- From: pat hayes <phayes@ai.uwf.edu>
- Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 22:30:30 -0600
- To: Drew McDermott <drew.mcdermott@yale.edu>
- Cc: connolly@w3.org, www-rdf-logic@w3.org
- Message-Id: <v04210120b6a52c8afbab@[205.160.76.246]>
> >Some of the participants in a the discussion assume that >intensionality = quotation. It's true that quotation is one way to >implement intensionality, but it's not the only way. The other is >just to use possible-world semantics. This tends to be more compact >but lets in a few too many inferences. Actually quotation ISNT one way to implement intensionality. You can't (reasonably) interpret believes, for example, as a predicate on quoted expressions, ie interpret Fred believes Bush isnt the president as having the logical form: (Believes Fred "Bush isnt the president") This is tempting, but it doesnt work, for technical reasons which were elaborated by Montague and which I confess I can no longer remember the details of. But believe me, you can't. <snip> > > What exactly is the role RDF plays in all this? > > It's a little teeny formal system based on URIs and XML: > two place predicates only, conjunctions and existentials but no > negation, disjunction, universals, etc. > >The problem is that RDF is sometimes the small language we plan to >use, and other times it's just the medium in which the actual language >is going to be written. What's driving me a little crazy is that its >advocates switch back and forth between these two positions. When its >inadequacies as a language are pointed out, the RDFites say, "We can >implement any language we like." But then the next day they're using >RDF as the actual language again. Right on! It's driving me crazy too. >Let me repeat the problem: If RDF is just a mechanism for describing >the syntax of some other language, then it's irrelevant. If it is the >actual language, then it's inadequate. :-) Pat Hayes --------------------------------------------------------------------- IHMC (850)434 8903 home 40 South Alcaniz St. (850)202 4416 office Pensacola, FL 32501 (850)202 4440 fax phayes@ai.uwf.edu http://www.coginst.uwf.edu/~phayes
Received on Monday, 5 February 2001 23:27:40 UTC