For next Tuesday’s class, read the following:

1.  Sections 2.1-2.2 (pgs. 25-35) of the Kearns textbook.

(This was also the assigned reading for today’s (Thursday’s) class.  Now that we’ve discussed Propositional Logic in class, you should go back and review these sections to solidify your understanding.)

2.  Lobner 4.2-4.3 (pgs. 62-73).

I’ve posted a short excerpt from another Semantics textbook (written by Sebastian Lobner) in the “Readings” section of the website.  It discusses how certain semantic relationships between sentences, such as entailment, can be modeled in Propositional Logic.

(Note:  section 4.2 of the Lobner reading uses some terms that you won’t be familiar with, such as “CoU” and “Principle of Polarity”.  Don’t worry too much about these…just make sure that you understand the terms “contingent”, “logically true”, and “logically false”.)

For this Thursday’s class, read the following:

1.  Section 11.1.3 (pgs. 258-260) of the Kearns textbook.

This section briefly reviews Scalar Implicatures, which we talked about in today’s (Tuesday’s) class.  Be sure to have a look at this reading, since it provides several other examples of “linguistic scales”.

2.  Sections 2.1-2.2 (pgs. 25-35) of the Kearns textbook.

On Thursday, we’ll begin our discussion of Propositional Logic.  This reading provides a brief introduction.

For next Tuesday’s class, read the following:

1.  Section 3.2.3 (pgs. 126-132) of the Levinson chapter on Implicature.  (You’ve already read sections 3.0 and 3.1 for an earlier class; section 3.2.3 is part of the same PDF document.)

For the Levinson reading, focus on the discussion of generalized vs. particularized implicatures.  You should also read his subsequent discussion of so-called “conventional” implicatures, but this topic won’t figure too prominently in our course.

For next week, read the paper entitled “Logic and Conversation” by H.P. Grice.  You can find a PDF version of it in the “Readings” section of the website.

(Remember that the readings are password-protected:  you can find the password on your printed copy of the syllabus.)

Grice’s paper (and the lectures from which it originates) are the original source for our theory of conversational implicatures.  Luckily, it’s fairly accessible, even for beginning semanticists.  (Though don’t fret if you get bogged down in the introductory section…starting reading closely once you get to the section entitled “Implicature”.)

As I said in class, the Grice paper and the Levinson reading (for Thu 9/10) cover much of the same material.  So use the two readings in tandem to solidify your understanding.  If the Levinson reading was perfectly clear, then use the Grice paper to reinforce/test your understanding.  If you found Levinson difficult to follow, then use the Grice paper to achieve greater clarity.

I’ve posted a PDF containing sections 3.0-3.2 of Levinson, Chapter 3 in the “Readings” section.  For this Thursday’s lecture (9/10), read sections 3.0 and 3.1.

(Remember that the readings are password-protected:  you can find the password on your printed copy of the syllabus.)

(You’ll also be reading section 3.2.3 for Thursday, 9/22, which is why I’ve included it.)

As I announced in our last (= first) class meeting, your reading assignment for next Tuesday is Chapter 1 in the Kearns textbook. For those of you who are still waiting for your copy of Kearns to arrive, there are now 10 photocopies of the first chapter in the mailbox outside my office door. (621 Comm. Ave., #110) Extra copies of the syllabus can also be found there.