Author Archives: Ray

The Sprouse Lectures: A program for experimental syntax: data, theory, and biology

where did I go?CRISSP is happy to announce a CRISSP Lecture Series with Jon Sprouse (University of Connecticut) on March 16-18, 2015. The title of the Lecture Series is ‘A program for experimental syntax: data, theory, and biology’.

Abstract

Over the past 15 years or so, the use of formal experimental methods has steadily gained popularity in theoretical linguistics. The question I’d like to address in this series is exacly how these methods can further the goals of syntactic theory. To that end, I will attempt to lay out a comprehensive research agenda that highlights the types of questions that I think formal methods are particularly well-suited to address. I will divide these questions into three types, roughly corresponding to each day of the lecture series: (i) questions about the data underlying syntactic theories (data), (ii) questions about the nature of syntactic theories (theory), and finally (iii) questions about the mentalistic consequences of syntactic theories (biology). For each topic, I will present a mix of old and new case studies, primarily based on acceptability judgment experiments, with at least one EEG experiment and one computational model thrown in for good measure. My hope is that these case studies will stimulate discussion about how we can push each of these research threads even further in the future.

 

More information

Second Call for Papers BCGL 8: The grammar of idioms

CRISSP (KU Leuven) and UiL OTS (Universiteit Utrecht), as part of the joint NWO/FWO project ‘The Syntax of Idioms’, are proud to present the 8th Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics: The grammar of idioms.

Workshop description

According to the Fregean principle of compositionality, the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its parts and the rules used to combine them. This principle is flouted in the case of idioms (cf. Katz & Postal 1963; Fraser 1970; Katz 1973; Chomsky 1980; Machonis 1985; Schenk 1994; Grégoire 2009; among others). Every language contains idiomatic expressions which, by definition, denote a meaning that is not simply derivable from (the combination of) the meanings of the individual lexical items of that expression. A canonical example is kick the bucket, the meaning of which has nothing to do with either kicking or buckets; it simply means ‘to die’. The existence of such expressions within natural language gives rise to many questions which have puzzled linguists for years, such as how these phrases are formed syntactically, whether they are restricted to certain structural domains, or how it is that we are able to deduce the idiomatic interpretation of such phrases despite there being no clues as to their meanings within any of the individual lexical items that comprise these expressions.

The purpose of this workshop is to discuss and explore the phenomenon of idioms with the aim of gaining better theoretical and empirical insights into how such expressions are able to occur within natural language, and what sorts of rules of language they are governed by.

> Read the complete Call for Papers

CRISSP at the TIN-dag

Several CRISSP members will give a talk at the TIN-dag:

  • Jolijn Sonnaert: ‘Is there a universal person feature hierarchy?’
  • Will Harwood: ‘Reduced Relatives and Extended Phases: Accounting for the aspectual restrictions on English reduced relative clauses’
  • Will Harwood and Tanja Temmerman: ‘Idioms and Phases: Size limitations on idioms in Dutch dialects and English’

More information, including abstracts and the programme, are available on the TIN-dag website.

Jeroen van Craenenbroeck in Paris

Jeroen van Craenenbroeck will give an invited research seminar talk at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Paris, France) on February 6, 2015.

The title of the talk is ‘Quantity and quality in linguistic variation: the case of verb clusters’ and more information is available on the following web page:

http://www.vjf.cnrs.fr/sedyl/recherches.php?langue=fr&type=seminaires&programme=theories&no_axe=4

 

Call for Papers BCGL 8: The grammar of idioms

CRISSP (KU Leuven) and UiL OTS (Universiteit Utrecht), as part of the joint NWO/FWO project ‘The Syntax of Idioms’, are proud to present the 8th Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics: The grammar of idioms.

Workshop description

According to the Fregean principle of compositionality, the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its parts and the rules used to combine them. This principle is flouted in the case of idioms (cf. Katz & Postal 1963; Fraser 1970; Katz 1973; Chomsky 1980; Machonis 1985; Schenk 1994; Grégoire 2009; among others). Every language contains idiomatic expressions which, by definition, denote a meaning that is not simply derivable from (the combination of) the meanings of the individual lexical items of that expression. A canonical example is kick the bucket, the meaning of which has nothing to do with either kicking or buckets; it simply means ‘to die’. The existence of such expressions within natural language gives rise to many questions which have puzzled linguists for years, such as how these phrases are formed syntactically, whether they are restricted to certain structural domains, or how it is that we are able to deduce the idiomatic interpretation of such phrases despite there being no clues as to their meanings within any of the individual lexical items that comprise these expressions.

The purpose of this workshop is to discuss and explore the phenomenon of idioms with the aim of gaining better theoretical and empirical insights into how such expressions are able to occur within natural language, and what sorts of rules of language they are governed by.

> Read the complete Call for Papers

Call for Papers SLE Workshop: ‘The Syntax and Semantics of Numerals’

Numerals raise a host of linguistic issues of a syntactic, morphological, and semantic nature. From a syntactic point of view, they sit on the divide between lexical and functional categories, and occupy a fixed position in the extended nominal projection. Morphologically, they often constitute a productive and fairly transparent category, but their categorial status remains under discussion: do they constitute a word class of their own, or are they nominal or adjectival in nature? Semantically, numerals are clearly akin to quantification in general, but at the same time they can differ from regular quantifiers in being more specific or precise in their denotation.

