Elbourne (2013): Definite Descriptions #
Elbourne gives the definite article a Fregean semantics over situations, the parts of possible worlds ordered by parthood. The article takes a property and a situation and, if exactly one thing has the property there, denotes that thing, so a description is a partial function from situations to individuals. Its situation pronoun is free, referring to a situation the context supplies, or bound by the abstractor of the containing proposition: free pronouns give Donnellan's referential use and bound ones the attributive use. Binding the pronoun below an intensional operator gives the de dicto reading, letting it refer to the actual world the de re reading, and binding it above the operator Kripke's attributive yet de re reading. Under an attitude verb the presupposition projects to the subject's beliefs, after Karttunen, and a donkey-anaphoric description is bound to the minimal situations of its restrictor, which gives donkey sentences their strong reading and a repeated description no sloppy reading.
Main definitions #
the,description,sentence: the article, a description with its situation pronoun, and a sentence as a trivalent proposition.deDicto,deRe,attributiveDeRe,attitude: descriptions under intensional operators and attitude verbs.Village: situations as finite sets of atomic facts.
Main results #
sentence_ne_zero_iff: a sentence presupposes exactly one satisfier at the situation its pronoun denotes.deDicto_ne_zero_iff,deRe_ne_zero_iff,attributiveDeRe_eq_one_iff: the three readings under an intensional operator.attitude_eq_zero_of_agnostic,russellian_consistent: the description, unlike its Russellian paraphrase, makes an agnostic subject's desire infelicitous.everyOwnerBeatsTheDonkey_iff,incomplete_description,everyOwnerBeatsTheDonkeyAndThePriestToo_iff: the strong donkey reading, incompleteness, and the strict reading of a repeated description in the village.
Implementation notes #
- Situations are any partial order; minimality is mathlib's
Minimal, and the lexical entries of §2.3.3 are transcribed with it. The article isiotaat the situation, so its domain condition is∃!(the_isSome_iff), and a sentence isPresupposition.presupOfReferentof the description. A situation pronoun is its value as a function of the situation the proposition is applied to, constant when free and the identity when bound. A description inside a scope contributes∃ z ∈ the f s, the condition under whichpresupOfReferentis true, withOptionmembership. - Intensional operators are universal over an accessibility relation and lift trivalent
propositions by the Weak Kleene universal over the accessible situations
(
Trivalent.forallWeak); attitude verbs are defined where the complement is defined throughout the subject's doxastic alternatives and true where it is true throughout the verb's own, Karttunen's projection. - The village of ch. 6 and ch. 9 is a concrete model: situations are finite sets of atomic facts ordered by inclusion, Kratzer's states of affairs, so minimal situations are computed and the strong reading of the donkey sentence is a theorem rather than a reading of the truth conditions.
- The examples are
Data.Examples.Elbourne2013.
TODO #
- Ch. 4's projection through possibility modals, disjunction and negation, ch. 7's modal subordination and counterfactuals, and ch. 10's descriptive indexicals are not represented.
References #
Quantification over minimal situations (§2.3.3) #
The morpheme Q, (22), holds of x when there is an extended situation, a minimal situation
between s' and s in which x has the property.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.Q f x s s' = ∃ (s'' : S), Minimal (fun (s'' : S) => s' ≤ s'' ∧ s'' ≤ s ∧ f x s'') s''
Instances For
every, (20), holds when every minimal situation, within the restrictor situation s₀ and
the truth-supporting situation s, in which an individual has the restrictor property satisfies
the nuclear scope.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.every s₀ f g s = ∀ (x : E) (s' : S), Minimal (fun (s' : S) => s' ≤ s₀ ∧ s' ≤ s ∧ f x s') s' → g x s s'
Instances For
a, (21), holds when some minimal restrictor situation satisfies the nuclear scope.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.a s₀ f g s = ∃ (x : E) (s' : S), Minimal (fun (s' : S) => s' ≤ s₀ ∧ s' ≤ s ∧ f x s') s' ∧ g x s s'
Instances For
always, (33), holds when every minimal situation in s satisfying the antecedent satisfies
the consequent.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.always p q s = ∀ (s' : S), Minimal (fun (s' : S) => s' ≤ s ∧ p s') s' → q s s'
Instances For
The morpheme Q_A, (34), is the propositional counterpart of Q.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.QA p s s' = ∃ (s'' : S), Minimal (fun (s'' : S) => s' ≤ s'' ∧ s'' ≤ s ∧ p s'') s''
Instances For
The article and its situation pronoun (ch. 3–5) #
