Logic and Engineering of Natural Language Semantics 21 (LENLS21)

LENLS is an annual international conference on formal linguistics (i.e., syntax, semantics and pragmatics), computational linguistics, the philosophy of language, and related fields, including but not limited to the following:

• Formal syntax, semantics and pragmatics of natural language
• Model-theoretic and/or proof-theoretic semantics of natural language
• Computational approaches to semantics and pragmatics
• Nonclassical logic and its relation to natural language (e.g. substructural, fuzzy, categorical, and topological logic)
• Formal philosophy of language
• Scientific methodology and/or experimental design in linguistics

LENLS21 will be held in a hybrid format. Most presentations will take place in person at Nagoya University, with the exception of a few remote talks. We will also provide a Zoom live stream for remote attendance. However, please note that the Zoom link will only be shared with registered participants.

Selected Papers

LENLS21 is held under the umbrella of The Association for Logic, Language and Information (FoLLI). The collection of full papers will be published in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series, in accordance with the contract between Springer Nature Switzerland AG and FoLLI.

Important dates:

Registration:

The registration is available via the link below.

Program

1st Day: November 28 (Fri)

• Linmin Zhang
"Deriving the diminishing effect"
• Ka-Fat Chow
"Scope Ambiguity of Polar / Alternative Questions"
• Christian Fermuller
"On the semantics of good, better, and ought"

• Satoru Suzuki
"On Multidimensional Predicates: Social-Choice Model Versus Additive-Difference Model"
• Arka Banerjee
"Ignorance with Domain Widening in Bangla"
• Samuel Laperle
"“I like Metallica, but...”: the Overton window as a model of acceptable persona"

• Elin McCready, Giuseppe Varaschin and Antonio Machicao Y Priemer
"Explicitness, Honorification and Indices"
• Christopher Davis and Gregoire Winterstein
"Beyond personas: honest failures in projecting social meaning"
• Maeva Sillaire, Gregoire Winterstein and Mathilde Dargnat
"Concessive marking in French: pourtant vs. quand meme"

• Luca Gasparri
"Singular generic 'the' and uniqueness"

2nd Day: November 29 (Sat)

• Richard Zuber
"On the semantics of together, separately and alone"
• Chungmin Lee, Dongsik Lim and Myounghyoun Song
"Noncanonical whether in English: in parallel with Korean/Japanese expletive negation"
• Zhuang Chen
"Cracking the mystery of Mandarin hyperbolic comparatives with incremental hai : Correlating with a salient scale"

• Shuichi Yatabe
"The semantics of split-antecedent reciprocals"
• Alastair Butler
"Dependency relations inform quantificational scope"
• Oleg Kiselyov
"Local Skolemization: Predicate Logic with Anaphora, Calmed Down"

• Daisuke Bekki
"A Proof-theoretic Analysis of VP Ellipsis"
• Daiki Matsuoka and Hitomi Yanaka
"Split and compose: Deriving long-distance dependencies in a continuation-based grammar"
• Timothee Bernard and Philippe de Groote
"Individuals as sets of perspectives"

• Marina Perez del Valle
"Logic and Linguistic Intuitions in Dynamic Semantics"
• Yu Tomita
"Rightward and Covert Movement: a Formulation with Directional Minimalist Grammar"

3rd Day: November 30 (Sun)

• Toshiko Oda
"Phrasal Comparatives of Gilgiti-Shina"
• Peter Rossyaykin, Ruoying Zhao and Mariia Onoeva
"Scalar NPIs in polar questions: evidence from Balkar, Kumyk, and elsewhere"
• Jiayuan Chen
"Where does anti-uniqueness come from? A case study of English demonstratives"

• Philippe de Groote and Santiago Arambillete
"On the use of binary relations as collective predicates in natural mathematics"
• Andrew Kato
"The scope and reporting of correction"

• Lukas Rieser
"Japanese modalities of (non)-existence"
• Osamu Sawada
"The semantics and pragmatics of the Japanese emphatic expression hodo-ga aru ‘there is a limit’"
• Muyi Yang, Teruyuki Mizuno, Eri Tanaka and Stephanie Solt
"Lemons to vitamin C: Mapping between amounts with Japanese bun ‘amount’"

• Dorothy Ahn
"Reconsidering the role of iota and presupposition in reference"

Sponsor

LENLS is being organized by an alliance of the following sponsors.

All attendees, speakers, sponsors and volunteers at our conference are required to adhire to the following code of conduct. Organisers will enforce this code throughout the event. We expect cooperation from all participants to help ensure a safe environment for everyone.

The Quick Version

The organizers are dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, or religion (or lack thereof). We do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue, including talks, workshops, parties, and social media. Conference participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference without a refund at the discretion of the organisers.

The Less Quick Version

Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, and religion (or lack thereof), as well as sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Participants asked to stop harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.

If a participant engages in harassing behavior, the conference organisers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender or expulsion from the conference without a refund.

If you experience harassment, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact the following conference staff members immediately: Elin McCready and Daisuke Bekki

THe conference staff will be happy to help participants contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value your attendance.

We expect participants to follow these rules at conference and workshop venues as well as conference-related social events.

Program Committee:

• Daisuke Bekki (Ochanomizu University)
• Alastair Butler (Hirosaki University)
• Patrick D. Elliott (Heinrich-Heine University of Dusseldorf)
• Naoya Fujikawa (University of Tokyo)
• Hitomi Hirayama (Keio University)
• Magdalena Kaufmann (University of Connecticut)
• Elin McCready (ICREA/Autonomous University of Barcelona)
• Koji Mineshima (Keio University)
• Yoshiki Mori (University of Tokyo)
• David Y. Oshima (Nagoya University)
• Osamu Sawada (Kobe University)
• Eri Tanaka (Osaka University)
• Shunsuke Yatabe (Ochanomizu University)
• Kei Yoshimoto (Tohoku University)
• Yu Izumi (Nanzan University)
• Shinya Okano (University of Tokyo)
• Teruyuki Mizuno (Ochanomizu University)
• Yang Muyi (Osaka University)
• Akitaka Yamada (Keio University)
• Kenta Mizutani (Aichi Prefectural University)
• Lukas Rieser (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)
• Gregoire Winterstein (Université du Québec à Montréal)

Local Organizers:

• David Y. Oshima (Nagoya University)
• Ikumi Imani (Nagoya Gakuin University)

Contact: