mwang@watmath.UUCP (mwang) (03/18/85)
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- Wednesday, March 27, 1985.
Prof. B. Mercer of the University of Western Ontario
will speak on ``Inferring Presuppositions Using a Non-
Monotonic Logic''.
TTIIMMEE:: 3:30 PM
RROOOOMM:: MC 5158
AABBSSTTRRAACCTT
The meaning of a natural language sentence includes not
only what is said but also what is presupposed. We
present a novel procedure for generating presupposi-
tions. The linguist's standard method is a projection
rule: the presuppositions of a sentence are a function
of the presuppositions generated by the sentence's lex-
ical items and syntax. Numerous modifications to this
basic technique hae been made to prevent the generation
of inappropriate presuppositions. In marked contrast
to the linguist's approach we view presuppositions as
inferences deduced from the sentence and other
knowledge. Because normal (monotonic) deduction
methods are inadequate, Default Logic is used. Not
only is this approach more unified, but also its
results are better than previous attempts.