This workshop aims to bring together researchers working on the (morpho)syntax and semantics of numerals and numerical expressions. It will focus on questions including, but not limited to, the following:

The (morpho)syntax of numerals and numerical expressions

Contributions on the syntax of numerals may relate to the following research questions:

  • Are simplex numerals heads or phrases?
  • Are numerals lexical or functional items?
  • What is the category of numerals (cf. Stavrou & Terzi 2008)? Are they a class of their own or are they nouns or adjectives (Corbett 1978)?
  • What is the syntactic structure of complex numerals (cf. Stavrou & Terzi 2008)?
  • What is the syntactic structure of ordinals?
  • What is the syntax of suppletion amongst ordinals (Barbiers 2007)?
  • What is the syntactic status of the numeral one (Barbiers 2007, Borer 2005)?
  • Which silent elements can be contained in numerical expressions (cf. Kayne 2005)?
  • Are ordinals derived from cardinals?
  • Do paucals have the same internal syntax as higher numbers?
  • What is the syntax of vague numerical expressions (cf. Corver 2005)?
  • Does the syntax of numerals occurring in the DP differ from the syntax of numerals used when counting items?
  • What is the syntax of floating numeral quantifiers? (Miyagawa and Arikawa 2007)
  • Is there a relation between ordinals and superlativity?
  • Are degree expressions derived from numerals (cf. Corver 1997)?

The semantics of numerals and numerical expressions

  • What is the semantics of ‘vague’ or modified numerical expressions, such as more than n, at least n, fewer than n? Which part of their meaning follows from their semantics, and which part from general pragmatic principles, such as implicature? (Fox and Hackl 2006, Cummins, Sauerland and Solt 2012, Geurts and Nouwen 2007)
  • What is the semantics of prepositional numerals, like around ten and between ten and thirty? (Corver and Zwarts 2006)
  • What is the semantic difference -if any- between numerals and quantifiers like some, all or both?
  • Is there a semantic relation between ordinals and superlativity?

How to submit your abstract

Please submit your final abstract by the 15th of January 2015, through Easychair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sle2015).

 These are the requirements:

  •  The abstract should be anonymous
  • It should contain between 400 and 500 words (exclusive of references)
  • It must state:
    • Research questions
    • Approach
    • Method
    • Data
    • (Expected) results

Please note that you are only allowed to present one single-authored paper at SLE 2015. In addition, you may either have a joint paper (but not as a first author) or be a discussant in a workshop. Two co-authored papers are also allowed. The abstracts will be reviewed by the SLE 2015 scientific committee, as well as by the workshop convenors.

All workshop participants pay the conference fee that corresponds to their category – though everybody is invited to become a member and get a reduction. See http://sle2015.eu/fees and http://www.societaslinguistica.eu/membership/join.php. No reduction for one-day participation is possible.

The SLE nor CRISSP have funds for inviting (keynote) speakers within the framework of a workshop. Workshop speakers pay the same conference fee as regular participants.

 If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at Jolijn.sonnaert@kuleuven.be.

References

  • Barbiers, S. (2007) Indefinite numerals ONE and MANY and the cause of ordinal suppletion. Lingua: 117 (5), 859-880.
  • Borer, H. (2005) In Name Only. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Corbett, G. G. (1978) Problems in the syntax of Slavonic numerals. The Slavonic and East European Review 56:1.
  • Corver, N. (1997) The internal syntax of the Dutch extended adjectival projection. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 15, 289-368.
  • Corver, N. (2005) Approximative of zo as a diagnostic tool. In: Broekhuis, H. et al. (eds.) Organizing grammar. Linguistic studies in honor of Henk van Riemsdijk. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 74-82.
  • Corver, N. and J. Zwarts (2006) Prepositions numerals. Lingua 116:6, 811-835.
  • Cummins, C., U. Sauerland and S. Solt (2012) Granularity and scalar implicature in numerical expressions. Linguistics and Philosophy 35:2,105-169.
  • Fox, D. and M. Hackl (2006) The universal density of measurement. Linguistics and Philosophy 29, 537-586.
  • Geurts, B. and R. Nouwen (2007) At least et al.: the semantics of scalar modifiers. Language 83:3, 533-559.
  • Kayne, R. (2005) Silence and Movement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Miyagawa, S. and K. Arikawa (2007) Locality in syntax and floating numeral quantifiers. Linguistic Inquiry 38:4, 645-670.
  • Stavrou, M. & A. Terzi (2008) Cardinal numerals and other numerical expressions. Talk presented at GLOW 2008. Workshop on DP types and Feature Syntax, University of Newcastle. March 25, 2008.

LNAT3 – Second Call for Papers

CRISSP is happy to announce the the third edition of Logic Now and Then (LNAT3), which will take place on February 5-6, 2015.

The conference will be devoted to the relationship between the semantics and pragmatics of logical constants (connectives, quantifiers, modal operators). Its aim is to critically assess and contribute to semantic and pragmatic theories developed for constructions containing such operators in natural language. On the one hand, we hope to bring together cutting edge contributions to debates that are currently in full swing, but at the same time, we very much invite contributions of a more historical nature, which shed light on antecedents of current views and issues, thereby placing them in a wider diachronic perspective. In short, the semantics and pragmatics of logical constants now and then.

Invited speakers

> Read the Call for Papers

Submit an abstract for our SLE workshop!

CRISSP invites provisional abstracts (300 words) for a Numerals workshop at next year’s SLE conference, which will take place in Leiden on September, 2-5, 2015. We are currently looking for provisional participants for our workshop.

The deadline for the submission of workshop proposals with SLE is 25 November 2014. This proposal needs to be accompanied by a topic description, as well as a (provisional) list of workshop participants and their provisional abstracts (max. 300 words per abstract). Please send your provisional abstract to jolijn.sonnaert@kuleuven.be by 23 November at the latest.

Notification of acceptance/rejection of a workshop proposal will be by 15 December 2014. After a workshop proposal has been accepted, the convenors will be requested to invite their participants to submit their full abstracts by 15 January 2015. These full abstracts will be evaluated individually by the SLE Scientific Committee and the convenors.

> Download the Call for Papers