Meaning and the Dynamics of Interpretation

Klaus von Heusinger, Dr. phil. (1992) and Habilitation (1999) at University of Konstanz, Germany, is Professor in German Linguistics at the University of Cologne. He approaches linguistic analysis from a theoretical as well as empirical point of view and focuses on the semantics and pragmatics of referring expressions in discourse.The application of logical methods to natural language has long been the key research program of Alice ter Meulen (Ph.D. Stanford, 1980). She has published extensively on a variety of topics in natural language semantics, including (in)definiteness, mass terms, aspect and temporal reference, generics and natural kinds, Montague grammar and Situation Semantics.The core research interests of Hans Kamp (off. Johan Anthony Willem Kamp, Ph.D. 1968 UCLA) have converged on the question how human beings represent meaning and how those representations enable them to various things with information, such as drawing inferences and making plans for action. Context dependence and vagueness of meaning, and the dynamic character of interpretation are at the core of his well-known account of meaning and interpretation Discourse Representation Theory.

• INTRODUCTION TO MEANING AND THE DYNAMICS OF INTERPRETATIONEVENTS, TEMPORAL REFERENCE, AND DISCOURSEIntroduction to Events, Temporal Reference, and DiscourseFormal Properties of ‘now’Events, Instants and Temporal ReferenceDeixis in Discourse: Reichenbach on Temporal ReferenceSEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICSIntroduction to Semantics and PragmaticsFree Choice PermissionSemantics versus PragmaticsVAGUENESSIntroduction to VaguenessTwo theories about adjectivesThe Paradox of the HeapDISCOURSE REPRESENTATIONIntroduction to Discourse RepresentationA Theory of Truth and Semantic RepresentationContext, Thought and CommunicationDisambiguation in DiscoursePRESUPPOSITIONIntroduction to PresuppositionPresupposition Computation and Presupposition Justification: One Aspect of the Interpretationof multi-sentence DiscourseThe Importance of PresuppositionPROPOSITIONAL ATTITUDESIntroduction to Propositional AttitudesProlegomena to a Structural Account of Belief and Other AttitudesTemporal Reference inside and outside propositional attitudesINTERVIEW WITH HANS KAMP