A 4-Valued Logic of Strong Conditional Introduction
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The Information Status of English If-Clauses in Natural Discourse*
The Information Status of English If-clauses in Natural Discourse* Chang-Bong Lee 1. Introduction Haiman (1978) once argued that conditionals are uniformly defined as topics. His argument had to suffer from some substantial problems both empirically and theoretically. Despite these problems, his paper was a trailblazing research that opened up the path for the study of conditionals from a discourse point of view. The present paper studies conditionals from a particular aspect of discourse functional perspective by analyzing the information structure of conditional sentences in natural discourse. Ford and Thompson (1986) studied the discourse function of conditionals in the similar vein through a corpus-based research. This paper also attempts to understand the discourse function of conditionals, but it does it under a rather different standpoint, under the framework of the so-called GIVEN-NEW taxonomy as presented in Prince (1992). In this paper, we focus on the definition of topic as an entity that represents the GIVEN or OLD information to be checked against the information in the preceding linguistic context. By analyzing the data of the English if-clauses in natural discourse both in oral and written contexts, we present sufficient evidence to show that conditionals are not simply topics (GIVEN information). It is revealed that the if-clauses *This research was supported by the faculty settlement research fund (Grant No. 20000005) from the Catholic University of Korea in the year of 2000. I wish to express gratitude to the Catholic University of Korea for their financial assistance. The earlier version of this paper was presented at the 6th academic conference organized by the Discourse and Cognitive Ilnguistics Society of Korea in June, 2000. -
Understanding Conditional Sentences
GRAMMAR AND MECHANICS Understanding Conditional Sentences When a dependent or subordinate clause is introduced by words such as “if,” “when,” or “unless,” the complete sentence expresses a condition. The dependent or subordinate clause states a condition or cause and is joined with an independent clause, which states the result or effect. Conditional sentences can be factual, predictive, or speculative, which determines the form of the condition and the choice of verb tenses. TYPES OF CONDITIONAL SENTENCES Factual In a factual conditional sentence, the relationship between the dependent or subordinate clause and the independent clause describes a condition that is or was habitually true: if the condition applies, the independent clause states the result or effect. Both clauses use simple verb forms either in present or past tense. If you find a blue and white sweater, it belongs to me. When he plays his music too loud, the neighbors complain. Unless there is a question, the class is dismissed. Predictive In a predictive conditional sentence, the relationship between the two clauses is promised or possible but not certain. Use a present-tense verb in the dependent or subordinate clause, and in the independent clause use modal auxiliaries “will,” “can,” “may,” “should,” or “might” with the base form of the verb. If the weather is good tomorrow, we will go to the park. If your roommate decides not to come with us, we can go by ourselves. When the lease on the apartment ends, we may want to move to another building. When she misses one of the meetings, she should notify her supervisor. -
Principles of Logic Roehampton : Printed by John Griffin ^Principles of Logic
PRINCIPLES OF LOGIC ROEHAMPTON : PRINTED BY JOHN GRIFFIN ^PRINCIPLES OF LOGIC By GEORGE HAYWARD JOYCE, S.J. M.A., ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD PROFESSOR OF LOGIC, ST. MARY S HALL, STONYHURST *.r LONGMANS, GREEN & CO 39, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK. BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1908 INTRODUCTION THIS work is an attempt at a presentment of what is fre quently termed the Traditional Logic, and is intended for those who are making acquaintance with philosophical questions for the first time. Yet it is impossible, even in a text-book such as this, to deal with logical questions save in connexion with definite metaphysical and epistemolo- gical principles. Logic, as the theory of the mind s rational processes in regard of their validity, must neces sarily be part of a larger philosophical system. Indeed when this is not the case, it becomes a mere collection of technical rules, possessed of little importance and of less interest. The point of view adopted in this book is that of the Scholastic as far as is philosophy ; and compatible with the size and purpose of the work, some attempt has been made to vindicate the fundamental principles on which that philosophy is based. From one point of view, this position should prove a source of strength. The thinkers who elaborated our sys tem of Logic, were Scholastics. With the principles of that philosophy, its doctrines and its rules are in full accord. In the light of Scholasticism, the system is a connected whole ; and the subjects, traditionally treated in it, have each of them its legitimate place. -
