For next Thursday 2/23, 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 Th 2/9. (Note: §4.2 of the reading uses some terms that you won’t …
Continue reading ‘Reading for Th 2/9 : Löbner §4.2-4.3 (pgs. 62-73)’ »
For next Tuesday 2/7, please read sections 2.1 and 2.2 (pgs. 24-32) of the Kearns textbook. 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. We will spend next week becoming acquainted with the language of propositional logic, and seeing …
Continue reading ‘Reading for Tu 2/7: Kearns §2.1-2.2 (pgs. 24-32)’ »
For Tuesday 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 Thursday 1/26–a PDF version is available in the Readings section of this website).
For this Thursday 1/26, 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.
In Tuesday’s (1/24) class, we will continue our discussion of 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” …
For Thursday, 1/19, 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.