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.