Modeling causal dependencies in formal semantics

Causal dependencies play a large role in the interpretation of natural language sentences. This has been recognized for a long time, but until fairly recently, it was not directly reflected in the practice of linguistic semanticists. Only since the mid-2000s, pioneering researchers (Schulz, 2007, 2001; Kaufman 2013, a.o.) have proposed models that explicitly represent those dependencies. At first, the main concern of these theorists has been the semantics and interpretation of conditional sentences.

This workshop showcases ongoing work(-in-progress) on the representation of causal dependencies in the context of formal semantics, bringing together a recognized expert on the topic and a number of young researchers at the University of Konstanz.

Time:
Monday, May 22, 2017, 10am – 5:30pm

Invited Speaker:
Katrin Schulz (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Venue:
Zukunftskolleg, Room Y-132
University of Konstanz

Organization:
Sven Lauer and Arno Goebel

Program

Thursday, September 28, 2017
10:00 to 10:15 Sven Lauer: Introduction
10:15 to 11:15 Arno Goebel: Conditional presuppositions and direction of dependence
11:15 to 12:15 Eva Csipak: Non-causal hypothetical conditionals
Lunch
13:30 to 15:00 Katrin Schulz: Fake Tense with a (kind of) interventionist semantics
Coffee Break
15:30 to 16:30 Sven Lauer and Prerna Nadathur: Causal necessity, causal sufficiency, and the implications of causative verbs
16:30 to 17:30 Antje Rumberg: Indeterministic causal models and historical conditionals