Craige Roberts (born February 20, 1949) is an American

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, known for her work on pragmatics and formal semantics.

Education and career

Roberts earned her A.B. at Indiana University in 1979. She received her Ph.D. at the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, i ...

in 1987, under the supervision of

Barbara Partee Barbara Hall Partee (born June 23, 1940) is a Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass). Biography Born in Englewood, New Jersey, Partee grew up in the Baltimore ...

. She is an Emeritus Professor at the Department of Linguistics of

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. Her work in the areas of

pragmatics In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the int ...

and formal semantics explores how meaning is conveyed through anaphora,

definiteness In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical d ...

, and specificity of referring expressions, the modeling of

presupposition In the branch of linguistics known as pragmatics, a presupposition (or PSP) is an implicit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse. Examples of presuppositions include ...

and implicature, and methods for capturing modality, mood, tense, and aspect of verbs in language.

Awards and distinctions

In 2015 Roberts and co-investigators David Beaver, Mandy Simons, and Judith Tonhauser were awarded a

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

(NSF) Collaborative Grant for the project “What’s the question? A cross-linguistic investigation into compositional and pragmatic constraints on the question under discussion.” In 2010 Roberts and Judith Tonhauser received an NSF award to study the semantics and pragmatics of projective meaning across languages. Roberts's 2013 paper, "Toward a taxonomy of projective content," coauthored with Judith Tonhauser, David Beaver, and Mandy Simons won the 2013 Best Paper in ''Language'' (journal) Award from the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

. Roberts was a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at

Central European University Central European University (CEU) is a private research university accredited in Austria, Hungary, and the United States, with campuses in Vienna and Budapest. The university is known for its highly intensive programs in the social sciences and ...

in 2014–2015. She has served on the editorial board of ''Semantics and Pragmatics'', the ''Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication'', and is an Associate Editor for ''

Linguistics and Philosophy ''Linguistics and Philosophy'' is a peer-reviewed journal addressing "structure and meaning in natural language". This journal, along with '' Studies in Language'', is a continuation of the journal ''Foundations of Language'' (1965 to 1976). The ...

''. Roberts is a member of the

, serving as the co-chair for the Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics (COSWL) from 1990 to 1993.

Publications

* 2013. J Tonhauser, D Beaver, C Roberts, M Simons. Toward a taxonomy of projective content, Language 89 (1), 66-109 * 2012. C Roberts. Information structure: afterword, Semantics and Pragmatics 5, 7-1-19 * 2012. C Roberts. Topics. Semantics: An International Handbook of Linguistics and Communication * 2012. C Roberts. Only: A case study in projective meaning. The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication * 2010. M Simons, J Tonhauser, D Beaver, C Roberts. What projects and why, Semantics and linguistic theory 20, 309-327 * 2009. C Roberts, M Simons, D Beaver, J Tonhauser. Presupposition, conventional implicature, and beyond: A unified account of projection. Proceedings of the ESSLLI 2009. * 2007. P Amaral, C Roberts, EA Smith. Review of the logic of conventional implicatures by Chris Potts, Linguistics and Philosophy 30 (6), 707-749 * 2006. C Roberts. Only, presupposition and implicature Journal of Semantics * 2004. C Roberts. Context in dynamic interpretation, The handbook of pragmatics, 197-220 * 2004. C Roberts. Pronouns as definites * 2003. C Roberts. Uniqueness in definite noun phrases. Linguistics and philosophy 26 (3), 287-350 * 2002. C Roberts. Demonstratives as definites. Information sharing: Reference and presupposition in language generation and interpretation. * 2000. A Cipria, C Roberts. Spanish imperfecto and pretérito: Truth conditions and aktionsart effects in a Situation Semantics. Natural Language Semantics 8 (4), 297-347 * 1998. C Roberts. Focus, the flow of information, and universal grammar Syntax and Semantics, Vol 29, 109-160 * 1997. C Roberts. Anaphora in intensional contexts * 1996. C Roberts. Information structure in discourse: Towards an integrated formal theory of pragmatics. Working Papers in Linguistics-Ohio State University. * 1995. C Roberts. Domain restriction in dynamic semantics. Quantification in natural languages, 661-700 * 1989. C Roberts. Modal subordination and pronominal anaphora in discourse Linguistics and philosophy 12 (6), 683-721 546 * 1987. C Roberts. Modal subordination, anaphora, and distributivity * 1981. A Valdman, S Yoder, C Roberts, Y Joseph. Haitian Creole-English-French Dictionary Indiana Univ Creole Inst

References

External links

*Faculty web page: https://www.asc.ohio-state.edu/roberts.21/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Craige Living people Linguists Semanticists Linguists from the United States University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Humanities and Fine Arts alumni Ohio State University faculty 1949 births Women linguists