Introduction

In chapters 5 and 6 formal accounts are proposed for switch-reference and for logophoricity. The proposals are made within the framework of a semantics based on Discourse Representation Theory, which is described in 4.1. The semantics is part of a grammar formalism called Unification Categorial Grammar, outlined in 4.2. In 4.3, the choice of this theoretical framework is justified.

Discourse Representation Theory

Discourse Representation Theory (DR Theory) is a formal semantic theory which has its origins in a desire to formulate a model-theoretic semantics for natural language which would be applicable to discourse phenomena, specifically anaphoric and tense phenomena. It was developed by Hans Kamp (1981a), though closely related ideas are presented in Karttunen (1976), Heim (1982) and Kamp (1983), and others, in particular Kempson (1984), have addressed the question of how to provide a unified account of different kinds of anaphoric dependency. DR Theory departs from Fregean semantics in taking discourse rather than the sentence to be the unit over which truth conditions are defined. Apart from this it does not represent a radical departure from a standard formal semantics, based on first-order predicate calculus and model-theoretic interpretation.

The extensions proposed by Kamp (1981a) in order to treat natural language discourse phenomena reflect his particular goals of accounting for the anaphoric behaviour of personal pronouns, and formulating a plausible account of the truth conditions of so-called ‘donkey sentences’ such as those in (la, b) (see Geach 1962, Evans 1977,1980). He took the latter task to involve giving general accounts of the conditional, and of the meaning of indefinite descriptions, as well as of pronominal anaphora.