The definite article, (3) of ch. 3, is λf.λs : ∃!x f(x)(s). ιx f(x)(s), a partial function
from situations to the unique satisfier of the property in the situation.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.the f s = Reference.iota fun (x : E) => f x s
Instances For
A pronoun, (4b) of ch. 10, has the article's entry, its noun phrase supplied by NP-deletion.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.pronoun np = Elbourne2013.the np
Instances For
[[the NP] sᵢ], (4) of ch. 3, is the description with its situation pronoun, whose value is
the function σ of the situation the containing proposition is applied to. A free pronoun is
constant, so that the referent enters via the context and is the same wherever the proposition
is applied, the referential use of (11) of ch. 5; a bound one is the identity (Situation Binding
I and λ-Conversion II), so that the individual described depends on the situation of
evaluation, the attributive use of (15) of ch. 5.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.description σ f s = Elbourne2013.the f (σ s)
Instances For
[[[the NP] sᵢ] VP] is the sentence as a trivalent proposition, (3) of ch. 4 for a free
pronoun and (4) for a bound one.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.sentence σ f vp = Presupposition.presupOfReferent (Elbourne2013.description σ f) vp
Instances For
The sentence presupposes exactly one satisfier at the situation its pronoun denotes. A free pronoun discharges the domain condition at its referent, whatever situation the proposition is applied to; a bound one carries it to the situation where the proposition is applied.
Where the description denotes, the sentence says of that individual what the predicate says of it; a referential description makes the proposition object-dependent, (12) of ch. 5.
Intensional operators: de re, de dicto, attributive de re (ch. 7) #
A universal intensional operator over an accessibility relation is the Weak Kleene universal over the accessible situations, defined where the proposition is defined throughout them and true where it is true throughout them, as in (12) and (14) of ch. 7.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.box R p s = Trivalent.forallWeak fun (w : ↑(R s)) => p ↑w
Instances For
De dicto, (11) of ch. 7, the situation pronoun is bound by ς immediately below the
operator.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.deDicto R f vp = Elbourne2013.box R (Elbourne2013.sentence id f vp)
Instances For
De re, (13) of ch. 7, the situation pronoun inside the operator refers to the actual world
w₀.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.deRe R w₀ f vp = Elbourne2013.box R (Elbourne2013.sentence (fun (x : S) => w₀) f vp)
Instances For
Attributive de re, (17) and (25) of ch. 7, the pronoun is bound above the operator, so the description is evaluated at the topic situation and only the predicate is modalized.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.attributiveDeRe R f vp = Presupposition.presupOfReferent (Elbourne2013.the f) fun (x : E) (s : S) => ∀ w ∈ R s, vp x w
Instances For
Attributive de re presupposes exactly one satisfier in the topic situation.
Kripke's number of the planets, (16) of ch. 7, is attributive, since the speaker need not know which number, yet de re, since the number in the topic situation is what is odd in every accessible world.
Existence entailments (ch. 8) #
An attitude verb with [Kar74a]'s projection (§8.6) is defined where the complement is defined throughout the subject's doxastic alternatives, and true where the complement is true throughout the verb's own alternatives, doxastic for believe and bouletic for want.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.attitude dox R p = {s : S | ∀ w ∈ dox s, p w ≠ 0}.indicator fun (s : S) => SignType.ofProp (∀ w ∈ R s, p w = 1)
Instances For
Hans wants the ghost in his attic to be quiet, (40)–(41) of ch. 8, presupposes that Hans believes there is exactly one ghost in his attic.
A subject unsure whether there is a ghost in his attic cannot felicitously want the ghost in his attic to be quiet, (31) with (33b), since the presupposition attributes the belief to him.
The Russellian paraphrase (33a) asserts existence and uniqueness inside the attitude.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.russellian R f vp s = ∀ w ∈ R s, ∃ (x : E), f x w ∧ (∀ (y : E), f y w → y = x) ∧ vp x w
Instances For
The antecedent of a conditional is a hole, (39) of ch. 8, so the existence presupposition of the description projects to the whole conditional, here the Weak Kleene material conditional.
The Russellian paraphrase is consistent with agnosticism, (31) with (33a), since the existence claim sits inside the bouletic alternatives. The witness has two situations, one without a ghost that the subject leaves open and one with a quiet ghost that he wants.
