Type-Theoretic Functional Semantics

We describe the operational and denotational semantics of a small imperative language in type theory with inductive and recursive definitions. The operational semantics is given by natural inference rules, implemented as an inductive relation. The realization of the denotational semantics is more delicate: The nature of the language imposes a few difficulties on us. First, the language is Turing-complete, and therefore the interpretation function we consider is necessarily partial. Second, the language contains strict sequential operators, and therefore the function necessarily exhibits nested recursion. Our solution combines and extends recent work by the authors and others on the treatment of general recursive functions and partial and nested recursive functions. The first new result is a technique to encode the approach of Bove and Capretta for partial and nested recursive functions in type theories that do not provide simultaneous induction-recursion. A second result is a clear understanding of the characterization of the definition domain for general recursive functions, a key aspect in the approach by iteration of Balaa and Bertot. In this respect, the work on operational semantics is a meaningful example, but the applicability of the technique should extend to other circumstances where complex recursive functions need to be described formally.