15.3585, Confs: Ling Theories/Semantics/Syntax/Berlin, Germany

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-15-3585. Thu Dec 23 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.3585, Confs: Ling Theories/Semantics/Syntax/Berlin, Germany

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        Terry Langendoen, U of Arizona  

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1)
Date: 21-Dec-2004
From: Uli Sauerland < uli at alum.mit.edu >
Subject: Symposium: Interfaces + Recursion = Language? The View From Syntax-Semantics 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 19:02:51
From: Uli Sauerland < uli at alum.mit.edu >
Subject: Symposium: Interfaces + Recursion = Language? The View From Syntax-Semantics 
 

Symposium: Interfaces + Recursion = Language? The View From Syntax-Semantics 

Date: 24-Mar-2005 - 24-Mar-2005 
Location: Berlin, Germany 
Contact: Paul Doherty 
Contact Email: symposium at zas.gwz-berlin.de 
Meeting URL: http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/events/symposium/

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Semantics; Syntax 

Meeting Description: 

On the occasion of Noam Chomsky's visit to Berlin in March 2005, this
symposium discusses recent developments in generative grammar. We  ask all
attendees at this event to pre-register via the symposium website.

Symposium Description:

Human language is a phenomenon of immense richness: It provides finely
nuanced means of expression that underlie the formation of culture and
society; it is subject to subtle, unexpected constraints such as syntactic
islands and cross-over phenomena; different mutually-unintelligible
individual languages are numerous; and the descriptions of individual
languages occupy thousands of pages.  Recent work in linguistics, however,
has tried to argue that, despite all appearances to the contrary, the human
biological capacity for language may be reducible to a small inventory of
core cognitive competencies.  The most radical version of this view has
emerged from the Minimalist Program: The claim that language consists of
only the ability to generate recursive structures by a computational
mechanism.  On this view, all other properties of language must result from
interaction at the interfaces of this mechanism and other mental systems
not exclusively devoted to language.  Since language could then be
described as the simplest recursive system satisfying the requirements of
the interfaces, one can speak of the Minimalist Equation: Interfaces +
Recursion = Language.

The question whether all the richness of language can be reduced to this
minimalist equation has already inspired several fruitful lines of research
that have led to important new results.  While a full assessment of the
minimalist equation will require evidence from many different areas of
inquiry, this symposium focuses especially on the perspective of syntax and
semantics.  Within the minimalist architecture, our concern is thus with
the core computational mechanism and the (LF-)interface where recursive
structures are fed to interpretation.  Specific questions that the
presentations will address are: What kind of recursive structures can the
core generator form?  How can we determine what the simplest recursive
system is?  How can properties of language that used to be ascribed to the
recursive generator be reduced to interface properties?  What effects do
syntactic operations have on semantic interpretation?  To what extent do
models of semantic interpretation support the LF-interface conditions
postulated by minimalist syntax?

PROGRAM:

ARRIVAL: 8:30 - 9:00

SESSION 1 (Syntax I): 9 - 10:30

Henk van Riemsdijk (Tilburg) 9-9:45
Gereon Müller (Leipzig) 9:45-10:30

SESSION 2 (Syntax II): 10:45 - 12:15

Artemis Alexiadou (Stuttgart) 10:45-11:30
Hans-Martin Gärtner (Berlin) und Jens Michaelis (Potsdam) 11:30-12:15

SESSION 3 (Semantics): 14-15:30

Uli Sauerland (Berlin) 14-14:45
Sigrid Beck (Potsdam) 14:45-15:30

SPECIAL LECTURE: 16:00 - 19:00

Introduction by Manfred Bierwisch (Berlin) 16:00 - 16:15

Noam Chomsky (MIT) 16:15 - 17:45

Commentary: 17:45 - 18:30
Marga Reis (Tübingen), Wolfgang Klein (Nijmegen), Angela
Friederici (Leipzig), Günther Grewendorf (Frankfurt)

open discussion until 19:00

RECEPTION: 19:00 - 20:00

Joint Organizers:
Zentrum für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW)
Emmy-Noether Nachwuchsgruppe ''Quantoren''

Conference Venue:
Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Leibniz Saal
Jägerstrasse 22/23, 10117 Berlin, Germany

Public Transportation:
U6 Franzoesische Strasse / U2 Hausvogteiplatz

Participation Fee (includes Reception): 20 Euro 
  (reduced rate:10 Euro for students/unemployed)

PREREGISTRATION REQUIRED before Saturday 19th March 2005, at
http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/events/symposium/





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