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http://xkcd.com/1301/

Deadline Extended for Language and Other Minds

The submission deadline for the Language and Other Minds workshop at Maryland, with invited talks Mandy Simons and Jason Stanley, has been extended to December 30.  A fuller description follows.

PHLING, a research group of students and faculty from the departments of linguistics and philosophy at the University of Maryland, invites student contributions to PHLINC 2: Language and Other Minds, our second biennial conference on topics at the intersection of linguistics, philosophy, and neighboring disciplines. The topic of Language and Other Minds is attitudes and attitude ascriptions, with a special emphasis on knowledge ascriptions and related phenomena such as presupposition, factivity, and evidentiality.

The use of language relates to an awareness of other minds in two important ways. First, communication depends fundamentally on a sensitivity to the intentions and beliefs of others in conversation. Presupposition and implicature are interesting special cases of this. Second, with verbs like "think" and "know", we can talk about mental states explicitly, in ways that create familiar semantic challenges. Acquiring a language therefore involves the development of competence in both areas, not a simple task.

In this conference, we invite discussion of both sorts of relations between language and other minds, from the perspectives of philosophy, linguistics and cognitive or developmental psychology. What understanding of knowledge, belief, desire and intention is expressed in the meanings of attitude verbs? In what ways does the use of such verbs rely on pragmatic enrichment? What is the correct understanding of knowledge in conversation, as expressed in presuppositions, evidentials, or epistemic modals? By what path do children become competent in these various areas? And what does this tell us about the linguistic representation of mental states, or semantic theories of attitude verbs?

The conference will feature talks by invited speakers Mandy Simons (Carnegie Mellon University) and Jason Stanley (Yale University), as well as a special discussion session on acquisition issues in this area, led by Shevaun Lewis (Johns Hopkins University).

Submissions are open to graduate student researchers only. Presenters will have 30 minutes to present their work, followed by 15 minutes for round-table discussion. Submissions to the conference may take one of two forms, depending on the author’s preferences:

Type 1: Abstract. Maximum of 1 page of text single-spaced, 12pt font, with an additional page for examples, figures, and references.

Type 2: Paper. Maximum 4000 words, double-spaced, 12pt font, suitable for a 30 minute presentation. Please include references.
All submissions will be considered by an interdisciplinary panel of reviewers. As a goal of the conference is to bring together researchers with a strong focus on interdisciplinary cognitive science, reviewers will be looking for evidence in abstract/paper submissions that the author(s) are able to communicate effectively to individuals outside of their primary field.

We will be accepting submissions until December *30th*, 2013, with final selections to be made by January 15th, 2014. Abstracts should be uploaded to EasyChair (abstracts, like papers, should be loaded as a separate document).

Call for papers: Semantics/Syntax Interface online Journal

Semantics-Syntax Interface seeks to provide a platform for the discussion of theoretical developments in syntax/semantics interface based on formal and experimental methods. Edited by young scholars, Semantics-Syntax Interface welcomes research articles, short contributions (squibs, replies) as well as review articles. The journal publishes studies mainly focused on (but not limited to) mood and modality, quantification, argument structure, tense, aspect, event structure, and negation. All submissions will undergo double-blind review.

Semantics-Syntax Interface is an open access journal, freely available to all online readers at http://semantics-syntax.ut.ac.ir/.

Guidelines for authors are available here.
For questions, contact semsynut.ac.ir.

Deadline for submissions to the inaugural issue is 28 February 2014.

Call for papers: SLA symposium in Madison

The SLA Graduate Student Organization at UW-Madison is organizing an annual SLA symposium which for next year will be held on April 11-12, 2014.  They are accepting abstracts;  the deadline is February 1, 2014. 

 

 For more information go here. 

 

Call for papers: NASSLLI at Maryland June 23-27

The North American Summer School for Logic, Language and Information (NASSLLI) welcomes paper submissions for presentation at its Student Session. Submissions may be in any of the fields related to the school (logic and language, logic and computation, or language and computation) and should represent original, unpublished work by individuals who will not yet have received their Ph.D. by the time of the conference.

The Student Session will co-occur with NASSLLI and provides students an excellent opportunity to present their work to experts in their field as well as to a broader, well-informed interdisciplinary audience. All submissions will be reviewed by at least three specialists who will provide commentary on the paper regardless of its acceptance status.

Submissions should be prepared for blind review (i.e., should not contain any information identifying the author) and should be uploaded as a .pdf file to the Student Session’s EasyChair site. Submissions should not exceed 10 pages and should be formatted standardly (11 or 12 point font, 1 inch margins).

No more than one-single authored and one co-authored paper should be submitted by an individual. (All co-authors should also be students.) Authors whose submissions have been accepted and who intend to present will be required to register for NASSLLI.

IMPORTANT DATES:
Submissions due: February 28, 2014 (by midnight)
Notifications: April 14, 2014

WEBSITES:
Submissions
NASSLLI 2014: http://www.nasslli2014.com/