Among the many grammatical features which are shared between Hiw and Lo-Toga – the two Oceanic languages spoken in the Torres Islands of Vanuatu – are the semantics of Tense-AspectMood markers, and their effects on the syntax of clause dependency. Even though these two languages possess a wealth of subordinators such as conjunctions or relativizers, two TAM markers show a clear propensity, in f...

in a broader context of arguing against the view that conceivability provides epistemic access to the metaphysical modalities. His goal is “to identify the sources and forms of our knowledge of metaphysical possibility and metaphysical necessity” (205). 1 The account proceeds in two stages. First, he contends that “metaphysical necessity and metaphysical possibility can be reductively explained...

We present an approach to combining three areas of research which we claim are all based on information theory: knowledge representation in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science using prototypes, plans, or schemata; formal semantics in natural language, especially the semantics of the ‘if-then’ conditional construct; and the logic of subjunctive conditionals first developed using a poss...

E-learning deals with knowledge management, for sure, and knowledge management very frequently results in learning. So far, there is an obviously close relationship between the two disciplines. However, deeper insights do not arise easily. Here we investigate how one approach to enhancing information-access interfaces may inspire an improvement in knowledge management for e-learning. Subjunctiv...

Consider this picture of the skeptical dilemma: Descartes sits in his armchair, wondering what the world is like, and worried whether it is as it seems to be. He realizes that there are many ways the world could be — many possible ways for the world to be — that he lacks the resources to choose between. Since all the possibilities he’s considering include his having experiences like the ones he...

Information exploration often involves specifying alternative values for some set of parameters, and comparing the corresponding results. Some interfaces allow only one scenario, i.e., one set of parameter values, to be handled at a time. To compare results, the user must therefore switch repeatedly among the scenarios of interest and must remember details of the results seen so far. A subjunct...

Mainly based on data from Old Spanish and Modern Francoprovençal, this paper discusses a hitherto underresearched use of the Romance definite article that cannot straightforwardly be explained by recurring to any standard analyses semantic definiteness, i.e., maximality and/or familiarity. We show such weakly referential definites are with representative object interpretations licensed kind-ori...