Ivano Ciardelli on Inquisitive Semantics

Ivano Ciardelli (Université Bordeaux 1 - Università di Bologna) will deliver a talk on his own PhD research.

Title: Inquisitive Semantics

[Slides attached below]

Abstract:

In the traditional dynamic accounts, the meaning of a sentence is identified with its information change potential, i.e. with the potential a sentence has to provide information. However, if we want to model the process of information exchange through conversation, it is striking that, besides being used to provide information, sentences play another crucial role: they can be used to request information. Inquisitive semantics aims at developing a more comprehensive notion of meaning which encompasses both informative and inquisitive content. Thus, in inquisitive semantics meaning can be characterized as information exchange potential.

In this talk I will introduce and motivate the semantic notions employed in inquisitive semantics. I will then present the basic system InqB based on the inquisitive notion of meaning and illustrate its properties. In the second part of the talk, I will discuss how our basic notion of meaning may be enriched to account for sentences involving a presupposition.

Other references to inquisitive semantics: http://www.illc.uva.nl/inquisitive-semantics