Semantic underspecification is an essential and pervasive property of natural language. This monograph provides a comprehensive survey of the various phenomena in the field of ambiguity and vagueness. The book discusses the major theories of semantic indefiniteness, which have been proposed in linguistics, philosophy and computer science. It argues for a view of indefiniteness as the potential for further contextual specification, and proposes a unified logical treatment of indefiniteness on this basis. The inherent inconsistency of natural language induced by irreducible imprecision is investigated, and treated in terms of a dynamic extension of the proposed logic. The book is an extended edition of a German monograph and is addressed to advanced students and researchers in theoretical and computational linguistics, logic, philosophy of language, and NL- oriented AI. Although it makes extensive use of logical formalisms, it requires only some basic familiarity with standard predicate logic concepts since all technical terms are carefully explained.

Semantic underspecification is an essential and pervasive property of natural language. This monograph provides a comprehensive survey of the various phenomena in the field of ambiguity and vagueness. The book discusses the major theories of semantic indefiniteness, which have been proposed in linguistics, philosophy and computer science. It argues for a view of indefiniteness as the potential for further contextual specification, and proposes a unified logical treatment of indefiniteness on this basis. The inherent inconsistency of natural language induced by irreducible imprecision is investigated, and treated in terms of a dynamic extension of the proposed logic. The book is an extended edition of a German monograph and is addressed to advanced students and researchers in theoretical and computational linguistics, logic, philosophy of language, and NL- oriented AI. Although it makes extensive use of logical formalisms, it requires only some basic familiarity with standard predicate logic concepts since all technical terms are carefully explained.

On the basis of a semantic analysis of dimension terms, this book develops a theory about knowledge of spatial objects, which is significant for cognitive linguistics and artificial intelligence. This new approach to knowledge structure evolves in a three-step process: - adoption of the linguistic theory with its elements, principles and representational levels, - implementation of the latter in a Prolog prototype, and - integration of the prototype into a large natural language understanding system. The study documents interdisciplinary research at work: the model of spatial knowledge is the fruit of the cooperative efforts of linguists, computational linguists, and knowledge engineers, undertaken in that logical and chronological order. The book offers a two-level approach to semantic interpretation and proves that it works by means of a precise computer implementation, which in turn is applied to support a task-independent knowledge representation system. Each of these stages is described in detail, and the links are made explicit, thus retracing the evolution from theory to practice.

Dr. Geoffrey Simmons focuses on the millions of structures and systems on the Earth that came about all at once, entire...with no preceding links, no subsequent links, no "sideways" links. To illustrate, he surveys examples like... the hummingbird and its circulatory system insects and insect-eating plants the role of the thousands of species of viruses chemical signals and the sensory apparatus that detects them the self-regulating capacity of the Earth's ocean/air/soil system It's clear: Nature containsonly leaps, not links. Only the intelligence and purpose of an all-powerful Designer can explain the intricate creatures, connections, and "coincidences" everywhere. Excellent for students and parents, especially homeschoolers, and for educators who want to present the "full picture."

Endorsed by William Dembski, Ph.D., the scientist at the forefront of the intelligent-design movement.

Darwin might have thought twice about publishing his theories if he had had access to today's medical and microbiological discoveries. Drawing on years of research, Dr. Simmons demonstrates that the almost infinite complexity of the human anatomy simply could not have developed by chance. For example: the body runs on "battery power..".from the hundreds of mitochondria in each cellthe two sexes--evolutionary theory cannot explain why they existevery cell is its own pharmacist, chemist, and metallurgist

Accessible, clearly presented, and utterly fascinating, "What Darwin Didn't Know "shows the human body to be a marvelous system constructed by an infinitely wise Designer.