CFP
TLLM 2026: Tsinghua Interdisciplinary Workshop on Logic, Language, and Meaning: Modality in Logic and Language Tsinghua University Beijing, China, April 3-5, 2026 |
| Conference website | https://tsinghualogic.net/JRC/tllm/ |
| Submission link | https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tllm2026 |
| Submission deadline | November 15, 2025 |
*2nd* *CFP*
*Modality in Logic and Language*
5th Tsinghua Interdisciplinary Workshop on Logic, Language and Meaning
April 3 – 5, 2026, Tsinghua University, Beijing.
Workshop web site: *https://tsinghualogic.net/JRC/tllm-2026/*
*Description*
The study of modality in logic is as old as logic itself. Modern
propositional and predicate logic replaced notions like `necessary’ and
`possible’, traditionally used to define what it means for a
proposition to *follow
from* other propositions, by quantification over ways to interpret the
non-logical symbols of the language. But the study of reasoning with the
modalities themselves has continued in logic, with the modern tools now
available. Early syntactic studies of systems for `strict implication’ gave
way to possible worlds style semantics in the hands of pioneers like
Carnap, Kanger, Hintikka, Kripke, and others, which now provides a standard
framework for the logical study of modality. This framework has been
applied to systems of logic where oA is meant to capture readings, besides
`A is necessary’, like `A will always be the case, A holds after a certain
program execution step, A is provable, obligatory, justified, probable,
believed/known by an agent’, etc. Today, the vast area of philosophical
logic studies all kinds of `intensional’ notions, using formal languages
and well-established mathematical tools. In philosophy too, the discussion
about the nature of possible worlds and their use for various modalities,
initiated by Lewis, Stalnaker, Kripke, Fine, Williamson, and others, is
still a very active area of research.
In parallel, and sometimes in cooperation, linguists have studied the
syntactic and semantic behavior of modals in natural languages. Modals,
together with tense, enable us to displace from the actual here and now,
embodying one of Hockett’s design features of natural language:
displacement. Natural language also abounds in modal expressions and
constructions. In English for instance, we encounter at least auxiliaries,
verbs, adverbs, nouns, adjectives, and conditionals that convey modal
meanings. On the other hand, languages vary significantly in how they
express and categorize modal meanings (as explored in the works of
Rullmann, Matthewson, Deal and many others). The rich empirical landscape
provides linguists – building on Kratzer’s pioneer work – with
opportunities to study the range of modal concepts expressible in natural
language, how they are expressed, the theoretical frameworks and logical
tools required to analyze them, the processes by which they are acquired,
and so on.
The TLLM workshops aim to bring together logicians, philosophers, and
linguists around a specific theme of common interest. For the 2026 event,
the theme is unusually wide, and we welcome contributions on any general or
particular aspect of the modalities in logic or language. Below are just a
few examples of possible topics for this workshop.
1 Foundations and semantics of modality: E.g.
Kripke/neighborhood/possibility/topological/
game-theoretic/inquisitive/team semantics.
2 Proof theory for modal logic: E.g. sequent/natural
deduction/labelled/circular/display/ deep inference systems.
3 Epistemic and doxastic logics.
4 Deontic logic, norms and preference.
5 Modality in natural language: E.g. epistemic/deontic/dynamic modals; weak
necessity and gradability; syntax of modals; semantic-pragmatic interface;
cross-linguistic typology; experimental and corpus studies.
6 Non-classical perspectives on modality: E.g.
intuitionistic/linear/relevant/paraconsistent/ modal bilattice frameworks;
bilateralist accounts.
7 Modality in computation, verification, and AI: E.g. KR with modalities;
causal and probabilistic modal models; LLMs and modal reasoning
(benchmarks, neurosymbolic methods, toolkits).
8 Modality and other intensional categories: e.g. modality and tense;
modality and evidentiality; modality and mood.
9 The processing and acquisition of modal expressions in natural languages
*Invited Speakers*
Stefan Kaufmann (University of Connecticut)
Graham Leigh (University of Gothenburg)
Paul Portner (Georgetown University)
Jeremy Seligman (University of Auckland, Tsinghua University)
Yingying Wang (Hunan University)
*Tutorials*
Logic: Jeremy Seligman
Linguistics: Stefan Kaufmann
*Contributed Papers*
We invite submissions of *2-page abstracts* (including references) on any
of the broad themes related to *modality** in logic and language* as
suggested above. After a review procedure, authors of accepted papers will
be invited to present them at the workshop, either as a contributed talk or
in the poster session. The poster session is intended to provide an
informal setting for discussion and to encourage participation from
early-career researchers and students. After the workshop, a volume of full
papers (properly refereed) will be published in the Springer LNCS – FoLLI
series. Details on submission of full papers will follow.
Abstracts should be submitted via Easychair:
The workshop will take place on site at Tsinghua University, Beijing.
*Important dates*
Deadline for submitting abstracts: November 15, 2025
Notification of acceptance: December 15, 2025
Tutorials: April 3, 2026
Workshop: April 3–5, 2026
*R**egistration fee*
There is a small registration fee, to cover some of the costs.
Student: CNY 800
Non-student: CNY 1200
*Program Committee*
Maria Aloni (University of Amsterdam)
Johan van Benthem (University of Amsterdam, Standford Univerisity, Tsinghua
University n)
Jowang Lin (Academia Sinica)
Fenrong Liu (Tsinghua University)
Xiaolu Yang (Tsinghua University)
Mingming Liu (co-chair, Tsinghua University)
Larry Moss (Bloomington, Indiana)
Stanley Peters (Stanford)
Jacopo Romoli (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)
Martin Stokhof (ILLC, Tsinghua University)
Frank Veltman (ILLC)
Yingying Wang (Hunan University)
Dag Westerståhl (co-chair, Stockholm University, Tsinghua University)
Tomoyuki Yamada (Hokkaido University)
Jialiang Yan (China University of Political Science and Law)
Fan Yang (University of Utrecht)
Ting Xu (co-chair, Tsinghua University)
Linmin Zhang (NYU Shanghai)