Two kinds of procedural semantics for privative modification

In this paper we present two kinds of procedural semantics for privative modification. We do this for three reasons. The first reason is to launch a tough test case to gauge the degree of substantial agreement between a constructivist and a realist interpretation of procedural semantics; the second is to extend Martin-L ̈f’s Constructive Type Theory to privative modification, which is characteristic of natural language; the third reason is to sketch a positive characterization of privation

Two type-theoretical approaches to privative modification

In this paper we apply two kinds of procedural semantics to the problem of privative modification. We do this for three reasons. The first reason is to launch a tough test case to gauge the degree of substantial agreement between a constructivist and a realist interpretation of a procedural semantics; the second is to extend Martin-Lof's Type Theory to privative modification, which is characteristic of natural language; the third reason is to sketch a positive characterization of privation

On the nature of the lexicon: the status of rich lexical meanings

The main goal of this paper is to show that there are many phenomena that pertain to the construction of truth-conditional compounds that follow characteristic patterns, and whose explanation requires appealing to knowledge structures organized in specific ways. We review a number of phenomena, ranging from non-homogenous modification and privative modification to polysemy and co-predication that indicate that knowledge structures do play a role in obtaining truth-conditions. After that, we show that several extant accounts that invoke rich lexical meanings to explain such phenomena face problems related to inflexibility and lack of predictive power. We review different ways in which one might react to such problems as regards lexical meanings: go richer, go moderately richer, go thinner, and go moderately thinner. On the face of it, it looks like moderate positions are unstable, given the apparent lack of a clear cutoff point between the semantic and the conceptual, but also that a very thin view and a very rich view may turn out to be indistinguishable in the long run. As far as we can see, the most pressing open questions concern this last issue: can there be a principled semantic/world knowledge distinction? Where could it be drawn: at some upper level (e.g. enriched qualia structures) or at some basic level (e.g. constraints)? How do parsimony considerations affect these two different approaches? A thin meanings approach postulates intermediate representations whose role is not clear in the interpretive process, while a rich meanings approach to lexical meaning seems to duplicate representations: the same representations that are stored in the lexicon would form part of conceptual representations. Both types of parsimony problems would be solved by assuming a direct relation between word forms and (parts of) conceptual or world knowledge, leading to a view that has been attributed to Chomsky (e.g. by Katz 1980) in which there is just syntax and encyclopedic knowledge

The semantics of untrustworthiness

We offer a formal treatment of the semantics of both complete and incomplete mistrustful or distrustful information transmissions. The semantics of such relations is analysed in view of rules that define the behaviour of a receiving agent. We justify this approach in view of human agent communications and secure system design. We further specify some properties of such relations

The semantics of untrustworthiness

We offer a formal treatment of the semantics of both complete and incomplete mistrustful or distrustful information transmissions. The semantics of such relations is analysed in view of rules that define the behaviour of a receiving agent. We justify this approach in view of human agent communications and secure system design. We further specify some properties of such relations

Two set-theoretic approaches to the semantics of adjective-noun combinations

This work addresses the problem of adjective-noun combinations. Conventionally, adjectives belong to a hierarchy. This has the consequence that a uniform treatment of adjectives is unattainable---without resorting to notions such as possible worlds, which are difficult to map into competent computer programs. In this work, we propose two set-theoretic approaches to the semantics of adjective-noun combinations. The first hypothesizes that an adjective-noun compound is a subset of its constituent noun. The second hypothesizes that the adjective-noun combinations can semantically be thought of as a set intersection involving the adjective(s) and the head noun of the compound. This work argues that the class of adjectives known as privative can be accommodated within an existing class in the adjective hierarchy, known as subsective . This step is important for the provision of uniform treatments of adjective-noun combinations. The two approaches make use of types, both for gaining a finer granularity of analysis and for imposing structure on the problem domain. It is shown that the mixture of a typing system with set theory provides promising results that are manifested in the provision of compositional solutions to the adjective-noun combinations. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2003 .A24. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 43-01, page: 0229. Adviser: Richard Frost. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2004

