Re: universal languages

From: Dan Connolly <connolly@w3.org>
Subject: Re: universal languages
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 13:41:47 -0600

> I don't know what Montague logic is, but I'd like to learn.
> Sounds interesting.

Here are some pointers to work about Montague logic.  I haven't
investigated the references works, but my pointers are not web-accessible.

peter

Two appropriate references to Montague logic are a course outline
(http://semantics.phil.kcl.ac.uk/howard/montague.html) and small piece of a
web version of a paper on logic and AI by Selmer Bringsjord and David
Ferrucci (http://www.rensselaer.edu/~brings/LOG+AI/lai/node10.html).
Neither of these will be enough to understand Montague logic, but if you
are truely interested, they will at least provide good pointers.

Also, here is my tiny summary of Montague logic:

Montague logic is an intensional modal logic initially designed to
represent the meaning of natural language utterances.  It is highly
expressive, and thus computationally difficult.  Whether it is actually
sufficient to truely represent even a reasonable fraction of natural
language utterances is open to debate.

Peter Patel-Schneider

Received on Thursday, 1 February 2001 15:05:40 UTC