The Gesellschaft für Semantik (GfS) is a loose association for the improvement and intensification of scientific exchange in the area of semantics. It was founded in October 1994 during the Workshop on Recent Developments in the Theory of Natural Language Semantics in Blaubeuren, by the German semanticists Sebastian Löbner, Arnim von Stechow, and Thomas Ede Zimmermann, who formulated the following “manifesto”:
Since the seventies, there are a lot of activities in the German semantic scene, but the semanticists are working very much on their own and with little contact to others. The situation is due to the lack of an appropriate structure of the discipline of linguistics at German universities: in most cases it is part of language and literature departments such as Germanistik or Anglistik, only a few universities have a linguistics department of their own. Within linguistics, semantics is extremely underrepresented. The Gesellschaft für Semantik will try to improve the situation, by:
- organizing annual conferences and occasional workshops,
- building up a mailing list,
- discussing semantic problems,
- building up an ftp site for semantic publications,
- intensifying contacts with semanticists abroad and with neighboring disciplines.
The GfS has been organizing annual conferences under the header Sinn und Bedeutung since 1996. Sebastian Löbner has maintained a mailing list Semantik, which was transferred to its current home in 2013. An ftp site for semantic publications was installed in 1995, but it is superceded by the Semantics Archive, hosted by the Linguistic Society of America.
The GfS is not an officially registered association. We do not have an official chair committee. The three persons who founded the association, Löbner, von Stechow, and Zimmermann, still feel responsible and take care of the organizational part.
Our logo
Our logo carries a little of this history in its colors. The two shades of blue echo the waters of the Blautopf—a nod to our beginnings in Blaubeuren.
The red takes us to Tübingen, where the first Sinn und Bedeutung conference was held. Inspired by the city’s coat of arms and the university’s carmine red, it brings the beginnings of our annual conference into the picture, too.
This website is maintained by Lennart Fritzsche and Sebastian Walter; please feel free to send us any updates, requests, or suggestions that you consider relevant for the website at gfs@sinn-und-bedeutung.com!
Before the website moved to its new domain, it was maintained by Emar Maier. The GfS is very grateful to him for his many years of work. Special thanks are also due to Giuseppe Abrami for his help with setting up the server for the new website.