Heim (1994): Interrogative Semantics and Karttunen's Semantics for know #
This file formalizes [Hei94b]. A [Kar77b] intension assigns each world a set of
true answers; IsKarttunen is the property that every member of the answer set at w holds
at w, true of the substrate's Karttunen denotation (isKarttunen_trueAnswers). Karttunen's
simplified entry for know (4) has the agent believe the answer in Heim's first sense (15),
the intersection of the true answers; his actual entry (5) adds that an empty answer set be
believed empty; and the generalized entry (9) has the agent believe that the answer set is
what it is, which makes the first clause redundant
(Karttunen.simplifiedKnow_of_generalizedKnow). Believing the answer set to be what it is is
believing the cell of the kernel of the intension (generalizedKnow_iff_know_ker), so the
generalized analysis is [GS82]'s entry (14) on the kernel question; for
whether-questions all four entries coincide (knows_whether_tfae).
The comparison for constituent questions rests on one observation: the which-intension (3)
is the image of the extension of student who called under the propositional concept C,
while Groenendijk and Stokhof's (13) is the kernel of the extension map, so the two agree
exactly when C is injective — the paper's premise that no two individuals call in exactly
the same possible worlds (ker_which). The two divergences of §7 are the two ways
injectivity fails: identity with oneself (21) is constant, reducing the generalized analysis
to knowing whether there are students (Karttunen.ker_which_identicalWithSelf), and living
with one's actual spouse (24) identifies Bill with Sue (Spouses). Structured propositions
(27) restore the agreement for every predicate, since tagging each individual with the
property is injective outright (ker_whichStructured), while the unstructured answers stay
recoverable (Karttunen.which_eq_image_whichStructured) though not conversely
(Spouses.whichStructured_ne). The answer in the second sense (16) entails the answer in
the first (ans₂_subset_ans₁), and on a Hamblin set it is the substrate's strongly
exhaustive answer (ans₂_trueAnswers).
Implementation notes #
Belief is w ∈ (Dox x).core p over doxastic alternatives Dox : E → SetRel W W, with no
frame conditions, as the paper assumes none. Groenendijk and Stokhof's entries (13) and (14) are
GroenendijkStokhof1984.whichDeDicto and GroenendijkStokhof1984.Knows, their 1982 paper
being chapter II of the dissertation. Predicates are topical properties E → Set W,
the substrate's trueAnswers_range shape, so the restrictorless who called (6) is the
Karttunen denotation of Set.range C (Karttunen.which_univ) and the superset argument of
§3 is Karttunen.which_mono. E ranges over individuals, not the groups of the paper's
footnote on plurals. identicalWithSelf is the universally necessary property, which every
individual has in every world. The scenarios are the paper's own two-world models: in
Spouses the worlds record whether Sue is a student and whether the couples live together,
and John holds the single false belief that Sue is not a student (§7). The ambiguity of
answer in (17)–(20) is a row. The Feynman sentence of §4's footnote is not modelled; the
general negation case is George2011.
TODO #
- §6 identifies the proposition of (9) with the answer in the second sense (16), but in
general only
Setoid.ker q ≤ Setoid.ker (ans₁ q)holds (ker_le_ker_ans₁): on identity with oneself,ans₂is trivial while the kernel of the intension asks whether there are students.
References #
Karttunen intensions #
An interrogative intension is Karttunen's, in the sense of [Kar77b], when each
member of its answer set at w is true at w; the redundancy proof of §4 rests on this.
Equations
- Heim1994b.IsKarttunen q = ∀ (w : W), ∀ p ∈ q w, w ∈ p
Instances For
The intension of "whether φ" is the true one of φ and its negation, (2).
Equations
- Heim1994b.Karttunen.whether φ = Question.trueAnswers {φ, φᶜ}
Instances For
The students who called at w, the extension behind the colon in (3) and (13).
