LING 341 Semantics Course Syllabus Spring 2010 Tu Thu 13 10 to 14 30pm Eliot 123 Svitlana Antonyuk Yudina email svanton reed edu phone 7852 from off campus 503 517 7852 office hours Mon 1 00 2 30 pm Thu 3 00 4 30 pm or by appointment Vollum 307 PREREQUISITES LING 323 Introductory Syntax or equivalent or permission from the instructor is required to take this course For students who have previously taken LING ANTH 311 General Linguistics the Introductory Syntax course may be taken concurrently with Semantics TEXTBOOKS Portner Paul H 2005 What is Meaning Fundamentals of Formal Semantics Blackwell required Dowty David Robert Wall and Stanley Peters Introduction to Montague Semantics Springer required Portner offers a very elementary overview of the major concepts and research questions and largely avoids formal notation Dowty Wall and Peters henceforth Dowty et al is a graduate level formal semantics text that is quite heavy on the formalism My hope is that this selection of the textbooks will satisfy the most diverse tastes and learning styles as well as provide a well rounded understanding of what formal semantics is about while teaching all the crucial skills of doing formal semantics CONTENT AND FOCUS OF THE COURSE Semantics is the branch of linguistics which deals with the relationship between the form and meaning of linguistic expressions morphemes words phrases sentences etc Despite how the term semantics is sometimes used in everyday conversation linguistic semantics does not deal directly with the nature of truth nor with how people reason and communicate ideas nor with mental states like knowing believing and intending Please note that because Dowty Wall and Peters is a print on demand textbook it will arrive to the bookstore approximately one week after the classes start I will therefore post the first two chapters of the book on the Moodle page for this course But be sure to get your own copy once it arrives as we will be reading all of it 1 nor with the finer points of word interpretation such issues we generally leave to the philosophers psychologists and lawyers Instead linguistic semantics like morphology syntax and phonology is concerned with finding out about mental grammar the system of abstract principles which underlies our ability to use human language in this case those principles related to our ability to interpret expressions The basic project of formal semantics is to develop formal models of mental grammar to account for how the meaning of an expression of natural human language is built up from the meanings of its component parts compositionality These models are tested on how well they predict native speaker intuitions about relations such as entailment presupposition and ambiguity Formal models in semantics are couched in a notationally explicit calculus or metalanguage A large part of this course will involve looking at fragments of metalanguage for semantics derived in part from work in syntax mathematics and especially formal logic and exploring the ways they can be used to say things about natural language expressions We will also look at various related issues such as word meaning and the interface between semantics and syntax Many linguists distinguish semantics from another area of study related to meaning namely pragmatics Pragmatics deals with how speakers use language to perform different kinds of communicative tasks making assertions asking questions issuing commands promising etc Grossly speaking pragmatics explores how people mean things by the expressions they use rather than what the expressions themselves mean Other linguists treat pragmatics as a sub field of semantics Although we will have a number of things to say about pragmatic issues in this course our primary focus will be on semantics narrowly defined that is the propositional content of expressions irrespective of how those expressions are used to communicate particular ideas in particular contexts Lectures and discussion will be based on the textbook chapters supplemented with outside readings We will also do a number of in class exercises both to practice the formalisms we will be learning and to explore how they can be applied to various problems in the data The written work for the course will consist of periodic problem sets plus a final take home exam EXPECTATIONS AND POLICIES Students will be expected to complete all assigned readings attend every class meeting and participate in discussion on a regular basis Students may also be asked to lead the discussion or present supplementary material in class In addition students will be required to complete regular problem sets see below and a comprehensive take home exam Grading basis participation 15 approximate problem sets 60 final exam 25 Written work must be turned in on time if you wish to receive full credit and comments 2 Late assignments will be penalized 10 of total possible points for each day they are late unless you receive an extension from me in advance Late work will not be accepted for credit if turned in after the assignment has been handed back or discussed in class whichever comes first Moreover late assignments will probably receive minimal comments and may not be returned to you in a timely fashion There will be a total of 5 problem sets Dates when assignments will be handed out and collected are given below these dates are tentative I will notify you of any changes as we go along Problem sets will be handed out on Thursdays and due on Tuesdays except for the last problem set on which I plan to give you a full two weeks to work on Problem set due dates PS 1 PS 2 PS 3 PS 4 PS 5 Given out February 4 February 18 March 4 March 25 April 8 Due in class February 16 March 2 March 23 April 6 April 22 Please type your assignments Written work may be submitted in either hardcopy or electronic versions Hardcopy versions should be submitted in class on the date due Electronic versions should be submitted as email attachments before the beginning of class on the date due You may submit an attachment in PDF preferred or Word for Windows Word for Macintosh is also acceptable as long as you stick to non specialized fonts Note that problem sets are not assigned with the expectation that you will be able to complete them without help It is perfectly acceptable to consult with me before an assignment is due if you are having trouble working it out As in all my classes you are encouraged indeed expected to work on assignments