Workshop:

 Dynamic Semantics

Co-organized with Marie-Christine Meyer and Daniel Rothschild

May 30-31, 2016 @ ZAS Berlin

Standard semantic theories model the meaning of a sentence as a proposition. In contrast to this static view, dynamic frameworks tie sentential meaning more closely to the way sentences change the conversational background. Most famously, this is done by modeling the meaning of a sentence as an instruction for updating the context. The shift in focus away from propositional content towards update rules has inspired influential new approaches to phenomena ranging from presupposition and anaphora to conditionals and epistemic modality. With this workshop, we aim to explore and re-evaluate foundational issues of the dynamic program from both an empirical and a conceptual perspective. The shift in focus away from propositional content towards update rules has inspired influential new approaches to phenomena ranging from presupposition and anaphora to conditionals and epistemic modality. With this workshop, we aim to explore and re-evaluate foundational issues of the dynamic program from both an empirical and a conceptual perspective.

Workshop website here


Workshop: 

Language and natural logic 

At Sinn und Bedeutung 21, Sept 10, 2017

 

 

 

This workshop will gather philosophers and linguists to explore foundational issues on the interaction between language and natural logic, i.e., the component of the mind/brain that governs reason and inference. Philosophers have been traditionally concerned with the underlying logical form of natural languages; and at least since Frege,  have debated whether, and which, formal languages we should use to model them. Further, a foundational assumption of contemporary linguistic theory is that natural languages can be modeled with certain formal languages/logics. Still, important figures in both fields, including Fodor and Chomsky, reject key aspects of this approach. This workshop will bring philosophers and linguistics to discuss fundamental questions about the relation between language and natural logic. 

Workshop website here