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∂AIL Professor Barbara Partee↓Department of Linguistics
↓University of Massachusetts↓Amherst, MA 01003∞
.<<(413) 545-0885>>
Dear Barbara:

	This is to accept your invitation to the workshop on
"Indefinite Reference" - both sessions.

	For AI the problem has two aspects:  First, humans use
indefinite reference and so must machines that communicate with
humans.  At least the machines must understand it.  Because my
interest is at present not mainly in natural language, this
aspect is not very important to me.  Second, however, most likely
the use of indefinite reference is a consequence of the mutual
information situation of the conversants, i.e. these are the best
mutually comprehensible names.  Perhaps indefinite reference is
even required or convenient for sentences whose use is purely internal.
This question interests me more as does the general question of
context dependent semantics.

	My written contribution will include my paper %2First order
theories of individual concepts and propositions%1 and an attempt to treat
your examples and whatever else seems relevant by the techniques of that
paper or extensions thereof.  Should examples turn up with new features, I
would be grateful for references.

	I am looking forward to visiting you in your native habitat.

.reg

P.S. The following reference may interest you.

%3Yap, Chee K.%1 (1977), %2A Semantical Analysis of Intensional Logics%1,
Research Report, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights,
New York. RC 6893 (α#29538) 12/13/77, 47 pp.