Compositionality in Formal Semantics

Revised and updated to reflect recent theoretical developments in the field, Semantics, 4th Edition, presents an engaging and accessible introduction to the study of meaning in language for students new to the field of semantics. Covers all of the basic concepts and methods of the field of semantics, as well as some of the most important contemporary lines of research Features a series of new exercises, along with their solutions, that are arranged by level of difficulty Addresses componential theory, formal semantics, and cognitive semantics, the three main current theoretical approaches to semantics Includes revisions and updates that reflect the most recent theoretical developments

In this book, the authors present the latest research results in the multimedia and semantic web communities, bridging the «Semantic Gap» This book explains, collects and reports on the latest research results that aim at narrowing the so-called multimedia «Semantic Gap»: the large disparity between descriptions of multimedia content that can be computed automatically, and the richness and subjectivity of semantics in user queries and human interpretations of audiovisual media. Addressing the grand challenge posed by the «Semantic Gap» requires a multi-disciplinary approach (computer science, computer vision and signal processing, cognitive science, web science, etc.) and this is reflected in recent research in this area. In addition, the book targets an interdisciplinary community, and in particular the Multimedia and the Semantic Web communities. Finally, the authors provide both the fundamental knowledge and the latest state-of-the-art results from both communities with the goal of making the knowledge of one community available to the other. Key Features: Presents state-of-the art research results in multimedia semantics: multimedia analysis, metadata standards and multimedia knowledge representation, semantic interaction with multimedia Contains real industrial problems exemplified by user case scenarios Offers an insight into various standardisation bodies including W3C, IPTC and ISO MPEG Contains contributions from academic and industrial communities from Europe, USA and Asia Includes an accompanying website containing user cases, datasets, and software mentioned in the book, as well as links to the K-Space NoE and the SMaRT society web sites (http://www.multimediasemantics.com/) This book will be a valuable reference for academic and industry researchers /practitioners in multimedia, computational intelligence and computer science fields. Graduate students, project leaders, and consultants will also find this book of interest.

Insensitive Semantics is an overview of and contribution to the debates about how to accommodate context sensitivity within a theory of human communication, investigating the effects of context on communicative interaction and, as a corollary, what a context of utterance is and what it is to be in one. Provides detailed and wide-ranging overviews of the central positions and arguments surrounding contextualism Addresses broad and varied aspects of the distinction between the semantic and non-semantic content of language Defends a distinctive and explanatorily powerful combination of semantic minimalism and speech act pluralism Confronts core problems which not only run to the heart of philosophy of language and linguistics, but which arise in epistemology, metaphysics, and moral philosophy as well

What makes teamwork tick? Cooperation matters, in daily life and in complex applications. After all, many tasks need more than a single agent to be effectively performed. Therefore, teamwork rules! Teams are social groups of agents dedicated to the fulfilment of particular persistent tasks. In modern multiagent environments, heterogeneous teams often consist of autonomous software agents, various types of robots and human beings. Teamwork in Multi-agent Systems: A Formal Approach explains teamwork rules in terms of agents' attitudes and their complex interplay. It provides the first comprehensive logical theory, TeamLog, underpinning teamwork in dynamic environments. The authors justify design choices by showing TeamLog in action. The book guides the reader through a fascinating discussion of issues essential for teamwork to be successful: What is teamwork, and how can a logical view of it help in designing teams of agents? What is the role of agents' awareness in an uncertain, dynamic environment? How does collective intention constitute a team? How are plan-based collective commitments related to team action? How can one tune collective commitment to the team's organizational structure and its communication abilities? What are the methodological underpinnings for teamwork in a dynamic environment? How does a team and its attitudes adjust to changing circumstances? How do collective intentions and collective commitments arise through dialogue? What is the computational complexity of TeamLog? How can one make TeamLog efficient in applications? This book is an invaluable resource for researchers and graduate students in computer science and artificial intelligence as well as for developers of multi-agent systems. Students and researchers in organizational science, in particular those investigating teamwork, will also find this book insightful. Since the authors made an effort to introduce TeamLog as a conceptual model of teamwork, understanding most of the book requires solely a basic logical background.

Today, formal methods are widely recognized as an essential step in the design process of industrial safety-critical systems. In its more general definition, the term formal methods encompasses all notations having a precise mathematical semantics, together with their associated analysis methods, that allow description and reasoning about the behavior of a system in a formal manner. Growing out of more than a decade of award-winning collaborative work within the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems: A Survey of Applications presents a number of mainstream formal methods currently used for designing industrial critical systems, with a focus on model checking. The purpose of the book is threefold: to reduce the effort required to learn formal methods, which has been a major drawback for their industrial dissemination; to help designers to adopt the formal methods which are most appropriate for their systems; and to offer a panel of state-of-the-art techniques and tools for analyzing critical systems.

Written in a clear, precise and user-friendly style, Logic as a Tool: A Guide to Formal Logical Reasoning is intended for undergraduates in both mathematics and computer science, and will guide them to learn, understand and master the use of classical logic as a tool for doing correct reasoning. It offers a systematic and precise exposition of classical logic with many examples and exercises, and only the necessary minimum of theory. The book explains the grammar, semantics and use of classical logical languages and teaches the reader how grasp the meaning and translate them to and from natural language. It illustrates with extensive examples the use of the most popular deductive systems – axiomatic systems, semantic tableaux, natural deduction, and resolution – for formalising and automating logical reasoning both on propositional and on first-order level, and provides the reader with technical skills needed for practical derivations in them. Systematic guidelines are offered on how to perform logically correct and well-structured reasoning using these deductive systems and the reasoning techniques that they employ. •Concise and systematic exposition, with semi-formal but rigorous treatment of the minimum necessary theory, amply illustrated with examples •Emphasis both on conceptual understanding and on developing practical skills •Solid and balanced coverage of syntactic, semantic, and deductive aspects of logic •Includes extensive sets of exercises, many of them provided with solutions or answers •Supplemented by a website including detailed slides, additional exercises and solutions For more information browse the book's website at: https://logicasatool.wordpress.com