Special session

Neurolinguistic Approaches to Semantics and Pragmatics 

In the past decades, on the one hand, researchers have been collecting brain imaging data for the testing of hypotheses from theoretical linguistics, with for example, N400 or P600 ERP (event-related potential) components as indexes of different (i.e. syntactic, semantic, discourse) integration costs. On the other hand, there has been skepticism as to whether it is possible to confirm or falsify traditional linguistic theories using brain imaging data. The special session features the following invited speakers, both of who have a very strong profile in linguistics and apply neurolinguistic methods to investigate semantics and pragmatics. Furthermore we plan on accepting 4 submitted papers on the topic and will host a round table on related open questions. 

 Invited speakers:

• Mante S. Nieuwland (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen) 

• Markus Werning (University of Bochum)