Types and Distribution of Northern Basque Correlatives

Theoretical and Experimental Linguistic

Modeling the Dynamic Effects of Discourse: Principles and Frameworks

International audienceWhen studying the meaning of natural language expressions, sentence level provides a natural entry point. Its relevance of course depends on the focus we want to put on the meaning: as related to thought, to communication, to truth, etc. In this paper, we concentrate on the model theoretic view on meaning, in particular via first order logic representation. More specifically, we present phenomena that illustrate the challenges raised by discourse to truth-conditional semantics and compositionality. We show that proposals to address theses challenges rely on the additional device of contexts and on the way sentences can access and modify these contexts. This capability is usually referred to as the context change potential of a sentence. Depending on the phenomenon, the contexts need to represent different kinds of information: propositions, discourse referents, and variations on these elements. We also show that taking into account the rhetorical structure of discourse leads to even richer structuring of the context. Parallel to the presentation of the phenomena, we concentrate on formalisms giving an account of the dynamics of discourse. We introduce the well established formalisms of Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) Dynamic Predicate Logic (DPL) , and the more recently developed approach based on continuation semantics. Finally, we introduce Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT) that combines the effects of dynamics and discourse structure.La phrase représente un niveau d'entrée naturel dans l'étude du sens des expressions de la langue naturelle. Sa pertinence dépend bien sûr de la perspective que l'on souhaite mettre en avant sur le sens : celle relative à la pensée, celle relative à la communication, celle relative à la valeur de vérité... Dans cet article, nous nous concentrons sur la perspective donnée au sens par la théorie des modèles, en particulier par la représentation avec la logique du premier ordre. Plus spécifiquement, nous présentons des phénomènes illustrant les difficultés posées par le discours à la sémantique vériconditionnelle et à la compositionalité. Nous montrons que les propositions pour répondre à ces difficultés reposent sur l'utilisation de contextes et de la manière dons les phrases peuvent accéder à ce contexte et le modifier. Ce mécanisme est généralement appelé potentiel de changement du contexte d'une phrase. Suivant le phénomène considéré, le contexte doit représenter différents types d'informations : des propositions, des référents de discours, et des variations de ces éléments. Nous montrons également que la prise en compte de la structure rhétorique du discours conduit à une représentation encore plus riche du contexte. Parallèlement à l'exposé de ces phénomènes, nous présentons différents formalismes qui en rendent compte. Nous présentons la théorie des représentations discursives (DRT), de la logique des prédicats dynamique (DPL), ainsi que l'approche fondée sur les continuations proposée plus récemment. Enfin nous présentons la théorie des représentations discursives segmentées (SDRT) qui combine les effets de la dynamique et de la structure discursive

Using SDRT to analyze pathological conversations. Logicality, rationality and pragmatic deviances

International audienceSchizophrenia is well-known among mental illnesses for the severity of the thought dis- orders it involves, and for their widespread and spectacular manifestations ranging from deviant social behavior to delusion, not to mention affective and sensory distortions. Confronted with such a pathological con- versation, any "ordinary" speaker intuitively feels that there are some incoherencies or discontinuities. The aim of this research is to account for these using both pragmatics and formal semantics. Linguistics, especially semantics and pragmatics, is thus central to this work

Signalling in IF games: a tricky business

The paper studies the phenomenon of signalling in logics for imperfect information, such as Hintikka’s IF logic. It is shown that signalling is a phenomenon that at the one hand is essential for the semantics, but at the other hand is a source of tricky phenomena. Several properties which in the literature are claimed to hold for such logics, turn out to fail due to signalling: IF logic is not a conservative extension of predicate logic, renaming of variables is not always allowed, the prenex normal form theorem does not hold, and slashed connectives cannot easily be eliminated

Correlative topicalization

This article takes a close look at correlatives in Hungarian and shows that they occupy a particular space in the typology of correlatives: Hungarian correlativization is solely used as a left-peripheral discourse strategy, which will be evidenced by the fact that correlatives display properties of topics, both when it comes to syntax and discourse. Concerning their discourse interpretation it will be argued that correlatives in Hungarian are aboutness topics, and take part in a discourse structure akin to simplifying left dislocation. Concerning their syntax, unlike Hindi correlatives in the analysis of Bhatt (2003), correlatives in Hungarian are not merged to their demonstrative associate in a local manner; nevertheless, their relationship to their associate is subject to locality considerations. Hungarian correlatives are merged at the edge of the CP that contains the base-generated DP and may undergo topic movement to the left, into higher clauses. The demonstrative associate on the other hand minimally raises to the left periphery of its CP, and alternatively into higher clauses, via topicalization or focusing. This means that Hungarian correlativization involves two mobile elements: both the correlative clause and the demonstrative are able to undergo movement

Formalisme, formalisation, intuition et compr\ue9hension en math\ue9matiques : de la pratique informelle aux syst\ue8mes formels et retour \ubb (\uab FFIUM \ubb)

"Ce projet cherche \ue0 comprendre l'interaction dynamique entre les th\ue9ories math\ue9matiques informelles et leur formalisation. Le terme ambigu\ueb \uab formalisation \ubb est au centre du projet." (dal progetto ufficiale