summer course, 2010: Meaning, Context, Intention

Dear Colleagues, We'd like to call your attention to CEU's upcoming summer course "MEANING, CONTEXT, INTENTION". Also, we would greatly appreciate your help in promoting the course among your colleagues, your graduate students, or any interested researchers. We'd be grateful if you could forward the information below to those potentially interested in our summer school (individuals, listservs, blogs, electronic journals, etc.) and/or have a short announcement placed on a relevant web site. Thank you in advance, yours sincerely, Zsófia Zvolenszky ---------------------------------------------------------- "MEANING, CONTEXT, INTENTION" Course dates: JULY 19-30, 2010 Location: Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary, Detailed course description: http://www.summer.ceu.hu/meaning Tuition fee: EUR 550. Financial aid is available. Application deadline: February 15, 2010 Online application (from late November): http://www.sun.ceu.hu/03-application/howto_apply.php Course directors: * Zsofia Zvolenszky, Eötvös University (ELTE), Institute of Philosophy, Budapest, Hungary; * Jason Stanley, Rutgers, Philosophy Department, New Brunswick, USA; Jason Stanley, Zsófia Zvolenszky Faculty: * Ray Buchanan, University of Texas, Philosophy Department, Austin, USA * Herman Cappelen, University of St Andrews, Department of Philosophy, UK * Wayne A. Davis, Georgetown University, Philosophy Department, Washington DC, USA * Katalin Farkas, Central European University, Philosophy Department * Ernest Lepore, Rutgers University, Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick US * Stephen Neale, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, USA * Adam Sennet, University of California, Davis, Department of Philosophy, USA * Zoltan Gendler Szabo, Yale University, Department of Philosophy, USA What we express, communicate by uttering a sentence varies with the context of utterance. What is the role of semantics in bringing this about? According to one simple model, a semantic theory assigns to sentences relative to contexts what would be expressed by those sentences in normal assertive utterances, by assigning values to the meaningful parts of the sentences in those contexts and combining them via a recursive process. According to another, radically different model, the meanings of words are rules that constrain the use of expressions, but there is no notion of what is said by a sentence (as opposed to the person) that matches the speaker's communicative intentions, and that plays a fundamental role in the account of communication. There are many versions of each of these views of linguistic communication. How we think about language is determined by which we adopt. The purpose of this course is to bring together leading researchers who have formed the debate, together with some younger researchers with new approaches. This summer school invites applications from junior faculty and doctoral students at philosophy and linguistics departments. Minimum background required: philosophy of language at the advanced undergraduate level. Participants should ideally bring some work in progress related to the course theme for discussion during the course.