معرفی
Dr. Merel Semeijn is a researcher in Theoretical Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen. Her academic profile centers on semantics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of fiction, with a focus on fictional truth and common ground mechanisms.
Her research explores fictional truth extraction from unreliable sources, metafictional anaphora, and the cognitive foundations of pretend play in theory of mind acquisition. Key frameworks include workspace accounts of common ground and Stalnakerian analyses of metafictive statements, addressing puzzles in abstract object predication and parafictional tense.
Her recent publications reveal strong trends in dynamic semantic frameworks applied to fictional contexts, with increasing interdisciplinary connections to cognitive science. Major contributions include resolving the 'Wrong Kind of Object' problem with Zalta and analyzing how unreliable narrators impact truth attribution in fiction.
- Descartes Excellence fellowship (2018)
- DIA-Stipendium (2015)
- GUF-100 award (2015)
Dr. Semeijn actively collaborates with prominent scholars like Emar Maier and Edward Zalta, presenting at major venues including the Amsterdam Colloquium and ESSLLI conferences. Her work bridges formal semantics with cognitive psychology, particularly in how children acquire theory of mind through fictional engagement. Current research examines make-believe dynamics and common belief structures in fictional worlds.
