The European Research Council is funding the project 'Speech Acts in Grammar and Discourse' at the Leibniz Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin with an ERC Advanced Grant.
The five-year research project Speech Acts in Grammar and Discourse (SPAGAD) allows a research group led by Manfred Krifka to investigate in detail how speech acts such as statements, questions, commands or exclamations are realized in the grammar of languages. The particular focus is on how they can be modified by expressions such as particles or subordinate clauses. The project also investigates and models how speech acts are used in discourse, for example how questions of different types can be used to indicate the direction a conversation should take. The project follows familiar philosophical linguistic ideas according to which social obligations arise from acts of speech; in contrast to previous works in linguistics, however, it takes these ideas seriously and integrates them directly into grammatical models and those of discourse. The project will also examine social norms, such as the strength of commitment, truthfulness and accuracy, in various social groups and in the acquisition of language by children.
The ERC Advanced Grant is associated with a grant of 2.5 million euros. The funding is administered by the Geisteswissenschaftlichen Zentren Berlin e.V. (Humanities Centres Berlin e.V.). (GWZ). The ERC Advanced Grants are aimed at established scientists from all disciplines whose innovative research goes beyond the current state of research and opens up new fields of research. Of the 2,167 applications submitted, 269 were successful in the current selection round, corresponding to a success rate of approx. 12 percent.
Prof. Dr. Manfred Krifka is the Director of the Leibniz Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) and holds a professorship at the Institute for German Language and Linguistics at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He is a founding member and head of the admission committee of the Berlin School of Mind and Brain. His research focuses on semantics, pragmatics, syntax, language typology and oceanic languages.
Contact:
Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Prof. Dr. Manfred Krifka
krifka@leibniz-zas.de
Tel. +49 30 20192 401