Situation Theory and Its Applications, Volume 2

Situation theory is the result of an interdisciplinary effort to create a full-fledged theory of information. Created by scholars and scientists from cognitive science, computer science, AI, linguistics, logic, philosophy, and mathematics, the theory is forging a common set of tools for the analysis of phenomena from all these fields.

This volume presents work that evolved out of the Second Conference on Situation Theory and its Applications. Twenty-six essays exhibit the wide range of the theory, covering such topics as natural language semantics, philosophical issues about information, mathematical applications, and the visual representation of the information in computer systems.

Jon Barwise was a professor of philosophy, mathematics, and logic at Indiana university in Bloomington. Jean Mark Gawron is a researcher at SRI International and a consultant at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. Gordon Plotkin is a professor of theoretical computer science at the University of Edinburgh. Syun Tutiya is in the philosophy department at Chiba University in Japan.

Contributors
Preface

Part I Situation Theory

1 Universes and Parameters
Peter Aczel and Rachel Lunnon
2 Situations as Mathematical Abstractions
Keith J. Devlin
3 Oracles in Situation Semantics
Keith J. Devlin
4 Many Sorted Universes, SRDs, and Injective Sums
Rachel Lunnon
5 A Theory of Situations
Edward N. Zalta

Part II Logical Applications

6 Pierce on Truth and Partiality
Tom Burke
7 Information and and Architecture
David Isreal and John Perry
8 Doxic Paradox: A Situational Solution
Robert C. Koons
9 CLP (AFA): Coinductive Semantics of Horn Clauses with Compact Constraints
Kuniaki Mukai
10 Inferring in a Situation about Situations
Hideyuki Nakashima and Syun Tutiya
11 Situation-Theoretic Aspects of Databases
Bill Rounds
12 Physical Situations and Information Flow
Jerry Seligman

Part III Linguistic Applications

13 Persistence and Structural Determination
Richard P. Cooper
14 Negation in Situation Semantics and Discourse Representation Theory
Robin Cooper and Hans Kamp
15 The Absorption Principle and E-Type Anaphora
Jean Mark Gawron, John Nerborne, and Stanley Peters
16 Questions without Answers, Wh-Phrases without Scope: A Semantics for Direct Wh-Questions and their Responses
Jonathan Ginzburg
17 Reducing Complexity of Contraint-Based Grammars
Kôiti Hasida
18 Perspectivity and the Japanese Reflexive ‘zibun’
Yasuhiro Katagiri
19 A Fomalization of Metaphor Understanding in Situation Semantics
Tatsunori Mori and Hiroshi Nakagawa
20 Relational Semantics and Scope Ambiguity
Massimo Poesio
21 Parameters: Dependence and Absorption
Helle Frisak Sem, Kjell Johan Sæbø, Guri B. Verne, and Espen J. Vestre
22 A Strictly Incremental Approach to Japanese Grammar
Hiroyuki Suzuki and Syun Tutiya
23 Probing the Iroquoian Perspective: Towards a Situated Inquiriy of Linguistic Relativity
Dietmar Zaefferer

Part IV Visual Information

24 Visualization
C. Michael Lewis
25 A Situation-Theoretic Account of Valid Reasoning with Venn Diagrams
Sun-Joo Shin
26 Reasoning with Words, Pictures, and Calculi: Computation Versus Justification
Keith Stenning and Jon Oberlander

Name Index
Subject Index

1/1/91

ISBN (Paperback): 9780937073704 (0937073709)
ISBN (Cloth): 9780937073711 (0937073717)
ISBN (Electronic): 9781575867694 (1575867699)
Subject: Cognitive Science; Logic; Language and Logic

Situation Theory and Its Applications, Volume 2

Contents

Books by Jon Barwise (1942–2000)