Linguistic $$\leftrightarrow $$ ↔ Rational Agents’ Semantics

Abstract

We define and prove a formal semantics divided into two complementary interacting components: the strictly linguistic (i.e. linguistically marked) semantics, we call linguistic agent (LA), and the strictly logical and referential semantics, we call rational agent (RA). This Linguistic $$\leftrightarrow $$ Rational Agents’ Semantics (LRA semantics) applies to Deep Dependency trees (DD-trees) or more generally, to discourses, i.e. sequences of DD-trees, and interprets them by functional structures we call Meaning Representation Structures (MRS), similar to the DRT, but interpreted very differently. LRA semantics incrementally interprets the discourses by minimal finite models, called proto-models, in a monotonic logic of the LA and checks the proto-models with respect to the classical models of the RA. The proto-model is considered as the linguistic sense of the discourse. We define in full detail the LA which, as we believe, must be universal. On the other hand, we don’t propose a particular RA. We only define the scheme of interaction between the two agents and the stimuli of the RA used by the LA. After all, every discourse has in LRA semantics the single meaning and the single sense for every Rational Agent used to interact with the Linguistic Agent.