Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Leibniz-Gemeinschaft

Vague Quantities and Vague Quantifiers (VQ2)

Organisator(en) Uli Sauerland, Stephanie Solt & Chris Fermüller
Institution(en) ZAS Berlin, Technische Universität Wien
Veranstaltungsbeginn 08.12.2010, 09.00 Uhr
Veranstaltungsende 09.12.2010, 18.00 Uhr
Ort ZAS

The exchange of numerical information plays a central role in human interaction.  We talk about the number of people in a room, the weight of a bag of grain, or the proportion of the population who supports a particular candidate or proposition.  

A crucial aspect of much of the quantity information we exchange is that it is approximate, vague or incomplete.  Vagueness may be signaled linguistically via modifiers such as about (about 50 books) and roughly (roughly 20 people).  Even without modification, seemingly precise numerical expressions may be interpreted approximately; for example, there were 100 people in the audience is typically understood to mean ‘about 100’.  And most centrally, several highly frequent natural language quantifiers, such as manyfewmost and a lot, are inherently vague.  

The goal of the present workshop is to bring together diverse theoretical perspectives on vague quantities and vague quantifiers, from fields including linguistic semantics and pragmatics, logic (particularly fuzzy logic) and cognitive psychology. 

Specific topics to be covered  include:

  • Linguistic treatments of vague quantifiers
  • Granularity models of approximation
  • Logics for vague quantity 
  • Generalized fuzzy quantifiers
  • The mental representation and processing of vague or approximate quantity 
  • Reasoning with vague quantifiers

Vague Quantities and Vague Quantifiers (VQ2) is funded by the European Science Foundation under the auspices of the EuroCORES Programme LogICCC, as a joint networking initiative of the following three collaborative research projects:

  • Vagueness, Approximation and Granularity (VAAG)
  • Logical Models of Reasoning with Vague Information (LoMoReVI)
  • Logic for Interaction (LINT)

Preliminary Program

Wednesday, 8 December

9.30-9.45
MANFRED KRIFKA (ZAS Berlin):
Welcome and Introduction

9.45-10.15
STEPHANIE SOLT (ZAS Berlin):
Some cases of vague quantity

10.15-10.45
ALAN BALE (Concordia):
Precision, vagueness, scales and the Back-Down Phenomenon

10.45-11.15
BREAK

11.15-11.45
DENIS BONNAY (Paris Ouest):
Vagueness at all orders

11.45-12.15
PILAR DELLUNDE (UAB):
Model theory for fuzzy predicate languages

12.15-14.00
LUNCH

14.00-14.30
MARIAN KLAMER & ANTOINETTE SCHAPPER (Leiden):
Numbers and vague quantification in Alor Pantar languages: some initial observations

14.30-15.00
RASMUS BÅÅTH, ULI SAUERLAND & SVERKER SIKSTRÖM (ZAS Berlin/Lund):
Quantifier use in English and German: an online study

15.00-15.30
MARIJAN PALMOVIC & GORDANA HRZICA (U Zagreb):
Color terms and quantities: an experimental account

15.30-16.00
BREAK

16.00-16.30
CHRISTOPH ROSCHGER (Technical University Vienna):
Contextual models of vagueness and vague quantifiers

16.30-17.30
Invited Speaker:
VILÉM NOVÁK (U Ostrava):
On the theory of intermediate quantifiers

19.00
WORKSHOP DINNER
Location to be announced

_________________________

Thursday, 9 December

9.30-9.45
EVA HOOGLAND (ESF):
ESF, EUROCORES & LogICCC

9.45-10.45
Invited Speaker:
JUSTIN HALBERDA (John Hopkins U):
Approximate numbers and the meaning of "most"

10.45-11.15
BREAK

11.15-11.45
RAQUEL FERNÁNDEZ (ILLC, Amsterdam):
Common ground and granularity of referring expressions

11.45-12.15
CHRIS CUMMINS (Cambridge):
Modelling the pragmatic effects of approximation

12.15-14.00
LUNCH

14.00-14.30
MARIA SPYCHALSKA (Utrecht):
Reasoning with vague quantifiers

14.30-15.00
NIKI PFEIFER, GIUSEPPE SANFILIPPO & ANGELO GILIO (LMU Munich/Palermo/Rome):
Coherent probabilistic quantification, existential import and Aristotelian syllogistics

15.00-15.30
PETR CINTULA (Acad. of Sciences, Czech Republic):
On Hajek's fuzzy quantifiers "probably" and "many"

15.30-16.00
BREAK

16.00-16.30
CHRIS FERMÜLLER (Technical University Vienna):
Is there a role for fuzzy logic in linguistics?

16.30-17.30
Invited Speaker:
JAKUB SZYMANIK (Stockholm U):
Complexity of quantifier processing