The pragmatics working group at OSU is a weekly forum dedicated to investigating the interaction between linguistic content and context in the creation of meaning. Attendees are welcome to sign up for slots to present ongoing work in semantics/pragmatics (broadly construed), or to present a paper for discussion with the group. In the past we have done a series of readings organized a particular theme; in 2021-2022, for instance, the group focused on how semantic and pragmatic concepts are integrated in natural language processing research, as well as on how they are tied to some aspects of language acquisition and emerging social meanings (SP22); we’ve also recently read work in game-theoretic pragmatics and its interactions with QUD based approaches to pragmatics. Recent schedules can be found here (SP23) and here (AU23).
In the current semester (SP24) we will continue to share ongoing work, and focus on readings on some classic or “core” topics in pragmatics (pairing old work with more recent approaches to similar ideas; topics may include coversational & scalar implicature, performativity/speech acts/discourse conventions, and projectivity). The schedule can be found here, and will be updated through the semester.
We meet on Wednesdays from 12:45pm – 2:05pm in Oxley 122. You can join meetings online if you prefer: a Zoom link will be included in weekly emails on the mailing list (see below).
If you would like to join the pragmatics working group’s mailing list, subscribe here. You can email Prerna (Nadathur.3) with questions and for clarifications. Graduate students who plan to attend regularly should register for credit (LING 7890.04); interested undergraduates who can commit to regular attendance and participation should contact Prerna for permissions and/or arrangement of credit options.