This paper presents a two-dimensional modal logic for reasoning about the changing patterns of knowledge and social relationships in networks organised on the basis of a symmetric ‘friendship’ relation, providing a precise language for exploring ‘logic in the community’ [11]. Agents are placed in the model, allowing us to express such indexical facts as ‘I am your friend’ and ‘You, my friends, ...

An experiment that investigated effects of modality, warning type, and task demand on warning recognition speed and accuracy is reported. Using the experiment as a specific example, we argue for the importance of considering the cognitive contribution of the user (viz. prior learned associations) in the warning design process. Drawing on semiotics and cognitive psychology, we highlight the inde...

In this paper, we present an abstract framework for learning a finite domain constraint solver modeled by a set of operators enforcing a consistency. The behavior of the consistency to be learned is taken as the set of examples on which the learning process is applied. The best possible expression of this operator in a given language is then searched. We instantiate this framework to the learni...

What is functionalism? Both Silverstein (1987) and Nichols (1984) have analyzed in detail the variety of ways functionalism has been used by linguists. Silverstein made a division into four types of functions, referential and pragmatic: (a) `sense-structure', (b) the `abstract, "sentence"-internal distribution of forms,' (c) the `use of signal forms for purposive, intentional social effect' (d)...

Should we descry the nature of self from thought experiments? Shaun Nichols says ‘maybe,’ but only if use experiments that do not recruit indexical “I” (non-I-recruiting). His reason is psychology perforce mandates imagination responds to it (I-recruiting) peculiarly. Here, I consider whether he correct about non-I-recruiting personal identity experiments. argue positively using same framework,...

The principle of least effort in communications has been shown, by Ferrer i Cancho and Solé, to explain emergence of power laws (e.g., Zipf’s law) in human languages. This paper applies the principle and the information-theoretic model of Ferrer i Cancho and Solé to genetic coding. The application of the principle is achieved via equating the ambiguity of signals used by “speakers” with codon u...

The blossoming of possible world semantics in the 1960s and 70s set the stage for many developments in research on indexical reference and other aspects of context-sensitivity; I will focus in this chapter on the work of David Kaplan, particularly his influential monograph Demonstratives, because his work is well known, and covers the central issues. I will examine the development of his theory...

In this essay I propose a semantic analysis of impersonal uses of ‘you’, and related uses of other indexical expressions. The framework I employ is Kaplan’s classic analysis of indexical languages, enriched with independently motivated hypotheses about the identification of the semantically relevant context, and about the employment of generic expressions. Consider an utterance of (1) you get i...