Florian Schwarz

Language and Communication

My main interests are in formal semantics and pragmatics of natural language, which I study from both theoretical and experimental perspectives, the latter specifically using psycholinguistic methods including eye tracking and behavioral measures.

While my original background is in formal semantics and pragmatics, much of my ongoing research involves the use of
experimental methods from psycholinguistics in studying phenomena related to meaning in natural language. For example, I have investigated how presupposed content (i.e., content that is taken for granted by discourse participants) is processed, using the self-paced reading paradigm (Schwarz 2007). Current research, in collaboration with Sonja Tiemann at the University of Tuebingen, extends this work by looking at a broader range of expressions and by using eye tracking in reading (Schwarz and Tiemann 2012). Definite descriptions (expressions of the form 'the NP') are another area of interest of mine, and I have recently run a series of visual world eye tracking studies investigating how the referent of these expressions is identified, given varying contextual information, in real time. Other recent projects include work on collective vs. distributive interpretations of noun phrases (with Dimka Atanassov, Christine Boylan, and John Trueswell), as well as conversational implicatures with quantifiers and modals (the latter with Dimka Atanassov and John Trueswell). As my work is based on a highly interdisciplinary perspective, I am always looking for connections (to both people and research) in fields beyond linguistics, such as psychology, philosophy, and computer science.