Workshop: Processing Meets Semantics

The contribution of the workshop is to address the issue of how semantics can be combined with real-time processing models. The general goal is to foster an interaction between psycholinguists and cognitive modelers who study processing, on one hand, and semanticists, on the other hand.

We see several possible points in which the interaction would be fruitful for advances in both fields. One example in which the current active research in processing can benefit from the interaction with semantics is a study of dependencies, i.e., elements that require for their interpretation and/or form that one recalls some previous linguistic element. The research into processing of dependencies precisified models of memory structures in language but such models are dominantly based on the investigation of syntactic dependencies. Semantics, especially formal semantics, also commonly operates with dependencies, for example, dependencies due to anaphora or presupposition. Enriching processing research with the non-lexical semantic knowledge should bring novel data on which memory models can be tested and can provide new perspectives for our understanding of properties of dependencies.

From the perspective of semantics, the need of interaction with processing research is visible, for example, in the studies on presupposition. As has been argued, presupposition projection is sensitive to the order of presentation and shows left-to-right asymmetry, strongly suggesting that the projection is affected by processing limitations, and close connection of the theory of presupposition projection with theories of processing should be desirable. But more generally, one would like to see how basic facts about processing, for example, the fact that we interpret incrementally and predictively, are compatible with semantic theories and could be correctly dealt with by semantic models.

The workshop should be a good opportunity to discuss such questions and ideally will result in increased collaboration between semantics and processing research.

The PROMS workshop will be on location in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on September 1-3 2022.  

Instructions:Abstracts should be 1 page of text (maximum font size 11pt, minimum 2 inch margins) with up to 1 additional page for figures, tables, references etc. The deadline for submission is May 15th, 23:59CET. Abstracts should be submitted through easychair: https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=proms2022

Notification of acceptance is expected by June 15th.

For enquiries, please contact: j.l.winkowski@uu.nl.

Website: https://psicom.sites.uu.nl/proms/

Invited Speakers:

• Adrian Brasoveanu
• Hannah Rohde
• Patrick Sturt
• Shravan Vasishth
• Noortje Venhuizen

Organizing Committee:

• Jakub Dotlačil
• Rick Nouwen
• Tijn Schmitz
• Jan Winkowski