Call for papers: LSA

The 2017 annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America will be January5-8 in Austin, Texas. Abstracts will be accepted for 20 minute papers and for posters until July 31, 2016. Abstracts are to be submitted through the LSA website. For more information, go here.

Call for papers: Towards an Ontology of Modal Flavors

Our understanding of modal meanings is crucially based on the notion of various modal flavors, which distinguish, for example, between epistemic and deontic readings. However, neither within nor across linguistic subfields is there any consensus about the exact ontology of those modal flavors. Thus, a common assumption in formal semantics is that there is a hierarchical distinction between modal meanings: there is a fundamental difference between epistemic and non-epistemic meanings, and the non-epistemic meanings can be split further into flavors such as deontic, bouletic, etc. (e.g., Hacquard, 2011). But the seminal typological study by Bybee et al. (1994) and subsequent work suggest that the distinction between participant-internal and participant-external flavors may be just as significant as the distinction between epistemic and non-epistemic ones. Moreover, current formal semantic approaches do not predict any interesting correlation between the dimensions of modal flavor and modal force, though Rubinstein (2012) has recently argued for some non-trivial correlations between force and varieties of non-epistemic modality. Meanwhile, typological research shows that the distinction between necessity and possibility may not apply to participant-internal flavors (Nauze, 2008). Insights from related disciplines likewise fail to converge. Thus, experimental research indicates that the distinction between moral and physical laws may not be as salient on a psychological level as one might expect from traditional approaches to modal flavors (Phillips, 2015). 

This workshop aims to provide a forum for researchers in formal semantics, typology, syntax, language description, psycholinguistics and language acquisition to address these issues in the analysis of linguistic modality, in order to gain a better understanding of the role of modal flavors in grammar and cognition. 

Invited speaker: 
alumna Aynat Rubinstein (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) 

Organizers: 
Kilu von Prince (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) 
Ryan Bochnak (University of Manchester) 
Anne Mucha (Universität Potsdam) 

References: 
Bybee, J. L, Perkins, Revere, & Pagliuca, W. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. The University of Chicago Press. 
Cinque, Guglielmo. 1999. Adverbs and functional heads: a cross-linguistic perspective. Oxford University Press. 
Hacquard, Valentine. 2011. Modality. Pages 1484–1515 of: von Heusinger, Klaus, Maienborn, Claudia, & Portner, Paul (eds), Semantics: An international handbook of contemporary research. de Gruyter. 
Nauze, Fabrice. 2008. Modality in typological perspective. Amsterdam: Institute for Logic, Language and Communication. 
Phillips, Jonathan Scott. 2015. The psychological representation of modality. Ph.D. thesis, Yale University. 
Rubinstein, Aynat. 2012. The roots of modality. Ph.D. thesis, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Call for Papers: 

We invite abstracts for talks (20 minutes presentation + 10 minutes for questions) for the workshop “Towards an ontology of modal flavors” to take place during the 39th Annual Meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, taking place March 8-10, 2017 at the Universität des Saarlandes in Saarbrücken, Germany (Homepage: http://dgfs2017.uni-saarland.de/wordpress/ , LinguistList: http://linguistlist.org/callconf/browse-conf-action.cfm?ConfID=246576). 

We invite contributions from a variety of fields including modal logic and formal semantics, typology, syntax, language description, psycholinguistics and language acquisition to discuss the nature of modal flavors and address, for example, one of the following questions: 

- What are possible candidates for modal flavors? 

- How strict are the boundaries between modal flavors? Are some distinctions more fundamental than others? 

- Are some of the distinctions between modal flavors based on a difference in syntactic positions, resulting in different interactions with negation and tense/aspect (as proposed by Cinque 1999, Hacquard 2011 and others)? 

- Are the dimensions of force and flavor independent from one another? 

- Are the dimensions of force and flavor sufficient to account for all the distinctions we find in natural languages? 

Abstracts should be a maximum of two pages (references may be on a third page), using a 12-point font and 2.5cm/1 inch margins on all four sides. Please submit anonymous abstracts in pdf format to modalflavorsaggmail.com by August 15, 2016. Please include your name, affiliation, and title of the abstract in the body of your email. 

Important dates: 

Call deadline: August 15, 2016 
Notification of acceptance: September 10, 2016 
Workshop dates: March 8-10, 2017

Call for papers: Conditionals at the Crossroads

Full Title: Conditionals at the Crossroads of Semantics and Pragmatics 

Date: 10-Nov-2016 - 11-Nov-2016 

Location: Konstanz, Germany 

Web Site: https://sites.google.com/site/conditionalsatthecrossroads/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics; Psycholinguistics; Semantics

Call Deadline: 24-Jul-2016 

Meeting Description:

Invited speakers: 
Itamar Francez (University of Chicago) 

Daniel Lassiter (Stanford University) 

Karen Lewis (Columbia University) 

UMass alumnus Kyle Rawlins (Johns Hopkins University) 

The workshop aims to bring together scholars working on linguistic issues both at the sentential and discourse level as well as scholars working at the junction of linguistics and philosophy. 

