Workshop description
In a quotational construction an expression is mentioned rather than or in addition to being used denotationally. In pure quotations, for example, as in "Berlin" has two syllables, linguistic shapes are demonstrated in a rule-like fashion, in this case the shape of the name of Germany’s capital. While the distinction between use and mention is theoretically well defined, the mechanisms of how mentioning is explicated in an utterance, however, are not fully understood yet. Consider the following examples.
(1)
a. Max is not between jobs, he’s just been offered a job at the hospital.
b. Max is not "between jobs", he’s unemployed!
Typically, quotation marks are employed to express the distinction between the use of an expression, see (1a), and mentioning it, e.g., in a scare quotation like in (1b). Beyond quotes, however, it is far less clear which means language users rely on to mark the use-mention divide. In our workshop, we aim at discussing the linguistic inventory to signal the aforementioned contrast by considering, among others, the following aspects:
(1)
a. Max is not between jobs, he’s just been offered a job at the hospital.
b. Max is not "between jobs", he’s unemployed!
Typically, quotation marks are employed to express the distinction between the use of an expression, see (1a), and mentioning it, e.g., in a scare quotation like in (1b). Beyond quotes, however, it is far less clear which means language users rely on to mark the use-mention divide. In our workshop, we aim at discussing the linguistic inventory to signal the aforementioned contrast by considering, among others, the following aspects:
- Acoustics and phonetics: Is mentioning reflected in acoustic parameters such as duration, fundamental frequency, intensity, etc.?
- Semantics and pragmatics: Which role do modal and discourse particles play for, e.g., scare quotation, cf. Na, das ist ja ein "Zufall"! ('PRT, that is PRT a "coincidence"', What a "coincidence"!)? What is their semantic content and pragmatic function?
- Gestures and sign language: How systematic is the use of air quotes? For which types of quotation are they used (e.g., scare quotation)? Which function(s) do they have? How are quotation and the different types expressed in sign language?
- Information structure: What is the information-structural status of quoted expressions? How does, e.g., scare quotation interact with focus?