Conditionals in Political Texts
JOSIP JURAJ STROSSMAYER UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Adnan Bujak Conditionals in political texts A corpus-based study Doctoral dissertation Advisor: Dr. Mario Brdar Osijek, 2014 CONTENTS Abstract ...........................................................................................................................3 List of tables ....................................................................................................................4 List of figures ..................................................................................................................5 List of charts....................................................................................................................6 Abbreviations, Symbols and Font Styles ..........................................................................7 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................9 1.1. The subject matter .........................................................................................9 1.2. Dissertation structure .....................................................................................10 1.3. Rationale .......................................................................................................11 1.4. Research questions ........................................................................................12 2. Theoretical framework .................................................................................................13 -
Truth Determinants. Another Theory of Meaning for the Propositional Connectives
Philosophica 19, 1977 (1), pp. 11-32 11 TRUTH DETERMINANTS. ANOTHER THEORY OF MEANING FOR THE PROPOSITIONAL CONNECTIVES Niels Egmont Christensen --- The aim of this paper is to show that the truth-functional theory of meaning of the propositional connectives could be contrasted with another related, so-called truth-determinantal theory. With both theories and their ensuing different logics at hand we understand better the inadequacy of truth-functional logic and the difficulties in trying to make up for its shortcomings. 1. Introduction When raising the question about the philosophical relevance of the concept of meaning, the answer is in a sense both immediate and 1 impressive. For as Michael Dummett, in particular, has pointed out , there is, according to Frege, one part of philosophy that is the basis on which all other disciplines rest, viz. the theory of meaning. This has not always been the view of philosophers; Descartes, for instance, and many of his followers saw epistemology as the fundamental theory on which all other forms of philosophy should be based. But if we are prepared to take the Fregean approach and to admit instead theory of meaning as the starting point of philosophy there are two things to note. First, this order of approach will never prevent us from moving on from theory of meaning to questions about what we know and how to justify it. Merely we should be clear about the meaning of epistemological words before entering into a territory that difficult. Second, being clear about the meaning of a philosophical interesting word is very seldom, if ever, the same as to be able in language, ones own or in another language, to state the meaning of the wo rd in question. -
Towards a Pragmatic Category of Conditionals
19th ICL papers Chi-He ELDER and Kasia M. JASZCZOLT University of Cambridge, United Kingdom [email protected], [email protected] Conditional Utterances and Conditional Thoughts: Towards a Pragmatic Category of Conditionals oral presentation in session: 6B Pragmatics, Discourse and Cognition (Horn & Kecskes) Published and distributed by: Département de Linguistique de l’Université de Genève, Rue de Candolle 2, CH-1205 Genève, Switzerland Editor: Département de Linguistique de l’Université de Genève, Switzerland ISBN:978-2-8399-1580-9 Travaux du 19ème CIL | Travaux 20-27 Juillet 2013 Genève des Linguistes, International Congrès 20-27 July 2013 Geneva of Linguists, Congress International 1" " Conditional Utterances and Conditional Thoughts: Towards a Pragmatic Category of Conditionals Chi-Hé Elder and Kasia M. Jaszczolt Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics University of Cambridge Cambridge CB3 9DA United Kingdom [email protected] [email protected] 1. Rationale and objectives The topic of this paper is the pragmatic and conceptual category of conditionality. Our primary interest is how speakers express conditional meanings in discourse and how this diversity of forms can be accounted for in a theory of discourse meaning. In other words, we are concerned not only with conditional sentences speakers utter in discourse (sentences of the form ‘if p (then) q’), but predominantly with conditional thoughts, expressed in a variety of ways, by discourse participants. The category of conditionality has given rise to many discussions and controversies in formal semantics, cognitive semantics and post-Gricean pragmatics. In formal semantics, pragmatic considerations have often been appealed to in order to demonstrate that conditionals in natural language do, or do not, essentially stem out of material conditionals on the level of their logical form. -
