Speaker: Paul Dekker
Date and Time: Thursday, February 1st 2018, 16:00-17:30
Venue: ILLC Seminar Room F3.23, Science Park 107.
Title: Exclusively Indexical Predicate Logic.
Abstract. In this talk I propose a way of redoing classical extensional logic in order to enable a better understanding of dynamic and intensional logic. I first present a propositional logic with only one operator of exclusion, and I then extend it to give a sound and complete characterization of the dynamic declaration of discourse referents and the essentially indexical means to refer back to them. We thus arrive at a parsimonious logic for “dynamic” languages like that of Discourse Representation Theory and Dynamic Predicate Logic, but also for computationally attractive languages employing typed feature structures and lexical frame templates. The system moreover holds promise for the proper treatment of names in intensional contexts.