A talk by Andreas Jäger (Bremen) in the Historical Linguistics Colloquium

by Nelli Kerezova Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Andreas Jäger (Universität Bremen) in the Historical Linguistics Colloquium.   The talk will take place in person. Date: February 13, 2025 Time: 2 pm – 4 pm ct Place: Room IG 1.201 Title: "Wie dachte und denkt man in Australien und Neuseeland über Mehrsprachigkeit? Zwei postkoloniale Räume im Vergleich" Abstract: Mehrsprachigkeit ist ein prägendes Charakteristikum postkolonialer Gesellschaften. Das Aufeinandertreffen verschiedener Sprecher*innengruppen mit unterschiedlicher Machtverteilung während der Zeit des Kolonialismus zeigt durch sprachliche Koexistenz und Kontakt Nachwirkungen bis in die heutige Zeit. Ein Vergleich zweier benachbarter postkolonialer Staaten mit Englisch als Majoritätssprache, aber jeweils unterschiedlicher sprachlicher Ausgangssituation und Geschichte soll zeigen, in welchem Zusammenhang Mehrsprachigkeit und Dekolonisierung stehen. Sprachliche Diversität und Beziehung zwischen Kolonialmacht und indigener Bevölkerung sowie vorherrschende, teils widersprüchliche Vorstellungen über, beziehungsweise Einstellungen zu den in den Vergleichsräumen verwendeten Sprachen ist dabei von besonderer Relevanz, ebenso wie die geographische Verortung unterschiedlicher Aspekte der Mehrsprachigkeit....
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Talk by Prarthanaa Bharadwaj (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium

by Lennart Fritzsche Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Prarthanaa Bharadwaj (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium. The talk will take place on campus in IG 4.301. If you wish to participate virtually via Zoom, please contact Lennart Fritzsche for the link.  Date: February 6, 2025 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm c.t. Title: Deconstructing Modal Necessity in Kannada Abstract: The study of modality in semantics has long focused on modal flavour (epistemic vs. root modality; Kratzer 1977, 1991) and modal force (possibility vs. necessity; Rullmann et al. 2008). More recent research has explored the previously understudied dimension of modal strength, particularly the distinction between weak and strong readings (Vander Klok and Hohaus 2020; Weingartz and Hohaus 2024). Languages employ diverse strategies to denote modal strength distinctions (von Fintel and Iatridou, 2008). Certain languages (English, German) mark this distinction lexically, while others employ morphological means, such as counterfactual constructions (Greek, French) or specialized derivational suffixes (Javanese). In some cases, this distinction remains unmarked (Afrikaans, Samoan). Kannada presents a novel case where strong...
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Talk by Alexander Turtureanu (Berlin) in the Semantics Colloquium

by Lennart Fritzsche Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Alexander Turtureanu (Berlin) in the Semantics Colloquium. The talk will take place on campus in IG 4.301. If you wish to participate virtually via Zoom, please contact Lennart Fritzsche for the link.  Date: January 30, 2025 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm c.t. Title: Homogeneity from an MRT perspective Abstract: I my PhD dissertation, I develop a psychologistic approach to natural language semantics (MRT), which opens up a novel perspective on some traditional semantic topics and problems. In this talk, I will introduce some basic notions of MRT and describe how they give rise to an understanding of homogeneity that differs structurally from conventional truth-conditional-semantic accounts of this phenomenon: Instead of rooting homogeneity in the “lexical semantics” of definite plurals, I derive its emergence from the more basic question of how different semantic contexts determine the way speakers interpret the application of predicates to sets of individuals. ...
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Talk by Elin McCready (Tokyo) in the Semantics Colloquium

by Lennart Fritzsche Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Elin McCready (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium. The talk will take place on campus in IG 4.301. If you wish to participate virtually via Zoom, please contact Lennart Fritzsche for the link.  Date: January 16, 2025 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm c.t. Title: Norms of Language Use and Perspective Abstract: In this talk I argue that the perspectives agents hold — their ideologies, beliefs, and identities — can be extracted from their linguistic behavior. Specifically, because social meanings relate to speaker values and social beliefs, their language use tends to reflect these values. Taking such meanings and treating them in terms of self-ascription, together with norms of speech relating to how particular pieces of language are properly used, yields a `public perspective’ in partial correspondence to the notion of agential identity proposed in the recent philosophical literature....
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Talk by Ewa Trutkowski (Wuppertal/Berlin) in the Historical Linguistics Colloquium

by Nelli Kerezova Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Ewa Trutkowski (Bergische Universität Wuppertal / ZAS Berlin) in the Historical Linguistics Colloquium.   The talks will take place in person. Date: January 16, 2025 Time: 2 pm – 4 pm ct Place: Room IG 1.201 Title: "Über Unterspezifikation" Abstract: Der Vortrag diskutiert Kongruenz und gemismatchte Strukturen sowie die Relevanz bestimmter Merkmalsspezifikationen an Controller und Target. Der Fokus der Beobachtung und Analyse liegt auf Genus- und Sexusmerkmalen in deutschen Prädikativkonstruktionen und, in geringerem Maße, auf Relativsätzen mit Köpfen der 1./2. Person Singular....
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