The working group conducts an ongoing interdisciplinary investigation into a cluster of related questions about meaning in natural language and about its scientific study: what kind of phenomenon is linguistic meaning, and how can it be systematically and fruitfully investigated? These include methodological questions about the interaction between syntax, semantics and pragmatics -- the systematic relationships between the form of an expression, its meaning and the ways it is used in interpersonal communication. They also include philosophical questions about the nature of meaning. For example, what is the relationship between linguistic meaning and notions such as truth and representation? How does meaning relate to expressivity, the use of language as a vehicle for agents to express their cognitive and conative states? And how are facts about linguistic meaning related to more fundamental social, psychological, biological and other kinds of facts? The project is funded jointly by the Zukunftskolleg at the University of Konstanz and by the DFG Emmy Noether Research Group Understanding and the A Priori. Current & Upcoming Events Book Symposium Context with Robert Stalnaker 21 September 2015 Nate Charlow University of Toronto 13-17 July 2015 Research Retreat Filzbach 10-13 July 2015 with Ede Zimmermann, Ana Arregui, Maria Biezma, Lars Dänzer Reading group on Stephen Yablo's Aboutness (Princeton University Press 2014) Summer term 2015 Reading group on Robert Stalnaker's Context (Oxford University Press 2014) Summer Term 2015 |