Talk by Maciej Kłeczek (GU Frankfurt)

We are happy to announce a talk by Maciej Kłeczek (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: Quine on variables Date: July 15 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Abstract: In this exegetical talk we reconstruct and critically discuss the Quine view on variable like symbols and first-order variables. This is a quintessential Quinean theme found in a series of papers [On the Logic of Quantification, Variables Explained Away, The Variable, Algebraic Logic and Predicate Functor Logic], and Quine’s seminal monograph Word Object. Quine has presented a rather coherent picture of variable like symbols and first-order variables. As a consequence, this picture generates a coherent interpretation of first-order languages conforming to an important Quine’s background philosophical assumption which is nominalism (or rather a propensity to nominalism).  We start our talk with Quine’s account of schematicity and contrast it with alternative more recent approaches. Next, we proceed to Quine’s explication of a first-order variable as a...
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Phonology colloquium: Miriam Riedinger (U Mainz) 14.07.21

We are happy to announce the final talk in the phonology colloquium this semester by Miriam Riedinger (U Mainz). Title: "Either phonological or phonetic features? Evidence for cue weighting in vowel processing" Date: Wed 14.07.2021 Time: 16 - 18 Room: Zoom Please register beforehand (Kuegler@em.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom! Abstract: Miriam Riedinger – University of Mainz In recent years much research has been conducted on vowel processing. Most studies assume that either phonological or phonetic features are necessary in vowel discrimination. Hence, mainly two models, the Featurally Underspecified Lexicon (Lahiri & Reetz, 2002, 2010) and the Natural Referent Vowel framework (Polka & Bohn, 2011), are discussed in this context. In my talk, I will present neuronal and behavioral evidence which suggests that vowel discrimination is not solely based on either phonological or phonetic features. I propose that both types of features are necessary in vowel processing and therefore it is more about prioritizing one or the other due to contextual factors....
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Phonology colloquium: Pilar Prieto (ICREA-UPF) Date: 7-7-21

We are very happy to announce the next talk in our phonology colloquium this term. Pilar Prieto (ICREA-UPF) will talk about "Prosodic and bodily signals act as joint bootstrapping mechanisms in pragmatic development" The talk will take place online, on Zoom. Please register beforehand (Kuegler@em.uni-frankfurt.de) to receive the access data to zoom! Pilar Prieto: Title: "Prosodic and bodily signals act as joint bootstrapping mechanisms in pragmatic development" Time: Wed 07.07.2021, 16-18ct...
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Talk by Todor Koev (University of Konstanz)

We are happy to announce a talk by Todor Koev (University of Konstanz) 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: "Believe" as Gradable, Strong, and Subjective Date: July 1 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Abstract: The verb "believe" is standardly analyzed as a universal quantifier over possibilities, i.e. as stating that the prejacent is true across all the attitude holder’s doxastic alternatives (Hintikka 1969). This semantics (i) fails to capture the fact that "believe" is a gradable predicate (cf. "partially believe", "fully believe", etc.) and (ii) does not predict the intuition that "believe" implies some sort of weakness on the part of the attitude holder towards the prejacent proposition (cf. "I believe Kim is on vacation" vs. "I know Kim is on vacation"). In order to remedy the gradability problem, I propose a gradable semantics for "believe" within the framework developed for gradable adjectives (Cresswell 1976; Kennedy & McNally 2005; a.m.o.). As for the modal strength problem, I claim that "believe" has the...
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Talk by Alexander Wimmer (University of Tübingen)

We are happy to announce a talk by Alexander Wimmer (University of Tübingen) 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: Minimal sufficiency as implicature cancellation Date: June 17 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Abstract: In his 2012 dissertation, Patrick Grosz assumes two kinds of ONLY, an exclusive and a non-exclusive one, which he also refers to as minimal sufficiency ONLY, henceforth MS-ONLY. German NUR ‘only’ in conditional antecedents is noted by him to be ambiguous between MS- and exclusive ONLY. One factor that clearly disambiguates in favor of MS-ONLY is the insertion of certain particles in the consequent. Consider the following example:  (1)        Heinrich ist (schon / selbst / auch) froh, wenn nur DREI Katzen kommen.             Henry is (already / even / also) glad if only THREE cats come The particles SCHON, SELBST and AUCH, henceforth referred to as EVEN-particles, enforce a reading on which Henry is also happy if more than three cats are around. Such particles are...
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