Seminars of Philosophy of Perception, Mind, and Language

Presentation

International Conference Presentation

Names, Demonstratives, and Expressives

Names and demonstratives are the two main tools through which language hooks to the world. Both linguists and philosophers have been developing formal frameworks to model the relationship between contextual elements and such referential mechanisms. Lately, attention has been driven to the possibility of applying formal modeling also to the study of the expressive aspects of linguistic meaning. The aim of “Names, Demonstratives, and Expressives” is to attract scholars interested in the interface between those two aspects, from the perspective of different fields — such as linguistics, philosophy, psychology and logics — and to facilitate the interaction among them.
 

Invited Speakers

• Claudia Bianchi (San Raffaele, Milano)
• Ernest Lepore (Rutgers)
• Stefano Predelli (Nottingham)
• Josep Maciá (Barcelona)

Contributed Speakers

• Bianca Cepollaro (Scuola Normale di Pisa)
• Aldo Frigerio (University of Sacro Cuore, Milan) 
• Heimir Geirsson (Iowa State University)
• Aidan Gray (University of Illinois) 
• Christopher Hom (Texas Tech University)
• Robin Jeshion (University of Southern California)
• Natalia Karczewska (University of Warsaw) 
• Katarzyna Kijania-Placek (Jagiellonian University) 
• Robert May (U.C. Davis)
• Matt Moss (Columbia University)
• Francesca Panzeri (Bicocca University, Milan)
• Mihaela Popa-Wjatt (University of Barcelona)
• Francois Recanati (IJN, Paris)
• Wojciech Rostworowski & Natalia Pietrulewicz (University of Warsaw)
• Henry Schiller (University of Edinburgh)
• Roberto B. Sileo (University of Cambridge)
• Una Stojnić (Rutgers University)
• Tristan Thommen (IJN Paris)

Organizers

• Clotilde Calabi (Università degli Studi di Milano)
• Elisa Paganini (Università degli Studi di Milano)
• Giuliano Torrengo (Università degli Studi di Milano)
• Sandro Zucchi (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Program

International Conference Program

Names, Demonstratives, and Expressives

Monday 15 September

09:00 - 10:00 Josep Maciá (University of Barcelona)
“Expressive Meaning and Presupposition”
Commmentator: Matt Moss (Columbia University)

10:00 - 10:30 Coffee break

10:30 - 11:30 Robert May (U.C. Davis) & Christopher Hom (Texas Tech University)
"Pejoratives as Fiction"
Commentator: Bianca Cepollaro (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)

11:30 - 12:30 Mihaela Popa-Wjatt (University of Barcelona)
"Why are slurs so pernicious and hard to resist?"
Commmentator: Roberto B. Sileo (Cambridge University)

12:30 - 14:30 Lunch

14:30 - 15:30 Claudia Bianchi (University San Raffaele, Milan)
“Fighting words: the appropriation of derogatory epithets”
Commentator: Tristan Thommen (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris)

15.30 - 16.30 Aldo Frigerio (University of Sacro Cuore, Milan)
“On the semantic status of the derogatory content of pejoratives”
Commentator: Francois Recanati (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris)

16:30 - 17:00 Coffee break 
                                                    

17:00 - 17:45 Bianca Cepollaro (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)
“Slurs: A Defense of a Presuppositional Account”
Commentator: Christopher Hom (Texas Tech University)

17:45 - 18:30 Roberto B. Sileo (University of Cambridge)
“Slurs and Truth-conditional Content”
Commentator: Ernest Lepore (Rutgers University)

18:30 - 19:15 Matt Moss (Columbia University)
“Pseudonyms”
Commentator: Josep Maciá (University of Barcelona)

20:00 Dinner

Tuesday 16 September

09:00 - 10:00 Stefano Predelli (University of Nottingham)  
“When the Medium is the Message. Names, Predicates, and the Use of Language”
Commentator: Una Stojnić (Rutgers University)

10:00 - 10:30 Coffee break

10:30 - 11:30 Heimir Geirsson (Iowa State University)
“In The Know and Still Resisting Substitutions”
Commentator: Clotilde Calabi (University of Milan)

11:30 - 12:30 Aidan Gray (University of Illinois)
“Name-bearing, response-dependence, and arbitrariness”
Commentator: Elisa Paganini (University of Milan)

12:30 - 14:30 Lunch

14:30 - 15:30 Ernest Lepore (Rutgers University)
"On Perspective-Taking and Open-endedness in Slurring"
Commmentator: Katarzyna Kijania-Placek (Jagiellonian University)

15.30 - 16.30 Henry Schiller (University of Edinburgh)
“Can Physical Gestures be Treated as Descriptive Phrases?”
Commmentator: Giuliano Torrengo (University of Milan)

16:30 - 17:00 Coffee break 
                                                    

17:00 - 17:45 Natalia Karczewska (University of Warsaw)
"Disagreement about what is not said"
Commentator: Stefano Predelli (University of Nottingham)  

17:45 - 18:30 Una Stojnić (Rutgers University)
“Discourse and Logical Form”
Commentator: Giuseppe Spolaore (University of Padova)

18:30 - 19:30 Katarzyna Kijania-Placek (Jagiellonian University)
“Indexicals in Proverbs”
Commentator: Robert May (U.C. Davis)

20:00 Dinner

Wednesday 17 September

09:00 - 10:00 Francois Recanati and Tristan Thommen (Institut Jean Nicod, Paris)
“The Indexicality of Slurs”
Commentator: Natalia Karczewska (University of Warsaw)

10:00 - 11:00 Robin Jeshion (University of Southern California)
“Slurs, Dehumanization, and the Expression of Contempt”
Commentator: Marco Santambrogio (University of Parma)

11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break

11:30 - 12:30 Francesca Panzeri (Bicocca University, Milan)
“Slurs as fallacies”
Commentator: Wojciech Rostworowski (University of Warsaw)

12:30 - 13:30 Wojciech Rostworowski & Natalia Pietrulewicz (University of Warsaw)
“Attributive Names, Misnaming and Misdescription — Experimental Study”
Commentator: Francesca Panzeri (Bicocca University, Milan)