We are happy to announce a talk by Roumyana Pancheva (USC) at the Semantics Colloquium.
Please register beforehand (s.walter@em.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom on Thursday shortly before the talk starts.
Title:Temporal reference without tense
Date: February 4
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct
Abstract:
Some languages do not have to mark tense explicitly: they either do not have overt tense morphemes or the overt tense morphemes are optional. The question arises: is tense universal? The answer, within formal semantics, has so far been "yes". The formally explicit semantic analyses that have been proposed for languages without obligatory overt tense morphemes all posit tense in one form or another. We aim to develop a different type of account altogether that does not rely on tense to derive temporal reference. We propose that evaluation time shift, a mechanism independently attested in the narrative present in languages with tense, can be more widely used for encoding temporal meaning in the absence of tense. We illustrate this account...
We are happy to announce a talk by Jan Köpping (GU) and Sarah Zobel (University of Oslo) at the Semantics Colloquium.
Please register beforehand (s.walter@em.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom on Thursday shortly before the talk starts.
Title:Two types of existential quantification
Date: January 28
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct
Abstract:
We argue that natural language distinguishes between two types of existential quantification. This is observable in the contrasting semantic behavior of indefinite expressions, which allow for anaphoric relationships, on the one hand, and existentially used dedicated impersonal pronouns and implicit agents of episodic short passives, which do not, on the other. We present a formal system that blends existing static and dynamic accounts, which allows us to model both types of existential quantification by distinguishing two existential quantifiers: a “dynamic” existential quantifier that introduces a new discourse referent and thus allows for anaphoric relationships and a “static” one that does not. The second quantifier is argued to capture the observed discourse inertness of...
We are happy to announce a talk by Muyi Yang (UConn) at the Semantics Colloquium.
Please register beforehand (s.walter@em.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom on Thursday shortly before the talk starts.
Title: Iffy if: Japanese moshi in conditionals and related constructions
Date: January 21
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct
Abstract:
Across languages, conditional antecedents can often be marked by elements that signal the speaker's sense of "iffiness" about the antecedent proposition, such as English if (von Fintel and Iatridou 2002), German falls (Hinterwimmer 2014) and sollte (Sode and Sugawara 2019). This talk concerns Japanese moshi, a marker in conditional antecedents that has been traditionally described as a signal of supposition. I will first investigate the distribution of moshi in various types of conditionals such as factual conditionals and unconditionals, and show that the iffiness expressed by moshi has to do with whether the antecedent proposition is in the common ground. I will propose a presuppositional account of moshi, and further extend the analysis to capture its use...
We are happy to announce a talk by Jeremy Kuhn (CNRS) at the Semantics Colloquium.
Please register beforehand (s.walter@em.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom on Thursday shortly before the talk starts.
Title: Boundaries in space and time: Iconic biases across modalities
Date: January 14
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct
Abstract:
In cognition, spatial and temporal boundaries have been theorized to be central to humans' perception of objects and events. In language, a related semantic property has characterized the mass/count and telic/atelic oppositions, which have been argued to be grounded in these non-linguistic conceptual representations. Intriguingly, boundarihood has also been shown to be involved in a motivated mapping in sign language: telic verbs are associated with gestural boundaries.
In a series of experiments, we investigate the origin of this mapping bias. We show that non-signing subjects show an iconic bias to associate bounded forms with bounded meanings, and unbounded forms with unbounded meanings. The representations involved are abstract and domain general: the bias is found both for...
We are happy to announce a talk by Ahmad Al-Bitar (GU Frankfurt) at the Semantics Colloquium.
Please register beforehand (s.walter@em.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom on Thursday shortly before the talk starts.
Title: 'Average': A unique modifier
Date: December 17
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct
Abstract:
The modifier average has interestingly different uses, among which the ‘abstract’ use is the most well-studied. Carlson & Pelletier (2002), Kennedy & Stanley (2009) and Morzycki (2016) provide analyses of the famous example in (1-a). This sentence can be true without there being an individual with the impossible property of having 2.3 children. Hence the naming ‘abstract’.
(1) a. The average American has 2.3 children. (Abstract use)
b. The average age of the students is 21. (Abstract use)
This use is differentiated from another use called the ‘concrete’ use as in (2). While this use is compatible with both the definite and indefinite articles, the abstract use seems to (always) prefer the definite article; see (3-a) and (3-b). This preference can be unambiguously observed in Arabic...