Whamit!

The Weekly Newsletter of MIT Linguistics

LF Reading Group 3/1- modal logic from a semantic perspective

WHAT: Tutorial
TITLE: “Some things you want to know about modal logic, but don’t know you do”, by Igor Yanovich
WHEN: 11.30AM – 1PM
WHERE: 32-D831

WHAT EXACTLY:
The idea is to review, in an informal manner (read: without doing much technical stuff), several simple results from the modern period of modal logic development. Instead of focusing on different systems like K etc. and completeness, the tutorial will take the so-called semantic perspective and discuss modal logic as a tool for talking about relational structures in a certain way. Topics which are likely to emerge: the standard translation from modal logic into a fragment of first-order logic; bisimulations and bisimulation-equivalence; limits of the expressive power of the standard modal logic, and some ways to enrich it, etc.

Plus, if you want to learn something in particular – drop an email to Igor with your question. No guarantees, but he’ll try to answer it on Monday.

If you want to read, or at least browse, something before going to the meeting (or instead of going), read this:

It is a wonderful introductory chapter from the “Handbook of modal logic”, written by Johan van Benthem and Patrick Blackburn – two really important guys in current modal logic, who also happen to write very readable texts accessible even for beginners.