Conditional Bisimilarity for Reactive Systems

Reactive systems \`a la Leifer and Milner, an abstract categorical framework for rewriting, provide a suitable framework for deriving bisimulation congruences. This is done by synthesizing interactions with the environment in order to obtain a compositional semantics. We enrich the notion of reactive systems by conditions on two levels: first, as in earlier work, we consider rules enriched with application conditions and second, we investigate the notion of conditional bisimilarity. Conditional bisimilarity allows us to say that two system states are bisimilar provided that the environment satisfies a given condition. We present several equivalent definitions of conditional bisimilarity, including one that is useful for concrete proofs and that employs an up-to-context technique, and we compare with related behavioural equivalences. We consider examples based on DPO graph rewriting, an instantiation of reactive systems.

Bare Nouns and Number

Bare nouns are noun phrases with a common noun lacking an overt determiner. Depending on the theoretical framework at hand, and the syntax–semantics interface adopted, they are analysed as NPs, NumPs, or DPs with an empty (null) D. No information on singular/plural, mass/count, definite/indefinite reference can be derived from the determiner if there is none (in overt syntax, at least), so bare nouns raise challenges to syntactic theory as well as compositional semantics. Much of the literature zooms in on the implications of a missing/covert D, but this chapter places special emphasis on syntactic and semantic number in bare nouns.

A clausal analysis of free choice demo in Japanese

It is commonly assumed that in Japanese, an indeterminate pronoun followed by demo (indet-demo) corresponds to free choice any in English (FC any). Based on a number of semantic differences between the two, I argue that indet-demo is not a nominal free choice item, but a concealed unconditional adjunct, corroborating the claim made by Nakanishi and Hiraiwa (2019) and Hiraiwa and Nakanishi (2020, to appear). Based on Rawlins’s (2008, 2013) Hamblin analysis of unconditionals in English, I propose a compositional semantics of indet-demo that captures its semantics properties.

Copular clauses in Dene languages: Argument structure and interpretation

A widely accepted assumption in both the syntactic and semantic literature is that copulas lack semantic content. A consequent question is how to explain the existence in certain languages of two copular verbs that give rise to different interpretations. Such is the case in numerous languages of the Dene family (formerly known as Athapaskan). We explain this situation with the hypothesis that the copulas realize an underlying three-copula system differing in argument structure. Differences between the interpretations of copular clauses in these languages originate in the compositional semantics of these structures, not in any lexical semantic differences.This hypothesis successfully predicts the distributional differences between the surface forms of the Dene copulas, such as their compatibility with adjuncts of time and intentionality, interactions with accusative case, and semantic lifetime effects.

Presupposed free choice and the theory of scalar implicatures

A disjunctive sentence like Olivia took Logic or Algebra conveys that Olivia didn’t take both classes (exclusivity) and that the speaker doesn’t know which of the two classes she took (ignorance). The corresponding sentence with a possibility modal, Olivia can take Logic or Algebra, conveys instead that she can take Logic and that she can take Algebra (free choice). These exclusivity, ignorance and free choice inferences are argued by many to be scalar implicatures. Recent work has looked at cases in which exclusivity and ignorance appear to be computed instead at the presupposition level, independently from the assertion. On the basis of those data, Spector and Sudo (Linguist Philos 40(5):473–517, 2017) have argued for a hybrid account relying on a pragmatic principle for deriving implicatures in the presupposition. In this paper, we observe that a sentence like Noah is unaware that Olivia can take Logic or Algebra has a reading on which free choice appears in the presupposition, but not in the assertion, and we show that deriving this reading is challenging on Spector and Sudo’s (2017) hybrid account. Following the dialectic in Fox (Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics, Palgrave, London, pp 71–120, 2007), we argue against a pragmatic approach to presupposition-based implicatures on the ground that it is not able to account for presupposed free choice. In addition, we raise a novel challenge for Spector and Sudo’s (2017) account coming from the conflicting presupposed ignorance triggered by sentences like #Noah is unaware that I have a son or a daughter, which is infelicitous even if it’s not common knowledge whether the speaker has a son or a daughter. More generally, our data reveals a systematic parallelism between the assertion and presupposition levels in terms of exclusivity, ignorance, and free choice. We argue that such parallels call for a unified analysis and we sketch how a grammatical theory of implicatures where meaning strengthening operates in a similar way at both levels (Gajewski and Sharvit in Nat Lang Semant 20(1):31–57, 2012; Magri in A theory of individual-level predicates based on blind mandatory scalar implicatures, MIT dissertation, 2009; Marty in Implicatures in the DP domain, MIT dissertation, 2017) can account for such parallels.