Particular topics of interest are but are not limited to: 

- Epistemic modals in probabilistic and non-probabilistic epistemic models 

- Tense, aspect and mood in the semantic composition of conditionals 

- Sobel sequences and related patterns 

- Licensing of Negative Polarity Items in conditionals and related constructions 

- Discourse particles and their occurrence in conditionals 

- Conditional perfection and other inferences derived from the interaction between conditionals and discourse 

- Semantics and pragmatics of quirky conditionals such as biscuit conditionals, chimeric conditionals, optative conditionals etc. 

Organizers: UMass alumna María Biezma and Maribel Romero 

Contact: conditionalsatthecrossroadsgmail.com 

Meeting website: https://sites.google.com/site/conditionalsatthecrossroads/

Call for Abstracts: 

We invite papers on the semantics and pragmatics of conditionals both from a theoretical and an experimental perspective. 
We invite submission of abstracts for 30-minute oral presentations (with additional 15 minutes for discussion). Abstracts must be anonymous and should be at most 2 pages (A4 or US Letter) in length, including examples and references, using a 12pt font with 1 inch (2.5 cm) margins on all four sides. The abstract must be submitted as a single PDF. Submissions are limited to two per author, with at most one paper being single-authored. 

Deadline for Submission: 24 July 2016 

Submit your abstract via EasyAbs: http://linguistlist.org/easyabs/condcrossroads 

(Abstract Submission opens on 1 June 2016)

Call for papers: CGSW

The 31st edition of the Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop will be a historic one as this will be the first CGSW to be held in Africa.

Stellenbosch University in South Africa’s beautiful Western Cape Province will be hosting this meeting, which will take place on 2-3 December 2016.

Invited Speakers
Roland Hinterhölzl (Venice)
Jason Merchant (Chicago)
Tarald Taraldsen (Tromsø)

Call for papers
We invite abstracts for thirty-minute talks (followed by ten minutes of discussion) on any aspect of comparative Germanic syntax, including diachronic syntax. Given the location of the conference, we are also very interested in research focusing on lesser studied Germanic varieties, particularly those that have developed and/or been used in contact situations, including “extraterritorial” varieties of continental Germanic. Papers focusing on formal aspects of “non-standard” varieties and on phenomena like code-switching are also very welcome, as are papers considering how aspects of the structure of non-Germanic languages spoken in southern Africa (may) have impacted on the structure of Germanic languages spoken in this part of the world.

Abstract Guidelines
Abstracts should not exceed two pages, with 2.5cm margins on all sides and a font size of 12pt. This includes data, references and diagrams.

Each author may submit no more than one single-authored and one co-authored abstract, or two co-authored ones.

Abstracts must be anonymous and prospective presenters should submit their abstract in pdf to:

http://conferences.sun.ac.za/index.php/cgsw31/cgsw31/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions

The deadline for submission is 31 May 2016.
Notification of acceptance by 1 July 2016.

Further information
Please feel free to visit the conference website at the following address:

http://conferences.sun.ac.za/cgsw31.

Here, you will (in due course) find information regarding CGSW31 itself, a pre-CGSW31 workshop involving international researchers (see below), visa applications, travel, and accommodation.

For local (Stellenbosch-related) information, please contact Erin Pretorius: erink@sun.ac.za

For directly CGSW-related information, please contact Theresa Biberauer: mtb23@cam.ac.uk

Additional workshop
This year, CGSW will be accompanied by a pre-workshop taught by Theresa Biberauer, Mara Frascarelli, Roland Hinterhölzl and Ian Roberts.

We look forward to receiving your abstracts! And then to welcoming you in Stellenbosch at a wonderful time of year!

Call for papers: BCGL

BCGL 9: Phase Theory
Brussels, December 13-14, 2016.

BCGL 9 will be followed by CRISSP 10, a one-day workshop celebrating the 10th anniversary of the research institute CRISSP featuring invited presentations by Luigi Rizzi, Alec Marantz, and Angelika Kratzer, among others.

BCGL 9: description

Throughout the history of generative grammar, there have been various ways of implementing locality effects, for example through Transformational Cycles (Chomsky 1965; Kayne 1969) or Barriers (Chomsky 1986). Phase Theory (Uriagereka 1999; Chomsky 2000, 2001) constitutes the most recent development in this line of thinking. It is often argued that there exist discrete structural domains in natural language that exhibit a degree of syntactic, semantic, and phonological independence from their surrounding linguistic environment. Phase Theory offers a tool for understanding such domains. However, since the inception of phases, there have been many different proposals about the specific formalization of this concept, along with much debate about the extent to which phases can be evidenced empirically (and indeed whether phases exist at all). The aim of this workshop is to discuss the empirical validity and theoretical specifics of Phase Theory. The questions and issues this workshop aims to address, include, but are not limited to the following:

