Upcoming Conference: Discourse Constraints on Anaphora (April 6-7)
The conference, Discourse Constraints on Anaphora, organized by Ezra Keshet (Department of Linguistics) and Eric Swanson (Department of Philosophy) will take place at the University of Michigan April 6-7.
Details on the conference, including a schedule and registration information, are available at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ericsw/anaphora/. Below is the conference description from the website:
Much recent work in linguistics, philosophy of language, cognitive psychology and computer science focuses on questions about anaphora and discourse. However, some major questions about the structure of discourse and its interaction with anaphors remain unanswered. To this end, the majority of the Discourse Constraints on Anaphora Conference will consist of roundtable discussions of the following four questions:
- What is the structure of discourse?
- How does the structure of discourse constrain the referents of pronouns?
- What do discourse constraints on anaphora teach us about reference?
- What do discourse constraints on anaphora teach us about the structure of the mind?
The resulting conversations, between scholars with a diverse range of approaches, will serve as a snapshots of current thought on anaphora and discourse. We hope that they will also mark the next step towards answering these questions. Roundtable participants include Barbara Abbott, Alan Garnham, Hans Kamp, Craige Roberts, Hannah Rohde, Jason Stanley, and Matthew Stone.