The workshop "The meaning of numerals: cognitive, experimental, and semantic perspectives" will take place in Berlin at Leibniz-Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) March 27-28, 2019.
The meaning of numerals is a much researched topic in experimental pragmatics (e.g. Breheny 2008; Cummins, Sauerland, Solt 2012), cognitive science (e.g. Dehaene 2011), and theoretical semantics and pragmatics (e.g. Horn 1989; Krifka 1999; Fox & Hackl 2006; Kennedy 2015; Rothstein 2017). This workshop primarily targets contributions that enhance our understanding of numerals by combining insights and methods from several of these research fields. In particular, the imprecise use of numerical expressions (10km away) and vague expectations raised by modified numerals (more than 100 people came) call for such combined approaches. The topic also fits well with the more recent interest in probabilistic models that try to account for vague expectation raised by numerical expressions (e.g. Kao, Wu, Bergen, Goodman 2014). Topics of the workshop include, but are not limited to, the following issues:
- Vagueness, roundness, and the approximate number system
- Pragmatic and semantic explanations of number interpretations
- Acquisition of number sense and numerical meaning
- Bayesian and neural models of numerical meanings
- Meaning of numerals in compositional semantics
- Comparatives, approximators, and other linguistic modifiers of numerical expressions
- Typology of number systems and their modifiers
Important dates
| Abstract submissions due: | January 7, 2019 |
| Notification of acceptance: | February 1, 2019 |
| Camera-ready abstracts due: | March 1, 2019 |
| Workshop: | March 27-28, 2019 |
Submissions
We invite talks on the meaning of numerals from cognitive, experimental, and semantic perspectives. Anonymous 2-page abstracts (including references). Stylesheets: Word, Latex, Pages. Please submit via EasyChair.
Invited speakers
- Lisa Bylinina (Leiden University)
- Chris Cummins (University of Edinburgh)
- Véronique Izard (CNRS & Université Paris Descartes)
Organizing committee
- Anton Benz
- Stephanie Solt
- Paul Egré
- Christoph Hesse