• What are the empirical diagnostics for phases and how reliable are these? Common diagnostics for phases are:
  • (related to the narrow syntax) successive-cyclic movement (islands), agreement, binding conditions, quantifier scope, and parasitic gaps (Fox 1998; Nissenbaum 1998; Legate 2003);
  • (related to the PF-interface) ellipsis (Holmberg 1999, 2001; Gengel 2007, 2008), and prosodic rule application (Sato 2009);
  • (related to the LF-interface) idiomatic expressions (Svenonius 2005; Harwood & Temmerman 2015; Kim 2015).
• What is the definition of a phase? Do phases correspond to sub-numerations (Chomsky 2000, 2001), spell-out domains and/or workspaces (Uriagereka 1999)? Or do they need to be defined in terms of e.g. Prolific Domains (Grohmann 2003), Layered Derivations (Zwart 2009), or Cyclic Linearization (Fox & Pesetsky 2003, 2005)? Related questions are: What is the timing of spell-out and what exactly is spelled out (Chomsky 2000, 2001; Fox & Pesetsky 2003, 2005; Richards 2011; Bošković 2014)?
• What does the inventory of phases look like: CP, vP, DP, PP, …? Is the size of a phase fixed? Are phases rigid and absolute or context-sensitive (cf. Bošković (2013, 2014), Wurmbrand (2013) and Harwood (2015) for dynamic phases, Den Dikken (2007) for phase extension, and Gallego (2010) for phase sliding)?
• To what extent do phases at one interface (necessarily) coincide with phases at another interface (Marušič 2005; d’Alessandro & Scheer 2015)?

Abstract guidelines

Abstracts should be anonymous, and submissions are limited to 2 per author, at least one of which must be co-authored. They must not exceed two pages, including data, references and diagrams. The font should be at least 11-point, with one-inch margins. They should be submitted as pdf-documents through EasyChair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=bcgl9

Important dates

First call for papers: May 3, 2016.
Second call for papers: August 1, 2016.
Abstract submission deadline: September 1, 2016.
Notification of acceptance: October 1, 2016.

Conference location

CRISSP – KU Leuven Brussels Campus
Warmoesberg 26
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Conference organizers

Jeroen van Craenenbroeck
Will Harwood
Dany Jaspers
Cora Pots
Koen Roelandt
Jolijn Sonnaert
Tanja Temmerman
Guido Vanden Wyngaerd

Websites

http://www.crissp.be/bcgl9
http://www.crissp.be/10

Call for papers: Workshop on Complex Predicates

Workshop on Complex Predicates in Iranian Languages

University of Tehran,

Tehran, IRAN,

10-11 September 2016

https://sites.google.com/site/cprut2016/

 Deadline for abstract submission: May 20, 2016   

Guidelines are available on https://sites.google.com/site/cprut2016/call

Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

- emergence of complex predicates

-complex predicates as light verb constructions

-idioms as complex predicates   

-argument structure of complex predicates  

-event structure of complex predicates  

-active/non-active distinction and argument alternation   

-phonological properties of complex predicates

Keynote speakers:

Mohammad Dabir-Moghaddam (Professor, Allameh Tabataba'i University)

Simin Karimi (Professor, University of Arizona)

Pollet Samvelian (Professor, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle & CNRS)

Extended Deadline: Cognitive Structures: Linguistic, Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives

Full Title: Cognitive Structures: Linguistic, Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives

Short Title: Cognitive Structures

Date: September 15–17, 2016

Location: Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany.

Meeting Email: cognitive-structures@phil.hhu.de

Web Site: http://cognitive-structures.phil.hhu.de

Field(s): General and Computational Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology, Cognitive Science

Extended Deadline: May 1, 2016

Meeting Description

The DFG Collaborative Research Centre 991: The Structure of Representations in Language, Cognition, and Science (Düsseldorf, Germany) invites abstracts for its biannual conference that aims to cover a broad range of research on language and cognition. 

We are especially interested in theoretical, empirical and experimental work exploring the nature of mental representations that support natural language production/understanding, other manifestations of cognition as well as general reasoning about the world. One fundamental question raised in this general topic area is whether the requisite knowledge structures can be adequately modeled by means of a uniform representational format, and if so, what exactly is its nature. 

Topics addressed may include, but are not limited to, the following:

* frames, which have had a strong impact on the exploration of knowledge representations in artificial intelligence, psychology and linguistics: e.g., formal theories of frames (including their modeling by means of DAGs, AVMs), frame semantics and constructions, frame induction, linking frame semantics to truth conditional semantics

*concepts and categorization: formation/acquisition of concepts, concept types and shifts, grounding of concepts, prototypes, concept empiricism, conceptual spaces and similarity of concepts, statistical concepts;

*experimental investigation of mental representation;

*semantic interpretation and mental representation: the syntax/semantics interface, compositionality, lexical semantic decomposition, (dynamic) representation of aspect and tense, temporal sequencing in discourse.

Submissions are welcome from any area within cognitive science, including linguistics, computer science, philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence and neuroscience. Accepted participants will be allotted 25 minutes to present and 10 minutes to answer questions. Accepted participants will be invited to submit their papers for the conference proceedings.

