Formal Semantics and Philosophical Logic

Bridget Copley (CNRS/Université Paris 8): Truth, becoming, and other values


Speaker: Bridget Copley (CNRS/Université Paris 8)
Title: Truth, becoming, and other values
Date:
Time: 16:00 - 17:30
Location: SP107 F1.15 (ILLC Seminar Room) and online

Zoom link

To join the Zoom meeting, please click https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/81528669761


Abstract

We are used to thinking of predicates as functions that take one or more arguments and return a truth value. But if we entertain the notion that predication can return other values—as hinted at by degree predicate semantics, and as is allowed by causal model semantics—we end up with an expanded taxonomy of predication in which phenomena such as verbs of position, stative-eventive alternations, and inchoative statives fit naturally, even centrally. We end up with a new, deconstructed version of events and states and a cleaner mapping between morphology and semantics.