← back to CiC events
← back to ObTrEx events
XPrag.de members Oliver Bott and Sonja Tiemann are organizing together with Robin Hörnig and Janina Radó (Uni Tübingen) the workshop “Experimental Methodology in Semantics and Pragmatics” at Sinn und Bedeutung 20 to take place at University of Tübingen on Wednesday, September 9, 2015.
Program:
| 09:10-09:20 | WELCOME |
| 09:20-09:50 | Thomas Weskott (University of Göttingen) “Using Acceptability Judgments to Access Semantic Preferences” |
| 09:50-10:20 | Danielle Moed and Daphna Heller (University of Toronto) “What Visual Memory can Tell Us about the Context” |
| 10:20-10:50 | Manuela Pinto and Shalom Zuckerman (University of Utrecht) “The Coloring Book. A new Method for Testing Language Comprehension” |
| 10:50-11:10 | COFFEE BREAK |
| 11:10-11:40 | Stefan Hinterwimmer and Andreas Brocher (University of Cologne) “An Experimental Investigation of the Binding Options of Demonstrative Pronouns” |
| 11:40-12:10 | Ellen O’Connor and Roumi Pancheva (USC) “Flexible Repair of Escher sentences: a Role for Direct Object Comparison” |
| 12:10-12:40 | Florian Schwarz, Jacopo Romoli and Cory Bill (UPenn, University of Ulster & ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders) “Reluctant Acceptance of the Literal Truth – Eye Tracking in the Covered Box Paradigm” |
Description:
The number of researchers in semantics and pragmatics using experiments as a tool to evaluate hypotheses derived from linguistic theories is increasing. This workshop offers a forum for methodological reflection on what can and cannot be achieved with experimental work in our field and which paradigms are best suited to yield reliable and valid results for answering current questions in semantics and pragmatics.
We have invited contributions addressing one or more of the following topics:
1. Method Evaluation
1.1 Comparing experimental methods:
What are the advantages and limitations of existing psycholinguistic methods? How can these methods be combined and extended for the purpose of investigating questions in semantics and pragmatics? How can the current methodological repertoire be extended by adapting and developing new techniques?
1.2 Experimentation vs. other methods:
What are the advantages of corpus studies, field work, and computational modelling compared to experimental methods? How can these other methods complement experimental evidence?
1.3 Basis and Limits of Speaker Judgments
2. Implications of Experimental Results for Semantic and Pragmatic Theorizing
2.1 Does the predicted effect reflect the structure under investigation or some processing constraint?
2.2 (How) can we supplement formal theories with (independent) processing components?
2.3 What linking hypotheses are necessary to relate experimental data to semantic/pragmatic theory?
2.4 How can experimental results contribute to a reassessment of central theoretical concepts?
3. Problematic Data
3.1 How can we deal with conflicting evidence?
3.2 What do null effects tell us?
The deadline for submissions was February 15th 2015.
For questions or enquiries please write to: sub20xmeth@gmail.com