18.3240, Calls: Philosophy of Lang,Semantics/France

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-3240. Sun Nov 04 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.3240, Calls: Philosophy of Lang,Semantics/France

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1)
Date: 02-Nov-2007
From: Nathan Klinedinst < n.klinedinst at ucl.ac.uk >
Subject: Vagueness and Language Use

 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:20:15
From: Nathan Klinedinst [n.klinedinst at ucl.ac.uk]
Subject: Vagueness and Language Use
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Full Title: Vagueness and Language Use 

Date: 07-Apr-2008 - 09-Apr-2008
Location: Paris, France 
Contact Person: Nathan Klinedinst
Meeting Email: vagueness.paris08 at gmail.com
Web Site: http://paulegre.free.fr/Vagueness/index.html 

Linguistic Field(s): Philosophy of Language; Semantics 

Call Deadline: 15-Jan-2008 

Meeting Description

Vagueness and Language Use
April 7-9, 2008
Paris, ENS & Institut Jean-Nicod 

Call for Papers

International Conference

Vagueness and Language Use
April 7-9, 2008
Paris, ENS & Institut Jean-Nicod

Conference Organizers:

Paul Egré (IJN) & Nathan Klinedinst (UCL/IJN)


Invited Speakers:

- Chris Barker (New York University)
- Delia Graff Fara (Princeton University)
- Chris Kennedy (University of Chicago)
- Peter Pagin (Stockholm/LOGOS)
- Agustin Rayo (MIT)
- Robert van Roooij (ILLC, Amsterdam)
- Uli Sauerland (ZAS, Berlin)


Conference description:

Vagueness is a pervasive phenomenon in natural language, which appears to be
instantiated in nearly all lexical categories (including adjectives, nouns,
verbs, and quantifiers). In recent years, progress has been made, both in
philosophy and in linguistics, to characterize the sources as well as the varieties
of vagueness. At the foundational level, a central debate concerns the epistemic
vs. semantic nature of the vagueness phenomenon, and the proper understanding of
the relation between the notions of vagueness, ambiguity, context-dependence,
and imprecision. In linguistic theory, some significant advances have been made
on the semantics of gradable adjectives and on the role and behavior of
vagueness related adverbs (such as ''clearly'', ''approximately'', and
''definitely'').

These advances raise the question of how empirical studies of language may bear
on the debate about the nature of vagueness, and whether they can help to
adjudicate between competing accounts (epistemic vs. semantic theories,
contextualist vs. non-contextualist accounts). In addition to that, a number of
issues remain open for investigation: is vagueness manifested and resolved in
the same way across lexical categories (nouns vs. adjectives, logical vs.
non-logical expressions)? How is the vagueness of lexical items blocked or
inherited in larger semantic units (e.g. in comparative constructions), and what
can this tell us about its nature? How do various theories explain the fact that
we use vague terms successfully to communicate meaning in spite of their
vagueness? The aim of this conference will be to bring together linguists and
philosophers, with contributions on both the foundational and the empirical
aspects of the phenomenon of vagueness in natural language.


Deadline for submission: January 15, 2008


Submission details:

Submissions should consist of anonymous abstracts of no more than 2 pages,
single spaced, 11pt, including title and references (preferred formats for
submission are pdf and Word). Abstracts should be sent electronically to:

vagueness.paris08 at gmail.com

Authors should include their name, title of the paper, affiliation and contact
information in the body of the email. Abstracts will be reviewed by members of
the conference programme committee and additional reviewers.


Conference Programme Committee:

- Anouk Barberousse (Paris)
- Chris Barker (New York)
- Denis Bonnay (Paris)
- Richard Dietz (St Andrews/Leuven)
- Paul Egré (Paris)
- Patrick Greenough (St Andrews)
- Pascal Ludwig (Paris)
- Chris Kennedy (Chicago)
- Max Kölbel (Birmingham/LOGOS)
- Nathan Klinedinst (London/Paris)
- Peter Pagin (Stockholm/LOGOS)
- Agustin Rayo (MIT)
- Robert van Rooij (Amsterdam)
- Benjamin Spector (Harvard)
- Uli Sauerland (Berlin)


Further Information:
http://paulegre.free.fr/Vagueness/index.html

Contact: vagueness.paris08 at gmail.com






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