Semantics and Philosophy in Europe
SPE 7
PLACE: Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Berlin
The purpose of the Semantics and Philosophy in Europe colloquia is provide a forum for presenting research in the interface between linguistic semantics and various areas of philosophy (philosophy of language, philosophy of mind/cognition, metaphysics etc.). In addition to the general session, SPE 7 will feature two special sessions:
Over the last decades, truth-conditional semantics has proven successful in offering detailed analyses for how the meanings of composite expressions can be derived from the meanings of their parts. Still, when it comes to the meanings of lexical items it is generally agreed that one has to take recourse to mental concepts and conceptual structures opening up the possibility of grounding meaning in human cognition. This raises the question of whether conceptual structures, which are clearly internal, can be reconciled with the referential / truth-conditional approach − how might conceptual structures be made to dovetail with truth-conditional semantics?
2. Attitudes towards questions
The semantics and pragmatics of questions has attracted the attention of philosophers for several reasons. On the one hand there is a lively debate about the distinction between knowledge-how and knowledge-that, in which the semantics of wh-complements plays a crucial role and which has made philosophers think more about attitudes whose contents are characterized by indirect questions in general. On the other hand, the theory of implicit 'questions under discussion' that shape our discourse has been found relevant for several issues in the philosophy of language and metaphysics. The session inquires recent linguistic thought about these issues and its application in philosophy.
We invite submissions for the general session and the special sessions for 45 minute presentations (incl. discussion) or posters. Submissions are limited to 1 individual and 1 joint abstract per author. Abstracts have to be anonymous not exceeding two pages in length. Abstract are submitted electronically in PDF format via EasyChair. Upon submission you will be asked to provide a 10 line summary indicating subject matter and conclusions (the summary need not be included in the two-page abstract itself).
Instructions about EasyChair:
To submit your abstract please follow the SPE7 submission link, , sign in, click on "New Submission" at the top of the page and follow the instructions. EasyChair requires authors to be registered. To register for EasyChair, please click on the registration link and follow the instructions.
The submission deadline is 1. February 2014. We expect to make notifications of acceptance in the beginning of March.
Contact: spe7(at)zas(dot)gwz-berlin(dot)de