Homework 3

Read: Heim (1983): File Change Semantics and the Familiarity Theory of Definiteness, pages 164--171

1. Starting with an empty file, show how the file would be updated after each sentence in the following text:

(1) A farmer owns a donkey.

(2) He beats it with a stick.

(3) The stick is bigger than the donkey.

In the next questions, we will refer to the resulting file as F.

2. Consider the following worlds:

World 1: There are two donkeys, Fred and Wilma, a farmer named Joe, and a stick named Stick. Joe beats Fred and Wilma with Stick but does not own any donkeys. Stick is bigger than Fred.

World 2: There are two donkeys, Fred and Wilma, a farmer named Joe, and a stick named Stick. Joe beats Fred and Wilma with Stick and owns Fred. Stick is bigger than Fred but not Wilma.

World 3: There are two donkeys, Fred and Wilma, a farmer named Joe, and a stick named Stick. Joe beats Fred and Wilma with Stick and owns Fred. Stick is bigger than Wilma but not Fred.

And the following sequences:

Sequence 1:

1 -> Joe

2 -> Wilma

3 -> Stick

Sequence 2:

1 -> Joe

2 -> Fred

3 -> Stick

Sequence 3:

1 -> Fred

2 -> Wilma

3 -> Joe

Calling the file that you construction in question #1 "F", which of Sequences 1-3 satisfy F in which of Worlds 1-3 (if any)? Use the definition of satisfaction in your answer.

3. Which of the Worlds 1-3 is F true with respect to? Use the definition of truth in your answer.

4. In File Change Semantics, what conditions does a world have to satisfy in order for "a man came in" (or, more precisely, the file that is constructed after that sentence is uttered out of the blue) to be true in that world?

5. In first order logic, what conditions does M have to satisfy in order for [[∃x man(x) & came-in(x)]]^M,g to be true?

6*. Heim's analysis has been called a "non-quantificational" analysis of indefinites. What does that mean?