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

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.…