Common ground beyond the graveMerel Semeijn (University of Groningen)
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The next meeting of the Sign-Language-Reality seminar in the academic year 2025/26 will take place:
Thursday, the 19th of March 2026, 17.00, Central European Time
Merel Semeijn
(University of Groningen)
will deliver a talk:
Common ground beyond the grave
Abstract:
Existing characterizations of the notion of common ground in pragmatics do not adequately apply to conversations with a delay in messages arriving. This paper explains why this is a problem, and offers a novel definition of common ground that is applicable to cases of asynchronous communication. Using insights from multi-agent system logics, I propose a switch from defining common ground between interlocutors at a certain time, to defining common ground between 'interlocutors at certain times'.
About the speaker:
Merel Semeijn is a postdoctoral researcher in formal semantics and the philosophy of fiction at University of Groningen. Her current NWO Veni project, Fact, fiction and deception in the digital age, brings the tools of semantics, logic, and philosophy of language to “impure” discourse - cases that slide between fact, fiction, and deception, such as social-media hoaxes, conversations with chatbots, and contemporary gossip media.
Her earlier work already shows why these questions are so live. In her Rubicon-funded postdoctoral research at Institut Jean Nicod (École Normale Supérieure), she developed a broader philosophy of fiction that moves beyond the novel to include theatre, pretend play, poetry, and other media -taking puzzles like “breaking the fourth wall” seriously as data for theory. Her publications span leading venues in philosophy and formal semantics, including Erkenntnis, Synthese, British Journal of Aesthetics, Linguistics and Philosophy, Journal of Philosophical Logic, and Review of Philosophy and Psychology.
The seminar will be held online, to join the meeting, please use the information below:
Join Zoom Meeting https://uw-edu-pl.zoom.us/j/92716044372?pwd=0l7PETAOwqQDBKTMCnheYQN7ag7zx1.1
Meeting ID: 927 1604 4372 Passcode: 697648 The meeting opens at 4:45 pm, the talk starts at 5 pm.
https://www.pts.edu.pl/seminarium
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