LINGUAE 24 - Meaning after the Multimodal Revolution
February - March 2024 - on Zoom only
(The schedule is still somewhat tentative, as we will adapt things as the seminar progresses)
FORMAT
On a completely experimental basis, we will offer several 2-hour sessions on multimodal semantics in February-March 2024 (precise number to be determined, probably 4-6). The course will be entirely conducted on Zoom. Interested members of partner groups will be invited to register online, but this course will not be part of a formal degree.
(Note that this is not an 'open access' course; it is intended for members of partner groups, broadly conceived.)
TOPIC
Formal semantics and pragmatics used to be solely concerned with spoken languages. Not any more. In recent years, as part of a more general multimodal revolution in linguistics, there has been a flurry of formal work on the meaning of sign languages, gestures, and even visual animations and emojis. How has our understanding of meaning changed as a result?
Sign languages have been a primary source of insights, and have made two major contributions to the foundations of semantics. First, categories that had been developed for spoken languages (= 'speech') turned out to be illuminating for sign languages (= 'sign') as well, but occasionally in a more transparent form (this has been proposed for logical variables, for context shift, and for telicity marking, which are arguably overtly marked in sign languages). Second, sign languages combine the same kind of logical and grammatical structure as spoken languages with a much richer iconic component. This has made it essential to devise more expressive formal systems that combine a logical and a pictorial component, hence a very fruitful interaction with recent work on the formal semantics of pictures (notably by Greenberg and Abusch).
The importance of iconicity in sign languages has led comparative linguistics to adopt a motto, due to Goldin-Meadow and Brentari, according to which sign with iconicity should be compared to speech with gestures rather than to speech alone. This, in turn, led to detailed work on the formal semantics and pragmatics of different gesture types (depending on whether they co-occur, follow or fully replace spoken words). Gestures have also led to surprising insights of their own. Despite their rarity, gestures that fully replace words arguably have a proto-grammar that is sometimes reminiscent of the (incomparably more sophisticated) grammar of sign languages, hence new questions about some linguistic universals. And novel iconic gestures seem to be integrated on the fly within a sophisticated inferential typology, with a division of their meaning among assertion, presupposition, implicature, etc.
This finding raises questions about the 'generative engine' behind various semantic and pragmatic phenomena, and in particular its ability to integrate in similar ways non-standard forms such as pictures, visual animations, and emojis.
Notes:
The importance of iconicity in sign languages has led comparative linguistics to adopt a motto, due to Goldin-Meadow and Brentari, according to which sign with iconicity should be compared to speech with gestures rather than to speech alone. This, in turn, led to detailed work on the formal semantics and pragmatics of different gesture types (depending on whether they co-occur, follow or fully replace spoken words). Gestures have also led to surprising insights of their own. Despite their rarity, gestures that fully replace words arguably have a proto-grammar that is sometimes reminiscent of the (incomparably more sophisticated) grammar of sign languages, hence new questions about some linguistic universals. And novel iconic gestures seem to be integrated on the fly within a sophisticated inferential typology, with a division of their meaning among assertion, presupposition, implicature, etc.
This finding raises questions about the 'generative engine' behind various semantic and pragmatic phenomena, and in particular its ability to integrate in similar ways non-standard forms such as pictures, visual animations, and emojis.
Notes:
(i) The seminar will not presuppose any knowledge of sign language or of sign language linguistics. Students may submit homeworks on any topic (speech, sign, gestures, visual animations, emojis…) that directly interacts with the seminar's discussions.
(ii) The course does not purport to offer a general survey of multimodal semantics. It is heavily tilted towards the interests of the instructor's team. So we won't be able to do justice to very interesting work conducted by several other teams, both theoretical and experimental.
SCHEDULING: Mondays 14:00-16:00 Paris time (= GMT+1)
1st session: Monday, February 12, 2024
1st session: Monday, February 12, 2024
All times are given in Paris time (this is GMT+1). To find the corresponding time where you live, use for instance this website.
REGISTERING AND CONNECTING ON ZOOM
You should have received by email a link to a Google Survey asking for your background and email address. It's essential that you fill out this survey so the instructor has your email address and can send you the Zoom link for the course.
If you haven't received the link to the Google Survey, please contact the instructor by email (philippe.schlenker@gmail.com).
SYLLABUS
See below.
SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETING
Since this is a course offered across multiple regions of the world (12 countries) and without special funding, if a member from institution X needs sign language interpreting, we'll ask institution X to provide long-distance interpreting in the relevant sign language. Needless to say, the instructor will be delighted to coordinate with interpreters.
(Independently of the issue of sign language interpreting, we might try Zoom captioning, but at this point we just don't know how well it works. And it's not intended to replace sign language interpreting.)
ONLINE INTERACTION
-Contrary to what was written earlier, with 80+ potential participants, there is no need for everyone to keep their cameras on (this might overload connections).
-We might record sessions. But to ensure that this does not get in the way of online interactions, we will edit questions out if we ever make the video public (as opposed to just sharing the video on a person-by-person basis).
-Participants are strongly invited to take an active role and ask questions / make remarks. Too many questions are better than too few !
-The instructor won't be able to monitor the chat.
