Language and Logic Exercise 7 Model Answers Dr.

Mark Lee Mean: Mode: # of submissions:

(Discussion: Obviously, the module hasn't covered enough predicate logic to really provide a semantics for English and some of these solutons "more or less" translate the question rather than being serious attempts at providing a semantic representation or English gloss. It might be worth commenting that they'll learn more about Natural Language Semantics in NLP 1 & NLPA). 1. Translating Natural Language into Predicate Logic V ... is a vegetarian M ... eats meet S ... enjoy steak C ... enjoys chips D ... is a dish T = ... thinks that eating meat is wrong. a. All vegetarians think that eating meat is wrong. V = ... is a vegetarian. x [Vx -> Tx] (Discussion: the following doesn't work. x [Vx -> y [My -> Wx]] (W ... is wrong) since it implies that if anybody is a vegetarian then anybody who eats meat is (objectively) wrong. Really we want a predicate "thinks" which takes a believer and some proposition. However, we haven't extended our logic to do this (and there's further complications if we do) b. All meat eaters enjoy steak x [Mx -> Sx] c. If a meat eater enjoys steak then some will also enjoy chips with their steak. x [Mx & Sx -> Sx & Cx] d. Some vegetarians love a meat eater x [Vx &x[Lxy]] (Discussion: the above is neutral on whether all vegetarians love the same meat eater or whether there are several meat eaters loved by vegetarians.) e. For every meat eater there is some dish whom the meat eater loves. x [Mx & x [Dy & Lxy]] 2. Translating Predicate Logic into Natural Language a. x [Bx -> y [ Sxy & (Sxb v Sxf)]] For all shops, there is something which the shop sells and the shop will sell either books or meat. b. x [ y [Bx & By -> (Nxy & (Sxb v Syb))]] For some shops, if there is another shop then it is next to the shop and either this shop or that shop will sell books. c. x [(Bx & Sxb) -> ~Sxf] all shops which sell books don't sell meat d. x [Bx & y [Bx -> Nxy]] There is a shop and it being a shop implies that everything is next to it (or something similar)