Workshop on formal semantics and pragmatics of sign languages at the Amsterdam Colloquium.

Over the last 60 years sign languages (SL) have received considerable attention from linguists, including formal linguists. However, to date formal semantics and pragmatics has barely been applied to SL. The few available studies suggest that SL data can have serious theoretical consequences. For instance, role shift appears to be an instantiation of context shift, but the form it takes in SL may challenge the concept of context shift as applied to spoken languages. This workshop aims to bring together researchers interested in formal semantics and pragmatics and how this works out in SL. It will emphasize the importance of applying independently motivated formal approaches to the study of sign languages.
 
Invited speaker: Philippe Schlenker (Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris and New York University)
Organizers: Vadim Kimmelman, Roland Pfau, Anne Baker.
 
The workshop is a part of the Amsterdam Colloquium. It will consist of the talk given by the invited speaker and 4 regular presentations. The deadline for submissions is Septermber 1 2011 (also see below).
 
For any questions concerning the workshop contact Vadim Kimmelman (v.kimmelman at uva.nl, vadimkmm at rambler.ru).
_____________________________________
 
18th Amsterdam Colloquium

19/21 December 2011
 
Invited Speakers
 
• Irene Heim (MIT)
• Donka Farkas (University of California, Santa Cruz)
• Seth Yalcin (University of California, Berkeley)
• Chung-chieh Shan (Rutgers University)
 
Workshop on formal semantics and pragmatics of sign languages
 
• Philippe Schlenker (Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris and New York University)
 
Workshop on inquisitiveness
 
• Manfred Krifka (Humboldt University, Berlin)
 
Workshop on semantic evidence
 
• Richard Breheny (University College London)
• Bart Geurts (University of Nijmegen)
 
Abstracts are due September 1, 2011. For submission details:
 
http://www.illc.uva.nl/AC/AC2011/
 
Organizing Committee 18th Amsterdam Colloquium
ILLC / Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam
Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
 tel: +31 20 5254537, fax: +31 20 5255206, mailto: m.d.aloni@uva.nl