Dissertations, Department of Linguistics
UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title A Cognitive Approach to Mandarin Conditionals Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5qw934z5 Author Yang, Fan-Pei Publication Date 2007 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California A Cognitive Approach To Mandarin Conditionals By Fan-Pei Gloria Yang B.A. (National Taiwan Normal Univeristy) 1998 M.A. (University of California, Berkeley) 2003 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Eve Sweetser, Chair Professor George Lakoff Professor Jerome Feldman Spring 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A Cognitive Approach To Mandarin Conditionals Copyright © 2007 By Fan-Pei Gloria Yang Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract A Cognitive Approach To Mandarin Conditionals By Fan-Pei Gloria Yang Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Eve Sweetser, Chair This dissertation provides a description of some of the common Mandarin conditional constructions, with a focus on describing the contributions of the linking devices to the conditional interpretations and their interactions with other elements in constructions. The analyses are based on corpus data and include studies on the pragmatic uses of conditionals. The discussion endeavors to show how cognitive structures link to linguistic structures and how spaces are built and frames evoked. Consequently, the research does not just provide a syntactic description, but offers an in-depth discussion of epistemic stance and grounding of information indicated by the linking devices. -
Robert C. Stalnaker*
ROBERT C. STALNAKER* A THEORY OF CONDITIONALS I. INTRODUCTION A conditional sentence expresses a proposition which is a function of two other propositions, yet not one which is a truth function of those prop ositions. I may know the truth values of "Willie Mays played in the American League" and "Willie Mays hit four hundred" without knowing whether or not Mays. would have hit four hundred if he had played in the American League. This fact has tended to puzzle, displease, or delight philosophers, and many have felt that it is a fact that calls for some comment or explanation. It has given rise to a number of philosophical problems; I shall discuss three of these. My principal concern will be with what has been called the logical problem of conditionals, a problem that frequently is ignored or dismissed by writers on conditionals and counterfactuals. This is the task of describing the formal properties of the conditional function: a function, usually represented in English by the words "if ... then", taking ordered pairs of propositions into propositions. I shall explain informally and defend a solution, presented more rigorously elsewhere, to this problem.l The second issue - the one that has dominated recent discussions of con· trary-to-fact conditionals - is the pragmatic problem of counterfactuals. This problem derives from the belief, which I share with most philosophers writing about this topic, that the formal properties of the conditional function, together with all of the facts, may not be sufficient for determining the truth value of a counterfactual; that is, different truth values of conditional state ments may be consistent with a single valuation of all nonconditional state ments. -
An Analysis of Use of Conditional Sentences by Arab Students of English
Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 Vol. 8 No. 2; April 2017 Flourishing Creativity & Literacy Australian International Academic Centre, Australia An Analysis of Use of conditional Sentences by Arab Students of English Sadam Haza' Al Rdaat Coventry University, United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] Doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.2p.1 Received: 04/01/2017 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.8n.2p.1 Accepted: 17/02/2017 Abstract Conditional sentences are made of two clauses namely “if-clause” and “main clause”. Conditionals have been noted by scholars and grammarians as a difficult area of English for both teachers and learners. The two clauses of conditional sentences and their form, tense and meaning could be considered the main difficulty of conditional sentences. In addition, some of non-native speakers do not have sufficient knowledge of the differences between conditional sentences in the two languages and they tried to solve their problems in their second language by using their native language. The aim of this study was to analyse the use of conditional sentences by Arab students of English in semantic and syntactic situations. For the purpose of this study, 20 Arab students took part in the questionnaire, they were all studying different subjects and degrees (bachelor, master and PhD) at Coventry University. The results showed that the use of type three conditionals and modality can be classified as the most difficult issues that students struggle to understand and use. Keywords: conditional sentences, protasis and apodosis, mood, real and unreal clauses, tense-time 1. -
