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Dr. P.J.E. (Paul) Dekker

Faculty of Humanities
Logic and Language
Photographer: Kata Balogh
Visiting address
  • Oude Turfmarkt 141
  • Room number: 0.04 /
Postal address
  • Postbus 94201
    1090 GE Amsterdam
Contact details
  • Profile
    • oὐκ ἐμοῦ ἀλλὰ τοῦ λόγου ἀκούσαντας ὁμολογεῖν σοφόν ἐστιν ἓν πάντα εἶναι (Herakleitos)
    • Welcome to the page of a researcher studying and teaching in the area of Logic and Language at the Philosophy Department of the Faculty of Humanities and at the ILLC. My work is concerned with the situated, intentional and public nature of meaning, and my generic interests include belief, indexicality, quantification and satisfaction in discourse.
    • I am currently director of MSc Logic program of the University of Amsterdam. I have been the chair of the Standing Committee of the European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI) for ten years, and I figure as the Amsterdam representative in the European Network of the Philosophy of Language and Mind (PLM).
    • Although I don't assist anything, and only conceive possibilities,  I am actually an "assistant" professor, and necessarily so, in the "Functie Gebouw" ---a kind of "Conceptual Script", or "Begriffsschrift"--- of the Faculty of Humanities'.

    ESSLLI 2022

    Below is an extensive description of the course Theory of Interpretation that I will present at ESSLLI 2022, in Galway, Ireland, August 8-12. As a tool for the preparation of the first class I have cooked up a handsome, I hope, introduction to Natural Deduction. As an appetizer I have assembled a compilation of fragments from the work of Frege and Davidson, which one can find in my ESSLLI dropbox folder. If you want to gain access, please mail to p.j.e.dekker@uva.nl.

    Handbook of Formal Semantics

    (ed. Maria Aloni and Paul Dekker) Appeared in the series Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics.

    Indexical Inference

    This paper advocates an indexical account of discourse reference, and provides a sound and complete deduction system for a (variable free) system of discourse representation and dynamic interpretation. Review of Symbolic Logic, in 2016.

    Not Only Barbara

    This paper explicates the transparent syllogistics for a cube of oppositions, and pleads for a non-conservative theory of generalized quantifiers in natural language. Journal of Logic, Language and Information, 2015.

    Live Meanings

    This paper is a follow up of the one on Live Compositionality and reflects upon the enterprises of compositional, truth-conditional, contextual and conceptual semantics. In Bridging Formal and Conceptual Semantics, 2017, Kata Balogh and Wiebke Petersen (eds.), Studies in Language and Cognition, Düsseldorf University Press.

    The Logos

    The pre-socratic philosopher Herakleitos has demonstrated a logos, which contains more of a logic then the syllogoi of his postdecessors. In New Dimensions of the Square of Opposition, 2017, Jean-Yves Beziau and Stamatios Gerogiorgakis (eds.), Philosophia Verlag, München.

  • Editions
    Formal Semantics, 2016 (Cambridge Handbook, ed. Maria Aloni and Paul Dekker) Concord and Doubling Phenomena, 2012 (JoS Special Issue, ed. Paul Dekker and Hedde Zeijlstra) Dynamic Semantics, 2012 (Monograph) Questions in Dynamic Semantics, 2007 (ed. Maria Aloni, Alastair Butler, Paul Dekker) Logic and Games, 2002 (JoLLI Special Issue, ed. Paul Dekker and Marc Pauly) Indefinites, 2001 (JoS Special Issue, ed. Paul Dekker and Chris Pinon) Definites, 1998 (JoS Special Issue ed. Paul Dekker, Helen de Hoop and Jaap van der Does) Transsentential Meditations, 1993 (ILLC PhD Thesis), subsequently published in three parts
  • Stuff

    Some propositions, not obviously original, on:

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Organization

    I was the chair of the  ESSLLI Standing Committee that coodinated the organization and programme of the European Summer Schools in Logic, Language and Information from 2007 till 2018.

    • Sofia, 2018, with Darja Fiser (SC), Petya Osenova and Kiril Simov (OC) and Laura Kallmeyer (PC)
    • Toulouse, 2017, with Laure Vieu (OC) and Shravan Vasishth (PC)
    • Bolzano, 2016, with Diego Calvanese and Rafaella Bernardi (OC) and Claire Gardent (PC)
    • Barcelona, 2015, with Louise McNally (OC), Gemma Boleda (OC/PC) and Achim Jung (PC)
    • Tübingen, 2014, with Gerhard Jäger (OC) and Frank Veltman (PC)
    • Düsseldorf, 2013, with Laura Kallmeyer (OC), Wiebke Petersen  (OC/PC) and Johan Bos (PC)
    • Opole, 2012, with Janusz Czelakowski and Urszula Wybraniec-Skardowska (OC) and Andreas Herzig (PC)
    • Ljubljana, 2011, with Darja Fiser (OC) and Makoto Kanazawa (PC)
    • Kopenhagen, 2010, Vincent Hendricks (OC) and Valentin Goranko (PC)
    • Bordeaux, 2009, with Christian Retoré (OC) Richard Moot (OC/PC) and Uwe Mönnich (PC)
    • Hamburg, 2008, with Benedikt Löwe (OC), Hans van Ditmarsch (OC/PC) and Rineke Verbrugge (PC)

    I have been involved in the organization of the bi-annual Amsterdam Colloquium from 1991 onwards (as chair from the 10-th, 1995 till the 16-th, 2007), and in many other international conferences, workshops and events.

