Ambiguity as (Information) Gaps: Processes of Creation and Resolution
16.11. & 17.11.2018 – University of Tübingen, Germany
International Workshop at the RTG 1808: Ambiguity
Location: Room 027 Brechtbau, Wilhelmstraße 50
For last-minute registration: Please send an email to
ambiguitaet@graduiertenkolleg.uni-tuebingen.de
The final program can be found here.
Workshop Topics and Research Questions
How do the processes of resolving and producing ambiguity work? Starting from the hypothesis that understanding an utterance involves a mapping to an internal representation, let ambiguity denote the presence of two or more competing mappings. We want to approach the phenomena underlying the cognitive processing of ambiguity.
As a first approximation, let us say that ambiguity arises when "gaps" are present in an utterance within natural language discourse that can be filled in two or more specific ways by the hearer. Consider encountering the following phrase in a videogame: "hit the treasure chest with a stick and it will break!" To some, "it" might be ambiguous, others might say that the stick will break (the chest probably won't). Substituting "open" for "break" removes that ambiguity because "open" is much more likely for a chest. In understanding the phrase, a lot of context has to be integrated nonetheless. Consider the response "I will use a rock then!". It is perfectly understandable but again lots of details are left out because they don't seem necessary. In natural language, hearers and speakers use additional information to fill in such "information gaps" or create them with great ease. Indeed, we often don't even take note of all the ambiguities that are technically there or that we introduce, while a computer might find ambiguities everywhere and create them in the wrong places.
Our working hypothesis is thus the following: speakers and hearers map utterances to some internal representation in which at least some of the information gaps are filled. This leads to a more specific set of interesting questions.
- What information is employed when hearers fill these information gaps?
- When, why and how do speakers create them?
- What counts as an information gap?
- What are the underlying cognitive processes in creation and resolution of information gaps?
- Which types of gaps are challenging to speakers / hearers / computers?
The questions still cover a broad range of specific research questions and make interdisciplinary exchange necessary. We want to illuminate these questions from different perspectives and see what different disciplines contribute (as of now). Be it by theoretical work, empirical findings or modelling.
An incomplete list of fields that might add to this could be as follows: Cognitive Modelling, Cognitive Science, (Psycho-, Computational) Linguistics, Neuroscience, Psychology, Philosophy (of Mind), Literary Studies. We invite submissions that add to the understanding of the basic question: What can we say about how speakers and hearers create, fill and recognise such information gaps cognitively?
Invited Speakers
(Peter Dominey had to retract his participation)
Formalities & Dates
Submissions should be in the form of extended abstracts of up to 500 words plus references. The workshop will be held in English.
Abstracts can be submitted through https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ambigap2018
Deadline for Submission: 30.7.2018
Notification of Acceptance: 31.8.2018
Organisers
Christian Stegemann, Martin V. Butz, Susanne Winkler
Contact
Workshops
On July 10th 2015 the RTG 1808 organized in co-operation with the SFB 833 a workshop titled „Fundraising für junge Wissenschaftlerinnen: Von Türöffnern und Tretminen bei der Drittmitteleinwerbung“. The workshop was taught by Golin Wissenschaftsmanagement.
Equal Opportunity workshop “Academic Writing” (30 March 2015)
On March 30, 2015, RTG members Marion Knecht, Carolin Munderich, Bettina Remmele and Wiltrud Wagner took part in the SCIENCEPLUS-Workshop “Academic Writing: How to Produce Good Texts”. The course was offered by the company GOLIN Wissenschaftsmanagement and paid for by gender equality funds of the RTG 1808 and our associated Collaborative Research Centre 833.
2nd "Graduiertentag" (6-8 February 2015)
The 2nd RTG Workshop titled "Ambiguity and Strategy" took place from 6-8 February, 2015 in Blaubeuren. Apart from contributions by our own RTG members there were also talks given by external Associates.
"Ambiguität and Poetry" (4 July 2014)
The Workshop “Ambiguity and Poetry” took place on 4th July 2014. The speakers invited by the RTG 1808 shared their thoughts on and insights into the practical approach to ambiguity with the participants. Prof David Fishelov (literary studies) and Dr Sieglinde Eberhart (reciter of poetry) invited us to think about speaking poetry aloud. Steffen Popp (translator) reflected on his approach to ambiguity in translating poems from English into German. The contributions of poet Prof Dirk von Petersdorff (“Reflections on the Ambiguity of Rhythmic Language with Reference to My Own Poems”) and author Franz Josef Czernin (“Ambiguity and Poetic Knowledge [Erkenntnis]”) opened up the poet’s perspective on the role of ambiguity in poetry.
First “Graduiertentag” (21–23 February 2014)
The first “Graduiertentag” of the Research Training Group 1808 took place between 21st and 23rd February 2014 at the old monastery of Heiligkreuztal. Apart from presentations by the PhD students and discussion of first results and further plans of the individual PhD projects, there was also a keynote paper by Stephan Kammer on the topic of “Krise – Struktur und Funktion eines Ambiguitätsnarrativs”.
“Collisions – On Strategic Ambiguity” (28 November 2013)
The comedian Stefan Reusch was invited to lead a workshop on the topic of “Zusammenstöße – Zur strategischen Ambiguität” (“On strategic ambiguity”) on 28th November 2013. He not only gave the members of the RTG 1808 an insight into his work as a comedian but also read from his most recent book Zusammenstöße [Collisions].
