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Is truth valuable? In addressing this question, one must parse it into questions that are more manageable. Is the property of truth only instrumentally valuable, or is it both instrumentally valuable and noninstrumentally valuable? Is the normativity of the concept of truth an intrinsic or extrinsic property of the concept? In addressing the first of these questions, I show that certain arguments are flawed, arguments that purport to show that truth is not valuable in any kind of way. After establishing that it is reasonable to think that the property of truth is valuable, I show how inflationists and deflationists can agree that the property of truth is noninstrumentally valuable. In addressing the second question, I rely on the distinction between semantics and pragmatics and the resources of moral semantics to claim that the normativity of the concept of truth is an extrinsic feature of the concept. I conclude that the property of truth is both instrumentally and noninstrumentally valuable and that the normativity associated with the concept of truth is an extrinsic property of the concept. In doing so, I suggest that beginning with an investigation about the value and normativity of truth has important ramifications for theories of truth in general.

This study surveys pronominal reference marking in active and inverse languages. Active and inverse languages have in common that they distinguish two sets of reference marking, which are referred to as Actor and Undergoer. The choice of one series of marking over another is shown to be semantically and pragmatically determined.

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吳國志. / 稿本(據電腦打印本複印) / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學, 1989. / Gao ben (ju dian nao da yin ben fu yin) / Includes bibliographical references: leaves 80-83. / Wu Guozhi. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 1989. / 簡語表 --- p.i / 導論 --- p.1 / Chapter 第一章 --- 剌激意義 --- p.3 / Chapter 1.1 --- 對心靈語意學的批判 / Chapter 1.2 --- 如何建構剌激意義 / Chapter 1.3 --- 對景語句和持存語句 / Chapter 1.4 --- 行為主義的語意觀 / Chapter 第二章 --- 翻譯不確定論旨 --- p.17 / Chapter 2.1 --- 同義與翻譯 / Chapter 2.2 --- 始基翻譯與分析假設 / Chapter 2.3 --- 翻譯不確定論旨與物理理論的不足決定性 / Chapter 2.4 --- 對心靈實體進一步的揚棄 / Chapter 第三章 --- 整體主義與語意理論 --- p.29 / Chapter 3.1 --- 溫和的整體主義 / Chapter 3.2 --- 整體主義與翻譯不確定論旨 / Chapter 3.3 --- 方法論上的一元論 / Chapter 3.4 --- 整體主義與自然主義 / Chapter 第四章 --- 論何物存在 --- p.42 / Chapter 4.1 --- 語言與本體論 / Chapter 4.2 --- 本體論的許諾 / Chapter 4.3 --- 物理主義的概念架構 / Chapter 4.4 --- 卡納普和奎因對抽象實體看法之異同 / Chapter 第五章 --- 本體論的相對性 --- p.55 / Chapter 5.1 --- 指涉的不透視性 / Chapter 5.2 --- 本體論相對性論旨 / 結論 --- p.67 / 注釋 --- p.69 / 參考書目 --- p.80 / 論文撮要

Thesis. 1978. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND HUMANITIES. / Bibliography: leaves 194-202. / Ph.D.

The dissertation investigates syntactic and semantic aspects of the indefinite pronoun system in Modern Hebrew and consists of an experimental part and a theoretical part. The experimental part presents the grammaticality judgment task conducted to test three theoretical questions: (1) the relation between negation and the licensing of AF `any' and KOL `any'; (2) the contrast between EYZE `some' and EYZESEHU `some' in terms of specificity; and (3) the correlation between syntactic position and free choice readings. Three main theoretical findings are contributed by this work. First, it is shown that from a typological viewpoint, Hebrew, a Semitic language, patterns with Romance and Germanic languages, rather than Japanese-type languages, in having indefinite pronouns specialized for particular operators available in the discourse. Second, the thesis proposes a novel unified syntax-semantics for KOL which accounts for its interpretational variability. Working with the Kratzer and Shimoyama (2002) framework where indefinite pronouns generate sets of individual alternatives, the semantics of a KOL--modified noun phrase is formalized as a variable and containing a restriction. When this restriction ranges over kinds, KOL receives a generic reading; when the restriction is over a contextually specified set of entities, KOL has an episodic reading. In these cases, the KOL--phrase moves to the argument position of a universal quantifier which binds the individual alternatives generated by the KOL--phrase. If KOL stays in situ, the individual alternatives are allowed to expand into propositional alternatives, resulting in the free choice reading. Third, I discuss the DP-internal structure of [eyze(N)se-hu (N)] and [(N) kol(N)se-hu], treating 'se-hu' as a CP. I propose that there is a correlation between the postnominal position and the free choice readings of these pronouns, suggesting that domain restrictions, usually derived in the semantics-pragmatics, may also be encoded in the syntax. If this hypothesis is on the right track, it could provide us with a better understanding of how and when in the process of language acquisition domain restrictions found with indefinite pronouns are acquired.

