Skip to main content
Log in

A Logic of Vision

  • Published:
Linguistics and Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This essay attempts to develop a psychologically informed semantics of perception reports, whose predictions match with the linguistic data. As suggested by the quotation from Miller and Johnson-Laird, we take a hallmark of perception to be its fallible nature; the resulting semantics thus necessarily differs from situation semantics. On the psychological side, our main inspiration is Marr's (1982) theory of vision, which can easily accomodate fallible perception. In Marr's theory, vision is a multi-layered process. The different layers have filters of different gradation, which makes vision at each of them approximate. On the logical side, our task is therefore twofold

- to formalise the layers and the ways in which they may refine each other, and

- to develop logical means to let description vary with such degrees of refinement.

The first task is formalised by means of an inverse systems of first order models, with reality appearing as its inverse limit. The second task is formalised by means of so-called conditional quantifiers, a new form of generalised quantification which can best be described as resource bounded quantification. We show that the logic provides for a semantics and pragmatics of direct perception reports. In particular, direct perception reports have a possibly nonveridical, approximative semantics, which becomes veridical only by virtue of our pragmatic expectation that what is perceived would continue to be the case, were we to perceive more accurately.

It is a general feature of resource bounded logics that the underlying logics are weak, but that stronger principles can be obtained pragmatically, by strengthening the resource. For the logic of vision this feature is clarified by showing how changes in the resource capture different notions of partiality, and by studying how the perception verb interacts with connectives and quantifiers in different visual contexts. The inference Veridicality, which is now viewed rather as a nonmonotonic inference, is also studied in depth.

We end with an attempt to buttress the proposed model by comparing it with suggestions put forward in Cognitive or Conceptual Semantics, in the literature on evidentials, and in Husserl's philosophy of perception.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Akmajian, A.: 1977, ‘The Complement Structure of Perception Verbs in an Autonomous Syntax Framework’ in Culicover et al. (eds.), Formal Syntax, Academic Press, New York, 427-460.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, L. B.: 1986, ‘Evidentials, Paths of Change, and Mental Maps: Typologically Regular Asymmetries’ in W. Chafe and J. Nichols (eds.), Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, Advances in Discourse Processes. Vol. XX, Chap. 17, Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood, New Jersey, 273-312.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anscombe, G. E. M.: 1981, The Intensionality of Sensation: A Grammatical Feature, Basil Blackwell, Oxford. This chapter published in 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aoki, H. 1986: ‘Evidentials in Japanese’ in W. Chafe and J. Nichols (eds.), Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, Advances in Discourse Processes, Vol. XX, Chap. 14, Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood, New Jersey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Asher, N. and D. Bonevac: 1989, ‘Determiners and Resource Situations’ Linguistics and Philosophy 10, 567-596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayer, A. J.: 1971, Language, Truth and Logic, Pelican Books. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books. First published: 1936, second edition: 1946, fifth Penguin reprint: 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, J.: 1984, ‘Evidentials in the Tuyuca Verb’ International Journal of American Linguistics 50(3), 255-271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barwise, J.: 1981, ‘Scenes and Other Situations’ Journal of Philosophy LXXVIII, 369-397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barwise, J.: 1989, ‘Logic and Information’ in The Situation in Logic, Lecture Notes. Vol. 17. CSLI Publications, Stanford, California. Distributed by Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barwise, J. and J. Perry: 1983, Situations and Attitudes, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biederman, I.: 1987, ‘Recognition-by-Components: A Theory of Human Image Understanding’ Psychological Review 94(a), 115-147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boden, M. A.: 1988, Computer Models of Mind, Problems in Behavioural Sciences. Vol. 4, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cairns, D.: 1973, Guide for Translating Husserl, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chafe, W. and J. Nichols: 1986, Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology, Advances in Discourse Processes, Vol. XX, Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood, New Jersey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engelking, R.: 1989, General Topology, Sigma Series in Pure Mathematics, Vol. 6, Heldermann, Berlin. Revised and completed edition.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenfors, P.: 1997a, ‘Meanings as Conceptual Structures’ in M. Carrier and P. Machamer (eds.), Mindscapes: Philosophy, Science, and the Mind, Pittsburgh University Press, Pittsburgh, pp. 61-86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gärdenfors, P.: 1997b, ‘Symbolic, Conceptual and Subconceptual Representations’ in V. Cantoni, V. di Ges, A. Setti, and D. Tegolo (eds.), Human and Machine Perception: Information Fusion, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 255-270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee, J.: 1977, ‘Comments on the Paper by Akmajian’ in Culicover et al. (eds.), Formal Syntax, Academic Press, New York, pp. 461-481.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graetzer, C.: 1971, Universal Algebra, 2nd edition, Springer-Verlag, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grice, H. P.: 1961, ‘The Causal Theory of Perception’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 35(suppl.): 121-152. Revised version published as chapter 15 in Grice 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grice, H. P.: 1989, Studies in the Ways of Words, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halmos, P. R.: 1952, ‘Algebraic Logic, I: Monadic Boolean Algebras’ Compositio Mathematica 12, 217-249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hendriks, H.: 1993, Studied Flexibility. Categories and Types in Syntax and Semantics, Doctoral dissertation, ILLC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam. ILLC Dissertation Series 1993-5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Higginbotham, J.: 1983, ‘The Logic of Perceptual Reports: An Extensional Alternative to Situation Semantics’ Journal of Philosophy LXXX, 100-127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hintikka, K. J. J.: 1969, ‘On the Logic of Perception’ in Models for Modalities, Synthese Library, Vol. 23, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holzapfel, A.: 1997, Zur Evidentialität Im Japanischen. Research report. Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen: Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hone, K.: 1993, A Cross-Linguistic Study of Perception and Cognition; Verb Complements: A Cognitive Perspective, Doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, August.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horn, L.: 1989, A Natural History of Negation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E.: 1950, Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologisehe Philosophie, Husserliana, Vol. Band I. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E.: 1966, Analysen zur passiven Synthesis, Husserliana, Band XI. Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, E.: 1972, Erfahrung und Urteil, Philosophische Bibliothek, Band 280, Felix Meiner, Hamburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Husserl, F.: 1977, Cartesianische Meditationen, Philosophische Bibliothek, Band 291, Felix Meiner, Hamburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackendoff, R.: 1983, Semantics and Cognition, MIT Press.