A Note on Conditionals and Restrictors∗
A note on conditionals and restrictors∗ Daniel Rothschild Introduction Within linguistic semantics, it is near orthodoxy that the function of the word `if' (in most cases) is to mark restrictions on quantification. Just as in the sentence `Every man smokes', the common noun `man' restricts the quantifier `every', in the sentence `Usually, if it's winter it's cold', `it's winter' acts as a restrictor on the situational quantifier `usually'. This view, originally due to Lewis (1975), has been greatly extended in work by Heim (1982) and, most notably, Kratzer (1981, 1986) into a rich theory of almost all uses of the word `if'. I call this the restrictor view of `if'. Despite its linguistic prominence, this view of the word `if' has played little role in the philosophical discussion of conditionals. Fairly recent philosophical surveys such as Bennett's (2003) book-length introduction or Edgington's (1995; 2008) review articles do not even mention the restrictor view. Stranger still, in his seminal work on conditionals and probability, Lewis (1976, 1986) does not mention the restrictor view which he pioneered, despite the intimate relation noted later by Kratzer (1986).1 This paper tries to fill in the gap left by these omissions.2 I make four main points. First, I argue that given the current state of things our best bet is to accept the `restrictor view' and to assume that `if' is not ambiguous, so ∗This paper was written for a conference in honor of Dorothy Edgington at the Institute of Philosophy, London in May 2011. I am grateful to Dilip Ninan, Scott Sturgeon, and Seth Yalcin for useful discussion of this topic, and particularly to Justin Khoo, whose recent draft (cited below) prompted me to think about these issues. -
CHAPTER 3 Methods of Inference
04-108 C03 p115-188 pp3 8/30/04 2:48 PM Page 115 CHAPTER 3 Methods of Inference 3.1 INTRODUCTION This chapter is an introduction to reasoning about knowledge. It is important to separate the meaning of the words used in reasoning from the reasoning itself so we will cover it in a formal way by discussing various methods of inference (Russell 03). In particular we will look at an important type of reasoning in ex- pert systems in which conclusions follow from facts by using rules. It is particu- larly important in expert systems because making inferences is the fundamental method by which expert systems solve problems (Klir 98). As mentioned in Chapter 1, expert systems are commonly used when an in- adequate algorithm or no algorithmic solution exists. The expert system should make a chain of inferences to come up with a solution just as a person would, especially when faced with incomplete or missing information. A simple com- puter program that uses an algorithm to solve a problem cannot supply an answer if all the parameters needed are not given. However an expert system makes a best guess just like a human would when a problem needs to be solved and the optimum solution cannot be determined. The idea is to come up with a solution just as people come up with a (hopefully) good solution rather than none at all. While the solution may only be 95% as ef- ficient as the optimum solution, that’s still better than no solution. This type of approach is really nothing new. -
Probability of Conditionals in Modal Semantics Contents
Lecture Notes: Probability of Conditionals in Modal Semantics Justin Khoo and Paolo Santorio November 4, 2018 Contents Contents 1 1 Foundations of modal and conditional semantics and Stalnaker’s Thesis 5 1.1 Beginnings: the material conditional . 6 1.2 Strict and variably strict conditionals . 7 1.3 Restrictor Theory . 11 1.4 Stalnaker’s Thesis . 13 2 Triviality, 1/2: closure-based triviality proofs 17 2.1 A warm up to Lewis . 18 2.2 Lewis’s first triviality result . 19 2.3 Hájek’s generalization . 21 2.4 Bradley-style triviality proofs . 24 2.5 General morals: triviality and informational inferences . 27 2.6 Generalizing beyond conditionals: Russell and Hawthorne . 28 3 Triviality, 2/2: single probability triviality proofs 31 3.1 Fitelson 2015 . 31 3.2 Stalnaker 1976 . 32 3.3 Denying CSO? . 36 3.4 The Wallflower result . 39 1 2 Contents 4 Resisting Triviality 41 4.1 Strategy 1: nihilism . 41 4.2 Strategy 2: context dependence (overview) . 47 4.3 Strategy 3: denying Ratio or closure . 51 5 Tenability 57 5.1 Semantics and indeterminacy . 57 5.2 Tenability, v1 . 59 5.3 Generalizing . 64 6 Empirical Failures of the Thesis 71 6.1 The counterexamples . 71 6.2 Diagnosing . 72 6.3 Local and Global . 73 6.4 Generalizing Stalnaker . 74 7 Triviality for Counterfactuals 77 7.1 Williams’ result . 77 7.2 A collapse result for counterfactuals . 79 Bibliography 83 Overview These notes explore the relationship between natural language conditionals and probability, with particular emphasis on theories of conditionals in contempo- rary modal semantics.