Invited Speakers

Lawrence Barsalou (University of Glasgow)

Verity Brown (University of St Andrews)

UMass alumnus Robin Cooper (Gothenburg University)

Igor Douven (CNRS and Paris-Sorbonne University)

Adele Goldberg (Princeton University)

Manfred Krifka (Humboldt University and ZAS Berlin)

UMass alumnus Marcin Morzycki (Michigan State University)

Francois Recanati (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris)

Guidelines for Submission

Abstracts must be anonymous, in PDF format, maximally 800 words, excluding bibliographical references. Data should be incorporated into the main text of the abstract, not on a separate page.
All abstracts will be reviewed anonymously by at least two reviewers. Abstracts should not include the authors’ names, and authors are asked to avoid self-references.

Use the EasyChair platform for the submission of abstracts: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cost16

Submission Contact cognitive-structures@phil.hhu.de

Important datesExtended Deadline: May 1, 2016Notification of acceptance: May 30, 2016 Conference: September 15–17, 2016

Call for papers: NELS

UMass is hosting the Forty Seventh annual meeting of the North East Linguistic Society in early October, 2016. Invited speakers are Klaus Abels, Cleo Condoravdi, Roumyana Pancheva and our own Gaja Jarosz. There are two special sessions: one on linearization of syntactic structures and one on grammatical illusions at the grammar-processing interface. Deadline for abstracts is the last minute of June 15.

For more information, go here.

Call for papers: XI Workshop on Formal Linguistics

We are pleased to announce the XI Workshop on Formal Linguistics, to be held on November 9, 10 and 11, 2016, at Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR) in Curitiba, Brazil. The Workshop welcomes papers on any topic concerning formal accounts to meaning and structure with relevance to linguistic theory, and which explores either core aspects of grammar or some interface phenomena (syntax-semantic, syntax-prosody, morpho-syntax, morpho-phonology, semantics-pragmatics, lexical semantics, language acquisition, language change).

Invited Speakers

Susan Rothstein – Bar-Ilan University
Jenny Doetjes – University of Leiden
Virgina Hill – University of New Brunswick
Suzi Lima – Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

http://sites.google.com/site/workshopformallinguistics/

CALL FOR PAPERS

We invite abstract submissions for the Workshop for 20-minute talks (plus 10 minutes for discussion) and/or posters (posters should measure approx. 3ft x 4ft or 90cm x 120cm) on any aspect of the topics of the Conference.

All abstracts should be written in English and anonymous, no more than two pages in length (including examples and references), font Times New Roman, in 12-point font, 8.5x11-inch page setup (= US Letter), with 1-inch margins. Submissions are limited to one individual and one joint abstract per author.
When you submit your abstract please indicate whether you would like it to be considered (i) for a talk only; (ii) for a talk or a poster; or (iii) for a poster only.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: June 15th, 2016

NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE: by July

To submit an abstract, go to:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wfl2016

Call for papers: Situations, Information, and Semantic Content

Full Title: Situations, Information, and Semantic Content 

Date: 16-Dec-2016 - 18-Dec-2016 

Location: Munich, Bavaria, Germany Contact Person: Kristina

Web Site: http://www.situatedcontent2016.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de 

Call Deadline: 29-May-2016

Backgrounds, Aim, and Scope: 

The semantic content of natural language is multiply situated: Whether an utterance receives one interpretation or another depends on the discourse situation (in which the utterance takes place), on the target situation (which is described by the utterance), and on the interpreting agents' informational situation (which also contains the agents' background knowledge). Over the past decades, work on extralinguistic context-dependence has focused on discourse situations and target situations, and has paid less attention to the dependence of interpretation on the agents' informational situation. However, this kind of information-dependence plays a crucial role in the explanation of a number of semantic phenomena, including the behavior of epistemic/deontic modals and propositional attitude-sentences. Recent research in situated cognition has suggested an even more general scope of semantic information-dependence. The latter assumes that cognition (and therefore, all linguistic understanding) is fundamentally embedded in the situational context of the cognition. 
This workshop aims to bring together linguists, philosophers, logicians, and cognitive and computer scientists to discuss the information-dependence of the semantic content of natural language. It covers all aspects of the interaction between situations, information, and semantic content -- both theoretical and experimental --, including 

- agents' information and semantic content 

- the scope of information-dependence in natural language 

- analyses of semantic phenomena featuring information-dependence 

- experiments on semantic information-dependence 

- the impact of agents' information on attitude attributions - semantic aspects of situated cognition 

- situation theory and situation semantics 

- data semantics and dynamic/update semantics 

- (partial) information and situations 

- the formal analysis of (informational) situations 

- the formal analysis of background knowledge 

- partiality of information - type-theoretic approaches to information 

Invited Speakers: 

- Robin Cooper (University of Gothenburg) 

- Nikola Kompa (Osnabrück University) 

- Roussanka Loukanova (Stockholm University) 

- Friedrike Moltmann (CNRS Paris, New York University) 

- Floris Roelofsen (University of Amsterdam/ILLC) 

- Markus Werning (Ruhr University Bochum) 

- Thomas Ede Zimmermann (Goethe University of Frankfurt) 

