Kathryn Davidson

Kathryn Davidson will speak at the UC San Diego Linguistics Department on Monday April 20 at 2:00 p.m. in AP&M 4301.

Reference vs. sets: Understanding a classic semantic distinction through contrasting symbolic language with iconic depiction

"That kind neighbor" refers to a particular person in a given context, but "is a kind neighbor" is a property that can hold of certain people and not others, and as such can participate in quantificational structures ("everyone who is a kind neighbor receives good karma"), negation ("not be a good neighbor"), etc. Both form core parts of the argument/predicate structure underlying formal compositional models of the semantics in natural language, but this talk explores the idea that symbolic representation is uniquely well suited for computations over sets, in contrast to iconic representations like gestures, pictures, etc. This is an old idea, but one to which I aim to bring new empirical evidence from a series of cross-linguistic experimental studies including both spoken and sign language data. By investigating differences in compositional potential between symbolic language and iconic depictions in language, we can use semantic structures to better understand certain advantages of symbolic over iconic representations.