For Friday 2/4 and Monday 2/7, please read sections 2.1 and 2.2 (pgs. 25-35) of the Kearns textbook. Â The reading describes the language of propositional logic, a precisely-defined formal language that allows us to represent the truth conditions of certain English sentences. Â We will spend our next several lectures becoming acquainted with the language of …
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Your second homework assignment is now available for download–just click on the link below for a PDF version.  It will be due on Monday, February  7, at the beginning of class. HW2 (due 2/7 @ beg. of class)
For Wednesday 2/2, please read section 11.1.3 (pgs. 258-260) of the Kearns textbook. Â The reading addresses so-called “scalar implicatures”, a particularly common type of implicature that arises via the maxim of Quantity. Â (Or as Kearns refers to it, the maxim of Informativity.) Â Scalar implicatures are a striking illustration of the way that our knowledge of …
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For Monday 1/31, please finish section 3.1 (pgs. 109-118) of the Levinson chapter on Conversational Implicature (the first part of which was assigned for Wednesday 1/26 and Friday 1/28–a PDF version is available in the Readings section of this website).
Here’s a handout which (i) summarizes some of the key concepts we’ve introduced in class so far, and (ii) summarizes our discussion of entailments, as well as our tests for identifying them. Since these tests do not appear anywhere in your readings, I thought that this would be a useful addition to your notes. You …
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For this Wednesday 1/26 and Friday 1/28, please read sections 3.0 and 3.1 (pgs. 97-109) of the following book chapter, which can be downloaded (PDF) from the “Readings” section of this website: Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics, Chap. 3 (‘Conversational Implicature’). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Note: there is a typo in the printed syllabus–you should read through …
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Your very first homework assignment is now available for download–just click on the link below for a PDF version. Â It will be due on Monday, January 31, at the beginning of class. HW1 (due 1/31 @ beg. of class)
In Monday’s (1/24) class, we will discuss entailment, which is a fundamental notion in semantics. In preparation for our discussion, please read the short excerpt on entailment (from G. Chierchia & S. McConnell-Ginet’s semantics textbook Meaning and Grammar) that I have posted in the “Readings” section of this website. (Note: remember that the “Readings” section …
For Friday, 1/21, please read Chapter 1 of the Kearns textbook. The chapter provides an overview of the approach to linguistic meaning that we will adopt this semester.
Welcome to the course webpage for Linguistics 502, Semantics 1. Be sure to check this page regularly for general announcements about our course, as well as for any schedule changes and useful links. Homework assignments, supplementary readings, and other course materials will also be posted here.