- more speakers to be confirmed 

Call for papers: DSALT

DSALT: Distributional Semantics and Linguistic Theory

ESSLLI 2016 Workshop

15-19 August 2016, Bolzano, Italy

* Two-page abstract submission deadline: April 7 2016 *

URL: http://esslli2016.unibz.it/?page_id=256

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

The DSALT workshop seeks to foster discussion at the intersection of distributional semantics and various subfields of theoretical linguistics, with the goal of boosting the impact of distributional semantics on linguistic research beyond lexical semantic phenomena, as well as broadening the empirical basis and theoretical tools used in linguistics. We welcome contributions regarding the theoretical interpretation  of distributional vector spaces and/or their application to theoretical morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse, dialogue, and any other subfield of linguistics. Potential topics of interest include, among others:

* distributional semantics and morphology: How do results in the distributional semantics-morphology interface impact theoretical accounts of morphology? Can distributional models account for inflectional morphology? Can they shed light on phenomena like productivity and regularity?

* distributional semantics and syntax: How can compositionality at the semantic level interact with syntactic structure? Can we go beyond the state of the art in accounting for the syntax-semantics interface when it interacts with lexical semantics? How can distributional accounts for gradable syntactic phenomena, e.g. selectional preferences or argument alternations, be integrated into theoretical linguistic accounts?

* distributional semantics and formal semantics: How can distributional representations be related to the traditional components of a semantics for natural languages, especially reference and truth? Can distributional models be integrated with discourse- or dialogue-oriented semantic theories like file change semantics or inquisitive semantics?

* distributional semantics and discourse: Distributional semantics has shown to be able to model some aspects of discourse coherence at a global level (Landauer and Dumais 1997, a.o.); can it also help with other discourse-related phenomena, such as the choice of discourse particles, nominal and verbal anaphora, or the form of referring expressions as discourse unfolds?

* distributional semantics and dialogue: Distributional semantics has traditionally been mostly static, in the sense that it creates a semantic representation for a word once and for all. Can it be made dynamic so it can help model, for example, phenomena related to Questions Under Discussion (QUDs) in dialogue? Can distributional representations help predict the relations between utterance units in dialogue?

* distributional semantics and pragmatics: Distributional semantics is based on the statistics of language use, and therefore should include information related to pragmatics of language. How do distributional models relate to such aspects of pragmatics as focus, pragmatic presupposition, or conversational implicature?

SUBMISSIONS

We solicit two-page (plus references) abstracts in at most 11pt font. No proceedings will be published, so workshop submissions may discuss published work (as well as unpublished work). The abstract submission deadline is April 7, 2016. Submissions are accepted by email at dsalt2016@gmail.com.

IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for abstract submission: April 7 2016
Author notification: May 15 2016
Workshop dates: August 15-19 2016

Call for papers: Sinn und Bedeutung

Sinn und Bedeutung 21 will take place in Edinburgh, from Sun 4th-Tues 6th September 2016.

Confirmed invited speakers:

-Sigrid Beck (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

- Paul Elbourne (Magdalen College, Oxford)

We invite abstract submissions for oral presentations or posters, devoted to natural language semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, and psycholinguistic investigations related to meaning. Oral presentations will be scheduled for 40 minute slots (30 minutes talk + 10 minutes discussion).

Abstracts should contain original research that, at the time of submission, has neither been published nor accepted for publication. One person can submit at most one abstract as sole author and one abstract as co-author (or two co-authored abstracts).

Abstracts must be anonymous, in PDF format, 2 pages (A4 or letter), in a font size no less than 12pt, and with margins of 1 inch/2.5cm. Please submit abstracts via EasyChair (see link below) no later than March 31, 2016.

Abstracts should be submitted via EasyChair, using the following link:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sub21

For further information, please contact Rob Truswell (rob.truswell@ed.ac.uk).

Call for papers: IATL

We are pleased to announce the 32nd annual conference of the Israel Association for Theoretical Linguistics (IATL), which will take place at the Language, Logic and Cognition Center at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, October 25-27, 2016. The conference will consist of a general session as well as a special session on experimental and historical approaches to semantics.

General Session:

We invite submissions of abstracts for 30 minute presentations of previously unpublished research in all areas of theoretical linguistics.

Special Session – Experimental and historical approaches to semantics:

Research into issues in natural language semantics from experimental, on the one hand, and historical perspective, on the other hand, has been gaining in prominence in recent years, not least because it provides new ways of evaluating extant linguistic hypotheses as well as impetus for the development of new ones. We invite submissions of abstracts on experimental and historical studies that will expand the empirical domain of, and be informed by, formal semantic theory.

Invited Speakers:

Cleo Condoravdi (Stanford)

Uli Sauerland (ZAS)

Abstract Submission Guidelines:

Abstracts should be no longer than two pages, including examples and references. Page format: A4, 2,54cm (one inch) margins on all sides, 12-point font, single line spacing. Submissions are restricted to at most one single-authored and one co-authored abstract.

