Call for Papers
Bochum, September 27-29, 2012
Organization: Emar Maier & Markus Werning
There are many varieties of quotation in natural language, ranging from pure
quotation ("cat" has three letters) and direct quotation ("That's
ridiculous," said Mary) to indirect discourse (Mary said that that was
ridiculous), and including also less well studied phenomena like scare
quotes, free indirect discourse, and role shift in sign language.
Where philosophers have been fascinated with the self-referential aspects
of pure and direct quotation, linguists have been focusing primarily on
indirect reports. Over the past 10-15 years the two traditions have joined
forces to study (i) various forms of perspective shifting in indirect
discourse (cf. Schlenker 2003), and (ii) the ubiquitous phenomenon of "mixed
quotation" (Mary said that that's "ridiculous", cf. Cappelen & Lepore 1997).
It is becoming increasingly clear that quotation challenges fundamental
assumptions about (i) the semantics-pragmatics interface (Potts 2007); (ii)
the use-mention / direct-indirect dichotomies (Maier 2009); (iii) the nature
of indexicality and context shift (Recanati 2000); and (iv) compositionality
(Werning 2005). It is issues like these that will be the topic of our
workshop. In order to move the discussion forward, we aim at a truly
interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, bringing together interested
philosophers and linguists from a variety of subdisciplines.
INVITED SPEAKERS:
- Regine Eckardt (U Göttingen, semantics/free indirect discourse)
- Dan Everett (Bentley University, field linguistics)
- Stefano Predelli (U Nottingham, philosophy)
- Francois Recanati (Institut Jean Nicod/CNRS, Paris, philosophy)
- Josep Quer Villanueva, (UPF Barcelona, sign language)
- Chung-chieh Shan (Rutgers, semantics/computer science)
- Mark de Vries (U Groningen, syntax)
- Dag Westerstahl (U Stockholm, philosophy)
SUBMISSION:
We invite authors to submit an anonymous two-page abstract by May 1, 2012,
for a talk of 25 minutes plus 10 minutes discussion. Submissions should be
made via Easychair (details
TOPICS OF INTEREST:
- the distinction between direct and indirect discourse (syntactically,
semantically and/or crosslinguistically)
- opacity, compositionality and recursion of quotation
- role shift and constructed action in sign languages
- indexical/perspective/context shifting in reported speech
- the semantics of free indirect discourse
- unifying or distinguishing the many varieties of quotation (direct, pure,
indirect, hybrid/mixed/open quotations, free indirect discourse, scare
quotes etc.)
- modeling the two dimensions of (mixed) quotation (e.g. in terms of
presupposition, conventional implicature, (not)-at-issue content)
TIME & PLACE:
- deadline for 2 page abstracts: May 1, 2012
- notification of acceptance: May 30, 2012
- conference dates: Thu, Sept 27 - Sat, Sept 29, 2012
- venue: Department of Philosophy II, Ruhr University Bochum
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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Markus Werning
Professor of Philosophy of Language and Cognition
Department of Philosophy
Ruhr University Bochum
44780 Bochum, Germany
Homepage: www.rub.de/phil-lang
Email: markus.werning@rub.de
Phone: +49-234-32-24734
Fax: +49-234-32-14463
Secretary: +49-234-32-26739
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The Oxford Handbook of Compositionality
Edited by Markus Werning, Wolfram Hinzen, and Edouard Machery
Available now through all good bookshops, or direct from Oxford University
Press at:
