Applied Logic: How, What and Why: Logical Approaches to Natural Language (Synthese Library: Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science)

László Pólos & Michael Masuch

ISBN 10: 0792334329 / ISBN 13: 9780792334323

Published by Kluwer Academic, 1995

About this Item

Hardcover, viii + 392 pages, NOT ex-library. Missing the title page. Interior is clean and bright throughout, with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Boards show small indentations to edges. Untorn dust jacket with dark shelfworn and dusty marks, moderate creasing along the edges, a bit of rubbing to upper spine and edges. -- This collection explores the reciprocal relationship between logical theory and the study of natural language, showcasing a paradigm shift from static, sentence-level analysis to dynamic, text-level interpretation. Central to the volume is the dynamic turn in semantics, which treats meaning not as a fixed truth condition but as the potential to change an agent's information state. Frameworks such as dynamic semantics, update semantics, and situation theory are deployed to model the incremental processing of texts and discourses. These procedural approaches are applied to a range of complex linguistic phenomena, including verb-phrase ellipsis, anaphora, indexicality, tense, and aspect, demonstrating how a context-dependent view of interpretation can resolve long-standing puzzles. Beyond specific applications, the contributions engage in fundamental methodological debates, questioning the necessity of type theory, exploring the cognitive foundations of modality assignment, and investigating the properties of various modal, temporal, and substructural logics like the Lambek calculus. The inquiry extends to the computational and mathematical underpinnings of language, with chapters on evolving algebras as models of linguistic processes, the optimization of deduction for multi-modal systems, and the use of finite automata in logical grammars. Ultimately, the volume argues for a view of applied logic not merely as a tool for linguistic analysis, but as a field that is itself transformed and enriched by the challenges posed by the dynamic nature of human language. -- Contents: Preface; Pragmatic Reasoning: A Model-Based Theory / John Bell; Verb-Phrase Ellipsis in Dynamic Semantics / Jan van Eijck & Nissim Francez; Optimization of Deduction for Multi-Modal Logics / Olivier Gasquet; Are Types Needed for Natural Language? / Fairouz Kamareddine; Indexical Dynamics / Ian Lewin; Implicit and Explicit Definability in Modal and Temporal Logics / Larisa Maksimova; Evolving Algebras and Mathematical Models of Language / ?Lawrence S. Moss & David E. Johnson; Information States in Situation Theory / Laszlo Polos & Michael Masuch; Logic Finite Automata / Klaus U. Schulz & Dov Gabbay; Dynamic Aspect Trees / Jerry Seligman & Alice ter Meulen; Logic as a Foundation for a Cognitive Theory of Modality Assignment / Keith Stenning; Meeting a Modality? Restricted Permutation for the Lambek Calculus / Yde Venema; Update Semantics for Propositional Texts / Cees Vermeulen; Index.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Applied Logic: How, What and Why: Logical Approaches to Natural Language (Synthese Library: Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science)
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792334329
• ISBN 13: 9780792334323
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

A selection of papers presented at the international conference `Applied Logic: Logic at Work', held in Amsterdam in December 1992. Nowadays, the term `applied logic' has a very wide meaning, as numerous applications of logical methods in computer science, formal linguistics and other fields testify. Such applications are by no means restricted to the use of known logical techniques: at its best, applied logic involves a back-and-forth dialogue between logical theory and the problem domain.
The papers focus on the application of logic to the study of natural language, in syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and the effect of these studies on the development of logic. In the last decade, the dynamic nature of natural language has been the most interesting challenge for logicians. Dynamic semantics is here applied to new topics, the dynamic approach is extended to syntax, and several methodological issues in dynamic semantics are systematically investigated. Other methodological issues in the formal studies of natural language are discussed, such as the need for types, modal operators and other logical operators in the formal framework. Further articles address the scope of these methodological issues from other perspectives ranging from cognition to computation.
The volume presents papers that are interesting for graduate students and researchers in the field of logic, philosophy of language, formal semantics and pragmatics, and computational linguistics.