Manfred Sailer and Assif Am-David presented at the 8th Colloquium of Semantics and Philosophy in Europe (SPE), 17.-19.9.2015, at the Newnham College at the University of Cambridge, England. SPE is a major conference about formal semantics and language philosophy involving scientists of both disciplines. The participation at the SPE proved especially fruitful as the interaction between linguists and philosophers yields a different perspective on linguistic issues. Moreover, the historical setting of the Cambridge colleges made an inspiring scenery for contemplation and critical discussions.
In their talk “Determined reference as a meaning component in definites” Assif and Manfred presented their model of a marking hierarchy of definites involving conventional implicatures of determined reference. This hierarchy is in line with the typology of languages with multiple definite articles (Northern Frisian, Lakota, Mari and others). Data from standard German was also presented.
The talk presented the most recent version of Assif and Manfred’s current work on definite articles, as presented earlied in Berlin (July 2015) and Paris (November 2014).
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