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CURRICULUM VITAE

[January 18, 2024]
Zoltán Gendler Szabó
E-mail: zoltan.szabo@yale.edu

Occupation

2006-present

Department of Philosophy and Department of Linguistics (secondary appointment), Yale University

  • John S. Saden Professor of Philosophy 2019-present
  • Professor 2006-2019

1995-2006

The Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University

  • Associate Professor (with tenure), 2001-2006
  • Assistant Professor, 1995-2001
  • Member of the Field of Cognitive Studies, 1995-2006

Education

1991-1995

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D. 1995
  • Department of Linguistics and Philosophy

1989-1991

  • Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Scholar

1984-1989

  • Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest; BA/MA, 1989
  • Department of Mathematics and Department of Philosophy

Areas of Research Specialization

  • Philosophy of Language
  • Metaphysics

Additional Areas of Graduate Teaching Competence

  • Early Modern Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Mathematics
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Logic

Publications

Monographs and edited volumes

  1. A Reader’s Guide to Classic Papers in Formal Semantics. (Edited volume, with Louise McNally) Springer: Dordrecht, 2022.
  2. Philosophy of Language. (with Rich Thomason) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.
  3. Semantics vs. Pragmatics. (Edited volume.) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  4. Problems of Compositionality. Dissertations in Philosophy Series. New York: Garland Press, 2000.

