Research On Chinese Discourse Reasoning Based On Generalized Quantifier Theory

Reasoning involving three or more sentences is called discourse reasoning.In natural languages,a lot of discourse reasoning involve quantified sentences containing standard quantifiers or generalized quantifiers.On the basis of the knowledge of generalized quantifier theory and set theory,this article studies the formality and validity of discourse inferences including traditional syllogisms and/or generalized syllogisms illustrated by a large number of natural language examples.Research on discourse reasoning is one of the key and difficult aspects of natural language information processing.Its research achievements can not only contribute to the development of interdisciplinary research in linguistics and logic,but also contribute to the research of knowledge representation and knowledge reasoning in computer science.The specific structural arrangements are as follows:The first part mainly discusses the <1> type and <1,1> types of generalized quantifiers that are most closely related to the study of natural language discourse reasoning involving quantified sentences.The second part explains the concept of monotony of generalized quantifiers,and then illustrates how to transform the monotonic reasoning between two quantified sentences to generalized syllogistic reasoning exemplified by a lot of natural language examples.In the third part,the convertible relations among/between different generalized syllogisms are proved by means of the conversion relationship among/between the monotony of a generalized quantifier and the one of its three negative quantifiers.The fourth part studies the instance of large-scale discourse reasoning composed of multiple traditional syllogisms in natural language and the example of large-scale discourse inference composed of multiple generalized syllogisms.In sum,this study shows that:(1)the monotonic reasoning between two quantified sentences is actually the traditional syllogistic reasoning or generalized syllogistic reasoning that omits its major premise or minor premise;(2)there are transformable relations among/between different generalized syllogisms,and the validity of one of the generalized syllogisms can be derived by the validity of another generalized syllogisms;(3)according to the definition of truth value of generalized quantifiers and theknowledge of set theory,one can not only formalize traditional syllogistic reasoning or generalized syllogistic reasoning,but also can judge and prove their validity;(4)on the basis of the definition and semantic nature of truth value of generalized quantifiers,one can succinctly to formalize and prove the validity of large-scale discourse reasoning composed of multiple traditional syllogisms and/or generalized syllogisms.All in all,this study says that,the discourse reasoning in natural language can be formally explained and proven by means of the generalized quantifier theory.