Multi-level Contextual Type Theory

Contextual type theory distinguishes between bound variables and meta-variables to write potentially incomplete terms in the presence of binders. It has found good use as a framework for concise explanations of higher-order unification, characterize holes in proofs, and in developing a foundation for programming with higher-order abstract syntax, as embodied by the programming and reasoning environment Beluga. However, to reason about these applications, we need to introduce meta^2-variables to characterize the dependency on meta-variables and bound variables. In other words, we must go beyond a two-level system granting only bound variables and meta-variables. In this paper we generalize contextual type theory to n levels for arbitrary n, so as to obtain a formal system offering bound variables, meta-variables and so on all the way to meta^n-variables. We obtain a uniform account by collapsing all these different kinds of variables into a single notion of variabe indexed by some level k. We give a decidable bi-directional type system which characterizes beta-eta-normal forms together with a generalized substitution operation.Comment: In Proceedings LFMTP 2011, arXiv:1110.668

The Development of Female Identity in Asian American Women's Memoirs

This paper examines the development of the representation of identity in Asian American women’s memoirs in the period around the Second World War. More accurately, it is interested to see how memoirs can serve as a tool to create Asian American woman as a subject or, in other words, how Asian American women use the genres of life-writing to create alternative ethnic and gender narrative plots, thus subverting discourses of power, while also defying the Western expectations about the Oriental other. The paper offers the analyses of Jade Snow Wong’s memoir Fifth Chinese Daughter and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir which she co-authored with her husband James D. Houston. The paper does not aim to make broad claims about Asian American women’s memoirs, but takes a narrower approach by focusing on individual narratives, while also paying attention to the historical, discursive, social and political contexts in which the memoirs were created

The Development of Female Identity in Asian American Women's Memoirs

This paper examines the development of the representation of identity in Asian American women’s memoirs in the period around the Second World War. More accurately, it is interested to see how memoirs can serve as a tool to create Asian American woman as a subject or, in other words, how Asian American women use the genres of life-writing to create alternative ethnic and gender narrative plots, thus subverting discourses of power, while also defying the Western expectations about the Oriental other. The paper offers the analyses of Jade Snow Wong’s memoir Fifth Chinese Daughter and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir which she co-authored with her husband James D. Houston. The paper does not aim to make broad claims about Asian American women’s memoirs, but takes a narrower approach by focusing on individual narratives, while also paying attention to the historical, discursive, social and political contexts in which the memoirs were created

The Development of Female Identity in Asian American Women's Memoirs

This paper examines the development of the representation of identity in Asian American women’s memoirs in the period around the Second World War. More accurately, it is interested to see how memoirs can serve as a tool to create Asian American woman as a subject or, in other words, how Asian American women use the genres of life-writing to create alternative ethnic and gender narrative plots, thus subverting discourses of power, while also defying the Western expectations about the Oriental other. The paper offers the analyses of Jade Snow Wong’s memoir Fifth Chinese Daughter and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir which she co-authored with her husband James D. Houston. The paper does not aim to make broad claims about Asian American women’s memoirs, but takes a narrower approach by focusing on individual narratives, while also paying attention to the historical, discursive, social and political contexts in which the memoirs were created

A Calculus of Lambda Calculus Contexts

The calculus c serves as a general framework for representing contexts. Essential features are control over variable capturing and the freedom to manipulate contexts before or after hole lling, by a mechanism of delayed substitution. The context calculus c is given in the form of an extension of the lambda calculus. Many notions of context can be represented within the framework; a particular variation can be obtained by the choice of a pretyping, which we illustrate by three examples. 1