ESSLLI'2005 Workshop on

Empirical Challenges and Analytical Alternatives to Strict Compositionality

August 8 - 12, 2005

A workshop held as part of the
17th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI-2005)
August 8-19, 2005, Edinburgh, Scotland

Organizers: Frank Richter, Manfred Sailer

Short Description

Compositionality has been a key methodological theme in natural language semantics. Recently, a number of innovative systems for combinatorial semantics have been proposed which seem not to obey compositionality at first sight. Such systems are based on unification, underspecification, linear logic, categorial grammar, variable free semantics, extensions of Montague Grammar, dynamic semantics, and Tree Adjoining Grammar, to name the most prominent research areas. The motivation behind these systems is often computational, but the mechanisms they employ also provide new insights and analytical alternatives for outstanding problems in the combinatorial semantics of natural languages. These include scope ambiguities, multiple exponents of semantic operators, cohesion, ellipsis, coordination, and modifier attachment ambiguities.

The workshop aims to bring together researchers whose interests lie in empirical issues or logic. We wish to invite papers discussing linguistic data which pose a challenge to compositionality as well as papers presenting new mechanisms for defining a compositional semantics which can address well-known challenges in innovative ways.

More details about the workshop can be found in the Call for Papers.


Programme 

Monday
17:00 - 17:30 F. Richter and M. Sailer (Tübingen and Göttingen) Introduction to the workshop
17:30 - 18:30 W. Hodges (London) (invited speaker) The Interplay of Fact and Theory in Separating Syntax from Meaning
Tuesday
17:00 - 17:45 M. Kaneko (Okayama) Compositional Semantics of an Ambiguity Associated with two Types of Focus Constructions in French and in Japanese
17:45 - 18:30 D. Wedgwood (Edinburgh) The Normality of 'Metalinguistic' Foci: a Challenge to Strict Compositionality
Wednesday
17:00 - 17:45 R. Chaves (Lisbon) Underspecificaton and NP Coordination in Constraint-based Grammar
17:45 - 18:30 O. Bonami, D. Godard (Paris) Evaluative Adverbs and Underspecified Semantic Representations
Thursday
17:00 - 17:45 S. Ikehara, M. Tokuhisa, J. Murakami, M. Saraki (Tokyo) Development of Semantic Pattern Dictionary for Non-linear Structures of Complex and Compound Sentences
17:45 - 18:30 S. Yatabe, S. Hayakawa (Tokyo) A Linearization-based Theory of Non-constituent Focus
Friday
17:00 - 17:45 M. Egg (Groningen) Against Opacity
17:45 - 18:30 C. Ebert (Bielefeld), C. Endriss (Potsdam), H.-M. Gärtner (Berlin) German Integrated Verb Second Clauses, Relative Clauses, and Information Structure

Proceedings volume in three file formats: pdf / ps / ps-2up


Programme Committee:


We are grateful to the programme committee and our additional reviewer, Jakub Fast, for their help and the detailed comments they provided.


Authors preparing the final versions for the proceedings (firm deadline: May 18th) are requested to follow the instructions for authors. Note that all participants of the workshop must register to the summer school. The deadline for early registration is May 1st.


In case of problems or for comments, please contact: f.richter@em.uni-frankfurt.de ( Last modified: Fri Jun 3 16:38:13 CEST 2005 )