20.3289, Calls: Pragmatics, Semantics, Cognitive Science/Germany

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LINGUIST List: Vol-20-3289. Tue Sep 29 2009. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 20.3289, Calls: Pragmatics, Semantics, Cognitive Science/Germany

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1)
Date: 29-Sep-2009
From: Cornelia Schulze < cschulze at rz.uni-leipzig.de >
Subject: Beyond the Words
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:02:04
From: Cornelia Schulze [cschulze at rz.uni-leipzig.de]
Subject: Beyond the Words

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Full Title: Beyond the Words 

Date: 13-May-2010 - 15-May-2010
Location: Leipzig, Germany 
Contact Person: Cornelia Schulze
Meeting Email: cschulze at rz.uni-leipzig.de
Web Site: http://beyondthewordsconference.wordpress.com/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Pragmatics; Semantics 

Call Deadline: 15-Nov-2009 

Meeting Description:

- What does it mean that something has been said?
- Is there literal meaning and how does it constitute utterance meaning?
- What kind of pragmatic inference is relevant for utterance understanding on
different levels of utterance interpretation?
- Do we need default-inferences in order to catch meaning-aspects of utterances
'beyond the words', these inferences being cancelled in case of purely literal
meaning?
- How is pragmatic information processed (relation between procedural effort and
the respective communicative effect of the utterance)?
- What is the pragmatic foundation of grammatical relations?

All of the questions mentioned above are being discussed intensely since more
than a decade in different paradigms. The field of pragmatics has changed since
then substantially. The different approaches are centered around the question,
whether utterances can be interpreted solely using their semantic-lexical
meaning or whether pragmatic inferences already are essential on an early level
of utterance interpretation. The debate between protagonists of the first
solution (minimalist approach) and of the second (contextualist approach) -
including a range of intermediate positions - dominates the present development
of pragmatics.

New fields of research are arising: Lexical knowledge is conceived in part as
pragmatic knowledge, and grammatical relations are seen as pragmatically
grounded, thus pragmatics is entering linguistic disciplines traditionally being
treated as non-pragmatic. 

The specific character of the relevant pragmatic inferences is under debate too.
Do we need default-inferences in order to catch meaning-aspects of utterances
'beyond the words', these inferences being cancelled in case of purely literal
meaning? Questions of pragmatic processing strategies arise at this point,
focusing on the relation between procedural effort and the respective
communicative effect of the utterance.

Communicative understanding has been conceived as a form of understanding other
persons as intentional actors. This skill is acquired in early childhood and the
strategies of acquisition of pragmatic knowledge are under scrutiny in a range
of important studies. 

Finally, the methodological question arises whether pragmatic intuition may be
captured by means of an intuitive strategy of the pragmatist himself or whether
one has to rely on evidence delivered by experimental studies with children and
adult speakers.

The planned international conference is intended to document pragmatic
theorizing in the light of the present debates on the one hand and to reveal the
developing potential of future research strategies in pragmatics on the other. 

Second Call for Papers

We invite the submission of abstracts (for paper or poster presentations)
addressing one of these issues.

Abstracts of no more than 500 words (excluding references and tables) should be
sent by email as a pdf-attchment to cschulze at rz.uni-leipzig.de by 15 November
2009. The document should contain presentation title, the abstract and should
indicate your preference for paper or poster presentation. Oral presentations
will last 20 minutes plus 10 minutes for discussion. Posters will stay up for a
day; there will be one special session dedicated to the presentation of the posters.

The language of the conference is English (preferable) or German.

Information identifying the author(s) should be detailed in the body of the
email, not in the pdf-file.

Notification of acceptance and the final format of presentation (paper or
poster) will be communicated by January 15th 2010.

Please check our conference website:
http://beyondthewordsconference.wordpress.com/ for further information
(information will be added regularly).

The conference is organised by Prof. Frank Liedtke and Cornelia Schulze,
University of Leipzig, German Department, Pragmalinguistics.

We intend to publish selected papers in a separate proceedings volume.





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