  • Publications

    2017

    • Dekker, P. J. E. (2017). Live Meanings. In K. Balogh, & W. Petersen (Eds.), Bridging Formal and Conceptual Semantics (pp. 13--37). Düsseldorf University Press.
    • Dekker, P. J. E. (2017). Logical Conversions. South American Journal of Logic, 3(2), 195-223. [details]

    2016

    2015

    2014

    • Dekker, P. (2014). The Live Principle of Compositionality. In D. Gutzmann, J. Köpping, & C. Meier (Eds.), Approaches to Meaning: Composition, Values, and Interpretation (pp. 45-84). (Current Research in the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface; Vol. 32). Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004279377_004 [details]
    • Dekker, P. J. E. (2014). Herakleitian Oppositions. In J-Y. Beziau, & K. Gan-Krzywiszynska (Eds.), New Dimensions of the Square of Opposition (Series Analytica). Muenchen: Philosophia Verlag.

    2012

    • Dekker, P. (2012). Presupposition. In G. Russell, & D. Graff Fara (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Language (pp. 42-52). (Routledge Philosophy Companions). New York: Routledge. [details]
    • Dekker, P. J. E. (2012). Dynamic Semantics. (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy ; Vol. 91). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4869-9 [details]
    • Dekker, P., & Zeijlstra, H. (2012). Concord and doubling phenomena: an introduction. Journal of Semantics, 29(3), 295-303. https://doi.org/10.1093/jos/ffs004 [details]

    2011

    • Dekker, P. (2011). Dynamic Semantics. In C. Maienborn, K. von Heusinger, & P. Portner (Eds.), Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning (Vol. 1, pp. 923-945). (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft = Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science; Vol. 33/1). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110226614.923 [details]
    • Dekker, P. J. E. (2011). Jigsaw Semantics. In Formal semantics and pragmatics. Discourse, context and models Manhattan (KS).

    2010

    • Dekker, P. J. E. (2010). Only If an Indefinite is Topical, the Pronoun Picks it Up. In Presuppositions and Discourse (Current research in the semantics/pragmatics interface; No. 21). Bingley: Emerald.
    • Dekker, P. J. E. (2010). There is something about Might. In M. Aloni, H. Bastiaanse, T. de Jager, & K. Schulz (Eds.), Logic, Language and Meaning: 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 16-18, 2009 : revised selected papers (pp. 244-253). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; Vol. 6042), (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence), (FoLLI Publications on Logic, Language and Information). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14287-1_25 [details]

    2009

    • Dekker, P. J. E. (2009). There is something about 'might'. In Seventeenth Amsterdam Colloquium, December 16-18, 2009: pre-proceedings (pp. 217-226). Amsterdam: ILLC, University of Amsterdam. [details]

    2008

    2007

    • Dekker, P. (2007). Nobody (anything) else. In M. Aloni, A. Butler, & P. Dekker (Eds.), Questions in dynamic semantics (pp. 147-158). (Current research in the semantics/pragmatics interface; No. 17). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
    • Dekker, P. (2007). Optimal inquisitive discourse. In M. Aloni, A. Butler, & P. Dekker (Eds.), Questions in dynamic semantics (pp. 83-100). (Current research in the semantics/pragmatics interface; No. 17). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
    • Dekker, P., Aloni, M., & Butler, A. (2007). The semantics and pragmatics of questions. In M. Aloni, A. Butler, & P. Dekker (Eds.), Questions in dynamic semantics (pp. 1-40). (Current research in the semantics/pragmatics interface; No. 17). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    2016

    2007

    • Aloni, M., Butler, A., & Dekker, P. (2007). Questions in dynamic semantics. (Current research in the semantics/pragmatics interface; No. 17). Amsterdam: Elsevier. [details]
    • Dekker, P. (2007). De uitleg. Amsterdam: Dekker. [details]

    2006

    • Dekker, P. J. E., & Zeijlstra, H. H. (2006). Concord Phenomena and the Syntax-Semantics Interface. Malaga: ESSLLI. [details]

    2005

    • Dekker, P. J. E., & Franke, M. (2005). Proceedings of the Fifteenth Amsterdam Colloquium. Amsterdam: ILLC / Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam. [details]
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
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