In this article we take an Optimality Theoretic approach to interpretation which integrates various factors into a set of typically conflicting constraints of varying strengths. The hypothesis that optimization is a leading principle in natural language interpretation strengthens the connection between linguistic theory and other cognitive disciplines. We will provide further support for this v...

The relation between syntax and semantics of natural language can be regarded as a constraint. With the ideas from Channel Theory (Barwise 1993, Barwise and Seligman 1994), the way that an utterance represents a situation can be captured as a linguistic channel. To study the operational aspects of such a channel, we construct it as a system of communicating processes by turning to the -calculus...