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Introduction to Super Linguistics
CreteLing 2019
(Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo)
(LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS; New York University)
July 15-19, 2019 - Rethymno, Crete
Topic
In this introductory level class, we will offer an introduction to Super Linguistics (using the term ‘super’ in its original Latinate meaning ‘beyond’), which we define as the application of formal linguistic methodology (and methodology inspired by linguistics) to diverse non-standard objects (beyond standard linguistic objects of study). Out of the various topics that have already been explored under the Super Linguistics umbrella (including the syntax/semantics of gestures, music, dance, non-verbal pictorial representations, animal calls, and animal gestures), we zoom in on speech with gestures (co-speech, pro-speech and post-speech gestures) and narrative dance. In doing so, we connect these newly established objects of study to more traditional objects of study, in particular, formal semantic modeling of iconicity in both spoken and signed natural languages. A particularly revealing part of this discussion is the fact that the entire typology of linguistic inferences found in words (at-issue inferences, implicatures, presuppositions, supplements, expressives, etc.) can also be replicated with gestures and visual animations.
Instructor emails
Patel-Grosz: pritty.patel-grosz@iln.uio.no
Schlenker: philippe.schlenker@gmail.com
Sessions
Material for the class (readings, slides) will either (i) be linked to the sessions below, or (ii) be made available in this Dropbox folder.
Background reading for the course:
Schlenker, Philippe (to appear). What is Super Semantics? To appear in Philosophical Perspectives
Tieu, Lyn, Philippe Schlenker and Emmanuel Chemla (2019). Linguistic inferences without words. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116, 9796-9801.
0. What is Super Linguistics? (Patel-Grosz)
Reading: Schlenker & Patel-Grosz, What is Super Linguistics?
1. Logical visibility and iconicity in sign language (Schlenker)
Optional background: Zucchi, Formal semantics of sign languages
Reading: Schlenker, Visible Meaning
Shorter alternative: Schlenker, Logical Visibility and Iconicity in Sign Language Semantics: Theoretical Perspectives
2. Typology of iconic enrichments in speech and in sign (Schlenker)
Optional: Schlenker, Iconic Pragmatics
Optional: Tieu et al., Co-speech gesture projection: evidence from inferential judgments
3. Gestural semantics (Schlenker)
Reading: Tieu et al. 2019, Linguistic Inferences Without Words, PNAS.
Optional: Schlenker, Gestural Semantics
4. Dance semantics (Patel-Grosz)
Optional background: Charnavel, Steps Towards a Generative Theory of Dance Cognition
Reading: Patel-Grosz et al, Co-reference vs. disjoint reference in the semantics of narrative dance
Patel-Grosz et al, Steps towards a formal semantics of dance
Optional: Napoli and Kraus, Suggestions for a parametric theory of dance
5. Conclusion (Patel-Grosz)
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