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Postgraduate Program "Dimensions of Ambiguity"

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Symposium

International Symposium

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Ambiguity:
Linguistics, Literary Studies and Rhetoric

Program

Thursday, November 5, 2009

6 pm	Lukas Grimm, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Stuttgart	Der Student von Prag, 1913 (Student of Prague), St. Johannes Kirche
8 pm	Welcome Dinner	Die Kelter

Friday, November 6, 2009

8.30 - 8.45 am am	Nikola Wiegeler, University of Tuebingen	Gebärdenkodes. Die Gebärde als rhetorisches Element in der kommunikativen Interaktion. Körperliche Stummformen in Pantomime, commedia dell'arte, Ballett, Theater und Stummfilm
8.45 - 9.45 am	Lukas Grimm, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Stuttgart	Musikalische Ambiguität in der Praxis: Vertonen von Stummfilmen
9.45 - 10.15 am	Coffee Break
10.15 - 10.30 am	Melanie Henschke, University of Tuebingen	Elliptical Ambiguities
10.30 - 11.30 am	Jason Merchant, University of Chicago	Context and Types of Ambiguity
11.30 am - 12.30 pm	Patrick McCrae, University of Hamburg	The Role of Cross-Modal Context in Syntactic Disambiguation
12.30 - 1.30 pm	Lunch
1.30 - 1.45 pm	Felix Balmer, University of Tuebingen	Processing Connected Speech: Triggers for Mondegreens
1.45 - 2.45 pm	Ulrich H. Frauenfelder, University of Geneva	Ambiguity in Language: A Psycholinguistic Lever for Studying Language Processing
2.45 - 3.45 pm	Anika Falkert, University of Avignon	On the Relationship between Complexity and Ambiguity in some Varieties of Spoken French
3.45 - 4.15 pm	Coffee Break
4.15 - 4.30 pm	Olga Springer, University of Tuebingen	Ambiguity in Charlotte Brontë's Villette
4.30 - 5.30 pm	Eleanor Cook, University of Toronto	Ambiguity and the Poets
5.30 - 6.30 pm	Burkhard Niederhoff, University of Bochum	Literary Leitmotifs and the Unfolding of Ambiguity
6.30 - 7.30 pm	Alena A. Fidlerová, Charles University in Prague	Authors of the 17th Century Philosophical Languages on Ambiguity
8.00 pm pm	Dinner

Saturday, November 7, 2009

8.30 - 8.45 am	Markus Ising, University of Tuebingen	Cognitive Ambiguity: The Role of Collective and Dual Reconceptualisations in Grammar and Lexicon of Romance Languages
8.45 - 9.45 am	Bernhard Wälchli, University of Bern	Number in Lexical Typology: Part-Whole Interaction in Form and Function
9.45 - 10.45 am	Alxandra E. Jacobsen and Ronald R. Jacobsen, University of Alba Iulia / University of Southern Denmark	Intentional Ambiguity in Questions and their Answers
10.45 - 11.15 am	Coffee Break
11.15 - 11.30 am	Thomas Susanka, University of Tuebingen	Mehrdeutigkeit in bildlichen Persuasionsvorgängen
11.30 am - 12.30 pm	Klaus Sachs-Hombach, Technical University of Chemnitz	Ambiguitäten im Bild
12.30 - 1.30 pm	Jan Albert Van Laar, University of Groningen	Dealing with Ambiguity in Argumentative Discussion
1.30 - 2.30 pm	Lunch and Departure

Phenomena of ambiguity provide an interesting and controversial area of research for linguistics and literary studies as well as for rhetoric. A particularly rewarding field of enquiry is the resolution and production of ambiguity in text, speech, gestures and images.

The aim of this conference is to bring together the stimuli of these perspectives and focus on the dimensions of ambiguity within an interdisciplinary dialogue. We intend to address the following questions:

• How is ambiguity processed and resolved?
• How does ambiguity arise? How can it be generated?
• What is the communicative value of ambiguity?

The following aspects may provide a first approach to the discussion:

• Ellipsis and ambiguity in public speeches at the interface between syntax, semantics, pragmatics and psycholinguistics;
• The relationship between linguistic ambiguities and ambiguous subject matter in literary texts (possible examples are the different versions of the last sentence of Dickens's Great Expectations or the letter A becoming an ambiguous sign in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter);
• The status of mishearings and mondegreens at the prelexical and lexical level within a model of language processing;
• Beyond the ambiguity of linguistic signs: the ambiguity of the signified, e.g. conceptual figure-ground-effects and their manifestations in language;
• Ambiguity in visual sign systems, e.g. in images, films or gesture-based texts.

Papers lasted for 30 minutes, followed by another 30 minutes of discussion.

Do you have any suggestions or questions, not only concerning the symposium but "ambiguity" in general? You can always get in touch with us at ambiguity@nphil.uni-tuebingen.de.