LINGUIST List 9.628

Tue Apr 28 1998

Calls: Semantics, Conjunction

Editor for this issue: Anita Huang <anitalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Paul Dekker, Logic Course on the Internet
2. Workshop Ellipsis in Conjunction, Ellipsis in Conjunction

 Call for Participation

 LOGIC COURSE ON THE INTERNET: DYNAMIC SEMANTICS



The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation and the Dutch Graduate
School in Logic hereby announce the second electronic course on Dynamic
Semantics. This is lectured mainly over the internet and is intended for an
international audience. The course is given by David Beaver (CSLI,
Stanford), Paul Dekker and Willem groeneveld (both ILLC, Amsterdam).

The course is meant for PhD students and advanced undergraduates who are
familiar with basic notions of logic and model-theoretic semantics, and who
share an interest in the formal analysis of the semantics and pragmatics of
natural language.

The course consists of two parts. The first part (May 25 to July 10 ) is
given entirely on the world wide web. All communication (including an
electronic classroom, readers, collaboration on exercises etc.) then takes
place over the internet. After a five weeks break, the course continues on
a face to face basis at the summer school (August 17 -- 28 in Saarbruecken).

The course offers room for a limited number (20) of participants. People
who are interested are adviced to subscribe before May 5-th to
"dekkerphilo.uva.nl", and include a sketch of background, education and
interests.

For more information the reader may consult the course plan at:

 http://turing.wins.uva.nl/~pdekker/COURSE/plan.html



 David Beaver, Paul Dekker, Willem Groeneveld
 Institute for Logic, Language and Computation
 University of Amsterdam

Call for papers, Focus Group, ZAS, Berlin, Oct. 2-3, 1998

Workshop on ELLIPSIS IN CONJUNCTION

In view of the growing interest in conjunction ellipsis this workshop is an
attempt to promote the communication and bridge the gaps between different
approaches within the framework of Generative Syntax. The workshop will
concentrate on the following issues:

(1) The structure of a conjunction construction. 
Is the base-generated structure of a coordinate construction a double-headed
structure (Williams 1994), or does it have the second conjunct
right-adjoined to the first conjunct (Reinhart 1991), or is it a projection
of a conjunction word (&P) (Munn1987), or something else? 

(2) The possible categories to be conjoined. 
Must a conjunct be a clause or an extended projection (excluding smaller
XP-types)? Must a conjunct be an XP (excluding head and X')? And how are
'asymmetrical coordinations' analyzed if only 'like' categories can be
conjoined?

(3) The analyses of ellipsis and gapping constructions. 
The verb gapping construction, for instance, has been analyzed as Rightward
NP Movement followed by an identical constituent deletion (Jayaseelan 1990),
Across-the-Board Verb Movement (Johnson 1996), and Deletion Licensed in LF
(Wilder 1997). In addition, it remains to be shown how to account for the
relationships between VP ellipsis, pseudogapping and gapping. Furthermore, a
general study of Sluicing is required to cover wh in-situ languages where
Slucing does not alternate with an overt movement to eliminate strong
features of a wh question (Lasnik 1997).

(4) The analysis of similarities and differences among various types of
reduction. 
How and why do coordinative, comparative, and exception conjunction ellipses
share properties and differ from each other syntactically, and/or
semantically? Are the properties of Forwad Deletion and Backward Deletion
related to LF and PF respectively, as claimed by Wilder (1997)?

(5) The constraints on the ellipsis constructions. 
What are the language-specific properties that might interact with the
representations of conjunction ellipsis? Are there any ellipsis or gapping
rules in UG?
 
(6) The connection between conjunction ellipsis and information structure. 
To what extent are such ellipses determined by information structural
aspects like Focus Background Structuring?

(7) Studies of conjunction ellipsis of a greater variety of languages.

Invited speakers:
Danny Fox	
Tilman Hoehle
Kyle Johnson
Jason Merchant
Alan Munn
Craig Thiersch
Chris Wilder

Organizers:
Kerstin Schwabe, Niina Zhang, Horst-Dieter Gasde, and Andre Meinunger

The deadline for receipt of abstracts is July 1, 1998. Please send your
abstract (1 A4/Letter-size max) to:

Dr. Niina Zhang
ZAS
Jaegerstr. 10-11
10117 Berlin
Germany
Tel: 49-30-20192572		Fax: 49-30-20192402
Email: ellipsiszas.gwz-berlin.de

We accept abstracts by fax, email, as well as regular mail. The selection of
the abstracts for presentation will be finished by the end of August.

Zentrum fur Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de