Workshop on
Reference: How much linguistic semantics, how much pragmatics

Organized by Thorstein Fretheim and Jeanette K. Gundel,
June 1-2

This workshop addresses the role of context and pragmatic inference in an addressee's search for unique representations of entities referred to in a discourse. To what extent is the semantics of linguistic descriptions supplemented by properties determined by speaker intentions? If linguistic form and meaning underdetermines reference, how do we refer successfully? The trade-off between addressees' exploitation of clues to reference resolution found in lexical words, determiners and pronouns and their reliance on human agents' ability to read the minds of their interlocutors will be examined from a variety of angles, with reference to different, but largely compatible, theoretical frameworks. Some papers will focus on reference to individuals, others on reference to abstract entities.

The ten papers presented are, in alphabetical order, by

• Nana Aba Appiah Amfo (Trondheim),
• Kaja Borthen (Trondheim),
• Lars G. Johnsen (Bergen) & Christer Johansson (Bergen),
• Francis Cornish (Toulouse),
• Walter De Mulder (Antwerp),
• Thorstein Fretheim (Trondheim),
• Michael Hegarty (Baton Rouge, Louisiana),
• Fons Maes (Tilburg),
• Costanza Navarretta (Copenhagen),
• Thora Tenbrink (Bremen) & Alexander Klippel (Melbourne).

Jeanette K. Gundel (Minneapolis) is the moderator of the workshop.