We are happy to announce a talk by  Daniel Hole (Universität Stuttgart) in the Syntax Colloquium.

The talk will take place in person. Room IG 4.301

Date: June 12, 2023

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct

Title: Towards explaining clause structure

Abstract:

This talk sets out to explain the overall structure of clauses in natural language. In the syntactically lowest portion of clauses, the event is built up. On top of that follow aspectual and modal specifications, closed off by deictic tense. Then follow speaker/hearer-dependent categories. A hierarchy of indexical categories is determined according to the level in the syntactic structure from which on upwards an indexical category is available for interpretation. This hierarchy is then reduced to generalizations about actual language use in dialogue. In later portions of the article, anaphoric context dependence is integrated into the picture. It is a characteristic of the work reported on here to bring together strands of research from generative syntax and formal semantics that do not usually communicate with each other.