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Abstract Objects and the Semantics of Natural Language

2013-03-28 Language Arts & Disciplines
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Release : 2013-03-28
Genre : Language Arts & Disciplines
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 741/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Abstract Objects and the Semantics of Natural Language by : Friederike Moltmann

Download or read book Abstract Objects and the Semantics of Natural Language written by Friederike Moltmann. This book was released on 2013-03-28. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Friederike Moltmann presents an original approach to philosophical issues to do with abstract objects. She focuses on natural language, and finds that reference to abstract objects such as properties, numbers, and propositions is much more restricted than is generally thought, and she offers a substantially new ontological picture.

Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse

2012-12-06 Philosophy
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Release : 2012-12-06
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 152/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse by : Nicholas Asher

Download or read book Reference to Abstract Objects in Discourse written by Nicholas Asher. This book was released on 2012-12-06. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Naive Semantics for Natural Language Understanding

1988-08-31 Computers
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Release : 1988-08-31
Genre : Computers
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 877/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Naive Semantics for Natural Language Understanding by : Kathleen Dahlgren

Download or read book Naive Semantics for Natural Language Understanding written by Kathleen Dahlgren. This book was released on 1988-08-31. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces a theory, Naive Semantics (NS), a theory of the knowledge underlying natural language understanding. The basic assumption of NS is that knowing what a word means is not very different from knowing anything else, so that there is no difference in form of cognitive representation between lexical semantics and ency clopedic knowledge. NS represents word meanings as commonsense knowledge, and builds no special representation language (other than elements of first-order logic). The idea of teaching computers common sense knowledge originated with McCarthy and Hayes (1969), and has been extended by a number of researchers (Hobbs and Moore, 1985, Lenat et aI, 1986). Commonsense knowledge is a set of naive beliefs, at times vague and inaccurate, about the way the world is structured. Traditionally, word meanings have been viewed as criterial, as giving truth conditions for membership in the classes words name. The theory of NS, in identifying word meanings with commonsense knowledge, sees word meanings as typical descriptions of classes of objects, rather than as criterial descriptions. Therefore, reasoning with NS represen tations is probabilistic rather than monotonic. This book is divided into two parts. Part I elaborates the theory of Naive Semantics. Chapter 1 illustrates and justifies the theory. Chapter 2 details the representation of nouns in the theory, and Chapter 4 the verbs, originally published as "Commonsense Reasoning with Verbs" (McDowell and Dahlgren, 1987). Chapter 3 describes kind types, which are naive constraints on noun representations.

Donald Davidson's Truth-Theoretic Semantics

2009-01-08 Philosophy
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Release : 2009-01-08
Genre : Philosophy
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 497/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Donald Davidson's Truth-Theoretic Semantics by : Ernest Lepore

Download or read book Donald Davidson's Truth-Theoretic Semantics written by Ernest Lepore. This book was released on 2009-01-08. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig examine the foundations and applications of Davidson's influential program of truth-theoretic semantics for natural languages. The program uses an axiomatic truth theory for a language, which meets certain constraints, to serve the goals of a compositional meaning theory. Lepore and Ludwig explain and clarify the motivations for the approach, and then consider how to apply the framework to a range of important natural language constructions, including quantifiers, proper names, indexicals, simple and complex demonstratives, quotation, adjectives and adverbs, the simple and perfect tenses, temporal adverbials and temporal quantifiers, tense in sentential complement clauses, attitude and indirect discourse reports, and the problem of interrogative and imperative sentences. They not only discuss Davidson's own contributions to these subjects but consider criticisms, developments, and alternatives as well. They conclude with a discussion of logical form in natural language in light of the approach, the role of the concept of truth in the program, and Davidson's view of it. Anyone working on meaning will find this book invaluable.

Abstract Objects

1983-06-30 Philosophy
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Release : 1983-06-30
Genre : Philosophy
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Book Rating : 749/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Abstract Objects by : E. Zalta

Download or read book Abstract Objects written by E. Zalta. This book was released on 1983-06-30. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, I attempt to lay the axiomatic foundations of metaphysics by developing and applying a (formal) theory of abstract objects. The cornerstones include a principle which presents precise conditions under which there are abstract objects and a principle which says when apparently distinct such objects are in fact identical. The principles are constructed out of a basic set of primitive notions, which are identified at the end of the Introduction, just before the theorizing begins. The main reason for producing a theory which defines a logical space of abstract objects is that it may have a great deal of explanatory power. It is hoped that the data explained by means of the theory will be of interest to pure and applied metaphysicians, logicians and linguists, and pure and applied epistemologists. The ideas upon which the theory is based are not essentially new. They can be traced back to Alexius Meinong and his student, Ernst Mally, the two most influential members of a school of philosophers and psychologists working in Graz in the early part of the twentieth century. They investigated psychological, abstract and non-existent objects - a realm of objects which weren't being taken seriously by Anglo-American philoso phers in the Russell tradition. I first took the views of Meinong and Mally seriously in a course on metaphysics taught by Terence Parsons at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst in the Fall of 1978. Parsons had developed an axiomatic version of Meinong's naive theory of objects.

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