• Event Date: February 11, 2014
  • Event Start Time: 1:00 PM
  • Event End Time: 2:00 PM
  • Event Location: University of Maryland, Departments of Linguistics and Philosophy
  • Event Type: Talks: RuCCS Colloquia
  • Event Semester: Spring 2014
  • Event Contact: Dr. Paul M. Pietroski
  • Event Extra info: <a href="http://terpconnect.umd.edu/~pietro/">Dr. Paul M. Pietroski</a>

In the first part of this talk, I'll present a series of studies (some still in progress) that illustrate how experimental methods can help adjudicate between *provably equivalent* but *procedurally distinct* specifications of the semantic properties of quantificational/comparative expressions like 'most' and 'more'. In the second part, I'll suggest that the independently motivated emphasis on procedural/algorithmic description in semantics--as opposed to focusing on description-neutral truth conditions, which can be represented in various formats--coheres with observations that logically equivalent sentences, involving 'most' and 'more', can create different framing effects in a roughly Kahneman/Tversky sense. Moreover, spatially rearranging the objects in a scene (while holding a quantificational/comparative test sentence constant) can reveal framing effects that tell against antecedently plausible semantic hypotheses, suggesting that linguistic meanings exhibit specific representational formats that are experimentally detectable.

To view a recording of this talk click here (You will need a Rutgers NetID and password)