Please submit abstracts to the IATL EasyChair site:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iatl32

Please register at the site as an author, and when you receive a password, you can enter the site and submit your abstract. The abstract should be submitted in PDF format through the 'Upload Paper' section near the bottom of the page. (Note: Higher up on the page, in the 'Title and Abstract' section, there is a box for a plain-text abstract. Since we do not require a shorter abstract, you may simply retype the title of the paper in the abstract box and the intended session.) When submitting your abstract, please indicate on the top of the abstract whether you intend your paper to be considered for the general session or the special session (or both) (say, in parentheses following the title).

Deadline: March 31, 2016

Important Dates:
March 31, 2016: Abstract submission deadline

Late May, 2016: Notification of acceptance to authors

October 25-27, 2016: IATL 32 Conference

IATL 32 web site: http://www.iatl.org.il/?page_id=970

If you have questions or encounter any problems, please contact Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal ebas@mail.huji.ac.il or Luka Crnic luka.crnic@mail.huji.ac.il.

Call for papers: NISM 2016

NISM 2016: New Ideas in Semantics and Modeling 

Paris, September 7-8 2016

http://nism2016.sciencesconf.org/

We are very pleased to announce the first edition of the new series New Ideas in Semantics and Modeling 2016 (NISM2016), which will take place in Paris, September 7 and 8, 2016.

The conferences New Ideas in Semantics and Modeling resume the Journées de Sémantique et Modélisation (JSM 2003-2010), targeting the renewed community in Formal Semantics and Pragmatics. Papers from any theoretical framework are welcome, granted that new empirical data are clearly complemented with a formal analysis.

This year, the conference will feature a thematic session on definites, indefinites, demonstratives and referential terms, in honor of Francis Corblin, founder of the JSM.

Talks will be 35 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.

In addition to the general session, submissions are also invited for the special session on definites, indefinites, demonstratives and referential terms.The conference will also feature a poster session.

Invited Speakers

Elizabeth Coppock (Gothenburg University & Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study)

Henriette de Swart (Utrecht University)

Paul Portner (Georgetown University)

François Recanati (Institut Jean-Nicod, ENS-EHESS-CNRS)

Abstract submission:

Papers in formal semantics and pragmatics are welcome. Experimental papers are welcome, granted that they provide a formal analysis of the data.

Abstracts (neither submitted nor published elsewhere) are limited to two per author, with at most one paper being single-authored.
Abstracts, including references and data, should be limited to two single spaced pages (A4 or US Letter) with one inch margins, minimum font size 12pt (Times New Roman). They must be in PDF format. Examples should be interspersed throughout the text.
Abstracts can be submitted in English or French, but the language of the conference will be English.

Anonymous abstracts must be submitted online at http://nism2016.sciencesconf.org, by March 31, 2016.

Abstracts will be triply blind-reviewed.

Proceedings:
We plan to publish the proceedings of the conference.

Organizers

Claire Beyssade (Structures Formelles du Langage, Paris 8 University)

Alda Mari (Institut Jean-Nicod, ENS-EHESS-CNRS)

David Nicolas (Institut Jean-Nicod, ENS-EHESS-CNRS)

Schedule:
Deadline for abstract submission: March 31, 2016

Notification of acceptance: May 31, 2016

Conference : 7-8 September 2016

Call for papers: ESSLLI

*ESSLLI 2016 STUDENT SESSION*

Held during the 28th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information

Bolzano, Italy, August 15-26, 2016

*EXTENDED Deadline for submissions: March 15th, 2016*
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=essllistus2016

*ABOUT:*
The Student Session of the 28th European Summer School in Logic, Language, and Information (ESSLLI) will take place in Bolzano, Italy, August 15th to 26th (http://esslli2016.unibz.it). We invite submissions of original, unpublished work from students in any area at the intersection of Logic & Language, Language & Computation, or Logic & Computation. Submissions will be reviewed by several experts in the field, and accepted papers will be presented orally or as posters and selected papers will appear in the Student Session proceedings by Springer. This is an excellent opportunity to receive valuable feedback from expert readers and to present your work to a diverse audience.

*ORAL/POSTER PRESENTATIONS:*
Note that there are two separate kinds of submissions, one for oral presentations and one for posters. This means that papers are directly submitted either as oral presentations or as poster presentations.
Reviewing and ranking will be done separately. We particularly encourage submissions for posters, as they offer an excellent opportunity to present smaller research projects and research in progress.

*SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:*
Authors must be students, and submissions may be singly or jointly authored. Each author may submit at most one single and one jointly authored contribution. Submissions should not be longer than 8 pages for an oral presentation or 4 pages for a poster presentation (including examples and references). Submissions must be anonymous, without any identifying information. More detailed guidelines regarding submission can be found on the Student Session website:
http://www2.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/esslli-stus-2016/.

*SPONSORSHIP AND PRIZES*
As in previous years, Springer has kindly agreed to sponsor the ESSLLI student session. The best poster and best talk will be awarded Springer book vouchers of 500€ each.