Under an attitude verb the description commits the subject, not the speaker, to a fountain of youth, (36) of ch. 8. The presupposition holds although there is none in the topic situation.
The village: situations as sets of facts (ch. 6, ch. 9) #
The atomic facts of a village are [Kra89]'s states of affairs, thin particulars instantiating properties and relations.
- farmer {E : Type u_1} (x : E) : Fact E
- donkey {E : Type u_1} (x : E) : Fact E
- priest {E : Type u_1} (x : E) : Fact E
- table {E : Type u_1} (x : E) : Fact E
- covered {E : Type u_1} (x : E) : Fact E
- owns {E : Type u_1} (x y : E) : Fact E
- beats {E : Type u_1} (x y : E) : Fact E
Instances For
Equations
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer a) (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer b) = if h : a = b then h ▸ isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey a) (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey b) = if h : a = b then h ▸ isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest a) (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest b) = if h : a = b then h ▸ isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.table a) (Elbourne2013.Fact.table b) = if h : a = b then h ▸ isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered a) (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered b) = if h : a = b then h ▸ isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_2) (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_3 y) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns a a_1) (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns b b_1) = if h : a = b then h ▸ if h : a_1 = b_1 then h ▸ isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_3 y_1) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.farmer x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.donkey x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.priest x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.table x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.covered x_3) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats x_2 y) (Elbourne2013.Fact.owns x_3 y_1) = isFalse ⋯
- Elbourne2013.instDecidableEqFact.decEq (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats a a_1) (Elbourne2013.Fact.beats b b_1) = if h : a = b then h ▸ if h : a_1 = b_1 then h ▸ isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
Instances For
A situation is a finite set of facts, parthood is inclusion, and a world is the set of all the facts that hold in it.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.Village E = Finset (Elbourne2013.Fact E)
Instances For
The relative clause unfolds to facts in the situation.
Within the world there is one minimal situation of a farmer owning a donkey per owned donkey, consisting of the farmer, the donkey and the owning.
In the minimal situation of a farmer owning a donkey, the donkey denotes that donkey, unique by minimality.
The domain condition of the donkey-anaphoric description is met by minimality, since every minimal situation of a farmer owning a donkey contains exactly one donkey, §6.2.
This is (3) of ch. 6, every man who owns a donkey beats the donkey, with the LF (4).
Equations
Instances For
In (10a) of ch. 10, every man who owns a donkey beats it, the pronoun with its deleted noun phrase stands in place of the description.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
On the neat semantics for donkey sentences (§6.2), the sentence is true in the village world iff every farmer beats every donkey he owns. The bound description picks out the unique donkey of each minimal owning situation, so the reading is the strong one.
The pronoun sentence has the same meaning, being the same LF up to the null noun phrase.
Incompleteness and the argument from sloppy identity (ch. 9) #
The room of (4) in ch. 9 has one table, covered with books.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.room = {Elbourne2013.Fact.table true, Elbourne2013.Fact.covered true}
Instances For
The world contains the room and a second table.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.world = {Elbourne2013.Fact.table true, Elbourne2013.Fact.table false, Elbourne2013.Fact.covered true}
Instances For
Incompleteness, (4) of ch. 9, arises when the table is covered with books is said in a room with one table. The referential situation pronoun to the room satisfies the domain condition although the world contains two tables.
A relation-variable description the [f v] NP, §9.2.1, denotes the unique NP-satisfier
standing in the covert relation to the individual variable v, which a higher quantifier may
bind.
Equations
- Elbourne2013.relDescription rel np v s = Reference.iota fun (x : E) => np x s ∧ rel x v s
Instances For
The relation-variable description covaries with its individual variable. Read as the donkey v owns, the donkey denotes each owner's own donkey, which licenses the sloppy reading of (17b) in ch. 9 and would wrongly license one for (17a).
In (29) of ch. 9, every farmer who owns a donkey beats the donkey, and the priest beats the
donkey too, with the LF (31), the quantifier scopes over the conjunction, and both occurrences of
the donkey are bound by σ to the same minimal situation.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
On the strict reading, (32) of ch. 9, the priest beats each farmer's donkey. A sloppy reading, on which the priest beats his own donkey, would need the description to depend on an individual variable, which the situation-variable description lacks.