The 12th Szklarska Poreba Workshop, March 11-15, 2011

"Ambiguity in Language and the Process of Disambiguation"

Snow pic

Call for papers

Linguists, logicians and philosophers are invited to join the twelfth conference on the Roots of Pragmasemantics. The focus of this year’s convention is "ambiguity in language and the process of disambiguation". Thus we are interested particularly in how interpretation of ambiguous sentences is determined and hence how effeciently communication is obtained. Experimental as well as theoretical approaches to the problem are welcome. We especially invite submissions related to this topic but also welcome contributions relevant to any of the more classical subjects of this workshop series. We in particular encourage the presentation of innovative ideas, even if still in need of later refinement.

We invite submission of blind abstracts of no longer than 500 words in PDF, to be sent to m.spychalska@gmail.com.

Especially relevant topics include:

•       Lexical & syntactical ambiguity

•       Cognitive aspects of disambiguation in language

•       Language comprehension and language production

•       The role of disambiguation in reasoning

•       Experimental studies on ambiguity and disambiguation in language

 

And more traditional Szklarska Poreba themes:

Invited speakers


Justyna Grudzińska
Jacques Jayez
Bernhard Schröder
Katrin Schulz
 

Registration and estimated costs

All costs except the conference fee are approximate, based on last year.

Conference fee (includes buffet): €50 (generous student reductions available)
Accommodation: €5 to €25
Skipass: €20 per day
Ski rental: €5 per day
Food: €3 to 6 per meal, drinks €1

You can register by sending an email to m.spychalska@gmail.com.
 

Accommodation

The accommodation is a ski lodge at the top of the slope, with a limited supply of two-person bedrooms and a large number of rooms with 3 to 6 beds. The lodge contains a restaurant, which serves Polish mountain food. From the highest point the chair-lift reaches the lodge is a further ten-minute walk through the snow, so good shoes and warm clothing are essential.

If you have good reason to prefer not to share a multi-person room (which is however cheaper) please get in touch with Maria Spychalska, who will deal with these matters in the strictest confidence.

Please note that it is not practical to use other accommodation, as the lodge can only easily be reached by ski-lift, while a substantial portion of the programme will take place outside of operating hours of the lifts.

How to travel

There are lots of options for getting to the workshop. There are usually good air connections to Berlin, Warsaw and Prague. By car the village Szklarska Poreba can be reached from Jelenia Gora in Poland or from Harrachov in Czechia. There is also a comfortable overnight train (11 hours) from Warsaw.

From Berlin, the easiest way is by car. Your best chance is to get in touch with the Berlin participants (we will help coordinating if necessary). Otherwise, take the train from Ostbahnhof to Goerlitz (2.5 hrs), walk across the border to the Zgorzelec bus station (up until the top of the hill then right, 30 min). From here, there are buses to Jelenia Gora (2.5. hrs) and from there to Szklarska Poreba (leaving from the train station, 30 min). It is a 20 min. steep walk from the bus station to the skilift, if you go up by the little river.

From Prague there is a regular bus service to Harrachov (starting near metro station Cerny Most, the fast service takes roughly two hours while the slower line is closer to three). The Czech travel planner IDOS has an English page for checking the details. From Harrachov you can get a taxi to the border then another taxi to the ski-lift, which is not too expensive if you are travelling with a large enough group. Slightly more adventurous is to walk across the border, see below.

If possible you should try to arrive in the village Szklarska Poreba before the ski-lifts stop running at 15.30. After this only walking (1 hour 15 minutes, but only possible if the weather is good) or the quite expensive snow scooters will get you up. The lodge is called Schronisko Szrenica (not Hala Szrenica, which is a little lower on the mountain).

From the top of the ski-lift the lodge is a ten-minute walk through the snow; above the lift you pass a weather monitoring station, then the lodge is a little further and straight uphill. (In fog it may help to follow the wooden marker poles.)

It is also possible to reach the lodge by walking across the border (about three hours, mainly uphill) from Czechia. You should only attempt this if you are in good physical condition and have hiking boots, and if the weather is good (in any case do not walk alone unless you are experienced). The first step is to take a bus from Prague to Harrachov — at this point it is always possible to take a taxi if the weather is bad. Otherwise, take the path leading up the mountain to the Czech hostel Vozecka Bouda. When you reach this, you are approximately 400 metres from the border. Turn left when you reach the Polish walking path immediately beyond the border; from here you will reach the hostel in about half an hour. If you plan to take this route and would like company on the walk, contact Henk Zeevat who will probably travel this way. If enough people travel from Prague we will try to organise a bus, please get in touch if you are interested.

Mailing list

We have set up a mailing list for conference participants. If you'd like to be added to the list, removed from it or to change where you receive mail, please contact Maria Spychalska. (you'll be added anyway when you register). The list is not the best way to contact the organisers, since your message will also go to all other participants. Anyone may post to the list; you can use it to arrange travel details and so on. Because of this open posting policy, we don't list the mailing address here. When we add you to the list you'll receive an email telling you the address for posting; if you forget it, mail one of the organisers for a reminder.

Organisers and contact details

(Email addresses are listed oddly, to cut down on spam you should mail to  name@some.domain )