Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

Default Semantics

A brief description of the project

Recent and ongoing PhD projects in Default Semantics

Selected publications on Default Semantics

Selected powerpoint presentations

A brief description of the project

Default Semantics is a theory of utterance interpretation founded on the principle of interaction of information about speaker's meaning which comes from various sources, including word meaning, sentence structure, pragmatic inference, and various types of default interpretations. It is a relatively new theory, couched in the contextualist, neo-Gricean tradition, and founded on the principle of pragmatic compositionality of meaning. It is being developed at the University of Cambridge, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics by Professor Kasia Jaszczolt and her students, with partial support of Leverhulme Trust (2003-4). Default Semantics has been applied to such semantic constructions and phenomena as definite descriptions, propositional attitude reports, presupposition and anaphora, temporal and modal expressions, sentential connectives, and number terms. There are many opportunities for postgraduate research projects in various aspects of Default Semantics, including application of the model to various types of constructions in different languages, experimental testing of its hypotheses, or, for more formally minded linguists, construction of an algorithm for the so-called merger representation that is produced by the merger of information coming from the sources identified in the theory.

For a comprehensive introduction to the latest version of the theory see 'Default Semantics'. Forthcoming in: B. Heine and H. Narrog (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

For Kasia Jaszczolt's interview on DS see 'Meaning merger: Pragmatic inference, defaults, and compositionality'. 2006. Intercultural Pragmatics 3. 195-212.

Recent and ongoing PhD projects in Default Semantics:

Anna Sysoeva, What Is Said and What Is Implicated: A Study with Reference to Communication in Russian and English
Jiranthara Srioutai, Conceptualization of Time in Thai with Special Reference to d1ay1II, kh3oe:y, k1aml3ang, y3u:I and c1a
Hye-Kyung Lee, The Semantics and Pragmatics of Connectives with Reference to English and Korean

Selected publications on Default Semantics:

Jaszczolt, K. M. Representing Time: An Essay on Temporality as Modality. Forthcoming in 2008. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jaszczolt, K. M. Default Semantics: Foundations of a Compositional Theory of Acts of Communication. 2005. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Onysko, A. Review of Default Semantics. 2007. Linguist List 18.324.
Allan, K. 'The best architect designed this church: Definite descriptions in Default Semantics'. Forthcoming.
Jaszczolt, K. M. Discourse, Beliefs and Intentions: Semantic Defaults and Propositional Attitude Ascription. 1999. Oxford: Elsevier Science.
Capone, A. Review of Discourse, Beliefs and Intentions. 2002. Pragmatics and Cognition 9. 354-61.
Jaszczolt, K. M. and J. Srioutai 'Communicating about the past through modality in English and Thai'. Forthcoming in: F. Brisard and T. Mortelmans (eds). Cognitive Approaches to Tense, Aspect and Modality. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'Variadic function and pragmatics-rich representations of belief reports'. 2007. Journal of Pragmatics 39. 934-959.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'The syntax-pragmatics merger: Belief reports in the theory of Default Semantics'. 2007. Pragmatics and Cognition 15. 41-64.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'Future time reference: Truth-conditional pragmatics or semantics of acts of communication?' In: L. de Saussure, J. Moeschler and G. Puskas (eds). 2007. Recent Advances in the Syntax and Semantics of Tense, Aspect and Modality. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.193-208.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'Futurity in Default Semantics'. In: K. von Heusinger and K. Turner (eds). 2006. Where Semantics Meets Pragmatics. Oxford: Elsevier. 471-492.
Srioutai, J. 'The (non-)progressive in Thai'. In: F. Chalcraft and E. Sipetzis (eds). 2005. Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics 2, University of Cambridge.
Srioutai, J. 'The Thai c1a: A marker of tense or modality?' In: E. Daskalaki et al. (eds). 2004. Second CamLing Proceedings, University of Cambridge.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'Prolegomena to Default Semantics'. In: S. Marmaridou, K. Nikiforidou, and E. Antonopoulou (eds). 2005. Reviewing Linguistic Thought: Converging Trends for the 21st Century. Berlin: Mouton. 107-142.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'The modality of the future: A Default-Semantics account'. In: P. Dekker and R. van Rooy (eds). 2003. Proceedings from the 14th Amsterdam Colloquium, ILLC, University of Amsterdam. 43-48.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'Default semantics, pragmatics, and intentions'. In: K. Turner (ed.). 1999. The Semantics/Pragmatics Interface form Different Points of View. Oxford: Elsevier Science. 199-232.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'Defaults in utterance interpretation'. In: L. Cummings (ed). forthcoming. The Pragmatics Encyclopedia. London: Routledge.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'Defaults in semantics and pragmatics'. In: E. N. Zalta (ed.). 2006. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Jaszczolt, K. M. 'Default Semantics'. In: K. Brown (ed). 2006. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd edition. Oxford: Elsevier. Vol. 3. 388-392.

Selected powerpoint presentations:

A. Sysoeva & K. Jaszczolt, 'Composing utterance meaning: An interface between pragmatics and psychology'.
J. Srioutai & K. Jaszczolt, 'D1ai1II in Thai: How a Tenseless Language May Communicate Past Time'.
K. Jaszczolt, 'Variadic function and pragmatics-rich representation structures for propositional attitude reports'.
K. Jaszczolt, 'The feature TENSE and the Simple Present in truth-conditional pragmatics'.
K. Jaszczolt, 'Time as acceptability of events'.