Universität Bielefeld - Sonderforschungsbereich 360

An Intensional Dynamic Semantics for Polysemy,
Sense Extension and Metaphor

Carl Vogel

Trinity College Dublin, Dept. of Computer Science

Monday, May 31st, 1999
16 c.t. Uhr, Hörsaal 10


An intensional logic with dynamic interpretation is presented in order to provide a formal semantics for sense extension, polysemy and metaphoricity. Intensionality is required in order to provide the right account of polysemy. The dynamics are required in order to allow the interpretation of a sentence to impact the interpretation of subsequent sentences by adding any extended expressions. Metaphoricity is captured in the classification of indices at which expressions are evaluated. It is argued that the simple reclassification of indices is the appropriate way to capture the drift in the feeling of metaphor from being novel and "living" to being "dead" and literal. This abstract presents the structure of the system and explains how it works. The design of an experiment intended to verify aspects of the model is also presented.
Anke Weinberger, 1999-05-27