Continuations and the Nature of Quantification
Continuations and the Nature of Quantification
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延续和量化的本质
DOI：
10.1023/a:1022183511876
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发表时间：
2002
影响因子：
1.1
通讯作者：
C. Barker
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
C. Barker
本文提出，某些自然语言表达的意义应该被看作是它们自身延续的函数。在编程语言语义理论中，延续是一种成熟的分析工具；简而言之，延续是计算的整个默认未来。我展示了基于延续的语法如何以一种新的方式统一自然语言量化的几个方面：仅仅根据延续来陈述量化表达式的真值条件自动考虑范围移位和范围歧义。为了证明这一点，我展示了一个简单的有限上下文无关文法和严格的组合语义，其中量化NP在原位被解释，但在更大的成分上具有语义范围。没有量词提升(也没有使用与显式语法不同的逻辑形式级别)，没有库珀存储(或许多最近的HPSG、范畴或类型逻辑处理中使用的类似机制)，也不需要类型转换(如Hendriks的灵活类型帐户)。延续还提供了对不需要类型转换或类型多态的广义协调的自然描述。对组合性问题进行了较为详细的讨论。
This paper proposes that the meanings of some natural language expressions should be thought of as functions on their own continuations. Continuations are a well-established analytic tool in the theory of programming language semantics; in brief, a continuation is the entire default future of a computation. I show how a continuation-based grammar can unify several aspects of natural language quantification in a new way: merely stating the truth conditions for quantificational expressions in terms of continuations automatically accounts for scope displacement and scope ambiguity. To prove this claim, I exhibit a simple finite context-free grammar with a strictly compositional semantics in which quantificational NPs are interpreted in situ but take semantic scope over larger constituents. There is no Quantifier Raising (nor any use of a level of Logical Form distinct from overt syntax), no Cooper Storage (or similar mechanisms used in many recent HPSG, Categorial, or Type-logical treatments), and no need for type-shifting (as in Hendriks' Flexible Types account). Continuations also provide a natural account of generalized coordination that does not require either type-shifting or type polymorphism. Compositionality issues are discussed in some detail.