Call for papers

            Workshop: Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics of Questions
                               August 9-13, 2004

Organized as part of the European Summer School on Logic, Language, and
Information (ESSLLI), August 9-20, 2004 in Nancy, France. 

Website of the summer school: http://esslli2004.loria.fr
Website of the workshop: http://amor.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h2816i3x/ESSLLI_Questions.html 

Workshop organizers:
- Ileana Comorovski, Université Nancy 2
- Manfred Krifka, Humboldt-Universität & Zentrum für Allgemeine
  Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS), Berlin

Workshop Purpose:
The investigation of questions has deepened our understanding of syntax (e.g.
the constraints on syntactic dependencies), of semantics (e.g., the
representation of non-declarative information) and of pragmatics (e.g., the
nature of speech acts). However, researchers often took little notice of
research on questions (and answers) in adjacent fields. For example,
syntacticians interested in multiple constituent questions were unaware of the
interpretation of different types of multiple questions, and semanticists
disregarded important pragmatic factors like speaker bias.  This workshop tries
to bring together researchers that transcend such boundaries. The goal is to
gain not only a more profound understanding of questions, but of the
interaction of syntax, semantics and pragmatics in general.

Workshop Topics:
We invite contributions on typologically diverse languages, on phenomena that
draw on insights across sub-disciplines; a non-exhaustive list of relevant
phenomena is given below:
- multiple questions
- alternative questions
- embedded questions
- quantification into questions
- exhaustive and non-exhaustive questions
- biased questions
- questions and information structure: discourse-linking, topic, focus.
- echo questions
- intonation in sentences with interrogative interpretation
- theoretically relevant diachronic changes

Analyses of questions in context and of question-answer pairs are particularly
welcome.

Submission details:
We invite the submission of two-page anonymous abstracts for 20-minute
presentations (followed by ten minutes of discussion) to the following
adress: esslli@univ-nancy2.fr

Please write "ESSLLI questions workshop" in the subject heading and the
following information in the body of the message: title of paper, author's
name, affiliation, e-mail address, telephone number, and postal address.
Abstracts may be sent as attached files in PDF format (preferred), in RTF
format, as plain text, or in MS Word format. The accepted papers will appear in
the workshop proceedings published by ESSLLI.

Invited speakers:
- Chris Barker (San Diego)
- Joachim Sabel (Brussels)
- Robert van Rooy (Amsterdam) 

Workshop program committee: 
The workshop organizers and the invited speakers.

Important dates:
- Submission deadline: March 5, 2004
- Notification: April 19, 2004
- ESSLLI early registration: May 1, 2004
- Preliminary program: April 23, 2004
- Final papers for proceedings: May 15, 2004 

Local arrangements/Financial aid:
All workshop partipants will be required to register for ESSLLI. The
registration fee for authors presenting a paper will correspond to the early
student/workshop speaker registration fee, if done before May 1, 2004.
Otherwise, it will correspond to the student/workshop speaker registration fee.
A number of fee waiver grants will be made available by the ESSLLI Organizing
Committee on a competitive basis and workshop participants are eligible to
apply for those. Workshop speakers who have difficulty in finding funding
should contact the local organizing committee to ask for the possibility for a
grant. ESSLLI offers no reimbursement for travel costs and accommodation.

The workshop organizers are likely to be able to (partially) reimburse the
ESSLLI fee and/or to (partially) fund the travel expenses of a limited number
of workshop speakers. 

This workshop is partly sponsored by the Université Nancy 2, ATILF (Analyse et
traitement informatique de la langue française), and the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through the project "Syntax and Semantics of
Questions and Answers", at the ZAS, Berlin.