ly specify a certain language L in order to characterize the speech habits of a community P by saying that they are using that language and conforming to conventions involving it. 6 The uses of linguistic forms on which their semantics depends, and which therefore constitute the pragmatic basis for their semantics, are their past uses: what an expression means at time t in a given community dep...

The process of agent communication modeling has not yet received much attention in the knowledge systems area. Conventional knowledge systems are rather simple with respect to their communication structure: often it is a straightforward question-and-answer sequence between system and end user. However, this is different in recent intelligent multi-agent systems. Therefore, agent communication a...

The paper presents a novel existential account of the additive particle too. The analysis is based on a combination of compositional DPLstyle dynamic semantics and pragmatic reasoning. The existential presupposition is formalised in a dynamic semantics for too, while pragmatic principles control for correct resolution of the parallel reference made. The main empirical challenge addressed in the...

In this paper, we explore the interaction between lexical semantics and pragmatics. We argue that linguistic processing is informationally encapsulated and utilises relatively simple ‘taxonomic’ lexical semantic knowledge. On this basis, defeasible lexical generalisations deliver defeasible parts of logical form. In contrast, pragmatic inference is openended and involves arbitrary real-world kn...

The realization of Semantic Web reasoning is central to substantiating the Semantic Web vision. However, current mainstream research on this topic faces serious challenges, which force us to question established lines of research and to rethink the underlying approaches. 1 What is Semantic Web Reasoning? The ability to combine data, mediated by metadata, in order to derive knowledge which is on...

This paper argues against the complete elimination of logical introduction rules from the pragmatic inference system. To maintain the consistency of the inference system as a whole, which is meant to support one’s truth-based judgment over propositions, the inference system should have access to both introduction and elimination rules. I show that the inclusion of introduction rules in the prag...

Theories of analogical reasoning differ in the roles they ascribe to pragmatic factors as a source of constraints on analogical mappings. The multiconstraint theory as instantiated in the ACME model (Holyoak & Thagard, 1989a) claims that pragmatic constraints interact with structural and semantic constraints within the mapping stage itself, in addition to influencing pre-mapping and post-mappin...