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1The semantics and pragmatics of metaphorIn Pierrette Bouillon & Federica Busa (eds.), The language of word meaning, Cambridge University Press. pp. 262--289. 2001.
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9Temporal modificationIn Kasia M. Jaszczolt & Louis de Saussure (eds.), Time: Language, Cognition & Reality, Oxford University Press. pp. 1--15. 2013.
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110Reasoning dynamically about what one saysSynthese 183 (S1): 5-31. 2011.’s glue logic for computing logical form dynamic. This allows us to model a dialogue agent’s understanding of what the update of the semantic representation of the dialogue would be after his next contribution, including the effects of the rhetorical moves that he is contemplating performing next. This is a pre-requisite for developing a model of how agents reason about what to say next. We make the glue logic dynamic by using a dynamic public announcement logic ( pal ). We extend pal with a par…Read more
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90Problems with persistenceTopoi 13 (1): 37-49. 1994.A fundamental question in reasoning about change is, what information does a reasoning agent infer about later times from earlier times? I will argue that reasoning about change by an agent is to be modeled in terms of the persistence of the agent''s beliefs over time rather than the persistence of truth and that such persistence is explained by pragmatic factors about how agents acquire information from other agents rather than by general principles of persistence about states of the world. AI …Read more
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123Questions in dialogueLinguistics and Philosophy 21 (3): 237-309. 1998.In this paper we explore how compositional semantics, discourse structure, and the cognitive states of participants all contribute to pragmatic constraints on answers to questions in dialogue. We synthesise formal semantic theories on questions and answers with techniques for discourse interpretation familiar from computational linguistics, and show how this provides richer constraints on responses in dialogue than either component can achieve alone
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30Metaphor in DiscourseIn Pierrette Bouillon & Federica Busa (eds.), The language of word meaning, Cambridge University Press. pp. 262-289. 2001.
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71The purpose of this paper is to (a) show that the received view of the problem of quantificational subordination (QS) is incorrect, and that, consequently, existing solutions do not succeed in explaining the facts, and (b) provide a new account of QS. On the received view of QS within dynamic semantic frameworks, determiners treated as universal quantifiers (henceforth universal determiners) such as all, every, and each behave as barriers to inter-sentential anaphora yet allow anaphoric accessibil…Read more
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26Discourse representation theory and belief dynamicsIn André Fuhrmann & Michael Morreau (eds.), The Logic of Theory Change: Workshop, Konstanz, FRG, October 13-15, 1989, Proceedings, Springer. pp. 282--321. 1991.
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83Indirect Speech ActsSynthese 128 (1-2): 183-228. 2001.In this paper, we address several puzzles concerning speech acts,particularly indirect speech acts. We show how a formal semantictheory of discourse interpretation can be used to define speech actsand to avoid murky issues concerning the metaphysics of action. Weprovide a formally precise definition of indirect speech acts, includingthe subclass of so-called conventionalized indirect speech acts. Thisanalysis draws heavily on parallels between phenomena at the speechact level and the lexical lev…Read more
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74Events, facts, propositions, and evolutive anaphoraIn James Higginbotham, Fabio Pianesi & Achille C. Varzi (eds.), Speaking of events, Oxford University Press. pp. 123--150. 2000.
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360Indirect speech actsSynthese 128 (1-2). 2001.In this paper, we address several puzzles concerning speech acts, particularly indirect speech acts. We show how a formal semantictheory of discourse interpretation can be used to define speech acts and to avoid murky issues concerning the metaphysics of action. We provide a formally precise definition of indirect speech acts, including the subclass of so-called conventionalized indirect speech acts. This analysis draws heavily on parallels between phenomena at the speech act level and the lexic…Read more
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68Free Choice Permission is Strong PermissionSynthese 145 (3): 303-323. 2005.Free choice permission, a crucial test case concerning the semantics/ pragmatics boundary, usually receives a pragmatic treatment. But its pragmatic features follow from its semantics. We observe that free choice inferences are defeasible, and defend a semantics of free choice permission as strong permission expressed in terms of a modal conditional in a nonmonotonic logic.