Articles

  1. ‘Specificity and What is Meant: Comments on Jeff King’s Felicitous Underspecification.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research; forthcoming.
  2. ‘Internalist Semantics: Comments on Paul Pietroski’s Conjoining Meanings.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (2023) 105: 745 – 51.
  3. ‘The Goal of Conversation.’  Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume (2020) 94: 54 – 86.
  4. ‘Logical Form through Abstraction.’ Disputatio (2020) 12: 252 – 63.
  5. ‘Semantic Explanations.’ In E. Lepore and D. Sosa ed., Oxford Studies in the Philosophy of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 240 – 275, 2019.
  6. ‘What is a Quantifier?’ Analysis (2018) 78: 463 – 72.
  7. ‘Dyadic Truth.’ In B. Gyuris, K. Mady and G. Recski eds., KK120: A Festschrift for Laszó Kálmán and András Kornai. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2017.
  8. ‘Prospective Interpretation.’ Philosophical Studies (2017) 174: 1605 – 16.
  9. ‘Finding the Question.’ Philosophical Studies (2017) 174: 779 – 86.
  10. ‘In Defense of Indirect Communication.’ Inquiry (2016) 59: 163 – 74.
  11. ‘Major Parts of Speech.’ Erkenntnis (2015) 80: 3 – 29.
  12. ‘A ló fogalma és a természetes nyelvi szemantika’ [The concept horse and natural language semantics] Általános Nyelvészeti Tanulmányok (2014) 26: 241 – 68.
  13. ‘Epistemic Comparativism.’ (with Jonathan Schaffer). Philosophical Studies (2014) 168: 491 – 543.
  14. ‘Modals with a Taste of the Deontic.’ (with Joshua Knobe). Semantics & Pragmatics (2013) 6: 1 – 42.
  15. ‘Against Logical Form.’ In. G. Preyer ed., Donald Davidson on Truth, Meaning, and the Mental. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 105 – 126, 2012.
  16. ‘The Case for Compositionality.’ In W. Hinzen, E. Machery and M. Werning eds., The Oxford Handbook on Compositionality. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 64 – 80, 2011.
  17. ‘Bare Quantifiers.’ Philosophical Review (2011) 120: 247 – 283.
  18. ‘Tasks and Ultra-tasks.’ Magyar Filozófiai Szemle (2010) 54: 177 – 190.
  19. ‘Specific, Yet Opaque.’ In M. Aloni, H. Bastiaanse, T, de Jager, K. Schulz eds., Logic, language, and Meaning: Proceedings of the 17th Amsterdam Colloquium. Berlin: Springer, pp. 32 – 41, 2010.
  20. ‘The Ontological Attitude.’ In T. Czarnecki, K. Kijania-Placek, O. Poller, J. Wolenski eds., The Analytical Way: Proceedings of 6th European Conference of Analytic Philosophy. College Publications, pp. 21 – 42, 2010.
  21. ‘The Determination of Content.’ Philosophical Studies (2010) 148: 253 – 272.
  22. ‘Things in Progress.’ Philosophical Perspectives (2008) 22: 499 – 525.
  23. ‘Structure and Conventions.’ Philosophical Studies (2008) 137: 399 – 408.
  24. ‘Counting across Times .’ Philosophical Perspectives 20: Metaphysics. (2007): 399 – 426.
  25. ‘The Distinction Between Semantics and Pragmatics.’ In E. LePore and B. Smith eds., The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press; pp 361 – 89, 2006.
  26. ‘Sensitivity Training.’ Mind and Language. (2006) 21: 31 – 38.
  27. ‘The Loss of Uniqueness.’ Mind. (2005) 114: 1185 – 1222.
  28. ‘Sententialism and Berkeley’s Master Argument.’ Philosophical Quarterly. (2005) 55: 462 – 474.
  29. ‘On the Progressive and the Perfective.’ Noûs. (2004) 38: 29 – 59.
  30. ‘On Qualification.’ In J. Hawthorne ed., Philosophical Perspectives 17: Language and Philosophical Linguistics. (2003): 409 – 438.
  31. ‘Descriptions Without Uniqueness: A Reply to Abbott.’ Philosophical Studies (2003) 104: 279 – 291.
  32. ‘Nominalism.’ In M. J. Loux and D. Zimmerman eds., The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 11 – 45, 2003.
  33. ‘Believing in Things.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research (2003) 66: 584 – 611.
  34. ‘Fictionalism and Moore’s Paradox.’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy (2001) 31: 293 – 308.
  35. ‘Adjectives in Context.’ In I. Kenesei and R. M. Harnish eds., Perspectives on Semantics, Pragmatics, and Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins,  pp. 119 – 146, 2001.
  36. ‘Locke on Supposing a Substratum.’ The Locke Newsletter (2000) 31: 11 – 42.
  37. ‘Descriptions and Uniqueness.’ Philosophical Studies (2000) 101: 29 – 57.
  38. ‘Compositionality as Supervenience.’ Linguistics and Philosophy (2000) 23: 475 – 505.
  39. ‘On Quantifier Domain Restriction.’ (with Jason Stanley). Mind and Language (2000) 15: 219 – 61.
  40. ‘Reply to Bach and Neale.’ (with Jason Stanley) Mind and Language (2000) 15: 295 – 298.
  41. ‘Expressions and their Representations.’ Philosophical Quarterly (1999) 49: 145 – 63.
  42. ‘Paradoxon vagy Antinómia?’ [‘Paradox or antinomy?’]. In Imre Ruzsa ed., Tertium Non Datur. Budapest: Osiris, pp. 212 – 231; 1999.
  43. ‘Berkeley’s Triangle.’ History of Philosophy Quarterly (1995) 12: 41 – 63.
  44. ‘D.I.R.T.: An Overview.’ (with L. Kálmán) In M. Stokhof and L. Torenvliet eds., Proceedings of the Seventh Amsterdam Colloquium. Amsterdam: ITLI; 1990.
  45. ‘A descartes-i igazságkritérium és a cogito.’ [‘The Cartesian Criterion of Truth and the Cogito’] Magyar Filozófiai Szemle (1985) 33: 1 – 21.

