ARKA BANERJEE

@ welearnbetter Type Semantics

6th April '20
SHUBHARUP.COM

TYPE t

Something is of type "t" if you're mainly

concerned about
its truth value.
CAT(X)
e.g. "The cat
is fat." Now let us construct a procedure by which we
check for the "catness" of a given object -
"Nicolo has a blue-tshirt." the procedure yields certainty regarding

these are either true or false. whether the object is a cat

Hence sentences always have type "t". (in which case t = "True")
or not (t = "False").

In computer speak the value False is given the

DONT GET LOST
number 0 and True is assigned 1.

The procedure checked whether x is a So it could also be that t = 1 or t = 0,

cat and returned 0 or 1. That's respectively.
Cat(x).
We could call this procedure "is-cat".
But for brevity we'll call it Cat.

We write an empty space beside the name of a

procedure to convey the group of objects which
MORE TYPES
work with it or makes sense together.

So the output of the procedure is clearly a Thus we refer to the procedure in our
truth value, and so of type t. Cat(x) as a discussion as
procedure can work on "things", right?
Cat(x), where x denotes an empty space.
Cat(Building) is not a well-formed formula.
Cat(x) is a wff.

So the input in the blank space "x" can be a

type of "thing" - an object, an entity.
"Things" are type e.

Thus the input type of cat is e.

A QUESTION . . .

Thus cat takes as input something of type What is the type of "fat cat"?
e and outputs something
(some value) of type t.

We convey that understanding

in saying that
Cat is of type <e , t>
input e, output t
We've established the type of
"cat" to be <e,t>
LET'S
Now fat, as an adjective, is DIG1 M / 3 FT
begging for a Noun.
IN
Thus Fat
...
takes as input
something of type <e , t>
e.g. Cat

Cat takes objects as input.

The objects are of type e.

In particular, it cannot take any

Common Noun (CN) of type <e,t>.

[[Cat(buildings)]] is not a wff.

But Fat, as an attributive adjective,

takes CNs as one of its arguments.

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Source: World Health Organization
 Is Fat a function?

[[Fat]] = λPλx.[Fat(x) & P(x)]

Thus,

Fat
has two argument places
and so takes a one-place predicate P
of type <e,t>

and an individual x,
of type e

as arguments.
It returns 1 iff that individual x is P and Fat.

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 Fat has its type <<e,t>,<e,t>>
and behaves like a function valued function
i.e. a function which outputs another
function when one argument place has
been filled e.g. Fat Cat

Fat Cat

is a one-place function
and so takes an individual x
of type e

as argument
to yield output
of type t.

Thus Fat Cat has its type <e,t>

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