Methods for the nomination of diagnoses in veterinary practice in linguodidactic and cognitive aspects (which the pages of the textbooks were silent about)

In this work, on the basis of a complex of cognitive-linguistic research methods, methods of verbalizing diagnoses in Latin and Russian, used in veterinary practice, are described, their typology is given, taking into account compositional semantics and features of linguistic representation. The conceptual and categorical analysis of clinical terms and the formal-structural features of their nomination in the context of didactics of medicine and veterinary medicine are presented.

ГЕНЕРАТОРЫ КОНЦЕПТОВ И ПРОБЛЕМА ЛОКАЛЬНОСТИ В СЕМАНТИКЕ ВЫСКАЗЫВАНИЙ ОБ УСТАНОВКАХ DE RE

This paper presents a design for an experimentum crucis as to the particular type of locality found with the binding of variables ranging over so-called concept generators in the compositional semantics of de re readings of attitude reports (Percus, Sauerland 2003). The outcome of the experiment would show whether Santorio’s (2014) formulation of the locality constraint is adequate. If it is not, this will affect his technical proposal. This paper presents an alternative proposal couched in terms of agreement and thus capable of capturing a more flexible, relative kind of locality. Статья посвящена формальному семантическому анализу высказываний о пропозициональных установках, интерпретируемых de re. Уже ставший традиционным анализ, использующий переменные по генераторам концептов (Percus, Sauerland 2003), перепорождает (Santorio 2014); мы описываем способ, каким можно проверить, адекватно ли требование локальности означивания этих переменных, сформулированное П. Санторио. В случае отрицательного результата альтернативная формализация, предложенная Санторио, окажется неадекватной. Мы предлагаем ещё одно решение, основанное на комбинации согласования (в смысле генеративистской теории признаков) и семантики альтернатив и предсказывающее относительную, а не абсолютную локальность.

Anti-uniqueness without articles

We report on the expression of singular nominals in Burmese, an articleless language, from original elicitation work. Bare nouns are interpreted as singular definites, to which the numeral tiq 'one' is added to form indefinites. We propose that tiq 'one' restricts the domain of the nominal to a singleton, and that its addition is subject to a Non-Vacuity constraint; this is the source of the anti-uniqueness inference of indefinites. We furthermore investigate the availability of tiq 'one' in anaphoric definites. Such behavior forms an argument that the compositional semantics of anaphoric definites does not involve contextual restriction via a situation variable, unlike unique definites.

Structure and Ontology in Nonlocal Readings of Adjectives

In certain uses, adjectives appear to make the semantic contribution normally associated with adverbs. These readings are often thought to be a peripheral phenomenon, restricted to one corner of the grammar and just a handful of lexical items. I’ll argue that it’s actually considerably more general than is often recognized, and that it admits two fundamentally different modes of explanation: in terms of the syntactic machinery that undergirds these structures and in terms of the ontology of the objects manipulated by its semantics. Both modes of explanation have been suggested for some of the puzzles in this domain, and I’ll argue both are necessary. With respect to adjectives including average and occasional, the key insight is that their lexical semantics is fundamentally about kinds. But to arrive at a more general theory of adverbial readings, it is also necessary to further articulate the compositional semantics. In this spirit, I’ll argue that these adjectives actually have the semantic type of quantificational determiners like every. If this way of thinking about adverbial readings is on the right track, it instantiates a means by which these two distinct modes of explanation—and the distinct aspects of cognition they may ultimately be associated with—both play a crucial role in bringing about the apparently aberrant behavior of this class of adjectives.