SFB 833:  Emergence of Meaning: The Dynamics and Adaptivity of Linguistic Structures

Subject Area Humanities
Social and Behavioural Sciences
Term from 2009 to 2021
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 75650358
 

Final Report

Final Report Year 2021

Final Report Abstract

The central topic of the SFB 833 has been the emergence of meaning. We have concentrated on sentence meaning, and formal compositional semantics has taken center stage in our investigations. It has been our goal to establish compositional semantics, a comparatively young subdiscipline of linguistics, as part of linguistic research especially into the more dynamic and adaptive processes that human language shows. We have distinguished three levels of dynamics/adaptivity: (i) during language processing; (ii) in context; (iii) at the level of the grammar. This has led to investigating semantic composition in three areas in which it had previously not been well represented: (i) We have investigated combinatory semantic processes during language comprehension in our area B. Our central question: ‘How does meaning emerge?’ here becomes the question of what a model of incremental semantic composition during processing looks like. At the same time, we have to inquire into the cognitive factors which affect this emergence of meaning. (ii) In our area A, we have investigated the issue of how meaning arises in the context of an utterance. This encompasses combinatory adaptation mechanisms like coercion as well as enriched meaning, disambiguation and discourse embedding. (iii) Research in area C has been dedicated to the emergence of meaning at the level of an individual language or grammar. Dynamics then means language change, and adaptivity refers to the option space for language variation. The three areas have been connected by way of our interface questions I Cognition: ‘How is the language system embedded in human cognition?’ and II Composition: ‘What should the implementation of the principle of compositionality look like?’. The various aspects of our central question ‘How does meaning emerge?’ have seen a significant development over the past twelve years. One example of this is the development of formal diachronic semantics as a subfield (as witnessed by the new workshop series ‘Formal Diachronic Semantics’ since 2016); another is the rise of experimental research into meaning (e.g. the DFG network XPRAG 2014-2020). The SFB 833 has contributed to the overall development primarily in the following ways: (i) Area B: The SFB has contributed first proposals for a model of incremental semantic composition, which integrate numerous particular results from area B and elsewhere. Concerning the cognitive foundation of the emergence of meaning, the SFB has found that at sentence level, both sensorimotor and amodal representations play a role. However, on the basis of our results we assume that sentence meaning primarily arises via amodal representations. (ii) Area A: The concrete implementation of compositionality in the face of challenges for composition has been a focus in the SFB’s work. Bücking and Maienborn (2019) could show for the domain of modification that adaptivity is anchored in the lexicon and integrated into compositional meaning constitution. Similarly, Maienborn and Herdtfelder (2017) offer a case study on how conceptual knowledge can be integrated with classical composition principles without giving up a principled view of compositionality. The A area has also been able to illuminate the interface of discourse and sentence meaning in a number of case studies. (iii) Area C: In the recent past, semantic variation has come to be studied increasingly in a comparative way, going beyond studies on individual languages. The SFB has contributed a programmatic paper reflecting our current state of knowledge. The C projects have investigated language variation and language change in conjunction relating to diverse topics in semantics. Looking beyond the three project areas, linking different fields of investigation has been an important contribution of the SFB 833. The SFB has provided an impetus for processing research across languages. The interdisciplinary connection of linguistics and literature has seen some novel pioneering work in the SFB; it has been productive in projects A2 and A5. The cooperation of psychology and linguistics has been a cornerstone of the SFB 833 throughout its existence and has led to numerous publications. These works show how we have managed to make progress with our core goal of integrating compositional semantics into its neighboring fields.

Publications

DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

Applicant Institution Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
Spokesperson Professorin Dr. Sigrid Beck