Entries

  1. ‘Verbs.’ In D. Fara and G. Russell eds., The Routledge Companion to the Philosophy of Language. London: Routledge, 2012.
  2. ‘Sytactic and Semantic Categories.’ In D. Borchert ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition. New York: Thomson & Gale; 2005.
  3. ‘Compositionality.’ In D. Borchert ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition. New York: Thomson & Gale; 2005.
  4. ‘Noam Chomsky.’ In J. R. Shook ed., Dictionary of American Philosophy. Bristol: Thoemmes Press; 2005.
  5. ‘Compositionality.’ In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2004.
  6. ‘Quantifier Domain Restriction.’ (with Jason Stanley) In W. Frowles ed., International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
  7. ‘Early Modern Philosophy of Language.’ In E. Craig ed., The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London: Routledge: vol.5, pp. 371 – 9, 1998.

Critical notices and reviews

  1. Review of Fictionalism in Philosophy. Edited by B. Armour-Garb and F.
  2. Kroon. Notre Dame Review of Philosophy (2020) https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/fictionalism-in-philosophy/.
  3. Review of ‘And’: Conjunction Reduction Redux. By B. Schein. Journal of Philosophy (2019) 141: 119 – 24.
  4. Review of Category Mistakes. By O. Magidor. Philosophical Review (2015) 124: 289 – 92.
  5. Review of Neo-Davidsonean Metaphysics. By S. C. Wheeler III. Notre Dame Review of Philosophy (2014) http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/49211.
  6. Review of Reference. By Barbara Abbott. Lingua (2011) 121: 1859 – 1861.
  7. Critical Notice of Fictionalsim in Metaphysics. Edited by M. E. Kalderon. Noûs (2011) 45: 375 – 85.
  8. Review of Philosophy of Language. By S. Soames. Notre Dame Reivew of Philosophy (2011) http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=22711.
  9. Review of Reference without Referents. By R. M. Sainsbury. Mind (2008) 117: 1123 1127.
  10. Review of Descriptions and Beyond. Edited by M. Reimer and A. Bezuidenhout. Mind (2006) 115: 796 – 800.
  11. Review of The Compositionality Papers. By J. Fodor and E. LePore. Mind (2004) 113: 340 – 344.
  12. Review of Linguistic Creativity. By Eugen Fischer. Philosophy in Review (2002) 22: 323 – 325.
  13. Review of Knowledge and Mind. By A. Brook and R. Stainton. Philosophy in Review (2001) 21: 241– 243.
  14. Review of A Subject with No Object. By J. Burgess and G. Rosen. Philosophical Review (2000) 108: 106 – 9.
  15. Review of ‘Universal Instantiation: A Study of the Role of Context in Logic.’ By Christopher Gauker. Journal of Symbolic Logic (1998) 63: 1610 – 1.
  16. Review of Knowledge of Meaning: An Introduction to Semantic Theory. By R. Larson and G. Segal. Philosophical Review (1997) 106: 122 – 4.

Introductions

  1. ‘Preface.’ In Louise McNally and Zoltán Gendler Szabó eds., A Reader’s Guide to Classic Papers in Formal Semantics. Dordrecht: Springer, 2022.
  2. ‘Introduction.’ In Zoltán Gendler Szabó ed., Semantics vs. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  3. ‘From Ordinary Use and Regimentation to Systematic Theory.’ In Kumiko Murasugi and Robert Stainton eds., Philosophy and Linguistics. Boulder CO: Westview Press, pp. 1 – 7; 1999.

Translation into Hungarian (from German)

Georg Cantor, ‘Ausgewählte Schriften,’ (Selected Papers) Filozófiai Figyelö, 1988/4.

