Signalling in languages with imperfect information (Q5946350)

This paper provides an interesting survey on several languages with imperfect information introduced by J. Hintikka and G. Sandu (1989). The independence-friendly languages (IF-languages) for imperfect information have been defined by Hintikka and Sandu with the purpose of having an explicit notation for mutually dependent and independent quantifiers (and connectives). Section 1 of the paper deals with informationally independent quantifiers and shows how to express the semantic independence of quantifiers of IF-sentences in terms of semantic games of imperfect information. Section 2 extends the idea of independence in IF-languages to cover connectives. The author shows that independent connectives should be construed as restricted quantifiers, viz. narrow Henkin quantifiers which, at their turn, are expressed in the IF-languages. Section 3 examines the two ways of skolemizing that codify two different kinds of defining the strategies of players for the relevant games of imperfect information. The exposed examples suggest a way of interpreting IF-languages in terms of two teams of players: the members of the team of Abelard \((\forall)\) are the universal quantifiers and conjunctions in the sentence, while the team of Eloise \((\exists)\) consists of the existential quantifiers and disjunctions in the sentence. Section 4 discusses a game-theoretical treatment of negation, while Section 5 outlines the relationship between IF-languages and linear logic.