|
|
|
|
Spring 2018 |
|
|
WHAT:
-
A weekly informal discussion group at UC San Diego
on theoretical and experimental aspects of semantics
and related areas such as its interface with syntax,
pragmatics, and philosophy of language
- Open
to any students and faculty
- Supported
by an award from the UC
San Diego Institute of Arts & Humanities
HOW:
- Speakers
are asked to prepare a talk that is no longer than
45/50 mins and send a title as early as possible,
but at least one week before the talk.
-
An abstract of the talk and suggestions for background
readings are welcome.
- Speakers
are fully free to choose among the following 4 presentation
options
1.
Full talk without interruptions except for few
brief, specific, crucial clarification questions
2. First 30 mins of the talk without interruptions
except for few brief, specific, crucial clarification
questions
3. First 15 mins of the talk without interruptions
except for few brief, specific, crucial clarification
questions
4. The talk can be interrupted with questions
any time
WHEN:
Tuesday 11 am - 12:30
pm
WHERE:
AP&M 4218 (map)
CONTACT:
Ivano
Caponigro
& Jonathan
Cohen |
|
Dates |
Babbling
about |
Material |
4/3 |
|
|
4/10 |
|
|
4/17 |
- Nathan
Klinedinst (University
College London, linguistics)
Indefinites and Identity
[Faculty host: Paolo Santorio]
|
Relevant
references:
- Compact
introduction to all the relevant material here
- Heim,
Irene.
1983. “File Change Semantics and the Familiarity
Theory of Definiteness.” In Meaning,
Use, and Interpretation of Language, edited
by Christoph Schwarze Rainer Bäuerle and
Arnim von Stechow. Walter de Gruyter.
- Groenendijk,
Jeroen, Martin Stokhof, and Frank Veltman.
1996. “Coreference
and Modality.” In Handbook of
Contemporary Semantic Theory, edited
by Shalom Lappin. Blackwell.
|
4/24 |
- Ivano
Caponigro (UC
San Diego, linguistics)
Functional free relatives: Evidence from
Romanian
|
|
5/1 |
- Michela
Ippolito (University
of Toronto, linguistics)
Varieties of Sobel sequences
[Faculty
host: Ivano Caponigro]
|
|
5/8 |
|
|
5/15 |
|
|
5/22 |
- Dave
Barner (UC
San Diego, psychology & linguistics)
Access to non-monogamous alternatives (in
language comprehension)
|
|
5/29 |
- Dan
Lassiter (Stanford
University, linguistics)
Complex antecedents and probabilities in
causal counterfactuals
ABSTRACT: Ciardelli, Zhang, & Champollion
(in press at L&P) point out an empirical
problem for theories of counterfactuals based
on maximal similarity or minimal revision involving
negated conjunctions in the antecedent. They
also show that disjunctions and negated conjunctions
behave differently in counterfactual antecedents,
and propose an attractive solution that combines
Inquisitive Semantics with a theory of counterfactuals
based on interventions on causal models (Pearl
2000). This paper describes several incorrect
empirical predictions of the resulting account,
which point to a very general issue for interventionist
theories: frequently the antecedent does not
give us enough information to choose a unique
intervention. The problem applies also to indefinites
and to the negation of any non-binary variable.
I argue that, when there are multiple ways of
instantiating a counterfactual antecedent, we
prefer scenarios that are more likely given
probabilistic causal knowledge. A theory is
proposed which implements this idea while preserving
Ciardelli et al.'s key contributions.
[Faculty
host: Paolo Santorio]
|
Relevant
readings:
|
6/5 |
- Brief
end-of-the-year brainstorming (11-11:20)
- Roman
Feiman (UC San Diego, psychology)
Priming quantifier scope: Reexamining the
evidence against scope inversion
- End-of-the-year
lunch (from 12:30 pm on; all the Babblers are
welcome)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Useful
links |
CONFERENCES
& SUMMER SCHOOLS
JOURNALS
& ARCHIVES
|
|
|
|
Previous
SemanticsBabbles: |
|
|
|
(last
update:
06/20/2018
) |
|
|
|
|
|