The Logic of Interrogation (classical version)
Jeroen Groenendijk

Abstract:
In this paper, we investigate the prospects of basing logic on 
cooperative information exchange instead of valid reasoning. To this 
end, we introduce a simple  dialogue game of interrogation. Relative 
to a minimal logical query-language  suitable for the game, and a 
semantic interpretation for that language in terms of  context 
change potentials, we define a logical notion of pertinence, which 
enables  us to arbitrate whether the game is played according to the 
rules. The elements of  pertinence ---contextual consistency, 
non-entailment, and licensing---   correspond to elements of the 
Gricean Cooperation Principle. The main novelty is  the notion of 
licensing, by which we can judge whether an utterance is logically  
related to the context. We illustrate the use of the logic of 
interrogation in natural  language semantics by considering some 
linguistic examples, which exhibit phenomena which are inherently 
related to the communicative function of language.