-Whenever possible, the instructor will stay for a bit after the course is officially over for an addition Q&A in case there wasn't time for all questions.
HOMEWORKS
Attendance does not confer any degree, and thus homeworks are entirely optional.
Participants who so desire can submit (i) one mini-squib in the middle of the seminar, details below; (ii) one mini-term paper, details below.
Due date for the squib: Monday, February 26, before class at philippe.schlenker@gmail.com
Due date for the mini-term paper: Monday, March 18.
PRE-REQUISITES
At least one course in formal semantics.
READINGS AND SLIDES
If they are not linked below, they should be in this Dropbox folder.
SCHEDULE AND TOPICS
4 to 6 weeks in February-March 2024 - see below for sessions and readings.
Each session will be 2 hours long.
Scheduling will be announced later following a poll of interested participants.
REFERENCES
See below for details.
General surveys
Sign language
Schlenker, Lamberton and Kuhn, Sign Language Semantics
Schlenker, Visible Meaning
Some chapters of What it All Means will be made available as optional, non-technical background readings.
Additional reading:
Kathryn Davidson. Formal semantics and pragmatics in sign languages. [draft of a book manuscript] (from the author's research page)
Gestures
Abner et al., Gesture for Linguists: a Handy Primer
For the sign-gesture connection, see also: Goldin-Meadow and Brentari 2017
SCHEDULE AND READINGS
(tentative - to be adapted as we go!; see this Dropbox folder)
Monday, February 12, 14:00-16:00 Paris time
Introduction + Overview of Sign Language Semantics I
Readings: Schlenker, Lamberton and Kuhn, Sign Language Semantics
Introductory alternative: Schlenker, What it All Means Chapter 2 (general audience)
Optional [and long]:
Schlenker, Visible Meaning
Monday, February 19
Overview of Sign Language Semantics II
Readings: Schlenker, Lamberton and Kuhn, Sign Language Semantics
[same as for Session 1; see above for alternatives]
Start reading: Schlenker and Lamberton, to appear, Iconological Semantics
Monday, February 26
Iconological Semantics I
Readings: Schlenker and Lamberton, to appear, Iconological Semantics
Monday, March 4 Squib due before class [by email to the instructor]
Iconological Semantics II; Iconic syntax
Readings: Schlenker and Lamberton, to appear, Iconological Semantics
Schlenker et al. 2023, Iconic Syntax [see the Dropbox folder for the published version]
Monday, March 11
Sign with iconicity vs. Speech with gestures revisited: co-X gestures
Readings: Schlenker, Iconic Pragmatics
OR Schlenker, What it All Means Chapter 12 (general audience)
Optional: Tieu et al. Co-speech gesture projection: evidence from inferential judgments
Extension to emojis: Tieu et al. Experimental evidence for a semantic typology of emoji: Inferences of co-, pro-, and post-text emoji
Going further: Esipova 2019
Monday, March 18
The Inferential Typology of Language in Speech, Gestures, Visual Animations and Emojis
Readings: Tieu et al. 2019 PNAS (experimental)
OR Schlenker 2019, Gestural Semantics (theoretical)
OR Schlenker, What it All Means Chapter 14 (general audience)
Monday, March 25 (last class) Mini-term paper due
Gestural Grammar
Readings: Schlenker 2020 'Gestural Grammar' (theoretical)
OR Schlenker, What it All Means Chapter 13 (general audience)
Instructions for the mini-squib
Length: at most 1 single-spaced page
A squib is similar to a mini-term paper, except that (i) it is shorter, at most 1 page, (ii) it is less advanced scientifically. You may present a puzzle without a solution (and discuss extension of the puzzle and possibly of solutions for the mini-term paper). [The online journal Snippets gives good examples of what very brief linguistic analyses can be.]
Instructions for the mini-term paper
Length: at most 4 single-spaced pages
The mini-term paper is intended to discuss (i) a new empirical or formal problem, and if possible (ii) sketch one or several possible solutions. Empirical and/or formal precision are essential: the goal is to make a contribution to a very narrow problem, if possible a new one. The mini-term paper can of course build on the squib. [The online journal Snippets gives good examples of what very brief linguistic analyses can be.]
INTRODUCTION: introduce the general empirical or formal problem you will be discussing, and announce what the main finding will be.
BACKGROUND: discuss very briefly existing analyses that are relevant for the problem you are discussing (references should appear in the bibliography). In view of length restrictions, this part should be minimal; you should primarily ensure that crucial references are cited.
PROBLEM: discuss in detail the empirical or formal problem you have uncovered, for instance:
(i) a set of data for which an analysis we have discussed makes incorrect predictions,
(ii) a potential application of an analysis to significantly new examples or even data types [e.g. applying to emojis what was developed for gestures]
(iii) a new set of data that our analyses have no account for [if so, you should eventually try to state a clear generalization, i.e. a describe rule that predicts the data; sometimes this is hard!]
SOLUTION: discuss possible solutions to this problem. For instance:
if (i): how to repair or replace the theory that makes incorrect predictions;
if (ii): show in detail how the analysis applies to some of your new examples;
if (iii): if possible, propose a new theory to derive your new data/your new generalization.
You may want to state additional predictions that should be tested in future research.
