For next Wednesday 2/23 and Friday 2/25, please read sections 4.0-4.2 (pgs. 167-185) of the following book chapter, which can be downloaded (PDF) from the “Readings” section of this website: Levinson, Stephen C. 1983. Pragmatics, Chap. 4 (‘Presupposition’). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
I’ve posted a short excerpt from another Semantics textbook (written by Sebastian Löbner) in the “Readings” section of the website.  It discusses how certain semantic relationships between sentences, such as entailment, can be modeled in Propositional Logic.  Please read this excerpt for W 2/9 and F/211. (Note:  §4.2 of the reading uses some terms that …
Continue reading ‘Reading for W 2/9 & F 2/11: Löbner §4.2-4.3 (pgs. 62-73)’ »
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 …
Continue reading ‘Reading for F 2/4 & M 2/7: Kearns §2.1-2.2 (pgs. 25-35)’ »
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).
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 …
Continue reading ‘Reading for W 1/26 & F 1/28: Levinson §3.0-3.1 (pgs. 97-109)’ »
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.