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A Presuppositional Analysis of Definite Descriptions in Proof Theory

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New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (JSAI 2007)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 4914))

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Abstract

In this paper we propose a proof-theoretic analysis of presuppositions in natural language, focusing on the interpretation of definite descriptions. Our proposal is based on the natural deduction system of ε-calculus introduced in Carlström [2] and on constructive type theory [11,12]. Based on the idea in [2], we use the ε-calculus as an intermediate language in the translation process from natural language into constructive type theory. Using this framework, we formulate the process of presupposition resolution as the process of searching for a derivation in a natural deduction system. In particular, we show how to treat presupposition projection and accommodation within our proof-theoretic framework.

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Ken Satoh Akihiro Inokuchi Katashi Nagao Takahiro Kawamura

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Mineshima, K. (2008). A Presuppositional Analysis of Definite Descriptions in Proof Theory. In: Satoh, K., Inokuchi, A., Nagao, K., Kawamura, T. (eds) New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. JSAI 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 4914. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78197-4_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-78197-4_20

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-78196-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-78197-4

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