Joint syntax and phonology colloquium (31.05.21 – 4-6pm)

Dear all, We are happy to announce a joint syntax and phonology colloquium with two WOCAL talks (http://2021.wocal.net/): Date: Monday,  31.05.2021 Time: 16-18 Location: Zoom:  Please register beforehand (k.hartmann@lingua.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom. Daniel Aremu & Frank Kügler: On the suspension of downstep – the case of Yoruba polar question intonation Abstract: In this talk, we present an analysis of tonal downstep in Yoruba declaratives and polar questions. Polar questions are formed in two different ways, either with sentence-initial question particles, or string-identical to statements. We show that downstep is not suspended in question intonation, which holds for all polar question formation strategies. This finding is contrary to claims made on downstep in questions (Hyman 2001).  Johannes Mursell & Katharina Hartmann: Selecting Alternatives in Eton Abstract: In this talk,  we provide a novel analysis of the augment in the Bantu language Eton, based on original fieldwork. We argue that in contrast to previous analyses, the augmentin Eton not only marks local modification of the noun but does...
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Talk by Florian Schwarz (University of Pennsylvania)

We are happy to announce a talk by Florian Schwarz (University of Pennsylvania) 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: Presupposition Projection and Linear Order – Variation Across Connectives Date: May 27 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Abstract: The role of linear order for presupposition projection is a long-standing matter of theoretical controversy and empirical confusion. On the one hand, there’s a natural association of the `left-to-right’ unfolding of the linguistic signal and the gradual update of the contexts relative to which subsequent expressions are interpreted. On the other hand, connectives seem to display varying behavior in terms of whether later material can affect presuppositions of earlier expressions. In particular, conjunction has often been taken to be asymmetric with regards to projection, only allowing `left-to-right’ filtering (e.g., with the first conjunct supporting a presupposition in the second conjunct), whereas disjunction seems to also allow the reverse `right-to-left’ filtering (as in Partee’s `bathroom sentences’)....
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Talk by Rick Nouwen (Utrecht University)

We are happy to announce a talk by Rick Nouwen (Utrecht University) 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: Intensified vagueness: semantics and pragmatics Date: May 20 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Abstract: What, if anything, is the semantic content of intensifiers like 'very', 'extremely', 'pretty', etc.? In this talk, I'll explore this question from the perspective of recent probabilistic approaches to degree semantics (Lassiter and Goodman, 2017). According to such approaches, vague predicates involve lexical uncertainty that is partially resolved through pragmatic reasoning. A sentence like "Scarlett is tall" is interpreted as `height(s)>=t`, where the value of t is inferred. How can a framework like this be extended to deal with sentences like "Scarlett is very / extremely / surprisingly tall"? Starting point is the model of Bennett and Goodman (2018). In this model, the intensifier is semantically vacuous, but its presence in the utterance triggers a manner implicature, which constitutes the...
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Roundtable discussion on the Prosody of Pronouns 19.05.2021

Dear All, We are happy to announce the Roundtable discussion on the Prosody of Pronouns as part of the phonology colloquium, featuring talks by Marlene Böttcher, Fabian Schubö & Sabine Zerbian (U Stuttgart), Seunghun Lee (Christian U Tokyo), Tina Bögel (U Konstanz/ U Amherst), Anja Arnhold, Regina Hert & Juhani Järvikivi (U Alberta), Markus Bader (GU), and Frank Kügler (GU). All information including abstracts can be found at: https://www.linguistik-in-frankfurt.de/en/institute/phonology-kugler/roundtable-prosody-of-pronouns/ Date: 19.05.2021 Time: 15.00 – 18.30 CET Location: Zoom Please register beforehand (Kuegler@em.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom! All are welcome! /frank...
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Talk by Kathryn Barnes (GU Frankfurt)

We are happy to announce a talk by Kathryn Barnes (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: The At-Issue Status of Ideophones Date: May 6 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Abstract: It has long been acknowledged that words, phrases and sentences can all contribute information in di erent dimensions (cf. Grice 1975, Potts 2005). Constructions such as appositives, as well as expressives such as damn, have previously been shown to contribute not-at-issue information (cf. Potts 2005, Syrett & Koev 2014). Recent research into iconic enrichments has also focused on the at-issue status of these phenomena, with experiments on iconic co-speech gestures indicating that such gestures are default not at-issue (cf. Ebert, Ebert & Hörnig 2020, Tieu et al. 2017, Tieu et al. 2018). Similarly, it has been argued that ideophones, such as English splish-splash or German plitsch-platsch do not denote, but rather depict; instead of using arbitrary linguistic signs to refer to concepts, they iconically...
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