The UConn Logic Group workshop “If” by any other name will take place on April 6/7 (Sat/Sun) in Oak Hall 112. Details about the program can be found here.
Author: Stefan Kaufmann
Talk of interest on 04/05: Valentine Hacquard
The Linguistics Colloquium on Friday, April 5, 4:00 in Oak Hall 112, will feature Valentine Hacquard (Linguistics Maryland).
What to learn in learning attitude and modal meanings
Abstract: This talk explores the acquisition of modal and attitude verbs. These words do not name concrete objects, and their uses do not have reliable physical correlates. Consequently their acquisition may rely heavily on cues from the linguistic context. Reporting on three case studies, I will discuss what experience children have with these words, what the learnability problems arise for each, and how children might succeed. We will see what syntactic and pragmatic cues to meaning are (and are not) found in this input, and what capacities children would need to detect and make use of them.
Meeting on 03/29: Mandelkern
The Meaning Group will meet on Friday, March 29, at 1:15pm in Oak Hall 338. We will be discussing the paper “Talking about worlds” be Matthew Mandelkern (to appear in Philosophical Perspectives).
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Open in new tab Meeting on WEDNESDAY, 03/06: Chris Tancredi
The Meaning group will have a special meeting at an unusual time with an outside speaker. Everyone is welcome.
Wednesday, March 6, 9:30-10:45am, Oak Hall 338
Speaker: Chris Tancredi (Keio University, Japan)
Title: De dicto, de re and de qualitate unified
Abstract:
Past approaches to the semantics of belief statements have argued for a multiplicity of distinct interpretations, including de dicto, de re, de qualitate and de translato. The need for ambiguity in attitude statements is clear from the potential truth of sentences like Ralph believes Ortcutt is a spy, but he doesn’t believe ORTCUTT is a spy. However, I argue that the only ambiguity specific to attitude statements is the de translato/non-de translato distinction. In particular, I show how to reduce de dicto/de re/de qualitate interpretations to a single form. The key to the reduction is to analyze the embedded clause of an attitude statement as denoting a proposition inferable from an underlying belief of the subject rather than denoting the subject’s underlying belief itself. I show that the semantics developed can account for attitudes toward necessary as well as impossible propositions, and that it further can account for the range of entailments felt to hold among multiple attitude statements.
Meeting on 02/22: Fusco 2015
The Meaning Group will meet on Friday February 22, at 1:15pm in Oak Hall 338. We will be discussing the paper “Deontic Modality and the Semantics of Free Choice” be Melissa Fusco (Philosopher’s Imprint 15, 2015). Contact Stefan Kaufmann for the PDF if you have a problem with the link.
Meeting on 02/15: Yuan and Hara 2018
The Meaning Group will meet on Friday February 15, at 1:15pm in Oak Hall 338. We will be discussing the paper “Guiding assertions and questions in discourse: Mandarin dique and zhende” by Mengxi Yuan and Yurie Hara (Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. The paper is included below.
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Meeting on 02/08: Arregi et al. 2018
The Meaning Group will meet on Friday February 8, at 12:45pm in Oak Hall 308. We will be discussing the paper “Specificational subjects are individual concepts” by Arregi, Francez and Martinovic. The paper is included below.
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Meeting on 01/25: Uegaki 2018
The Meaning Group will have its first meeting of the semester on Friday January 25, at 12:45pm in Oak Hall 308. We will be discussing the paper “On the projection of the presupposition of embedded questions” by Wataru Uegaki (Proceedings of SALT 28, 2018). The paper is included below.
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Seminar session of interest on 12/10: Yael Sharvit, UCLA
Yael Sharvit (UCLA Linguistics) will be presenting her work on embedded clauses in Magdalena Kaufmann’s semantics seminar on Monday December 10, 3:30-5:30pm, Oak Hall. Those who are interested in attending are encouraged to contact Magda for details.
Meeting on 12/07: AnderBois 2017
The Meaning Group will meet on Friday, December 7, 1-2pm in Oak Hall 338 to discuss the paper “An illocutionary account of reportative evidentials in imperatives” by Scott AnderBois (2017, Proceedings of SALT 27). Note that Scott AnderBois will speak at the Logic Colloquium on the same day at 2pm. This paper is related to the topic of his talk.