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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">Dear All, </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">The CEU </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">Language Comprehension Lab</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">
invites you to the following talk</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black"> at Central European University</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">:</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">Speaker: </span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">Peter Culicover</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">Constructional Reflections</span></b><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">My overarching goal is to seek explanations of why human languages are the way they are. A constructional approach sharpens this question along the following
lines. (i) Where do constructions come from? (ii) Why do constructions take the form that they have? (iii) What kinds of constructions exist in natural language? (iv) Why are some logically possible constructions (quasi-)universal, and others not, and others
apparently non-existent?</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">In past work I have offered a range of assumptions, intuitions, and speculations about these questions. In this talk I will explore some of them, focusing
on the possible empirical consequences of three ideas: (i) The Force. which promotes (or ‘pushes for’) the expression of all aspects of meaning using linguistic form. (ii) Economy, the assumption that grammars are organized to (more-or-less) efficiently express
aspects of meaning, especially the conceptual core. (iii) The Bottleneck, which severely restricts the range of meanings that can be encoded in a single linguistic expression.<br>
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<p style="background:white;margin-bottom:1rem"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">Date:
</span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">November 6<sup>th</sup>, 2025</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background:white"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">Time:
</span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">9:30-10:30am</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">Venue:<b> </b></span><b><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">Language
Comprehension Lab, room D513*<br>
</span></b><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black"> Central European University, Quellenstr. 51, 1100 Vienna</span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p style="background:white;margin-bottom:1rem"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">*<i>Anyone not affiliated with CEU wishing to
</i></span></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">attend</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529"> <u>must RSVP</u> to
</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">ballaa</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">@ceu.edu to get access to the
</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">lab</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:#212529">.</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Open Sans",sans-serif;color:black">
Please arrive about 10-15 minutes before the talk to receive your access card!</span></i></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Eva Wittenberg</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><a href="http://lcl.ceu.edu" title="lcl.ceu.edu">lcl.ceu.edu</a></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Department of Cognitive Science</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Central European University</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Quellenstr. 51, 1100 Wien, Austria</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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