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Newsletter Feb. 28, No. 18

 
                      C S L I   N E W S L E T T E R
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February 28, 1985               Stanford                       Vol. 2, No. 18
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     A weekly publication of The Center for the Study of Language and
     Information, Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
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         CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR *THIS* THURSDAY, February 28, 1985

   12 noon		TINLunch
     Ventura Hall       ``The Conway Paradox:  Its Solution in an 
     Conference Room    Epistemic Framework'' by Peter van Emde Boas,
			Jeroen Groenendijk, and Martin Stokhof
			Discussion led by Peter van Emde Boas

   2:15 p.m.		CSLI Seminar
     Redwood Hall       ``Literature and Meaning''
     Room G-19          Paul Schacht, CSLI
			
   3:30 p.m.		Tea
     Ventura Hall		

   4:15 p.m.		CSLI Colloquium
     Redwood Hall       No colloquium scheduled

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         CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR *NEXT* THURSDAY, March 7, 1985

   12 noon		TINLunch
     Ventura Hall       No TINLunch this week
     Conference Room    
			
   2:15 p.m.		CSLI Seminar
     Redwood Hall       ``Objects, Chomeurs, and Careers in Clause Structure''
     Room G-19          David Perlmutter, 
			Linguistics Department, UC San Diego
			(Abstract on page 2)

   3:30 p.m.		Tea
     Ventura Hall		

   4:15 p.m.		CSLI Colloquium
     Redwood Hall       ``A Theory of Variables''
     Room G-19		Kit Fine, University of Michigan
			(Abstract on page 2)


Page 2                       CSLI Newsletter                February 28, 1985
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                     ABSTRACT ON NEXT WEEK'S SEMINAR
         ``Objects, Chomeurs, and Careers in Clause Structure''
                      David M. Perlmutter, U.C.S.D.

      This paper attacks two distinct problems:

   (1) How are so-called 'double object' constructions to be described?
       Which of their properties must be stipulated, and which follow
       from universal principles?

   (2) In a multilevel theory of syntax, how many different grammatical
       relations can a nominal bear at different levels?

   In the background lies the problem of how to characterize
   language-particular differences with respect to which nominals behave
   like objects.  This paper adopts the traditional relational grammar
   approach to this problem by positing advancements, demotions, and
   ascensions.  It is then argued that the ostensibly unrelated questions
   in (1) and (2) can both be answered by the same principle - the
   Noninitial Demotion Ban (NDB) - which rules out demotion to term
   relations by noninitial terms.  However, it does not rule out demotion
   to chomeur.  Much of the paper hinges on distinguishing between direct
   objects, indirect objects, and chomeurs - distinctions which in some
   languages are not morphologically marked.  It is argued that these
   distinctions are crucial to an adequate account of what appear to be
   objects cross-linguistically.

      In support of the NDB, it is first shown that it makes correct
   predictions about the Inversion construction in Georgian - predictions
   which correctly extend to Russian and Albanian.  Most of the paper is
   devoted to double object constructions in the Bantu language
   Kinyarwanda.  A proposal in terms of advancements and ascensions is
   motivated.  It is then shown that the NDB correctly predicts the
   properties of clauses in which more than one nominal advances or
   ascends.  Implications of this analysis for other languages are
   briefly discussed.  The paper concludes with the NDB's answer to (2),
   making explicit the very small range of possibilities the theory
   allows.
                             _______________

                   ABSTRACT OF NEXT WEEK'S COLLOQUIUM
                        ``A Theory of Variables''
                    Kit Fine, University of Michigan

      I shall describe a theory of variables as objects, not as signs.
   Applications of the theory to problems in logic, linguistics, and
   computer science will be indicated.

Page 2                       CSLI Newsletter                February 28, 1985
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                              LOGIC SEMINAR
                   ``Truth, Fixed-points and Clones''
             Prof. Joel Berman, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago
                   Tuesday, March 5, at 4:15-5:30 P.M.
                    Room 381-T, Math Corner, Stanford

   Several examples are presented of propositional logics for which there
   is a partially ordered set P and a natural correspondence between the
   sentences of the logic and the family of monotonic operations on P.
   Also presented is a general result which guarantees, for partially
   ordered sets P and Q, that Q is isomorphic to the set of fixed-points
   of some monotonic function on P.  These results are used to amplify a
   recent paper by Albert Visser, ``Four-valued semantics and the liar''.
   The talk represents work done jointly with W.J.Blok.
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