Thom van Gessel

I am a researcher interested in formal semantics, philosophy of language and logic. I work at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation in Amsterdam.

As a member of the Inquisitive Semantics group, I work on the project Quantification and modality in the realm of questions, under supervision of Floris Roelofsen. My dissertation focuses on interactions between questions and indexicality. It shows that questions can be context-sensitive in other ways than statements can, and develops a semantic framework that can capture this.

• Questions in two-dimensional logic. To appear in Review of Symbolic Logic, 2021.
• Testing the distribution of pair-list questions with quantifiers. With Alexandre Cremers. To appear in Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 25, 2021.
• Action Models in Inquisitive Logic. Synthese, 197(9), pp. 3905-3945, 2020
• Polarity sensitivity of question embedding: experimental evidence. With Alexandre Cremers & Floris Roelofsen. Proceedings of SALT 28, pp. 217–232, 2018.
• Questions in Context. PhD thesis, 2020.
• Action Models in Inquisitive Logic. MSc thesis, 2016.

• A priori and necessary questions. OZSW Conference, Amsterdam, 2019.
• A priori and necessary questions. SPE 11, Warsaw, 2019.
• Two-dimensional Inquisitive Semantics. InqBnB3, Amsterdam, 2019.
• Action Models in Inquisitive Logic. Inquisitive Logic Workshop, Amsterdam, 2018.
• Polarity sensitivity of question embedding: experimental evidence. SALT 28, 2018.
• Pair-list readings in Inquisitive Semantics. NYU Linguistics department, 2018.
• Pair-list readings of questions with quantifiers, PALLMYR, London, 2017.
• Questions & Quantifiers. InqBnB, Broek in Waterland, 2017.
• Questions in Action Models. LogiCIC, Amsterdam, 2016.

• Fall 2020 Logica en de linguistic turn, University of Amsterdam
• Fall 2019 Teaching assistant for Logic & Conversation, University of Amsterdam
• Spring 2019 Teaching assistant for Structures for Semantics, University of Amsterdam
• Fall 2018 Teaching assistant for Philosophical Logic, University of Amsterdam
• Fall 2017 Teaching assistant for Philosophical Logic, University of Amsterdam
• Fall 2017 Teaching assistant for Logic & Conversation, University of Amsterdam
• Spring 2017 Teaching assistant for Structures for Semantics, University of Amsterdam

Education

• 2016 – 2020 PhD
  University of Amsterdam
• 2014 – 2016 MSc Logic
  University of Amsterdam, cum laude
• 2010 – 2013 BA Dutch Language and Culture
  University of Amsterdam, cum laude

Awards

• 2016 NAP-day Best Presentation
  Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication, University of Amsterdam
• 2013 Thesis award
  Department Taalbeheersing, Argumentatietheorie en Retorica,
  University of Amsterdam

Science Park 107
Room F1.10
Amsterdam

mail@thomvangessel.nl
uva-live.zoom.us/my/thomvangessel