The Department of Logic & Philosophy of Science, Center for the Advancement of Logic, its Philosophy, History and Applications (C-ALPHA), and Center for Language Science present

"Imperatives and Extreme Modality"
with Paul Portner, Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University

Friday, October 17, 2014
3:00 p.m.
Social Science Tower, Room 777 (LPS Conference Room)

The dynamic view of meaning seeks to model the ways in which language can be used to change the state of a conversation by (for example) adding presupposed information, establishing topics, or modifying commitments (early examples are, Hamblin 1971; Stalnaker 1978; Lewis 1979; Gazdar 1981). When it comes to dynamic theories of the imperative, the goal is to understand how they affect agents’ commitments to actions and priorities in discourse (e.g., Portner 2004; Charlow 2013; Starr 2013). The goal in this talk is to better understand the structure and function of the “commitment slate” for actions and priorities.

For further information, please contact Patty Jones, patty.jones@uci.edu or 949-824-1520.