Talks

  1. ‘The Ineffability of Causation.’ University of Uppsala 2023.
  2. ‘What can we have Words for?’ Theorema Workshop 2022.
  3. ‘How Specific Should I Be?’ Eötvös Loránd University 2021, University of Cologne 2021, New York Philosophy of Language Workshop 2021.
  4. ‘The Goal of Conversation.’ Annual Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, 2020.
  5. ‘Philosophy of Language for Linguists.’ Eight talks at the 3rd Crete Summer School of Linguistics, Rethymno 2019.
  6. ‘Illusions of Language.’ Miami 2018; University of Missouri 2018; Central European University 2019.
  7. ‘What can be Presupposed?’ Oxford 2018.
  8. ‘Philosophy of Language for Linguists.’ Three talks at the North American Summer School on Logic, Language, and Information, Carnegie Mellon University 2018.
  9. ‘Semantic Categories.’ NYU 2016; MIT 2016; University of Barcelona 2015.
  10. ‘Are Modals Quantifiers?’ MIT 2016; Aspect and Modality Workshop, Western Michigan University 2016, Yale Modality Workshop, Yale University 2014.
  11. ‘Semantic Explanations.’ Central European University 2018; University of Chicago, 2017; University of California at Berkeley 2015; University of Michigan 2015; Tufts University 2015; University of Norwich 2014; Universität Hamburg 2013.
  12. ‘Semantic Categories.’ NYU 2016; MIT 2016; University of Barcelona 2015.
  13. ‘Are Modals Quantifiers?’ MIT 2016; Aspect and Modality Workshop, Western Michigan University 2016, Yale Modality Workshop, Yale University 2014.
  14. ‘Semantic Explanations.’ University of California at Berkeley 2015; University of Michigan 2015; Tufts University 2015; University of Norwich 2014; Universität Hamburg 2013.
  15. ‘Illusions of Language?’ Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University 2013.
  16. ‘Reference and the Concept Horse.’ Brown University 2013.
  17. ‘Dyadic Truth.’ Vassar College 2013; Lewis and Clark 2012; NYU Semantics Colloquium 2012; GAP 8, Universität Konstanz 2012.
  18. ‘Major Parts of Speech.’ Northwestern University 2013; Rutgers University 2012; Universität Erfurt 2012.
  19. ‘Epistemic Comparativism.’ Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, 2010; Semantics Group, New York University, 2010; University of Latvia, Riga, 2010.
  20. ‘Specific, yet Opaque.’ Invited Lecture, 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, 2009.
  21. ‘Lexical and Ontological Categories.’ North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 2009.
  22. ‘Bare Quantifiers.’ Semantics Workshop, Rutgers Univesity, 2008; Arche, St. Andrews, 2008; Semantics Group, New York University, 2009.
  23. ‘Tasks and Ultra-tasks.’ Arche/CSMN Graduate Conference, Oslo, 2008; ELTE Budapest, 2009; Univiversit of Vercelli, 2009; University of Connecticut, 2009.
  24. ‘The Ontological Attitude.’ European Congress of Analytic Philosophy, Krakow, 2008, University of Cologne, 2009.
