37.3009, FYI: CERNAI Research Seminars | September 23rd | 11.00 AM - 1.00 PM | Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (LZAS/Cambridge) | Generalisations in Language: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective on Generics

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-3009. Fri Sep 18 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.3009, FYI: CERNAI Research Seminars | September 23rd | 11.00 AM - 1.00 PM | Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (LZAS/Cambridge) | Generalisations in Language: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective on Generics

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Date: 18-Sep-2026
From: Federico Cella [federico.cella at unipv.it]
Subject: CERNAI Research Seminars | September 23rd | 11.00 AM - 1.00 PM | Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (LZAS/Cambridge) | Generalisations in Language: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective on Generics


We would like to bring to your attention the next CERNAI Research
Seminar, which will take place next Wednesday, September 23, from
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Aula VI, Department of Law, University of
Pavia.
Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga
Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft / University of
Cambridge
Generalisations in Language: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective on
Generics
The seminar is open to everyone interested. If you would like to
attend online, please write to
federico.cella at unipv.it.
Abstract
All languages are thought to have ways to express generalisations,
like ‘Leopards have spots’, ‘Dodo birds are extinct’ and ‘Canadians
like hockey’. While much is known about generics in English and
several closely related languages, they are not as well-understood
across languages as other linguistic forms. Addressing this
limitation, our Generics Across Languages program systematically
studies a wide set of languages from different language families, via
the means of a newly developed toolkit, combining insights from formal
linguistics, cognitive psychology and semantic fieldwork elicitation
techniques, focusing on their morphosyntax and semantics. In this
talk, I will first discuss the motivation for this project and how it
fits within the broader generics literature. I will then present our
methodology and the Generics Toolkit we developed, whose primary
component is a series of storyboards with embedded target sentences,
focusing on different ontological categories including natural,
artefact, and social kinds and targeting five key readings. The talk
will showcase data from our current database, which comprises data
from 19 languages, collected via our network of international
collaborators. This work will facilitate an in-depth examination of
proposed universals on generics, shedding light on their theoretical
implications.
This event is part of the Generic Reasoning project, sponsored by the
FIS program and hosted by the CERNAI Center at the University of
Pavia.

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Cognitive Science
                     General Linguistics
                     Philosophy of Language




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