*FURTHER INFORMATION:*
Please direct inquiries about submission procedures or other matters relating to the Student Session to marisa.koellner@uni-tuebingen.de and rziai@sfs.uni-tuebingen.de.

ESSLLI 2016 will feature a wide range of foundational and advanced courses and workshops in all areas of Logic, Language, and Computation. For further information, including registration information and course listings, and for general inquiries about ESSLLI 2016, please consult the main ESSLLI 2016 page: http://esslli2016.unibz.it.

Call for papers: Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop

The 31st edition of the Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop will be a historic one as this will be the first CGSW to be held in Africa. Stellenbosch University in South Africa’s beautiful Western Cape Province will be hosting this meeting, which will take place on 2-3 December 2016.

Invited Speakers

Roland Hinterhölzl (Venice)

Jason Merchant (Chicago)

Tarald Taraldsen (Tromsø)

Call for papers

We invite abstracts for thirty-minute talks (followed by ten minutes of discussion) on any aspect of comparative Germanic syntax, including diachronic syntax. Given the location of the conference, we are also very interested in research focusing on lesser studied Germanic varieties, particularly those that have developed and/or been used in contact situations, including “extraterritorial” varieties ofcontinental Germanic. Papers focusing on formal aspects of “non-standard” varieties and on phenomena like code-switching are also very welcome, as are papers considering how aspects of the structure of non-Germanic languages spoken in southern Africa (may) have impacted on the structure of Germanic languages spoken in this part ofthe world.

Abstract Guidelines

Abstracts should not exceed two pages, with 2.5cm margins on all sides and a font size of 12pt. This includes data, references and diagrams.

Each author may submit no more than one single-authored and one co-authored abstract, or two co-authored ones.

Abstracts must be anonymous and prospective presenters should submit their abstract in pdf to:
http://conferences.sun.ac.za/index.php/cgsw31/cgsw31/about/submissions#online

Submissions

The deadline for submission is 31 May 2016.

Notification of acceptance by 1 July 2016.

Further informationPlease feel free to visit the conference website at the following address:

http://conferences.sun.ac.za/cgsw31.

Here, you will (in due course) find information regarding CGSW 31 itself, a pre-CGSW31 workshop involving international researchers (seebelow), visa applications, travel, and accommodation.

For local (Stellenbosch-related) information, please contact Erin Pretorius: erink@sun.ac.za

For directly CGSW-related information, please contact Theresa Biberauer: mtb23@cam.ac.uk

Call for papers: Sinn und Bedeutung

Sinn und Bedeutung 21 will take place in Edinburgh, from Sun 4th-Tues 6th September 2016.

We invite abstract submissions for oral presentations or posters, devoted to natural language semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, and psycholinguistic investigations related to meaning. Oral presentations will be scheduled for 40 minute slots (30 minutes talk + 10 minutes discussion).

Abstracts should contain original research that, at the time of submission, has neither been published nor accepted for publication. One person can submit at most one abstract as sole author and one abstract as co-author (or two co-authored abstracts).

Abstracts must be anonymous, in PDF format, 2 pages (A4 or letter), in a font size no less than 12pt, and with margins of 1 inch/2.5cm. Please submit abstracts via EasyChair (see link below) no later than March 31, 2016. When you submit your abstract, you will be asked to indicate whether you would like it to be considered for a talk, a poster or both.

Abstracts should be submitted via EasyChair, using the following link:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sub21

For further information, please contact Rob Truswell (rob.truswell@ed.ac.uk).

Call for papers ESSLLI

*2nd Call for Papers*

*ESSLLI 2016 STUDENT SESSION*

Held during the 28th European Summer School in Logic, Language andInformation

Bolzano, Italy, August 15-26, 2016

*Deadline for submissions: March 10th, 2016

*https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=essllistus2016

*ABOUT:*

The Student Session of the 28th European Summer School in Logic,Language, and Information (ESSLLI) will take place in Bolzano, Italy, August 15th to 26th (http://esslli2016.unibz.it). We invite submissions of original, unpublished work from students in any area at theintersection of Logic & Language, Language & Computation, or Logic &Computation. Submissions will be reviewed by several experts in thefield, and accepted papers will be presented orally or as posters andselected papers will appear in the Student Session proceedings bySpringer. This is an excellent opportunity to receive valuable feedbackfrom expert readers and to present your work to a diverse audience.

*ORAL/POSTER PRESENTATIONS:*

Note that there are two separate kinds of submissions, one for oral presentations and one for posters. This means that papers are directly submitted either as oral presentations or as poster presentations. Reviewing and ranking will be done separately. We particularly encourage submissions for posters, as they offer an excellent opportunity to present smaller research projects and research in progress.

*SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:*

Authors must be students, and submissions may be singly or jointly authored. Each author may submit at most one single and one jointly authored contribution. Submissions should not be longer than 8 pages foran oral presentation or 4 pages for a poster presentation (including examples and references). Submissions must be anonymous, without any identifying information. More detailed guidelines regarding submissioncan be found on the Student Session website: http://www2.sfs.unituebingen.de/esslli-stus-2016/.