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31Context in content compositionIn Ruth M. Kempson, Tim Fernando & Nicholas Asher (eds.), Philosophy of linguistics, North Holland. pp. 229. 2012.
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48A large view of linguistic contentPragmatics and Cognition 15 (1): 17-39. 2007.This essay lays out a view of linguistic content in which discourse context plays an essential role. It provides a role for sentential content by using underspecification but argues that discourse level phenomena are essential not only to determining content but even grammaticality judgments in certain cases. It is thus argued that the traditional view which separates very strictly the areas of semantics — a context insensitive notion of meaning — and pragmatics — a non linguistic notion of spea…Read more
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75Belief, Acceptance and Belief ReportsCanadian Journal of Philosophy 19 (3). 1989.This essay is about a theory of belief and a theory of belief reports formulated within the framework of DR theory. DR theory’s treatment of definite and indefinite noun phrases leads to a superior treatment of belief reports involving singular terms. But it also provides something of even greater potential benefit to a treatment of belief: a theory of how recipients recover verbally encoded information and of what form such information must take. The use of this account of verbally encoded info…Read more
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21Correction to: Message Exchange Games in Strategic ContextsJournal of Philosophical Logic 47 (6): 1085-1085. 2018.Our paper, ‘Message Exchange Games in Strategic Contexts’ lost the funding information and acknowledgments. We had put in it on its way to publication. We include them in this erratum here.
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34BridgingJournal of Semantics 15 (1): 83-113. 1998.In this paper, we offer a novel analysis of bridging, paying particular attention to definite descriptions. We argue that extant theories don't do justice to the way different knowledge resources interact. In line with Hobbs (1979), we claim that the rhetorical connections between the propositions introduced in the text play an important part. But our work is distinct from his in that we model how this source of information interacts with compositional and lexical semantics. We formalize bridgin…Read more
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2Dynamic discourse semantics for embedded speech actsIn Savas L. Tsohatzidis (ed.), John Searle's Philosophy of Language: Force, Meaning and Mind, Cambridge University Press. 2007.
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11Aspectual coercions in content compositionIn L. Filipovic & K. M. Jaszczolt (eds.), Space and Time in Languages and Cultures: Language, culture, and cognition, John Benjamins. pp. 55. 2012.
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114We provide examples of plurals related to ambiguity and anaphora that pose problems or are counterexamples for current approaches to plurals. We then propose a dynamic semantics based on an extension of dynamic predicate logic to handle these examples. On our theory, different readings of sentences or discourses containing plurals don’t arise from a postulated ambiguity of plural terms or predicates applying to plural DPs, but follow rather from different types of dynamic transitions that manipu…Read more
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31Message Exchange Games in Strategic ContextsJournal of Philosophical Logic 46 (4): 355-404. 2017.When two people engage in a conversation, knowingly or unknowingly, they are playing a game. Players of such games have diverse objectives, or winning conditions: an applicant trying to convince her potential employer of her eligibility over that of a competitor, a prosecutor trying to convict a defendant, a politician trying to convince an electorate in a political debate, and so on. We argue that infinitary games offer a natural model for many structural characteristics of such conversations. …Read more
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135Prima facie obligationStudia Logica 57 (1): 19-45. 1996.This paper presents a nonmonotonic deontic logic based on commonsense entailment. It establishes criteria a successful account of obligation should satisfy, and develops a theory that satisfies them. The theory includes two conditional notions of prima facie obligation. One is constitutive; the other is epistemic, and follows nonmonotonically from the constitutive notion. The paper defines unconditional notions of prima facie obligation in terms of the conditional notions
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Philosophy of Language |
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Truth |
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Philosophy of Language |
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