Nicholas Asher

Sergei Soloviev

Edited in collaboration with FoLLI, the Association of Logic, Language and Information, this book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Logical Aspects of Computational Linguistics (LACL 2014) held in Toulouse, France, in June 2014. On the broadly syntactic side, there are papers on the logical and computational foundations of context free grammars, pregroup grammars, on the Lambek calculus and on formalizations of aspects of minimalism. There is also a paper on Abstract Categorical Grammar, as well as papers on issues at the syntax/semantics interface. On the semantic side, the volume's papers address monotonicity reasoning and the semantics of adverbs in type theory, proof theoretical semantics and predicate and argument invariance.

8th International Conference, LACL 2014, Toulouse, France, June 18-24, 2014. Proceedings

Logical Aspects of Computational Linguistics

Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Ruth Barcan Marcus

Chauncey Stillman Professor of Ethics in the Department of Philosophy and the Kenan Institute for Ethics Walter Sinnott-Armstrong

Diana Raffman

Professor of Philosophy and Director of Graduate Studies Diana Raffman

This collection of original essays honours one of the most influential philosophical pioneers of the twentieth century, Ruth Barcan Marcus.

Essays in Honor of Ruth Barcan Marcus

Modality, Morality and Belief

Nicholas Michael Asher

Alex Lascarides

Logics of Conversation

Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse presents a novel framework and analysis of the ways we refer to abstract objects in natural language discourse. The book begins with a typology of abstract objects and related entities like eventualities. After an introduction to `bottom up, compositional' discourse representation theory (DRT) and to previous work on abstract objects in DRT (notably work on the semantics of the attitudes), the book turns to a semantic analysis of eventuality and abstract object denoting nominals in English. The book then substantially revises and extends the dynamic semantic framework of DRT to develop an analysis of anaphoric reference to abstract objects and eventualities that exploits discourse structure and the discourse relations that obtain between elements of the structure. A dynamic, semantically based theory of discourse structure (SDRT) is proposed, along with many illustrative examples. Two further chapters then provide the analysis of anaphoric reference to propositions VP ellipsis. The abstract entity anaphoric antecedents are elements of the discourse structures that SDRT develops. The final chapter discusses some logical and philosophical difficulties for a semantic analysis of reference to abstract objects. For semanticists, philosophers of language, computer scientists interested in natural language applications and discourse, philosophical logicians, graduate students in linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science and artificial intelligence.

Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse

This is a book about the meanings of words and how they can combine to form larger meaningful units, as well as how they can fail to combine when the amalgamation of a predicate and argument would produce what the philosopher Gilbert Ryle called a 'category mistake'. It argues for a theory in which words get assigned both an intension and a type. The book develops a rich system of types and investigates its philosophical and formal implications, for example the abandonment of the classic Church analysis of types that has been used by linguists since Montague. The author integrates fascinating and puzzling observations about lexical meaning into a compositional semantic framework. Adjustments in types are a feature of the compositional process and account for various phenomena including coercion and copredication. This book will be of interest to semanticists, philosophers, logicians and computer scientists alike.

A Web of Words

Lexical Meaning in Context

Nicholas Asher

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