The dissertation investigates syntactic and semantic aspects of the indefinite pronoun system in Modern Hebrew and consists of an experimental part and a theoretical part. The experimental part presents the grammaticality judgment task conducted to test three theoretical questions: (1) the relation between negation and the licensing of AF `any' and KOL `any'; (2) the contrast between EYZE `some' and EYZESEHU `some' in terms of specificity; and (3) the correlation between syntactic position and free choice readings. Three main theoretical findings are contributed by this work. First, it is shown that from a typological viewpoint, Hebrew, a Semitic language, patterns with Romance and Germanic languages, rather than Japanese-type languages, in having indefinite pronouns specialized for particular operators available in the discourse. Second, the thesis proposes a novel unified syntax-semantics for KOL which accounts for its interpretational variability. Working with the Kratzer and Shimoyama (2002) framework where indefinite pronouns generate sets of individual alternatives, the semantics of a KOL--modified noun phrase is formalized as a variable and containing a restriction. When this restriction ranges over kinds, KOL receives a generic reading; when the restriction is over a contextually specified set of entities, KOL has an episodic reading. In these cases, the KOL--phrase moves to the argument position of a universal quantifier which binds the individual alternatives generated by the KOL--phrase. If KOL stays in situ, the individual alternatives are allowed to expand into propositional alternatives, resulting in the free choice reading. Third, I discuss the DP-internal structure of [eyze(N)se-hu (N)] and [(N) kol(N)se-hu], treating 'se-hu' as a CP. I propose that there is a correlation between the postnominal position and the free choice readings of these pronouns, suggesting that domain restrictions, usually derived in the semantics-pragmatics, may also be encoded in the syntax. If this hypothesis is on the right track, it could provide us with a better understanding of how and when in the process of language acquisition domain restrictions found with indefinite pronouns are acquired.

<p>In this thesis an operational semantics for a subset of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is developed and presented. The subset contains standard operations such as control flow, computation, and memory management. In addition, the subset contains a treatment of parallel threads of execution.</p><p> </p><p>The operational semantics are embedded into a $µ$-calculus based proof assistant, called the VeriCode Proof Tool (VCPT). VCPT has been developed at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS), and has powerful features for proving inductive assertions.</p><p> </p><p>Some examples of proving properties of programs using the embedding are presented.</p> / <p>I det här examensarbetet  presenteras en operationell semantik för en delmängd av Javas virtuella maskin. Den delmängd som hanteras innehåller kontrollflöde, beräkningar och minneshantering. Vidare beskrivs  semantiken för parallella exekveringstrådar.</p><p>Den operationella semantiken formaliseras i en bevisassistent for $µ$-kalkyl, VeriCode Proof Tool (VCPT). VCPT har utvecklats vid Swedish Institiute of Computer Science (SICS), och har kraftfulla tekniker för att bevisa induktiva påståenden.</p><p>Några exempel på bevis av egenskaper hos program användandes formaliseringen presenteras också.</p>

Support verb constructions (henceforth: SVCs) are constructions consisting of a verb with a reduced meaning (when compared to the full verb) and a noun. Previous analyses (e.g. von Polenz 1963, Winhart 2002) provide a detailed account of the function of the verb in SVCs. However, neither of the two approaches fully explains why certain verb-noun combinations are unacceptable. Geraten ('to get into') can combine with Brand ('fire') in but not with Feuer ('fire') even though the two nouns are synonyms. This dissertation proposes a novel approach towards identifying selectional restrictions in German support verb constructions by applying insights from Frame Semantics (Fillmore 1985) and Construction Grammar. It differs from syntactic-centric and lexical-conceptual structure approaches in that frame-semantic information is shown to directly influence a verb's and a noun's ability to combine with each other. I argue that the nominalization Feuer cannot combine with the support verb because the frame- semantic information evoked by Feuer is incompatible with the frame semantics of geraten. Thus, either the verb and/or the noun blocks the formation of a support verb construction. My analysis demonstrates that in order for the support verb and the noun to be able to combine, their frame-semantic information needs to be compatible. However, in some circumstances SVCs need to be listed as idioms in the lexicon because there do not seem to be any compositional restrictions that allow geraten to combine with Brand ('fire'), but not Feuer ('fire'). Based on a corpus of more than 1000 SVCs with geraten, I show that there are different patterns of productivity and idomaticity. Some SVCs, such as ins Rollen geraten ('to start rolling'), allow widespread replacement of the noun with near-synonyms. Other SVCs, such as in Brand geraten ('starting to burn'), do not allow such replacement. In this view, both the abstract meaning of an SVC (e.g., in X geraten 'to get into X') and item-specific knowledge needs to be captured to be able to account for the full range of SVCs headed by geraten. Therefore, I posit a new construction that captures all the meanings expressed by SVCs with geraten. / text