We are pleased to invite you to the in-person lecture The Name of the Verb: On the Persistence of the Aristotelian View of the Copula in Formal Syntax, which will take place on December 5, 2023 (Marietta-Blau-Saal, University of Vienna, Main Building).
Professor Andrea Moro will speak about the validity of the Aristotelian interpretation of the verb to be in formal syntax.
The Name of the Verb
Beginning with the early works of Aristotle, the interpretation of the verb to be and its equivalents across languages runs through Western linguistic thought intertwining with philosophy, metaphysics, logic, and even mathematics—so much so that Bertrand Russell showed no hesitation in proclaiming it to be “a disgrace to the human race”. Professor Moro will show that this verb is still a scandal and, like a Trojan horse of linguistics, it introduces disruptive elements that lead us to a radical rethinking of the most basic structure of human language, the sentence, paradoxically reviving Aristotle’s original view.
