Inquisitive semantics and dynamic epistemic logic: October 2011

Beijing Philosophy Department of Peking University, China

This mini-course provides an overview of the main ideas underlying inquisitive semantics, logic, and pragmatics, and discusses a possible way to merge this framework with that of dynamic epistemic logic.

Lecture 1: The inquisitive turn: a new perspective on semantics, logic, and pragmatics (slides)

The main aim of inquisitive semantics is to develop a notion of meaning that does not only capture informative content, but also inquisitive and attentive content. Changing the core notion of semantic meaning also has important consequences for pragmatics. We will give an overview of the main ideas, and present a simple formal system that embodies these ideas.

Lecture 2: Lecture 2: Towards an inquisitive dynamic epistemic logic

Inquisitive semantics and dynamic epistemic logic are both designed to analyze the process of exchanging information through communication. In this lecture I will suggest a way to merge the two frameworks, and argue that this merge brings both traditions a step further. This work is very new, inspired by the recent LORI workshop in Guangzhou. I hope to be able to post a first paper draft soon.