CALL FOR PAPERS

Discourse Domains and Information Structure

http://www.cogsci.uos.de/~workshopDDIS

8 - 12th of August, 2005

workshop organized as part of

European Summer School on Logic, Language and Information

ESSLLI 2005, 8-19 August, 2005 in Edinburgh

http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/esslli05/

Workshop Organizers:

Carla Umbach (University of Osnabrück, carla.umbach@uos.de)

Klaus von Heusinger (University of Stuttgart, vonHeusinger@ilg.uni-stuttgart.de)

Workshop Purpose:

The workshop will investigate the interaction between discourse domains and information structure.

Discourse structure is often represented by a hierarchical structure of different discourse domains:

Anaphoric accessibility crucially depends on semantic operators that create new domains (like negation),

presuppositions are projected according to properties of the discourse, and the quaestio or

q(estion)u(nder)d(iscussion)-approach structures a discourse into a hierarchical tree.

Information structure, on the other hand, is commonly assumed to be a flat structure: the partition into

backgrounded and focused information or into topic and comment.

Suggested topics:

· Background accessibility in hierachical discourse domains

· Presuppositions as anaphors in a theory of information structure

· Presuppositions, anaphoric relations, and alternative sets

· Focus/background structure and embedded sentences

· Topic/comment and embedding

Workshop format:

The workshop is part of ESSLLI and is open to all ESSLLI participants.

It will consist of five 90-minute sessions held over five consecutive days in the first week of ESSLLI.

There will be 2 slots for paper presentation and discussion per session.

Invited Speakers:

Hans Kamp (University of Stuttgart)

Bonnie Webber (University of Edinburgh)

Workshop Programme Committee:

Nick Asher (University of Texas)

Peter Bosch (University of Osnabrück)

Daniel Büring (UCLA)

Regine Eckardt (ZAS Berlin)

Manfred Krifka (Humboldt-Universität Berlin)

Massimo Poesio (University of Essex)

Craige Roberts (Ohio State University)

Bonnie Webber (University of Edinburgh)

Submission details:

Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract (max. 5 pages) for 45 minutes talks

(30 min. presentation plus 15 min. discussion).

Please send your submission electronically to both organizers:

carla.umbach@uos.de and

vonHeusinger@ilg.uni-stuttgart.de

Abstracts must be anonymous. Please use 'Abstract DDIS' as the subject header and send your abstract

as an attachment (PDF, PS, word, or plain ASCII are accepted).

Please include the information in (1) - (5) in the body of your message.

Author Information

1. Name(s) of author(s)

2. Title of talk

3. Affiliation(s)

4. E-mail address(es)

5. Postal address(es)

The accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings published by ESSLLI.

Important Dates:

Deadline for submission: March 9, 2005

Notification of acceptance: April 18, 2005

Preliminary programme: April 23, 2005

ESSLLI early registration: May 1, 2005

Final papers for proceedings: May 18, 2005

Final programme: June 22, 2005

Workshop dates: August 8-12, 2005

Local Arrangements:

All workshop participants including the presenters will be required to register for ESSLLI.

The registration fee for authors presenting a paper will correspond to the early student/workshop speaker registration fee.

Moreover, a number of additional fee waiver grants will be made available by the ESSLLI Organisation Committee

on a competitive basis and workshop participants are eligible to apply for those.

There will be no reimbursement for travel costs and accommodation.

Workshop speakers who have difficulty in finding funding should contact the local organizing committee

to ask for the possibilities for a grant.

Further Information:

About the workshop: www.cogsci.uos.de/~workshopDDIS

About ESSLLI: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/esslli05/