Presenter 1: Symon Stevens Guille (QP2)
Title: Enlightenment without Omniscience: Hyperintensional Semantics of Names
Abstract: Coreferential expressions are not substitutable salva veritate. A classic example is the substitution of coreferential names in the complement of propositional attitudes. But substitution of coreferential names fails in even some mundane sentences, the distribution of which must be explained or explained away by any account of names. Names are also used quantificationally, apparently licensing inferences to and from referential uses. The present work puts forward a broadly Fregean account of names according to which they denote individual concepts, where individual concepts are construed hyperintensionally. Substitution failures are given a straightforward analysis. A compositional account of conventional implicature extends the account of names to inferences to and from quantification.
Presenter 2: William Thomas (QP2)
Title: Social inferences from the use of just as an exclusive particle
Abstract: It has been claimed in popular discourse that the word "just" in constructions like "I just wanted to..." or "I was just wondering" can convey deference, lack of confidence, humility, insecurity, and related qualities. In this talk I relate these social inferences to the semantics of "just" as an exclusive particle, and I present the results of an experiment designed to test how these inferences are affected by the speaker's gender, the speaker's level of authority relative to the addressee, and the type of speech act performed. The data provide evidence that in certain contexts "just" may have the effects that it is popularly claimed to have, but also that it may have opposite effects in other contexts.
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