Tableaus for Natural Logic

Abstract

In this paper we develop the beginnings of a tableau system for natural logic, the logic that is present in ordinary language and that us used in ordinary reasoning. The system is based on certain terms of the typed lambda calculus that can go proxy for linguistic forms and which we call Lambda Logical Forms. It is argued that proof-theoretic methods like the present one should complement the more traditional model-theoretic methods used in the computational study of natural language meaning.