We are happy to announce a talk by Lennart Fritzsche (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: July 24, 2025
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm c.t.
Title: Modified head nods as a window into gradable assertion
Abstract:
An interlocutor who asserts a proposition p takes on responsibility for its truth (Krifka, 2014; Viebahn, 2021). Commitment-based approaches to assertion propose that such commitments can be gradable (Marsili, 2014; Greenberg & Wolf, 2018). For example, intensified response particles such as Hebrew legamrey! (‚absolutely!‘) express maximal commitment, whereas German voll! (lit. ‚full!‘) conveys high but non-maximal commitment (Gotzner, 2022). Yet, experimental evidence for gradable commitment in assertions remains scarce.
In this talk, I present experimental data from visual communication indicating that intensified head nods systematically influence perceived speaker commitment. Building on Greenberg and Wolf’s (2018) gradable analysis of the ASSERT operator, I outline a preliminary analysis accommodating visual intensification in head movements. Additionally, I briefly discuss an alternative pragmatic analysis inspired by Bergen’s (2016) theory of noise-reduction, following Schlenker and Lamberton’s (2021) treatment of intensification through brow raises.