*SPONSORSHIP AND PRIZES*

As in previous years, Springer has kindly agreed to sponsor the ESSLLI student session. The best poster and best talk will be awarded Springerbook vouchers of 500€ each.

*FURTHER INFORMATION:*

Please direct inquiries about submission procedures or other matters relating to the Student Session to marisa.koellner@uni-tuebingen.de andrziai@sfs.uni-tuebingen.de.

ESSLLI 2016 will feature a wide range of foundational and advanced courses and workshops in all areas of Logic, Language, and Computation. For further information, including registration information and courselistings, and for general inquiries about ESSLLI 2016, please consult the main ESSLLI 2016 page: http://esslli2016.unibz.it.

Call for papers: New Ideas in Semantics and Modeling

We are very pleased to announce the first edition of the new series New Ideas in Semantics and Modeling 2016 (NISM2016), which will take place in Paris,  September 7 and 8, 2016.

The conferences New Ideas in Semantics and Modeling resume the Journées de Sémantique et Modélisation (JSM 2003-2010), targeting the renewed community in Formal Semantics and Pragmatics. Papers from any theoretical framework are welcome, granted that new empirical data are clearly complemented with a formal analysis. 

This year, the conference will feature a thematic session on definites, indefinites, demonstratives and referential terms, in honor of Francis Corblin, founder of the JSM.

Invited Speakers

Elizabeth Coppock (Gothenburg University & Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study)

Henriette de Swart (Utrecht University)

Paul Portner (Georgetown University)

François Recanati (Institut Jean-Nicod, ENS-EHESS-CNRS)

Organizers

Claire Beyssade (Structures Formelles du Langage, Paris 8 University)

Alda Mari (Institut Jean-Nicod, ENS-EHESS-CNRS)

David Nicolas (Institut Jean-Nicod, ENS-EHESS-CNRS)

Talks and posters

Talks will be 35 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion.In addition to the general session, submissions are also invited for the special session on definites, indefinites, demonstratives and referential terms.The conference will also feature a poster session.

Abstract submission

Papers in formal semantics and pragmatics are welcome. Experimental papers are welcome, granted that they provide a formal analysis of the data. Abstracts (neither submitted nor published elsewhere) are limited to two per author, with at most one paper being single-authored. Abstracts, including references and data, should be limited to two single spaced pages (A4 or US Letter) with one inch margins, minimum font size 12pt (Times New Roman). They must be in PDF format. Examples should be interspersed throughout the text. Abstracts can be submitted in English or French, but the language of the conference will be English. Anonymous abstracts must be submitted online at http://nism2016.sciencesconf.org, by March 31, 2016. Abstracts will be triply blind-reviewed.

Proceedings

We plan to publish the proceedings of the conference.

Schedule

Deadline for abstract submission: March 31, 2016

Notification of acceptance: May 31, 2016

Conference : 7-8 September 2016

Call for papers: IATL

We are pleased to announce the 32nd annual conference of the Israel
Association for Theoretical Linguistics (IATL), which will take place
at the Language, Logic and Cognition Center at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, October 25-27, 2016. The conference will consist of a
general session as well as a special session on experimental and
historical approaches to semantics.

General Session:

We invite submissions of abstracts for 30 minute presentations of
previously unpublished research in all areas of theoretical
linguistics.

Special Session – Experimental and historical approaches to semantics:

Research into issues in natural language semantics from experimental,
on the one hand, and historical perspective, on the other hand, has
been gaining in prominence in recent years, not least because it
provides new ways of evaluating extant linguistic hypotheses as well
as impetus for the development of new ones. We invite submissions of
abstracts on experimental and historical studies that will expand the
empirical domain of, and be informed by, formal semantic theory.

Invited Speakers:

Cleo Condoravdi (Stanford)
Uli Sauerland (ZAS)

Abstract Submission Guidelines:

Abstracts should be no longer than two pages, including examples and
references. Page format: A4, 2,54cm (one inch) margins on all sides,
12-point font, single line spacing. Submissions are restricted to at
most one single-authored and one co-authored abstract.

Please submit abstracts to the IATL EasyChair site:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=iatl32

Please register at the site as an author, and when you receive a
password, you can enter the site and submit your abstract. The
abstract should be submitted in PDF format through the 'Upload Paper'
section near the bottom of the page. (Note: Higher up on the page, in
the 'Title and Abstract' section, there is a box for a plain-text
abstract. Since we do not require a shorter abstract, you may simply
retype the title of the paper in the abstract box and the intended
session.) When submitting your abstract, please indicate on the top of
the abstract whether you intend your paper to be considered for the
general session or the special session (or both) (say, in parentheses
following the title).

Deadline: March 31, 2016

Important Dates:

March 31, 2016: Abstract submission deadline
Late May, 2016: Notification of acceptance to authors
October 25-27, 2016: IATL 32 Conference
IATL 32 web site: http://www.iatl.org.il/?page_id=970

If you have questions or encounter any problems, please contact
Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal ebas@mail.huji.ac.il or Luka Crnic
luka.crnic@mail.huji.ac.il.