Dear All,

This is a kind reminder that the Language Comprehension Lab will host the following talk tomorrow, to which everyone is invited:

Speaker: Peter W. Culicover, Ohio State University, USA

Date: Thursday, Nov 6, 2025

Time: 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Venue: Language Comprehension Lab (QS D513)

Title: Constructional Reflections

Abstract: My overarching goal is to seek explanations of why human languages are the way they are. A constructional approach sharpens this question along the following lines. (i) Where do constructions come from? (ii) Why do constructions take the form that they have? (iii) What kinds of constructions exist in natural language? (iv) Why are some logically possible constructions (quasi-)universal, and others not, and others apparently non-existent?

In past work, I have offered a range of assumptions, intuitions, and speculations about these questions. In this talk, I will explore some of them, focusing on the possible empirical consequences of three ideas: (i) The Force, which promotes (or ‘pushes for’) the expression of all aspects of meaning using linguistic form. (ii) Economy, the assumption that grammars are organized to (more-or-less) efficiently express aspects of meaning, especially the conceptual core. (iii) The Bottleneck, which severely restricts the range of meanings that can be encoded in a single linguistic expression.

Peter W. Culicover is a Professor Emeritus at the Ohio State University, where he served as the founding Director of the Center for Cognitive Science (1989-2003) and as Chair of the Department of Linguistics (1998-2006). His research primarily focuses on understanding and explaining the syntactic structure of human languages. He has explored various topics, including language learnability, computational modeling of language acquisition and language change, the grammar of focus, grammatical constructions, the grammar of contemporary English, and the architecture of grammar.

Kind regards,

Attila