International Conference on Language and Communication as part of the Research Network on Referential Expressions in Discourse (RED).
29-30 May 2025
Location:
University of Graz, Austria
Aims
Many aspects of anaphoric relations have received considerable attention in the last decades of linguistic research from the development of various frameworks of dynamic semantics to a multitude of experimental studies regarding the factors governing anaphoric accessibility and disambiguation. However, many questions are still open. Anaphoric pronouns, for example, share features with their anaphoric antecedents, but there can be semantic or formal mismatches in phi-features as well, thereby sometimes syntactic and sometimes semantic features of the antecedent can be ignored, if the antecedent is overt at all. The question of how features of the anaphoric pronouns are established is further complicated in copula constructions and when referring anaphorically to kinds, pluralities, events, or propositions. The same problem also comes up with demonstrative pronouns in deictic use whose antecedent is often not at all articulated. Another range of problems comes from the question of anaphoric accessibility. Especially in dialogues, direct, indirect speech and free indirect speech in narration, but also when switching between certain intensional contexts, both the empirical facts about the accessibility and the formal connection between antecedent and anaphoric expression are poorly understood. New advances in the study of Sign Languages and the semantics of gestures raise significant questions about the cross-modally valid theories of anaphoricity.
The conference brings together research on phenomena that go outside the well-established core of anaphoric relations, on theoretical modelling and experimental exploration of anaphoric relations, but also including diachronic questions and questions about the cross-modal applicability of theories of anaphoric relations.
Keynote speakers
- Hans Kamp (Stuttgart/Austin)
- Viola Schmitt (Berlin/MIT)
- Daniel Altshuler (Oxford)
Important Dates
Deadline for submissions: 15 November 2024
Notification of authors: 15 December 2024
Conference: 29-30 May 2025
Organisation
Edgar Onea (Graz) and Klaus von Heusinger (Köln)
Abstracts
We invite theoretical and empirical contributions for 30 min presentations (plus 15 min for discussion) in English. Abstracts should be anonymous and not longer than two pages (Times New Roman 12 pt., single space, 2.4 cm margins) as a PDF. Please submit per e-mail to: sarah.melker
uni-graz.at.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Formal and semantic features of anaphoric pronouns
- Ontology and accessibility of anaphoric antecedents
- Demonstrative vs. anaphoric pronouns
- The role of prominence and discourse coherence/discourse structure in anaphoric relations
- Anaphoric reference in narratives and dialogue
- Anaphoric reference in Sign Languages