Transparent quantification into hyperpropositional contexts de re

This paper is the twin of (Duží and Jespersen, in submission), which provides a logical rule for transparent quantification into hyperprop- ositional contexts de dicto, as in: Mary believes that the Evening Star is a planet; therefore, there is a concept c such that Mary be- lieves that what c conceptualizes is a planet. Here we provide two logical rules for transparent quantification into hyperpropositional contexts de re. (As a by-product, we also offer rules for possible- world propositional contexts.) One rule validates this inference: Mary believes of the Evening Star that it is a planet; therefore, there is an x such that Mary believes of x that it is a planet. The other rule validates this inference: the Evening Star is such that it is believed by Mary to be a planet; therefore, there is an x such that x is believed by Mary to be a planet. Issues unique to the de re variant include partiality and existential presupposition, sub- stitutivity of co-referential (as opposed to co-denoting or synony- mous) terms, anaphora, and active vs. passive voice. The validity of quantifying-in presupposes an extensional logic of hyperinten- sions preserving transparency and compositionality in hyperinten- sional contexts. This requires raising the bar for what qualifies as co-denotation or equivalence in extensional contexts. Our logic is Tichý’s Transparent Intensional Logic. The syntax of TIL is the typed lambda calculus; its highly expressive semantics is based on a procedural redefinition of, inter alia, functional abstraction and application. The two non-standard features we need are a hyper- intension (called Trivialization) that presents other hyperintensions and a four-place substitution function (called Sub) defined over hy- perintensions

At the intersection of temporal & modal interpretation

This work is chiefly concerned with the semantics of linguistic categories including tense, modality and negation and the relationships between them. In particular, how do they interact in order to “displace” discourse and to talk about situations remote from the time & place where they\u27re produced? What gets conventionally encoded in linguistic expressions (semantics)? And what\u27s the role of discourse context and extralinguistic factors (pragmatics) in performing these operations? The current thesis contains three connected (but independent) components; each explores different sets of data in view of understanding particular types of displacement phenomena — that is, how, in a given discourse context, reference is established to different possible worlds and different times. In other words, we are concerned with the interactions between temporal reference, modal reference and negation/polarity, and the linguistic phenomena that these give rise to. Methodologically, these projects also engage with diachronic considerations in view of explaining variation and change across spatially and temporally separate language varieties. This is motivated by the desiderata formulated by the amphichronic program --- that is, I assume that studying ostensible changes in language use over time has something to teach us about synchronic systems and vice versa, all in the service of developing an understanding of human language as a cognitive system. Each of these three component “essays” considers data from a number of languages spoken in Aboriginal Australia --- particularly Yolŋu Matha and Australian Kriol --- on the basis of both published and original data, collected on-site in the Top End in consultation with native speakers. While there is a rich tradition of Australian language description, little Australian language data has been brought to bear on the development of formal theories of meaning. Data from these languages promise to challenge and enrich the methodological and theoretical toolbox of formal semantics. Equally, it is a general contention throughout this work that formal perspectives hold exceptional promise in terms of better understanding the range of linguistic diversity exhibited across Australian languages and developing typologies of the expression of grammatical categories. ‘The emergence of apprehensionality in Australian Kriol’ considers the semantics of the adverb bambai in Australian Kriol, a creole language spoken by indigenous populations across northern Australia. Derived from English archaism by-and-by, cognates of bambai are found across contact varieties in the south Pacific. Kriol has retained the “temporal frame” use that is found in other South Pacific contact varieties (roughly `soon afterward\u27), although has also developed an identifiable “apprehensional” use. Apprehensionals, an understudied if cross-linguistically well-documented category, are taken to modalize their prejacent while implicating their speaker\u27s negative attitude vis-à-vis the possibility described in the prejacent. This essay proposes an unified analysis of the meaning contribution of bambai, analyzing the item as unambiguous and claiming that, synchronically, the apprehensional reading “emerges” reliably in discourse contexts where the truth of its prejacent is not presumed settled as a result of standard assumptions about pragmatic reasoning. Diachronically, it is shown that a similar set of processes led to the generalisation and conventionalization of bambai\u27s meaning components. ‘The semantics of the Negative Existential Cycle’ represents a semantic treatment of another little-theorized but cross-linguistically attested cyclic change as it is instantiated in a number of Australian (Pama-Nyungan) language (sub)families. The Cycle involves the recruitment of a “special” nominal negative element which diachronically displaces an older sentential negator. In this essay, the privative---a nominal case marking described in many Australian languages---is analysed as a negative quantifier. The Cycle, then, is understood as the progressive generalisation in the quantificational domain of a negative quantifier: privatives scope over nominalized event descriptions and ultimately over full sentences, at which stage they have encroached into the domain of “standard” negation. ‘Reality status & the Yolŋu verbal paradigm’ contains a description of and formal proposal for strategies of expressing temporal and modal categories in Western Dhuwal(a), a Yolŋu language of northern Arnhem Land. Crucially, this language exhibits a number of puzzling phenomena --- in particular, cyclic tense and the neutralization of reality status marking in negative sentences. As a consequence of these phenomena, the four inflectional categories that constitute WD\u27s verbal paradigm have been treated as unanalyzable from a compositional perspective. Further, neither of these phenomena has received attention in the formal semantic literature. Consequently, this essay represents the first formal proposal for the semantics WD inflectional paradigm (as instantiating a cyclic tense system and an irrealis mood which is licensed by negation) as well as the first formal analysis of these two typological phenomena