Scope as syntactic abstraction

Chris Barker

doi:10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14

Scope as syntactic abstraction

Chris Barker

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

What is the logic of scope? By “scope”, I mean scopetaking in natural languages such as English, as illustrated by the sentence Ann saw everyone. In this example, the quantifier denoted by everyone takes scope over the rest of the sentence, that is, it takes the denotation of the rest of the sentence as its semantic argument: everyone(λx.saw(x)(ann)). The answer I will give here will be to provide a substructural logic whose two modes are related by a single structural postulate. This postulate can be interpreted as constituting a kind of lambda-abstraction over structures, where the abstracted structures are interpreted as delimited continuations. I discuss soundness and completeness results, as well as cut elimination. I also compare the logic to a number of alternative approaches, including the standard technique of Quantifier Raising, and mention applications to scope ambiguity and parasitic scope.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence - JSAI-isAI 2014 Workshops, LENLS, JURISIN, and GABA, Revised Selected Papers
Editors	Tsuyoshi Murata, Koji Mineshima, Daisuke Bekki
Publisher	Springer Verlag
Pages	184-199
Number of pages	16
ISBN (Print)	9783662481189
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14
State	Published - 2015
Event	6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, JSAI 2014 - Kanagawa, Japan Duration: Oct 27 2014 → Oct 28 2014

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume	9067
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Other

Other	6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, JSAI 2014
Country	Japan
City	Kanagawa
Period	10/27/14 → 10/28/14

Keywords

Continuations
Natural language quantification
Parasitic scope
Quantifier raising
Scope
Substructural logic

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Theoretical Computer Science
Computer Science(all)

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14

Fingerprint Dive into the research topics of 'Scope as syntactic abstraction'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this

Barker, C. (2015). Scope as syntactic abstraction. In T. Murata, K. Mineshima, & D. Bekki (Eds.), New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence - JSAI-isAI 2014 Workshops, LENLS, JURISIN, and GABA, Revised Selected Papers (pp. 184-199). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 9067). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14

Scope as syntactic abstraction. / Barker, Chris.

New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence - JSAI-isAI 2014 Workshops, LENLS, JURISIN, and GABA, Revised Selected Papers. ed. / Tsuyoshi Murata; Koji Mineshima; Daisuke Bekki. Springer Verlag, 2015. p. 184-199 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 9067).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Barker, C 2015, Scope as syntactic abstraction. in T Murata, K Mineshima & D Bekki (eds), New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence - JSAI-isAI 2014 Workshops, LENLS, JURISIN, and GABA, Revised Selected Papers. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 9067, Springer Verlag, pp. 184-199, 6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, JSAI 2014, Kanagawa, Japan, 10/27/14. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14

Barker C. Scope as syntactic abstraction. In Murata T, Mineshima K, Bekki D, editors, New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence - JSAI-isAI 2014 Workshops, LENLS, JURISIN, and GABA, Revised Selected Papers. Springer Verlag. 2015. p. 184-199. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14

Barker, Chris. / Scope as syntactic abstraction. New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence - JSAI-isAI 2014 Workshops, LENLS, JURISIN, and GABA, Revised Selected Papers. editor / Tsuyoshi Murata ; Koji Mineshima ; Daisuke Bekki. Springer Verlag, 2015. pp. 184-199 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

@inproceedings{740c1a6d86af41deb3fd2b7dac2f5633,

title = "Scope as syntactic abstraction",

abstract = "What is the logic of scope? By “scope”, I mean scopetaking in natural languages such as English, as illustrated by the sentence Ann saw everyone. In this example, the quantifier denoted by everyone takes scope over the rest of the sentence, that is, it takes the denotation of the rest of the sentence as its semantic argument: everyone(λx.saw(x)(ann)). The answer I will give here will be to provide a substructural logic whose two modes are related by a single structural postulate. This postulate can be interpreted as constituting a kind of lambda-abstraction over structures, where the abstracted structures are interpreted as delimited continuations. I discuss soundness and completeness results, as well as cut elimination. I also compare the logic to a number of alternative approaches, including the standard technique of Quantifier Raising, and mention applications to scope ambiguity and parasitic scope.",

keywords = "Continuations, Natural language quantification, Parasitic scope, Quantifier raising, Scope, Substructural logic",

author = "Chris Barker",

year = "2015",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14",

language = "English (US)",

isbn = "9783662481189",

series = "Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)",

publisher = "Springer Verlag",

pages = "184--199",

editor = "Tsuyoshi Murata and Koji Mineshima and Daisuke Bekki",

booktitle = "New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence - JSAI-isAI 2014 Workshops, LENLS, JURISIN, and GABA, Revised Selected Papers",

note = "6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, JSAI 2014 ; Conference date: 27-10-2014 Through 28-10-2014",

}

TY - GEN

T1 - Scope as syntactic abstraction

AU - Barker, Chris

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - What is the logic of scope? By “scope”, I mean scopetaking in natural languages such as English, as illustrated by the sentence Ann saw everyone. In this example, the quantifier denoted by everyone takes scope over the rest of the sentence, that is, it takes the denotation of the rest of the sentence as its semantic argument: everyone(λx.saw(x)(ann)). The answer I will give here will be to provide a substructural logic whose two modes are related by a single structural postulate. This postulate can be interpreted as constituting a kind of lambda-abstraction over structures, where the abstracted structures are interpreted as delimited continuations. I discuss soundness and completeness results, as well as cut elimination. I also compare the logic to a number of alternative approaches, including the standard technique of Quantifier Raising, and mention applications to scope ambiguity and parasitic scope.

AB - What is the logic of scope? By “scope”, I mean scopetaking in natural languages such as English, as illustrated by the sentence Ann saw everyone. In this example, the quantifier denoted by everyone takes scope over the rest of the sentence, that is, it takes the denotation of the rest of the sentence as its semantic argument: everyone(λx.saw(x)(ann)). The answer I will give here will be to provide a substructural logic whose two modes are related by a single structural postulate. This postulate can be interpreted as constituting a kind of lambda-abstraction over structures, where the abstracted structures are interpreted as delimited continuations. I discuss soundness and completeness results, as well as cut elimination. I also compare the logic to a number of alternative approaches, including the standard technique of Quantifier Raising, and mention applications to scope ambiguity and parasitic scope.

KW - Continuations

KW - Natural language quantification

KW - Parasitic scope

KW - Quantifier raising

KW - Scope

KW - Substructural logic

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84945550656&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84945550656&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14

DO - 10.1007/978-3-662-48119-6_14

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:84945550656

SN - 9783662481189

T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

SP - 184

EP - 199

BT - New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence - JSAI-isAI 2014 Workshops, LENLS, JURISIN, and GABA, Revised Selected Papers

A2 - Murata, Tsuyoshi

A2 - Mineshima, Koji

A2 - Bekki, Daisuke

PB - Springer Verlag

T2 - 6th International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence, JSAI 2014

Y2 - 27 October 2014 through 28 October 2014

ER -