[Gastvortrag Bob Mercer 29.02.2000]

[Torsten Schaub]

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Universität Potsdam
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Kognitive Studien


Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen,

im Rahmen seines Aufenthaltes als Gastprofessor für
Kognitionswissenschaft an der Universität Potsdam,
wird Bob Mercer morgen einen Gastvortrag halten, zu dem
wir alle Interessierten herzlich einladen

Mit freundlichem Gruss

Johannes Haack


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Prof. Dr. Robert Mercer,
The University of Western Ontario

Towards defining presuppositions in a Montague Grammar-like framework

Zeit: Dienstag, 29.02.2000, 15.15 Uhr
Ort:  Campus Golm, Haus 24, Raum 050/51

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Abstract
A complete analysis of an English sentence includes syntactic, semantic,
and pragmatic components. Presupposition belongs to the pragmatic
component. How to determine the presuppositions of multiple-clause
sentences has been the focus of much work. Projection of clausal
presuppositions is one method to determine the presuppositions of
multiple-clause sentences.

In this talk we present a new approach to the projection problem. Drawing
heavily on the theoretical techniques originating with
Montague Semantics, our system maps sentences of a category-based
grammar into a set of expressions of intensional logic: one expression
corresponding to the literal interpretation of the sentence and the
remaining expressions corresponding to the presuppositions of the sentence.

The new approach correctly predicts the presuppositions of a
larger range of multiple-clause sentences than previous projection approaches.


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