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Language and its Structure III: Semantics and Pragmatics >> Content Detail



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Readings

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Amazon logo Many of the readings are from the text book: Portner, Paul H. What is Meaning? Fundamentals of Formal Semantics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. ISBN: 1405109181. (Paperback)

SES #TOPICSREADINGS
L1
  • Overview
  • Meaning
  • Grice on Non-natural Meaning
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 1
  • Optional Reading
  • The following reading is optional for undergraduates in 24.903 and required for graduate students in 24.933:
  • Grice, H. P. "Meaning." The Philosophical Review 66, no. 3 (1957): 377-388.
L2
  • Concepts of Meaning
  • Circularity/Holism
  • Truth-Conditions
L3
  • More on Truth-Conditions
  • Meta-language vs. Object Language
  • Semantic Properties of Sentences
  • Some Obvious Shortcomings of Truth-Conditional Semantics (Slang, Honorifics)
L4
  • Truth-Conditions
  • Propositional Logic
  • Truth-Tables
  • The Connectives
  • Required Reading
  • Amazon logo Partee, Barbara H., Alice ter Meulen, and Robert E. Wall. "Statement Logic." In Mathematical Methods on Linguistics. Boston, MA: Kluwer, 1987, chapter 6, sections 6.1-6.4, pp. 97-112. ISBN: 9027722447.
  • Optional Reading
  • Amazon logo Partee, Barbara H., Alice ter Meulen, and Robert E. Wall. "Basic Concepts of Logic and Formal Systems." In Mathematical Methods on Linguistics. Boston, MA: Kluwer, 1987, chapter 5, sections 6.5 and 6.6. ISBN: 9027722447.
L5
  • Tautologies, Contradictions
  • De Morgan's Laws
  • The Material Conditional
L6
  • The Material Conditional (cont.), as an analysis of "if"
  • Initial Plausibility
  • "Paradoxes"
  • Pragmatic Inferences
L7
  • Pragmatic Inferences (cont.)
  • Sentence (Truth-Conditional) Meaning vs. Speaker Meaning
  • "I'm not hungry"
  • Grice's Maxims of Conversation
  • Quantity Implicatures
  • Pragmatic Strengthening of "possible" (from Portner's Book)
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 11
L8
  • Gricean Quantity Implicatures (cont.)
  • Reasons to prefer a Pragmatic Approach over an Ambiguity Approach
L9
  • Gricean Quantity Implicatures (cont.)
  • Applied to Strengthening of "some" and "or" (Truth-Conditionally: Inclusive, Pragmatically Strengthened to Exclusive)
R1Review Session 1
L10Gricean Story about "or" again
  • Required Reading
  • A refrigerator summary of Grice's maxims (PDF), and a sample derivation of a quantity implicature (PDF), meant to replace the calculation on pp. 201-202 of Portner's book.
L11Supplementing Material Conditional Truth-Conditions for "if" with Pragmatic Inferences
L12
  • Problems for the analysis of "if" as Material Conditional + Pragmatic Implicatures
  • New Topic: Compositionality
  • Analyzing "Sheila barks"
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 2
L13
  • Proper names have as their semantic value individuals
  • Predicates have as their semantic value sets of individuals, or functions from individuals to truth-values
  • Brief Discussion of Vagueness
L14
  • Transitive Predicates (Functions from Individuals to Functions from Individuals to Truth-Values)
  • Function Application as the Main Semantic Composition Principle
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 3
  • Optional Reading
  • Amazon logo Partee, Barbara H., Alice ter Meulen, and Robert E. Wall. Mathematical Methods on Linguistics. Boston, MA: Kluwer, 1987, chapters 1 and 2 (Sets, Relations, Functions). ISBN: 9027722447.
L15
  • The Lambda-notation for Specifying Functions
  • Order of Arguments
  • First Introduction to Relative Clauses
L16
  • Review of Semantic System
  • Different kinds of Transitivity Alternations, Implicit Arguments
  • Informal Discussion of Relative Clauses
L17
  • Relative Clauses
  • Gaps, Variables, Fillers
  • Predicate Abstraction
  • Required Reading
  • Amazon logo Heim, Irene, and Angelika Kratzer. "Relative Clauses, Variables, Variable Binding." In Semantics in Generative Grammar. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1998, pp. 86-105. ISBN: 0631197125.
L18
  • Example Calculation: "Shelby is smart"
  • Modifiers
  • Predicate Modification
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 4
L19
  • "smart dog" vs. "smart person"
  • Perhaps, adjectives are not one-place predicates but functions from one-place predicates to one-place predicates
  • Other Interesting Cases of Adjectives: "alleged murderer", "canine genius"
L20
  • Perhaps, adjectives are one-place predicates after all, but context-dependent ones
  • "Pauline is a tall horse"
L21
  • Definite NPs
  • "The" as a function from one-place predicates to individuals
  • Partial function only defined for predicates that are true of exactly one individual
  • Presuppositions
  • The "King of France"
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 5.1, 5.2
L22Quantifiers
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 6.1, 6.2
L23
  • Natural Language Quantifiers
  • Compared to Predicate Logic Quantifiers
  • The Meaning of "most"
  • Negative Polarity Items
L24
  • Negative Polarity Items (cont.)
  • Licensing by Quantifiers in position of Downward Monotonicity (the Fauconnier-Ladusaw Hypothesis)
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 6.3
L25
  • Frege vs. Russell on the meaning of "the"
  • Attributive vs. Referential Uses of Definite Descriptions
  • Pragmatic analysis of the two uses of Definite Descriptions
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 5.4.4, 5.4.5
L26
  • Review of the analysis of "the killer of the black cat" (from problem set)
  • More on Referential vs. Attributive
L27
  • Tense
  • Semantic Values Relative to a Time of Evaluation
  • The Past Tense
  • Existential Quantification or Referential?
  • Partee's Example "I didn't turn off the stove"
  • Also: "Last month, I went for a hike"
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 8.1
R2Review Session 2
L28More on the Past Tense and whether it is Referential or involves Existential Quantification (Contextually Restricted)
L29
  • Aspectual Classes: States, Activities, Achievements, Accomplishments
  • Instants vs. Intervals
  • Accomplishments are only true of Intervals
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 8.2.1
L30
  • "The World of Sherlock Holmes"
  • Shifting the World of Evaluation
L31Modals
  • Required Reading
  • Portner, Ch. 8.3
R3Review Session 3
L32
  • Conditionals again
  • The Strict Implication Analysis
L33
  • Conditionals again (cont.)
  • Stalnaker's Definite Analysis

 








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