  • Jackendoff, R.: 1987, Consciousness and the Computational Mind, MIT Press.

  • Jackendoff, R.: 1990, Semantic Structures, MIT Press.

  • Koons, R. C.: 1996, ‘Information, Representation and the Possibility of Error’ in J. Seligman and D. Westerståhl (eds.), Logic, Language, and Computation, Chap. 22, Lecture Notes, CSLI Publications, Stanford, 333-345.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G. (ed.): 1987, Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landau, B. and R. Jackendoff: 1993, ‘“What” and “Where” in Language and Spatial Cognition’ Behavioral and Brian Sciences 16, 217-265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landau, B., L. Smith and S. Jones: 1988, ‘The Importance of Shape in Early Lexical Learning’ Cognitive Development 3, 299-321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landnian, F.: 1986, Towards a Theory of Information, Doctoral dissertation, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam. Also published with Foris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D.: 1972, ‘General Semantics’ in D. Davidson and G. Harman (eds.), Semantics of Natural Language, D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, 169-218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marr, D.: 1982, Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information, W. H. Freeman, San Fransisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G. A. and P. N. Johnson-Laird: 1976, Language and Perception, Harvard University Press, Harvard.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mittwoch, A.: 1990, ‘On the Distribution of Bare Infinitive Complements in English’ Journal of Linguistics 26, 103-131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muskens, R.: 1989, Meaning and Partiality, Doctoral dissertation, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neale, S.: 1992, ‘Paul Grice and the Philosophy of Language’ Linguistics and Philosophy 15, 509-559. Review article of Grice 1989.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O'Connor, M. C.: 1987, Topic in Northern Pomo Grammar, Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, March.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiter, R.: 1980, ‘A Logic for Default Reasoning’ Artificial Intelligence 13, 81-132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomason, S. K.: 1989, ‘Free Construction of Time from Events’ Journal of Philosophical Logic 18, 43-67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thurgood, G.: 1986, ‘The Nature and Origin of the Akha Evidentails System’ in W. Chafe and J. Nichols (eds.), Evidentiality: The Liguistic Coding of Epistemology, Advances in Discourse Processes, Vol. XX, Chap. 13, Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 214-222.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Does, J.: 1991, ‘A Generalized Quantifier Logic for Naked Infinitives’ Linguistics and Philosophy 14, 241-294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Lambalgen, M.: 1999, Conditional Quantification, or Poor Man's Probability, Technical report. Submitted.

  • Van Lambalgen, M. and J. van der Does: t.a., ‘A Logic of Vision: Preliminaries’ in G. R. Renardel de Lavalette and C. Condaravdi (eds.), Proceedings of the Stanford LLC-workshop (prov. title), Lecture Notes, Stanford, California: CSLI Publications.

  • Verkuyl, H.: 1993, A Theory of Aspectuality. The interaction between Temporal and Atemporal Structure. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viberg, Å.: 1984, The Verbs of Perception: A Typological Study’ in Butterworth, Comrie and Dahl (eds.), Explanations for Language Universals, Mouton De Gruyter, Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voorbraak, F.: 1997, A Nonmonotonic Observation Logic, research report LP-97-09. ILLC, University of Amsterdam.

  • Willett, T.: 1988, ‘A Cross-Linguistic Survey of the Grammaticization of Evidentiality’ Studies in Language 12(1), 51-97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, F. B.: 1962, ‘Convergence of Quantifiers and Martingales’ Pacific Journal of Mathematics 6, 296-307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zwarts, J.: 1995, ‘The Semantics of Relative Position’ in Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory, SALT 5, Cornell University. A revised version to appear in Journal of Semantics.

  • Zwarts, J. and Y. Winter: 1997, A Semantic Characterization of Locative PPs. Manuscript, OTS, Utrecht.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

van der Does, J.M., van Lambalgen, M. A Logic of Vision. Linguistics and Philosophy 23, 1–92 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005584121495

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005584121495

Keywords

Navigation