English

Tableaux for the Lambek-Grishin calculus

Computation and Language 2010-09-17 v1

Abstract

Categorial type logics, pioneered by Lambek, seek a proof-theoretic understanding of natural language syntax by identifying categories with formulas and derivations with proofs. We typically observe an intuitionistic bias: a structural configuration of hypotheses (a constituent) derives a single conclusion (the category assigned to it). Acting upon suggestions of Grishin to dualize the logical vocabulary, Moortgat proposed the Lambek-Grishin calculus (LG) with the aim of restoring symmetry between hypotheses and conclusions. We develop a theory of labeled modal tableaux for LG, inspired by the interpretation of its connectives as binary modal operators in the relational semantics of Kurtonina and Moortgat. As a linguistic application of our method, we show that grammars based on LG are context-free through use of an interpolation lemma. This result complements that of Melissen, who proved that LG augmented by mixed associativity and -commutativity was exceeds LTAG in expressive power.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1009.3238,
  title  = {Tableaux for the Lambek-Grishin calculus},
  author = {Arno Bastenhof},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1009.3238},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

Appeared in: Marija Slavkovik, editor, "Proceedings of the 15th student session of the European Summer School of Logic, Language and Information", Copenhagen, 2010. (Unpublished.)

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:14:58.206Z