Semantics etc.

Jan van Eijck. “Syllogistics = Monotonicity + Symmetry + Existential Import”, ms, May 26, 2005.

Abstract: Syllogistics reduces to only two rules of inference: monotonicity and symmetry, plus a third if one wants to take existential import into acccount. We give an implementation that uses only the monotonicity and symmetry rules, with an addendum for the treatment of existential import. Soundness follows from the monotonicity properties and symmetry properties of the Aristotelean quantifiers, while completeness for syllogistic theory is proved by direct inspection of the valid syllogisms. The implementation uses Haskell, and is given in ‘literate programming’ style.

Jessica Rett. “Context, Compositionality and Calamity”, to appear in Mind & Language.

Abstract. This paper examines an attempt made in a series of articles (Stanley 2002, a.o.) to create a syntactic placeholder for contextual information. The initial shortcoming of Stanley’s proposal is that it does not easily integrate these placeholders with domain-restricting information syntactically encoded elsewhere in the utterance. Thus, Stanley erroneously predicts that a sentence in which quantifier- restricting information encoded in (for example) a prepositional phrase conflicts with quantifier-restriction valued by context is internally incoherent. I continue by exploring the space of possible solutions to this problem that are available to Stanley, demonstrating how each of these possible solutions results in its own interpretation problem and, ultimately, fails. In doing so, I argue that Stanley’s syntactic/semantic approach to context is ultimately untenable.

Roger Schwarzschild. “Measure Phrases as Modifiers of Adjectives”, to appear in Recherches Linguistiques de Vincennes

ABSTRACT In some languages, measure phrases can appear with non- compared adjectives: 5 feet tall. I address three questions about this construction: (a) Is the measure phrase an argument of the adjective or an adjunct? (b) What are we to make of the markedness of this construction *142lbs heavy? (c) Why is it that the markedness disappears once the adjective is put in the comparative (2 inches taller alongside 2lbs heavier)?

I claim that because degree arguments are ‘functional’, the measure phrase has to be an adjunct and not a syntactic argument of the adjective. Like event modifiers in extended NPs and in VPs, the measure phrase predicates of a degree argument of the adjective. But given the kind of meaning a measure phrase must have to do its job in comparatives and elsewhere, it is not of the right type to directly predicate of a degree argument. I propose a lexically governed type- shift which applies to some adjectives allowing them to combine with a measure phrase.

This from Peter Suber’s Open Access News:

More on electronic reserves: Anick Jesdanun, A different sort of campus copyright fight, MSNBC, May 21, 2005.

Excerpt: ‘There’s been a change in Ellen Lichtenstein’s study patterns. For half her classes this past year, she no longer had to visit a library to get the reading materials professors had placed on reserve. Instead, she only needed Internet access and a password. ‘It’s as simple as logging into my e-mail account, clicking on a few links and printing it,’ said Lichtenstein, 21, a New York University communications senior from Birmingham, Ala. ‘There’s no going to the library, waiting on line, waiting to Xerox it, there’s none of that.’ And publishing companies are worried precisely because of that ease and convenience _ it’s another way for publishers to lose sales. The Association of American Publishers already has contacted one school, the University of California, San Diego, claiming ‘blatantly infringing use is being made of numerous books, journals and other copyrighted works.’…U.S. copyright law offers greater leeway for noncommercial uses like education, but such ‘fair use’ exemptions are not automatic. Rather, courts ultimately must apply a four-part test that balances, among other things, the amount copied and its effect on potential sales. A password can help but does not guarantee an exemption….Many librarians and professors see electronic postings as akin to library reserves, but publishers see them more as course packs subject to permission and royalty….For a summer class on copyright, New York University professor Siva Vaidhyanathan plans to post all of his law review assignments online, figuring that it’s legal as long as it’s limited to enrolled students. ‘We feel pretty confident what we are doing is OK, although I know enough about the unpredictability of fair use to know a case might not go our way,’ said Vaidhyanathan, who has written books critical of modern copyright laws. ‘I could get sued this summer for doing this.”

I suspect that making electronic readings available behind a password is fairly common for most of us. I certainly do it all the time for my courses.

From Ora Matushansky:

I saw this counterfactual in an MTV ad in the Netherlands, and I thought it might amuse you:

If Elvis were still alive, he would be dead by now.

Thony Gillies adds:

This reminds me of a great exchange from Seinfeld. George is asking his parents about the cause of death of a Great Aunt of his — “Aunt Baby” — who died (we gather) very young. His mother (Estelle) asks his father (Frank):

Estelle: How old would Aunt Baby be if she were alive today?
Frank (shaking his head): She’d never had made it.

Danny Fox and Martin Hackl: “The Universal Density of Measurement”

Abstract:

The notion of measurement plays a central role in human cognition. We measure people’s height, the weight of physical objects, the length of stretches of time, or the size of various collections of individuals. Measurements of height, weight, and the like are commonly thought of as mappings between objects and dense scales, while measurements of collections of individuals, as implemented for instance in counting, are assumed to involve discrete scales. It is also commonly assumed that the distinction between these two types of scales plays a central role in natural language semantics. This paper argues against the latter assumption. It argues that natural language semantics treats all measurements uniformly as mappings from objects (individuals or collections of individuals) to dense scales, hence the Universal Density of Measurement. If the arguments are successful, there are a variety of consequences for semantics and pragmatics, and more generally for the place of the linguistic system within an overall architecture of cognition.

I am in-flight to Austin, TX, where I will be lecturing about my semantic research. As a last procrastinatory measure before preparing my lectures, I glanced at the American Airlines magazine American Way, May 1, 2005 edition. On the last page is a column called “Arguing, We Are” by Jim Shahin. Here is what he writes:

Dr. Deepak Chopra, the high-profile spiritual guru and bestselling author, said recently that he has never had an argument with his wife.

When my wife heard this, she said, “Does he talk to her?”

[…]

Maybe Dr. Chopra was speaking semantically [my emphasis, KvF]. Maybe it all depends on what the definition of “argument” is. Maybe he means that he has never thrown a dish across the room.

So, now as semanticists we not only have to contend with the constant slur of something being called a matter of “mere semantics” but we also have to accept that when someone is “speaking semantically” they rely on narrow interpretations of crucial terms and ignore the usual common-sense meaning of those terms.

[On to real semantics. My handouts for the talks in Austin are available online].

The semantics etc. Moscow correspondent, Barbara Partee, writes in with a tidbit found among the New York Times letters to the editor in the May 4, 2005 edition. In response to an April 29 column by Tom Friedman about American education falling behind, someone wrote in:

“I would limit the mandatory classes to a few core life skills: public speaking, self-defense, basic logic and semantics.”

Virtually all occurrences of the term “semantics” in public discourse concern some matter’s being an issue of “mere semantics”. This is meant to categorize the matter as insubstantial, as being overly concerned with the right choice of words, rather than with the content of what is at the stake. So, this is quite a departure from the ordinary.

Of course, nobody outside academic circles has any idea of what the science of semantics actually is.

Jan Schreiber has compiled an online bibliography on quotation that might prove useful for those interested in the philosophical and semantic study of quotation and related matters.