Equations
- Heim1994b.extension S C w = {x : E | w ∈ S x ∩ C x}
Instances For
The intension of "which students called", (3), gives the propositions that x called for
the students x who called, the image of the extension under the propositional concept.
Equations
- Heim1994b.Karttunen.which S C w = C '' Heim1994b.extension S C w
Instances For
Without a restrictor, "who called", (6), is the Karttunen denotation of the Hamblin set of the propositions that each individual called.
The answer in the two senses #
The answer in the first sense, (15), is the intersection of the true answers.
Equations
- Heim1994b.ans₁ q w = ⋂₀ q w
Instances For
The answer in the second sense, (16), is the proposition that the answer in the first sense is what it is.
Equations
- Heim1994b.ans₂ q w = {w' : W | Heim1994b.ans₁ q w' = Heim1994b.ans₁ q w}
Instances For
On a Hamblin set the answer in the second sense is the strongly exhaustive answer.
The answer in the second sense always entails the answer in the first (§6).
The entries for know #
On the simplified Karttunen analysis, (4), x believes the answer in the first sense.
Equations
- Heim1994b.Karttunen.simplifiedKnow Dox x w q = (w ∈ (Dox x).core (Heim1994b.ans₁ q w))
Instances For
On the actual Karttunen analysis, (5), x believes the answer as in (4) and, if the
answer set is empty, believes that it is empty.
Equations
- Heim1994b.Karttunen.know Dox x w q = (Heim1994b.Karttunen.simplifiedKnow Dox x w q ∧ (q w = ∅ → w ∈ (Dox x).core {w' : W | q w' = ∅}))
Instances For
On the generalized Karttunen analysis, (9), x believes that the answer set is what it
is, for answer sets of any type, as §8 applies the same entry to structured intensions.
Equations
- Heim1994b.generalizedKnow Dox x w q = (w ∈ (Dox x).core {w' : W | q w' = q w})
Instances For
The generalized analysis is Groenendijk and Stokhof's entry on the kernel of the intension.
On a Hamblin set the simplified analysis is [Kar77b]'s meaning postulate as the substrate states it.
On a Hamblin set the generalized analysis is Groenendijk and Stokhof's entry on the partition.
Knowing a bigger answer set is knowing the smaller one (§3).
Clause (i) of (8) is redundant given clause (ii), since an alternative with the same answer set lies in the answer in the second sense, hence in the first (§4).
Hence (8) and (9) are equivalent, and the generalized analysis implies the actual one.
With an empty answer set the actual analysis is the generalized one, (7).
Whether-questions #
Karttunen's whether has [GS82]'s (12) as its kernel.
The simplified, actual, and generalized analyses and Groenendijk and Stokhof's all agree on "NP knows whether φ", the proof §4 leaves to the reader and the paper's footnote 11.
Constituent questions: Karttunen against Groenendijk and Stokhof #
Groenendijk and Stokhof's partition by which students called, (13), is the kernel of the extension map.
When no two individuals call in exactly the same possible worlds, the kernel of Karttunen's intension is Groenendijk and Stokhof's partition, so that (10) is (11).
The generalized Karttunen analysis and Groenendijk and Stokhof's agree on "which students called" under the injectivity premise.
"Which A are B" and "which B are A" raise the same partition, §6's neutralization.
The exhaustiveness scenario (§2) #
Bill and Mary, both of them people; Bill called in every world and Mary only in the world
true. In the world false, where Mary did not call, John is agnostic.
Bill called in every world; Mary only in true.
Equations
Instances For
John's doxastic alternatives at every world are all the worlds.
Equations
- Heim1994b.Exhaustiveness.agnostic x✝ = Set.univ
Instances For
The actual analysis makes (1) true at false, where Mary did not call, since the only
true answer, that Bill called, is believed, and the answer set is not empty.
The generalized analysis makes (1) false there, since in the alternative true Mary
called too, so the answer set differs.
