This is the first textbook that approaches natural language semantics and logic from the perspective of Discourse Representation Theory, an approach which emphasizes the dynamic and incremental aspects of meaning and inference. The book has been carefully designed for the classroom. It is aimed at students with varying degrees of preparation, including those without prior exposure to semantics or formal logic. Moreover, it should make DRT easily accessible to those who want to learn about the theory on their own. Exercises are available to test understanding as well as to encourage independent theoretical thought. The book serves a double purpose. Besides a textbook, it is also the first comprehensive and fully explicit statement of DRT available in the form of a book. The first part of the book develops the basic principles of DRT for a small fragment of English (but which has nevertheless the power of standard predicate logic). The second part extends this fragment by adding plurals; it discusses a wide variety of problems connected with plural nouns and verbs. The third part applies the theory to the analysis of tense and aspect. Many of the problems raised in Parts Two and Three are novel, as are the solutions proposed. For undergraduate and graduate students interested in linguistics, theoretical linguistics, computational linguistics, artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Suitable for students with no previous exposure to formal semantics or logic.

Preface This book is about semantics and logic. More specifically, it is about the semantics and logic of natural language; and, even more specifically than that, it is about a particular way of dealing with those subjects, known as Discourse Representation Theory, or DRT. DRT is an approach towards natural language semantics which, some thirteen years ago, arose out of attempts to deal with two distinct problems. The first of those was the semantic puzzle that had been brought to contempo rary attention by Geach's notorious "donkey sentences" - sentences like If Pedro owns some donkey, he beats it, in which the anaphoric connection we perceive between the indefinite noun phrase some donkey and the pronoun it may seem to conflict with the existential meaning of the word some. The second problem had to do with tense and aspect. Some languages, for instance French and the other Romance languages, have two morphologically distinct past tenses, a simple past (the French Passe Simple) and a continuous past (the French Imparfait). To articulate precisely what the difference between these tenses is has turned out to be surprisingly difficult."

The plurality we see in the study of language today is bewildering. This collection makes a contribution to the task of mutual comparison and integration of the methodologically and perspectively varying approaches which are often being pursued without much awareness of what is being done next door. This volume brings together a number of papers which all deal with the temporal dimension of natural languages. Each of these papers has its own story to tell. But at the same time their juxtaposition reveals besides an obvious thematic unity also many similarities in method and perspective.

This is the first textbook that approaches natural language semantics and logic from the perspective of Discourse Representation Theory, an approach which emphasizes the dynamic and incremental aspects of meaning and inference. The book has been carefully designed for the classroom. It is aimed at students with varying degrees of preparation, including those without prior exposure to semantics or formal logic. Moreover, it should make DRT easily accessible to those who want to learn about the theory on their own. Exercises are available to test understanding as well as to encourage independent theoretical thought. The book serves a double purpose. Besides a textbook, it is also the first comprehensive and fully explicit statement of DRT available in the form of a book. The first part of the book develops the basic principles of DRT for a small fragment of English (but which has nevertheless the power of standard predicate logic). The second part extends this fragment by adding plurals; it discusses a wide variety of problems connected with plural nouns and verbs. The third part applies the theory to the analysis of tense and aspect. Many of the problems raised in Parts Two and Three are novel, as are the solutions proposed. For undergraduate and graduate students interested in linguistics, theoretical linguistics, computational linguistics, artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Suitable for students with no previous exposure to formal semantics or logic.

The aims of the Sub-Committee on Computerised Braille Production are to seek international co-operation for the development of computerised braille production facilities and to encourage the cost-effective use of technology for braille production. To fulfil these aims the Sub-Committee is endeavouring to: maintain an international directory of people and organisations involved or interested in computerised braille production; collect and disseminate information about current and future computerised braille production systems; hold international meetings. The Sub Committee comprises: 1) Mr. D. W. Croisdale (Chairman) c/o Royal National Institute for the Blind, 224-228 Great Portland Street, London, W1N 6AA, Uni ted Kingdom. 2) Dr. H. Werner, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Institut fur Angewandte Mathematik Wegeierstrasse 6 0-5300 Bonn German Federal Republic. J) Mr. R.A.J. Gildea, Mitre Corporation, Bedford, Massachusetts 017JO, U.S.A. The international directory is maintained by Mr. Gildea and the collection and dissemination of operational information is being planned by Dr. Werner. Previous workshops have been held at Munster (197J) and Kopenhagen (1974) on private initiative, whereas this conference held in London JO May - 1 June 1979 was the first VI of its kind held under the auspices of the Sub-committee. It is hoped to mount other conferences as circumstances demand."

Das Buch enthalt die Beitrage namhafter Autoren aus Medizin und Rechtswissenschaft zum Thema Arzt- und Kassenarztrecht. Mit diesen Beitragen soll das langjahrige, verdienstvolle Wirken von Prof. Dr. Helmut Narr, einem der kompetentesten Arztrechtler im deutschsprachigen Raum, gewurdigt werden. Die Beitrage behandeln die Fortpflanzungstechnologie, die Rechtsfragen der arztlichen Schweigepflicht in der Gentechnologie, die rechtlichen Grenzen der Transplantationsmedizin, das derzeitige und kunftige Bild der Allgemeinmedizin in Europa, die Einbindung des Arztes in den Zivil- und Katastrophenschutz, Rechtsfragen aus dem Krankenhausrecht, Rechtsfragen zur Bewertung arztlicher Leistungen, zur Preisvergleichsliste und zur Arzneimittelsubstitution. Sie vermitteln dem Leser einen hervorragenden Uberblick uber den Wandel von Arzt- und Kassenarztrecht in der heutigen Zeit."

This volume presents results of the Collaborative Research Center "Linguistic Foundations for Computational Linguistics" at the Universities of Stuttgart and Tubingen, whose goal has been to foster interaction between theoretical and computational linguistics. The papers here address topics including syntax, syntax-semantics interface, syntax-pragmatics interface, discourse, methods for lexicon induction, and the challenges of ambiguity.