rĂ´le compositional semantics can play in explaining how we communicate, whether by expressing propositions with our words or by
merely implying them. In the present article, I am concerned less with “pragmatic contributions” to the propositions we express—contributions
some philosophers seem rather desperate to deny the existence or ubiquity of—than I am with certain types of traps that those who exaggerate
the rĂ´le of semantic convention and underestimate the rĂ´le of pragmatic inference are apt to fall into
On past participle agreement in transitive clauses in French
This paper provides a Minimalist analysis of past participle agreement in French in transitive
clauses. Our account posits that the head v of vP in such structures carries an (accusativeassigning) structural case feature which may apply (with or without concomitant agreement)
to case-mark a clause-mate object, the subject of a defective complement clause, or an
intermediate copy of a preposed subject in spec-CP. In structures where a goal is extracted
from vP (e.g. via wh-movement) v also carries an edge feature, and may also carry a
specificity feature and a set of (number and gender) agreement features. We show how these
assumptions account for agreement of a participle with a preposed specific clausemate object
or defective-clause subject, and for the absence of agreement with an embedded object, with
the complement of an impersonal verb, and with the subject of an embedded (finite or nonfinite) CP complement. We also argue that the absence of agreement marking (in expected
contexts) on the participles faitmade and laissélet in infinitive structures is essentially viral in
nature. Finally, we claim that obligatory participle agreement with reflexive and reciprocal
objects arises because the derivation of reflexives involves A-movement and concomitant
agreement
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