  25. ‘The Determination of Content.’ Rutgers University, 2006; Columbia University, 2007; The Pacific Division Meeting of the APA, San Fransisco, 2007; University of California at Santa Cruz, 2007; The 15th Annual Meeting of the ESPP, Geneva, 2007; University of Chicago, 2007.
  26. ‘Ontological Disagreement .’ Workshop on Ontological Commitment, University of Paris, IHPST, 2007; Eidos Conference on ‘Because’, Geneva 2008.
  27. ‘Events in the Making.’ Semantics Workshop, Lisbon, 2006; University of Maryland, 2006; University of Toronto, 2006; University of Barcelona, 2007; University of California at Santa Cruz, 2007; MIT 2008; 22th World Congress of Philosophy, Seoul National University, 2008.
  28. ‘Counting across Times. ’ Milan Meeting, Gargnano, 2006; University of Calfornia, Irvine, 2005; Oxford University, 2006.
  29. ‘Pronouns and Variables.’ ELTE, Budapest, 2004; International Pragmatics Association Conference, Riva del Garda, 2005.
  30. ‘The Loss of Uniqueness.’ University College, London, 2005.
  31. ‘Sententialism and Berkeley’s Master Argument.’ University of California, Davis, 2004; Central European University, Budapest, 2004; Yale University, 2005.
  32. ‘The Semantics of As-Phrases.’ Kutztown University, 2003; MIT, 2003; University of Texas at Austin, 2002; New York University, 2002.
  33. ‘On the Progressive and the Perfective.’ Research Institute for Linguistics, Budapest, 2003; New York University, 2002.‘Mental Files.’ 55th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. University of Kentucky at Lexington, 2002.
  34. ‘Context and Non-identity.’ University of Ohio at Columbus, 2002; Conference on Context Relativity in Semantics at the University of Cincinnati, 2001.
  35. ‘Term Attitudes.’ Conference on Language, Mind and World, Tlaxala, Mexico, 2001.
  36. ‘Thinking of Things not Thought of.’ Gödel, Escher, Bach Conference, Cornell University; 2001.
  37. ‘On the Progressive and the Perfective.’ Semantics Workshop, Rutgers University, 2000; Tuesday Linguistics Colloquium, Cornell University, 2000.
  38. ‘Ontology and Belief.’ Philosophy Colloquium, ELTE, Budapest, 2000; Johns Hopkins University, 2000.
  39. ‘Descriptions and Uniqueness.’ Indiana University at Bloomington, 2000.
  40. ‘On Quantifier Domain Restriction.’ (with Jason Stanley) Semantics Workshop, Rutgers University, 1999.
  41. ‘Expressions and their Representations.’ Syracuse University, 1997.
  42. ‘Compositionality.’ Philosophy Colloquium, University of Rochester, 1996.
  43. ‘Theories of Description.’ Research Institute for Linguistics, Budapest, 1994.
  44. ‘Presuppositions of Possessives.’ Conference on Hungarian Grammar, University of Indiana at Bloomington, 1992.
  45. ‘Sprachauffassung und dynamische Modelle.’(Conception of Language and Dynamic Models) Conference Komputer und Bildung, Budapest, 1991.
  46. ‘External and Internal Presuppositions.’ (with L. Kálmán), Nijmegen Workshop on Presuppositions, University of Nijmegen, 1990.
  47. ‘Partitions: An Approach to the Interpretation of Plurals,’ Third Symposium on Logic and Language, Révfülöp, 1990.