Groenendijk and Stokhof agree with the generalized analysis here.
The de dicto scenario (§3–§4) #
Mary, the sole individual, called in every world but is a student only in the actual world
true; John is agnostic. The generalized analysis delivers the de dicto reading: (1) comes
out false because John does not know that Mary is a student, while Karttunen's entries make
it true. At the other world, where there are no student callers, Karttunen's actual entry
correctly blocks the entailment from "John knows who called" (6) to (1).
Equations
- Heim1994b.DeDicto.agnostic x✝ = Set.univ
Instances For
Karttunen's actual analysis makes (1) true at true, where the one true answer is
believed.
The generalized analysis makes (1) false, since in the alternative false Mary is not a
student, so the answer set differs.
(6) "John knows who called" stays true on the generalized analysis.
At false there are callers but no student callers, and (6) is true on the actual
analysis.
But (1) is false there on the actual analysis, since the answer set is empty and John does not believe it empty, so (6) does not entail (1).
Non-equivalence: identity with oneself (§7) #
The universally necessary property, which every individual has in every world.
Equations
- Heim1994b.identicalWithSelf x✝ = Set.univ
Instances For
Groenendijk and Stokhof read (21) as knowing what students there are, (22).
The generalized analysis reads (21) as knowing whether there are students, (23).
Two worlds with one student each, Bill in true and Mary in false; John agnostic.
There are students either way, so the generalized analysis ascribes knowledge of (21) while
Groenendijk and Stokhof's does not.
Bill is the student in true, Mary in false.
Equations
Instances For
Equations
- Heim1994b.Identity.agnostic x✝ = Set.univ
Instances For
Non-equivalence: living with one's actual spouse (§7) #
Bill is married to Sue, and the proposition that either lives with their actual spouse is the proposition that they live together, so the two answers coincide. A world records whether Sue is a student and whether the couple live together; in the actual world both hold, and John's one false belief is that Sue is not a student.
A world records whether Sue is a student and whether Bill and Sue live together.
Equations
- Heim1994b.Spouses.World = (Bool × Bool)
Instances For
Bill is a student everywhere; Sue where the first coordinate holds.
Equations
- Heim1994b.Spouses.student Heim1994b.Spouses.Person.bill = Set.univ
- Heim1994b.Spouses.student Heim1994b.Spouses.Person.sue = {w : Heim1994b.Spouses.World | w.1 = true}
Instances For
Each lives with their actual spouse exactly where they live together.
Equations
- Heim1994b.Spouses.livesWithSpouse x✝ = {w : Heim1994b.Spouses.World | w.2 = true}
Instances For
Equations
- Heim1994b.Spouses.actual = (true, true)
Instances For
John's only doxastic alternative is the world where Sue is not a student and they live together.
Equations
- Heim1994b.Spouses.john x✝ = {p : Heim1994b.Spouses.World × Heim1994b.Spouses.World | p.2 = (false, true)}
Instances For
The paper's premise fails, since Bill's and Sue's propositions coincide.
The answer sets at the actual world and at John's alternative coincide, although Sue is a student in one and not the other, (26).
The generalized analysis wrongly makes (24) true.
Groenendijk and Stokhof make (24) false, (25).
Structured propositions (§8) #
The structured intension, (27), pairs each student who called with the property of calling.
Equations
- Heim1994b.whichStructured S C w = (fun (x : E) => (x, C)) '' Heim1994b.extension S C w
Instances For
(28) is Groenendijk and Stokhof's (11) for any predicate, since tagging each individual with the property is injective whatever the property.
With structured answers the generalized analysis is Groenendijk and Stokhof's, with no premise on the predicate.
The unstructured answers are always recoverable from the structured intension.
On (21), structured answers withdraw the knowledge ascription.
On (24), structured answers withdraw the knowledge ascription.
The converse fails, since the structured intensions differ where the unstructured ones coincide.