Final Exams, Final Thoughts

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Your final exams are now graded.  I’ve left them with Liz Politis (621 Commonwealth Ave., #120), along with any uncollected homework assignments.  If you don’t have the time to collect your exam before/during winter break, then you can stop by early next semester.

Here are some numbers concerning the class performance on the final exam:

Final Exam Distribution (110 points total; 32 exams completed)

A:  97-110 (88%-100%) ….. 14 students

B:  83-97 (75%-88%) ….. 11 students

C:  72-83 (65%-75%) ….. 7 students

D:  N/A

F:  N/A

Mean Score = 93.17 (84.7%)

Median Score = 93.25 (84.8%)

All in all, a nice performance on a rather challenging exam.   Just about everyone was able to complete all portions of the exam.  Almost 80% of the class received either an A or B, and at least one student did not miss a single point on the entire exam (including the extra credit).  The class average came out to be a B/B+.

And with that, our semester is complete.  It’s been great fun teaching you and getting to know you over the past several months.  If you find yourself in 621 Comm. Ave, do stop by and say hello!

Final Office Hours & Final Exam!

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I’ll be holding some final office hours next week:

Monday December 14, 2-3:30pm

Tuesday December 15, 3:30-5pm

Feel free to come by with any questions that arise as you study for our final exam.

And one last reminder–that final exam will be on Wednesday December 16, 9-11am, in KCB 102 (our usual classroom).

HW10 Answer Key

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I’ve posted the HW10 answer key in the password-protected “Readings” section of our course website.

(UPDATE: a typo in the aspectual classification of the VP knit a sweater has been corrected)

HW10 Distribution (56 points total; 31 assignments submitted)

52-56…..13

47-51…..13

<47…..5

December reading assignments: Kearns and Vendler

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The final two reading assignments are listed below:

1.  Kearns 6.2-6.3

(UPDATE:  Having had a closer look at the Kearns readings, I’ve decided that section 6.3 is not necessary.  Most likely, we will not have enough to discuss the topic of that section (the mass/count distinction amongst nouns) .  But you should still read section 6.2 of Kearns.)

2.  Z. Vendler, ‘Each and Every, Any and All‘

(The Vendler reading can be downloaded from the password-protected “Readings” section of the website.)

As I said in today’s class, both of these readings will be relevant to next week’s class meetings (Tu 12/8 and Th 12/10), when we’ll discuss plural nouns and their interactions with universal quantifiers.  Nonetheless, I suggest that you get an early start on these, especially since the Vendler is a bit longer than most of our previous readings.

Reading for Tu 12/1: excerpt fr. D. Dowty “Word Meaning and Montague Grammar” (section 2.2, pgs. 51-71)

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For our next class (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving break), please read the excerpt from David Dowty’s Word Meaning and Montague Grammar (section 2.2, pgs. 51-71).  In our final classes, we will look at some issues in the lexical semantics of verbs, adjectives, and nouns.  The Dowty excerpt discusses certain basic distinctions that can be made amongst verb meanings, as well as tests for classifying verb meanings along various parameters.

(UPDATE:  Given certain changes to our class schedule, section 2.2.6 (pgs. 62-65) are no longer relevant.  So you may safely skip this section.  But be sure to have a look at section 2.2.7.)

The Dowty excerpt is available in the password-protected “Readings” section of the website.