Dept of Philosophy Fall 2024 Colloquium: Peter van Elswyk (Northwestern University)

Title:  Rising Intonation

Abstract:  When we use an interrogative sentence to ask a question, the sentence receives rising intonation. However, other types of sentences can receive this intonational contour too. Though there is a growing literature on declaratives that receive rising intonation (sometimes called "queclaratives"), other non-interrogatives are overlooked, including imperatives, exclamations, and expressives. For example, I can use rising intonation with a greeting like "Hello?," or on an imperative like "Move to Canada?" to make a suggestion. To date, there is no uniform theory of what rising intonation contributes to the interpretation of an utterance. This talk will try a theory out. I will suggest that rising intonation is a conventionalized means of indicating ignorance regarding the semantic content of the sentence or phrase used. Such an account will be argued to best explain the linguistic data, and to highlight the centrality of knowledge to communication. 

The talk will take place from 3:00 - 5:00 pm in Social Science 224.

Zoom:  Zoom option