Quandaries and the nature of grammars | Dr. Diego Krivochen (University of Calgary)
Fri, Dec 05
|University of Calgary | CHE 212
UCalgary Linguistics Speaker Series - Fall 2025
Time & Location
Dec 05, 2025, 3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
University of Calgary | CHE 212, 2500 University Dr NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
About the event
First discussed by Charles Fillmore in 1972, quandaries are cases where multiple constraints, or well-formedness conditions that apply to a representation, are in conflict. In these cases, we may have multiple output candidates, none of which is fully ‘optimal’:
??Either Richard or I am usually there.
??Either Richard or I is usually there.
??Either Richard or I are usually there.
Quandaries, alongside cases of true optionality in the grammar, represent interesting challenges for classical and contemporary approaches to syntax alike. Far from Fillmore’s somewhat pessimistic claim that ‘…sometimes our grammars fail us’ (1972: 71), we will argue that quandaries arise because the grammar is working precisely the way it should. Specifically, assuming that grammars are characterisations of (formal, cognitive) systems, we will ask what kind of system corresponds to the class of grammars that allow for quandaries. Exploring such systems, we argue, constitutes an important step towards a better understanding of the human linguistic capacity.
About the speaker:
Dr. Krivochen is an Assistant Professor (LTA) of Linguistics at the University of Calgary. His work is on linguistic theory and theoretical syntax, the syntax of English and Spanish, the theory of formal languages, and implicit learning of artificial grammars.