My academic interests revolve around the basic question: how can we construct a theory of language that explains the dual nature of language as a psychological and social object? It’s not obvious that philosophical and linguistic theories that treat language as a static formal object are compatible with the ubiquity of variation and change in language, nor with its broader social importance. I believe that the solution to these problems will be found in formal theories of discourse and interpretation derived not only from theoretical linguistics, psychology, philosophy, and logic, but also (and crucially) descriptive and sociohistorical linguistics.
In my non-academic life, I spend as much time as possible traveling, playing and listening to music (mostly blues, rock, and country), diving, hiking, snowboarding, and observing animal behavior.
Daniel Lassiter
Ph.D. Student,
Dept. of Linguistics,
New York University
Contact:
my#last#name at nyu dot edu
Mailing:
NYU Department of LInguistics
726 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10003
Research Interests:
Semantics, Pragmatics, Syntax,
Philosophy of Language,
Linguistic variation and change
Education:
-Ph.D. in Linguistics, New York University, expected 2011
-Postgraduate Diploma in Philosophy, University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand), 2005
-A.B. in Linguistics and Classics, Harvard University, 2004
Languages of Interest:
English, German, French, Spanish, Quechua, Latin, Classical Greek
Publications and Online Papers:
“Explaining a restriction on the scope of the comparative operator.” To appear in Proceedings of
the 33rd Penn Linguistics Colloquium.
“Semantic Externalism, Language Variation, and Sociolinguistic Accommodation.”
Distributed Morphology and the Evolution of the Indo-European Case System. A.B. Thesis, Harvard
“Distinguishing Two Greek Particles of ‘Emphasis’: de: and the:n in the Poetry of Theocritus”
“Truth and Normativity in the Protagoras”. In Logos (Vol. I, spring 2002).
Conference presentations:
“Externalist intuitions and coordination games.” Invited talk at the conference Philosophy of
Linguistics, Interuniversity Center, Dubrovnik, Croatia, September 7-11, 2009.
“Vagueness and probabilistic belief.” Presented at the workshop Vagueness in
Communication, ESSLLI 2009, July 20-24.
“The algebraic structure of amounts: Evidence from comparatives.” Presented at the ESSLLI
2009 student session, July 20-31 2009.
“Symmetric presupposition satisfaction is mid-sentence presupposition correction.” Presented
at the workshop New Directions in the Theory of Presupposition, ESSLLI 2009, July 27-31.
“Explaining a restriction on the scope of the comparative operator.” Presented at the 33rd
Penn Linguistics Colloquium, Philadelphia, March 27-29, 2009.
“Interpretation, utility, and vagueness.” Presented at the Conference “Vagueness and Language
Use”, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, April 7-9, 2008.
Teaching
Offered jointly by the NYU Departments of Linguistics and Psychology, Spring 2009.
Linguistics, New York University, Fall 2007.
University of Otago, Fall 2005.
