21 January: DCLRS -- Gerhard Jaeger "Pragmatic rationalizability" (16:00,
Dublin Computational Linguistics Research Seminar: Index of January 2009 | Dublin Computational Linguistics Research Seminar - Index of year: 2009 | Full index
Seminar Announcement:
Dublin Computational Linguistics Research Seminar
DCLRS 2008/2009
DCU DIT TCD UCD
Venue: Jonathan Swift Lecture Theatre (Arts Building 2041a)
Trinity College Dublin
Time: 16:00, Friday, January 23, 2009
Title:
Pragmatic rationalizability
Speakers:
Professor Gerhard Jaeger
Professor of Semantics and Syntax
Theoretical Linguistics Group
University of Bielefeld
Department of Linguistics and Literature
Abstract:
In communication between rational interlocutors, the pragmatic
interpretation of utterances frequently diverges from their literal,
conventionalized semantics. On the other hand, rational agents will
use linguistic signs according to their literal meaning as long as
this is consistent with rationality.
The talk will present a framwork for deriving pragmatic interpretation
from literal semantics plus information about the preferences of the
interlocutors and their epistemic states. The approach is couched in
terms of game theory; the problem comes down to a special case of one
of the central questions of game theory, namely equilibrium selection.
The proposal rests on three assumptions, which are assumed to be
common knowledge between speaker and hearer:
1. Rational interlocutors will use a linguistic sign according to its
literal interpretation in all contexts where this is a rationalizable
strategy.
2. If a certain signal is unexpected in a given context, the hearer
will interpret it as an allusion to a different context where that
very sign would make sense. (This is assumed to be the basis of,
inter alia, presupposition accommodation, irony, and rhetorical
questions.)
3. The interlocutors will only play strategies that belong to the
smallest rationalizable equilibrium that is consistent with 1 and 2.
Winter Schedule:
January 16 John Tait (Sunderland)
January 23 Gerhard Jaeger (Bielefeld)
January 30 Pat Healey (Queen Mary)
February 6 Sebastian Moeller
February 13 Alfredo Maldonado Guerra (Microsoft Dublin)
February 20 Dietmar Janetzko (NCI)
February 27 Steve Pulman (Oxford)
March 6 Tim Fernando (TCD)
March 13 Andreas Vlachos (Cambridge)
March 20 Paul Piwek (Open U)
Dublin Computational Linguistics Research Seminar - Index of January 2009 | Index of year: 2009 | Full index