The Linguistics Institute of St Andrews: Research Seminars (formerly SAILLS)

2009/10 - Semester 2

The seminar organiser is Dr Chris Beedham

All the meetings are held at 5.15pm in Buchanan room 216

4 March

Prof Ignazio Mirto (University of Palermo) - with Italian
The unbearable lightness of meaning: complex nominal determiners in English

We normally think of the meaning of words as pre-existing and stable entities.  If we are to consider the standard definition for 'cloud', for example, «a mass of water vapour that floats in the sky» (Collins Cobuild), we ask whether or not its occurrence in the sentence "Italy is being enveloped in a cloud of suspicion" is appropriate. Should this meaning of ‘cloud’ be accounted for by simply having recourse to 'metaphorical usage' or also by taking into due account its quantifying function? This presentation aims at outlining how "fickle" and fluctuating meaning can be, and how words, if considered in absolute rather than relative terms, can scarcely be regarded as the 'building blocks' of meaning.

27 April
Dr Clive Sneddon (Dept of French)

Formulae for change: the potential of inscription evidence

2009/10 - Semester 1

The seminar organiser is Dr Chris Beedham

Guest speaker

Thursday 3 December Week 10

Prof. Pierre Frath (University of Reims,

'Département d'anglais' and 'Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur les Langues et la Pensée') Linguistics: towards an anthropological turn?

Room 216, Buchanan Building, at 17.15.