CFP: Semantics and Philosophy in Europe 5

**First Call for Papers**

SEMANTICS AND PHILOSOPHY IN EUROPE 5

June 25-27, 2012

University of Turin, Italy

It is our pleasure to announce the Fifth Semantics and Philosophy in Europe (SPE) colloquium. This year’s colloquium will be devoted entirely to two topics:

(A) **PLURAL REFERENCE**

INVITED SPEAKERS

Theodore Scaltsas (University of Edinburgh)

Peter Simons (University of Dublin)

TUTORIAL

Salvatore Florio (Birkbeck College)

Oystein Linnebo (Birkbeck College)

Friederike Moltmann (IHPST, Paris)

(B) **NOMINALIZATIONS AND ONTOLOGIAL COMMITMENT**

INVITED SPEAKERS

Jody Azzouni (Tufts University)

Andrea Bottani (University of Bergamo)

Anthony Everett (University of Bristol)

Alberto Voltolini (University of Turin)

Thomas Ede Zimmermann (Wolfgang-Goethe Universitaet Frankfurt)

A detailed description of the two topics can be found at the bottom of this announcement.

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SUBMISSION DETAILS

We invite submissions of anonymous *two-page* abstracts including references, for a 30-minute talk, on one of two topics of the conference.

Please specify title, one of the topics, name, affiliation, and e-mail address on an extra-page.

Submission address: [email protected]

Deadline for submissions:  April 3, 2012

Notification of acceptance: April 30, 2012

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Oystein Linnebo (Birkbeck College)

Friederike Moltmann (IHPST, Paris)

Benjamin Schnieder (University of Hamburg)

Alberto Voltolini (University of Turin)

SELECTION COMMITTEE

Jody Azzouni, Francesco Berto, Andrea Bottani, Massimiliano Carrara, Anthony Everett, Thomas Hofweber, Oystein Linnebo, Friederike Moltmann, Mark Sainsbury, Benjamin Schnieder, Peter Simons, Alberto Voltolini, Ede Zimmermann

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TOPIC (A) - PLURAL REFERENCE

Plural reference has become a lively philosophical topic since some philosophers and logicians have claimed that plural terms of natural language can refer to several entities at once as their semantic values. This raises a number of open questions for philosophers and semanticists as well:

-   Should linguists adopt this philosophical conception of plural reference?

-   Can semantics be affected by philosophical arguments on the need to avoid the so-called paradoxes of absolute generality?

-   What are the spin-offs of developing a semantics for a plural language in a plural metalanguage?

-   Are there other forms of non-singular reference, e.g., list-like expressions?

TOPIC (B) - NOMINALIZATION AND ONTOLOGICAL COMMITMENT

Natural language allows a variety of ways of building referential expressions out of non-referential ones. This raises such key questions at the interface between ontology and semantics as:

-   Which ways of setting up a single object as the semantic value of a referential term are permissible?

-   What is the ontological status of these objects?

-   When is ontological commitment to such things as fictional or nonexistent objects, delivered by referential terms, to be taken at face value?

-   How should the threat of paradox be addressed that goes along with some of the ways of introducing such objects?

-   Is an ontologically deflationist strategy the best way to deal with such issues?

-   Does the use of singular terms and quantification provide the right criteria for ontological commitment in the first place?

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About SPE

The purpose of the Semantics and Philosophy in Europe Colloquia is to enhance the dialogue between linguists and philosophers by providing a forum for presenting research in the interface between linguistic semantics and the various areas of philosophy (philosophy of language, logic, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, epistemology). SPE takes place annually in different European cities.

The previous meetings took place in Paris (SPE1, 2008), London (SPE2, 2009), Paris (SPE3,2010), and Bochum (SPE4, 2011).

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Financial Support for SPE5

European Research Council Starting Grant ‘Plurals, Predicates, and Paradox’ (directed by O. Linnebo)

ANR-DFG Project ‘Nominalizations: Philosophical and Linguistic Perspectives’ (directed by F. Moltmann and B. Schnieder)

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Website (to be launched in February 2012)

http://speconference.wordpress.com/