30.871, Calls: Cog Sci, Comp Ling, Gen Ling, Pragmatics, Psycholing/Germany

Fri Feb 22 18:31:25 UTC 2019

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-871. Fri Feb 22 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.871, Calls: Cog Sci, Comp Ling, Gen Ling, Pragmatics, Psycholing/Germany

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Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2019 13:28:06
From: Torgrim Solstad [solstad at leibniz-zas.de]
Subject: Contrasting Underspecification and Overspecification of Discourse Relations

Full Title: Contrasting Underspecification and Overspecification of Discourse Relations 

Date: 25-Sep-2019 - 26-Sep-2019
Location: Berlin, Germany 
Contact Person: Torgrim Solstad
Meeting Email: solstad at leibniz-zas.de
Web Site: https://www.xprag.de/?page_id=6215 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Computational Linguistics; General Linguistics; Pragmatics; Psycholinguistics 

Call Deadline: 01-Jun-2019 

Meeting Description:

Following the successful XPrag.de-workshop ''Implicit and explicit marking of
discourse relations'' in Osnabrück in 2018, we are organizing a second
XPrag.de-workshop on discourse relations with a different focus.

The workshop will take place at the Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics (ZAS)
in Berlin on September 25-26, 2019. Our goal is to identify factors that
contribute to the decision of violating or following economy principles in the
marking of discourse relations, in particular with regard to over- vs.
underspecification.

Invited Speakers:

- Nicholas Asher (CNRS Toulouse)
- Katja Jasinskaja (University of Cologne)
- Arndt Riester (University of Cologne)
- Hannah Rohde (University of Edinburgh)

Important Dates:

Abstract submission deadline: June 1, 2019 
Notification of acceptance: Early July, 2019 
Conference date: September 25-26, 2019 

Organizers:

- Anton Benz (ZAS)
- Oliver Bott (University of Tübingen)
- Mingya Liu (Osnabrück University)
- Torgrim Solstad (ZAS)

Call for Papers:

Most of the literature and tools on discourse relations (DRs) focus on
information-exchanging situations, where speaker and hearer share
communicative goals. Therefore, the identification of a DR in the absence of
explicit marking presupposes that there is one DR intended by the cooperative
speaker. One possible reason for the lack of marking is to obey economy
principles, e.g. when discourse context makes it clear which DR is meant.
However, the assumption of a specific, implicit DR is questionable. For
example, when two events follow each other temporally, speakers may still be
uncertain whether one is the cause for the other, and thus, opt for not using
''because'' to avoid over-commitment. Another point in case would be strategic
situations in which speakers would choose to remain vague by avoiding the
explicit marking of DRs or by using markers that are notoriously
underspecified, such as ''and''. This is important for DR annotations since
the information of the speaker’s epistemic state is hard to detect from
written texts. On the other hand, DRs may also be multiply marked. Such
overspecification also challenges economy principles, and the rationality
behind it needs further investigation. With this workshop, we aim to identify
factors that contribute to the decision of violating or following economy
principles in the marking of DRs, in particular over- vs. underspecification. 

Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks and posters. Topics may be related
(but not limited) to various kinds of DRs that allow both explicit and
implicit marking such as conditionals and causals. We particularly encourage
contributions that take a production perspective in cooperative vs. strategic
situations to shed light on the gaps and overlaps between production and
comprehension. Below are listed a few dimensions which may prove important for
the decision to underspecify, specify, or over-specify a DR:

- Linguistic complexity of DRs
- Predictability of a DR from context
- Cognitive costs/resources for inferring a DR
- Pragmatic constraints (e.g. avoidance of ambiguity or avoidance of falsity)
- Strategic communication: the strategic speaker may opt for implicit DR
marking to foster e.g. plausible deniability
- Availability of fast and automatic mechanisms generating DR predictions
- Interlocutors' familiarity with the current (local) discourse topic

Abstract Submission:

Abstracts must be anonymous, and should be limited to a maximum of two pages
of text, including tables, figures, and references. Pages should be US Letter
or A4, with one inch margins, and a minimum font size of 11pt (Times New
Roman). Abstracts can be submitted via email to:

discrel2019 at leibniz-zas.de

Important Dates:

Abstract submission deadline: June 1, 2019 
Notification of acceptance: Early July, 2019 
Conference dates: September 25-26, 2019 

Contact Information:

Email: discrel2019 at leibniz-zas.de 
Website: https://www.xprag.de/?page_id=6215

Co-located Event:

We would like to call your attention to the DETEC conference on September
27-28, 2019, directly following this workshop, also to be held at ZAS
(Berlin): 

''Discourse Expectations: Theoretical, Experimental, and Computational
Perspectives'' (DETEC2019) with Elsi Kaiser, Alex Lascarides and Mante
Nieuwland as invited speakers.

For further information, visit: 

http://www.leibniz-zas.de/workshop_detec2019.html

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