Semantics 1, WiSe 2014/15 (Sailer)

Material for Manfred Sailer's seminar

Semantics 1, winter term 2014/15, Goethe University, Frankfurt a.M.

General information

You can get 2 CPs for the Medienkompetenzzertifikat in this class.

Register for the olat course at https://olat.server.uni-frankfurt.de/olat/url/RepositoryEntry/2563833857.

Material for week 6: Meeting of November 18, 2014

Input

Watch the following video on logical determiners:

<mediaplayer>http://youtu.be/b0iLejXP9C8</mediaplayer>

Tasks

After having watched the video, work on the following tasks.

Task 1 Identify the determiners in the following sentence.

(a) Juliet talked to some stranger at the party.

(b) Every Capulet is an enemy to some Montague.

(c) Many people in Verona are not happy about the Capulet-Montague feud.

Check your solutions here:

(a) some

(b) every, some

(c) many

Task 2 Identify the formula that corresponds to the translation of the sentence.

Some Montague who was at the party fell in love with Juliet.

	∃x (montague1(x) : (at-party1(x) ∧ fall-in-love-with2(x,juliet)))
	∃x ((montague1(x) ∧ at-party1(x)) : fall-in-love-with2(x,juliet))
	∃x ((montague1(x) ∧ at-party1(x)) : fall-in-love-with2(x,juliet))
	∃x ((montague1(x) ∧ fall-in-love-with2(x,juliet)) : at-party1(x))

Task 3 The sentence: Some Tybalt loved some Montague. is translated into the formula
∃ y (montague₁(y) : love₂(tybalt,y).

Mark all the cells in the table that stand for a true statement.

montague1(y) zwisch	love2(tybalt,y)zwisch
		Romeo
		Mercutio
		Juliet
		Tybalt
		Laurence
		Paris

Given this table, is the overall formula true or false? (Give a reason for your answer.)

Check your solutions here:

The formula is false, because there is no individual in our model for which both the restrictor and the scope are true.

Task 4 Variable assignment function
Start with the following variable assigment function g: g(u) = Romeo, g(v) = Juliet, g(w) = Romeo, g(x) = Laurence, g(y) = Mercutio, g(z) = Juliet

Provide the changed variable assignment function g[v/Paris].

Check your solutions here:

g[v/Paris](u) = g(u) = Romeo
g[v/Paris](v) = Paris
g[v/Paris](w) = g(w) = Romeo
g[v/Paris](x) = g(x) = Laurence
g[v/Paris](y) = g(y) = Mercutio
g[v/Paris](z) = g(z) = Juliet

Homework task for the meeting of November 24

In the following sentences,

1. identify the determiner, the restrictor, and the scope,
2. provide the paraphrase,
3. translate the sentences into formulae,
4. indicate for each formula whether it is true or false.

Example: Laurence married Romeo to a Capulet.

1. determiner: every
   restrictor: Capulet
   scope: Laurence married Romeo to x
2. paraphrase: For every x such that x is a Capulet, Laurence married Romeo to x.
3. formula: ∀ x (capulet₁(x) : marry-to(laurence, romeo, x))
4. true or false? The formula is true in the context of our play because Juliet is a Capulet and Laurence marries Romeo to her. Thus, we find an individual for which both the restrictor and the scope are true.

Work on the following sentences:

(a) Romeo talked to a friar.

(b) Juliet killed every Capulet.