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Vague Utterances and Context Change

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Computing Meaning

Part of the book series: Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy ((SLAP,volume 73))

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Abstract

As a dialogue proceeds, utterances will be interpreted relative to a body of assumed common beliefs and suppositions. In keeping with a computational view of mind we shall suppose that these shared common beliefs and suppositions are represented in some way in the interpreter as the sentences of some language. Let a set of sentences representing common beliefs and suppositions be called a context. Utterances will be interpreted relative to contexts, but contexts, in turn, will change as a result of utterances. In the simplest case a context will grow. That is what will happen when an utterance in no way conflicts with the prior context. The resulting context will include the prior context together with representations of what is conveyed by the utterance.

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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Kyburg, A., Morreau, M. (1999). Vague Utterances and Context Change. In: Bunt, H., Muskens, R. (eds) Computing Meaning. Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, vol 73. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4231-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4231-1_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0290-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4231-1

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