The detection and representation of ambiguities of intension and description
Brenda Fawcett, Graeme Hirst · 1986
Ambiguities related to intension and their consequent inference failures are a diverse group, both syntactically and semantically. One particular kind of ambiguity that has received little attention so far is whether it is the speaker or the third party to whom a description in an opaque third-party attitude report should be attributed. The different readings lead to different inferences in a system modeling the beliefs of external agents.We propose that a unified approach to the representation of the alternative readings of intension-related ambiguitoes can be based on the notion of a descriptor that is evaluated with repsoect to intensionality, the beliefs of agents, and a time of application. We describe such a representation, built on a standard modal logic, and show how it may be used in conjunction with a knowledge base of background assumptions to license restricted substitution of equals in opaque contexts.