Martin Stokhof

Chapter 19 – Questions

Publisher Summary In common parlance, the term “question” is used in at least three different ways, which to avoid misunderstanding is distinguished terminologically in this chapter. First of all, the term is used to refer to a particular type of sentences characterized by word order, intonation, question mark, and the occurrence of interrogative pronouns. Such sentences are referred to by the term “interrogative sentences.” An approach that starts out from some strict postulates concerning interrogatives and answers is sketched in the chapter. The chapter considers whether, and if so how interrogatives can be added to the language of propositional logic. One of the results of this investigation establishes the essentially intentional nature of the notion of a question. The chapter considers the addition of interrogatives to the language of predicate logic and shows that the resulting analysis resembles the approach developed earlier in important respects. A description of some key data and empirical phenomena that any semantics of interrogatives has to cope with is included in the chapter, explaining how the various approaches are motivated by them.

The Gamut of Dynamic Logics

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an overview of dynamic logics and their applications with focuses on a number of core systems, and a number of central applications: program analysis, tree description, analysis of communication, and semantics of natural language. The field of dynamic logic, including its applications in various domains, is still developing. Dynamic logic started out as a way of studying various aspects of computation, mainly in traditional computational settings, with a focus on sequential transformational programs. When theoretical computer science broadened to encompass the theory of reactive systems and concurrency, dynamic logic evolved by developing systems that could handle these as well (branching time logics and it calculus). Thus, the core concepts of dynamic logic have proved to be applicable in a wide range of settings, allowing formalization of a great diversity of concepts and phenomena.

Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation on the Lived Experience of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Patients : In-Depth Interviews with 18 Patients

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is a relatively new, experimental treatment for patients suffering from treatment-refractory Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The effects of treatment are typically assessed with psychopathological scales that measure the amount of symptoms. However, clinical experience indicates that the effects of DBS are not limited to symptoms only: patients for instance report changes in perception, feeling stronger and more confident, and doing things unreflectively. Our aim is to get a better overview of the whole variety of changes that OCD patients experience during DBS treatment. For that purpose we conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 18 OCD patients. In this paper, we present the results from this qualitative study. We list the changes grouped in four domains: with regard to (a) person, (b) (social) world, (c) characteristics of person-world interactions, and (d) existential stance. We subsequently provide an interpretation of these results. In particular, we suggest that many of these changes can be seen as different expressions of the same process; namely that the experience of anxiety and tension gives way to an increased basic trust and increased reliance on one’s abilities. We then discuss the clinical implications of our findings, especially with regard to properly informing patients of what they can expect from treatment, the usefulness of including CBT in treatment, and the limitations of current measures of treatment success. We end by making several concrete suggestions for further research.

Becoming more oneself? Changes in personality following DBS treatment for psychiatric disorders: Experiences of OCD patients and general considerations

Does DBS change a patient’s personality? This is one of the central questions in the debate on the ethics of treatment with Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). At the moment, however, this important debate is hampered by the fact that there is relatively little data available concerning what patients actually experience following DBS treatment. There are a few qualitative studies with patients with Parkinson’s disease and Primary Dystonia and some case reports, but there has been no qualitative study yet with patients suffering from psychiatric disorders. In this paper, we present the experiences of 18 patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) who are undergoing treatment with DBS. We will also discuss the inherent difficulties of how to define and assess changes in personality, in particular for patients with psychiatric disorders. We end with a discussion of the data and how these shed new light on the conceptual debate about how to define personality.

Abstracties en idealisaties: de constructie van de moderne taalkunde

Abstracties en Idealisatie:De Constructie van de Moderne Taalkunde Martin StokhofMichiel van Lambalgen22 december 20091 Inleiding De moderne taalkunde is in bepaalde opzichten een van de opmerkelijkste en succes-volste wetenschappelijke vernieuwingen van de twintigste eeuw. De opkomst van degeneratieve grammatica in de jaren vijftig en zestig zorgde voor een sfeer van intellec-tueel enthousiasme die voorbehouden leek aan fundamentele ontwikkelingen binnende natuurwetenschappen. En het enthousiasme bleef niet beperkt tot de taalkunde zelf,maar strekte zich uit tot andere gebieden, zoals de filosofie, de in opkomst zijnde in-formatica en cognitieve psychologie, de antropologie, de letterkunde. En tot op de dagvan vandaag geldt de moderne taalkunde als model van wetenschappelijke vernieuwingvoor vele andere geesteswetenschappelijke disciplines.Een werkelijke verklaring van deze opmerkelijke ontwikkeling zal een aantalfactoren in ogenschouw moeten nemen. De rol die de natuurwetenschappen en de for-mele wetenschappen als ‘standaardmodel’ van wetenschappelijkheid spelen is daar eenvan. Een andere factor heeft te maken met de wijze waarop de moderne taalkunde aanlijkt te sluiten bij discipline-interne ontwikkelingen in andere vakgebieden. Sociologi-sche factoren, zoals de interne organisatie van de discipline, spelen ook een rol.

Arguing About Dynamic Meaning

Whether, and if so in what sense, dynamic semantics establishes the need to move away from standard truth-conditional semantics, is a question that has been discussed in the literature on and off. This paper does not attempt to answer it, it merely wants to draw attention to an aspect that has hitherto received little attention in the discussion, viz., the question what role we assign to the use of formal systems in doing natural language semantics.

Abstracte begrippen en concrete werkelijkheid: Twee vragen voor Hans Radder

e begrippen en concrete werkelijkheid: Twee vragen voor Hans Radder Stokhof, M.J.B.; van Lambalgen, M. Published in: Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte DOI: 10.5117/ANTW2014.1.STOK

The future of semantics

Abstract The paper by Fritz Hamm, Hans Kamp and Michiel van Lambalgen (in what follows abbreviated as ‘hkl’) is a very rich one. Not only does it contain a wealth of empirical and formal insights concerning the analysis of tense and aspect, planning and causality, and other phenomena, it also contains some penetrating remarks concerning the scope and method of semantic theory. It is the latter aspect of the paper that I want to make a few comments on in what follows.