Comments

  1. Comments on David Liebesman and Ofra Magidor’s Copredication and Property Versatility, Workshop on Copredication, Banff, 2023.
  2. Comments on Ryan Nefdt’s Language, Science, and Structure, Author Meets Critic Session at the Philosophy of Linguistics Conference, Yale University, 2023.
  3. Comments on Michael della Rocca’s ‘The Original Sin of Analytic Philosophy’, Workshop on the Principle of Sufficient Reason, 2022.
  4. Comments on Una Stojnic’s ‘Just Words: In Defense of Lexical Originalism’, Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, 2021.
  5. Comments on Andrea Iacona’s Logical Form, Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Vancouver,2019.
  6. Comments on Ernest LePore and Matthew Stone’s Imagination and Convention, Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Philadelphia, 2014.
  7. Comments on Michael Nelson’s ‘Time and Person in Thought’ at SPAWN, Syracuse University, 2011.
  8. Comments on Robert van Rooij ’s ‘Relevance in Cooperation and Conflict’ at the Linguistics and Philosophy Workshop, University of Michigan, 2008.
  9. Comments on Kai von Fintel’s ‘What is Presupposition Accommodation Again?’ at the Workshop on Presipposition Accommodation, Ohio State University, 2006.
  10. Comments on John MacFarlene’s ‘Non-Indexical Contextualism’ at the Semantics Workshop, Rutgers University; 2005.
  11. Comments on Pauline Jacobson’s ‘Direct Compositionality: Is There Any Reason Why Not?’ at the Linguistics and Philosophy Workshop, University of Michigan; 2004.
  12. Comments on Terence Parsons’s ‘Pandoran Metaphysics’ at the Philsophy Discussion Club, Cornell University; 2003.
  13. Comments on Terence Parson’s ‘Ordinary-mode and Event-more Sentences’ at the Workshop on Events, University of Southern California; 2003.
  14. Comments on Michaela Ippolito’s ‘On the Semantic Composition of Subjunctive Conditionals’ at the Linguistics and Philosophy Workshop, University of Michigan; 2002.
  15. Comments on Peter Pagin’s ‘Communication and Strong Compositionality’ at the 6th Semantics Workshop, Rutgers University; 2002.
  16. Comments on Dag Westerståhl’s ‘Compositionality and Ambiguity’ at the Semantics Workshop, Rutgers University; 2001.
  17. Comments on Paul Pietroski’s ‘Function and Concatenation’ at the Semantics Workshop, Rutgers University; 2000.
  18. Comments on Don Boisvert’s ‘Mixed Sentential Mood Sentences’ at the Pacific Division Meeting of the APA, Albuquerque, 2000.
  19. Comments on Dale Jaquette’s ‘Identity, Intensionality, and Moore’s Paradox’ at the Creighton Club Meeting (New York State Philosophical Society), Skaneateles, NY; 1999.
  20. Comments on Peter van Inwagen’s ‘The Number of Things’ at the Mighty Midwestern Metaphysical Mayhem at the University of Notre Dame; 1999.
  21. Comments on Craige Roberts’ ‘Demonstratives as Definites’ at the Conference on Context-Dependence at Cornell University; 1999.
  22. Comments on Christopher Gauker’s ‘Context versus Conversational Implicature’ at the Eastern Division Meeting of the APA, Washington DC; 1998.
  23. Comments on Scott Soames’ ‘What is it for a General Term to be a Rigid Designator?’ at the Philosophy Discussion Club, Cornell University; 1998.
  24. Comments on John McDowell’s ‘Scheme-Content Dualism and Empiricism.’ at the Philosophy Discussion Club, Cornell University; 1996.

Professional Activities

Co-organizer of the 33rd Meeting of the Semantics and Linguistic Theory conference at Yale University (2023).
Co-organizer of the Philosophy of Linguistics Conference at Yale University (2023).
Co-series editor of the Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy (2017-present).
Member of the editorial board of Semantics and Pragmatics (2007-present).
Associate editor of the Journal of Semantics (2009-present).
Member of the Humanities Advisory Committee; Yale University (2007-2010).
Member of the Social Sciences Advisory Committee; Yale University (2011-2012).
Member of the executive board of Linguistics and Philosophy (2005-2017). 
Editor of the Philosophical Review (2004-2006).
Member of the editorial board of the Philosophical Review (1995-2006).
Article referee for: Dialogue, Journal of Applied Logic, Journal of Logic Language and Information, Journal of Research on Language and Computation, Journal of Semantics,Linguistics and Philosophy, Mind, Mind and Language, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Natural Language Semantics, Noûs, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophical Compass, Philosophical Imprint, Philosophical Papers, Philosophical Review, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Ratio, Synthese, Theoria.
Book referee for: Oxford University Press, Routledge Press, and Westview Press.
Referee for the SALT (Semantics and Linguistic Theory) Conference (1997, 2001).
Member of the Program Committee of the Eastern Division Meeting of the APA, (2003-2005, 2010-2012).
Officer, then Vice-President and then President of the Creighton Club, the New York State Philosophical Association (2001-2005).
Cognitive Studies Steering Committee, Cornell University (2000, 2001).
Academic Review Board (Arts and Sciences; Cornell University (2005-6).
Undergraduate Admissions Committee (university-wide) (1996); Graduate Admissions Committee (philosophy) (1997, 1998, 2000, 2008).
Placement Director, Department of Philosophy, Cornell University (2001, 2002).
Member of faculty search committee, Department of Philosophy, Yale University (2010, 2012); Department of Philosophy, Cornell University (1997, 1998, 2000); Department of Linguistics, Cornell University (1999).

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