Key: party - "is a party", j - John, m - Mary, AT - at
I don't include events, because being at a party is a state, not an event. I don't include tense information, because this is a general statement.
Question.
1. Translate the following English sentences into File Change Semantics, using the one-box representations as in class.
2. Indicate which top-level file-cards are old, which ones are new, and leave un-marked those that are most likely deictic - that is,
those that are "old" because they might be clear from the context, and need not have been mentioned in prior discourse.
3. Use as much predicate calculus as you can to represent predicates and
arguments; choose your own variables and predicate letters, giving the key.
4. Make sure to include events when appropriate.
5. Don't include tense information for general statements,
but do include it for sentences that describe a particular action or state of affairs.
6. For ambiguous sentences, I indicate the meaning that you should represent - please ask me if it's still unclear which meaning I mean!
Your goal is to capture the quantificational structures, and the use of indefinites and definites in the FCS. Decide what kind of thing is being quantified over - the options are individual entities, events, times, and worlds.
Example1: "If John is at a party, Mary is usually there, too."
Key: party - "is a party", j - John, m - Mary, AT - at
I don't include events, because being at a party is a state, not an event. I don't include tense information, because this is a general statement.
Example2: "Everybody came to the party."
Key: party = "is a party", came= "came to", C = contextual restriction on the domain of quantification
Now I include an event, since coming is an action, and also tense information, since this is describing a particular episode.
a. When it rains, it pours.
(on the reading when the `weather it' reading, where `it' is a dummy subject, in both clauses)
b. Sam wants a dog.
(on the reading that there is a certain dog that Sam wants)
c. If Steve comes home, we will reheat the stew.
d. Everything is black or white.
(on the `black-and-white world' reading, which is distinct from (e) below)
e. Either everything is black or it is white.
(on the reading where `it' is `everything')
f. A dog is a quadruped.
(on the general statement reading, that `every' or `any' dog is a quadruped)
g. Fido is a dog
(on the general statement reading, that Fido is a representative of the species `canis familiaris')
h,i. Everybody loves somebody.
(do both meanings - (h) the universally popular person, and (i) `for every person there is someone or other that that person loves')
j. If you are smart, you're rarely proud.
(on the general statement reading, where `you' just means `a person')
k. If you love this woman, you will accept her faults.
(on the reading where `you' is the hearer, in a conversation where speaker is dispensing general dating advice (not talking about
any specific future occasion when the hearer will accept her faults). Include tense information for the second clause)