This Wednesday proves to be an exciting day for those interested in all aspects of language. While the Pervasive Context project holds its virtual meeting on Wednesday (see yesterday’s blog post), there will be a joint seminar held in the afternoon between the Reading Centre of Literacy and Multilingualism (CeLM) and the Reading Centre for Cognition Research (CCR).

Professor Rosemary Varley (Psychology & Language Sciences, University College London) will present a talk entitled “Global aphasia: the case for autonomy of language and thought”. The talk will be held from 15:00 – 16:30 in room 1L06, Agriculture. See further details here: http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/centre-for-cognition-research/2015/02/26/talk-18th-march-prof-rosemary-varley/

This week, the next Pervasive Context virtual meeting between the University of Reading and Peking University will take place. We will be discussing the third chapter of Peter Ludlow’s Living Words (2013, Oxford University Press).

This chapter outlines the key claims of the ‘dynamic’ view that is argued for throughout the book. Two of the core claims of the view are, first, that the meaning of every natural language expression is underdetermined to some extent or another, and secondly, that as a result we as speakers flesh out and modulate the meanings of the words that we use for whatever conversational purposes we have in the context we are in.

The meeting will take place on Wednesday 18th March from 10:00 – 12:00 GMT. If you would like to come to Reading and attend the meeting, then just get in touch at: pervasive_context@reading.ac.uk .

Book link: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780198712053.do#