NYU17

Foundational Topics in Semantics - 2017

Philippe Schlenker

(LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS; New York University)

September-October 2017 - NYU

Instructor: Philippe Schlenker (E-mail: philippe.schlenker@gmail.com)

Announcement: There will be a follow-up mini-workshop in May 2018 (half a day). Please fill out this Doodle poll if you are interested, writing 'TALK' after your name if you think you might want to give a talk.

A workshop page has now been set up.

Topic

Research on meaning from the last 15 years has redefined several foundational issues in semantics, bringing new light to old questions and raising new ones as well. Old questions include the basic ontology of natural language semantics, the nature of context dependency, the division of labor between semantics and pragmatics, the relation between natural language semantics and semantic paradoxes, etc. New questions pertain to the role of sign language in universal semantics, the proper treatment of iconic effects and gestures, and the extension of semantics beyond its usual confines (animal semantics, music semantics, …). We will usually discuss one topic per week (with a main session and a student session); most topics will be drawn from the following list, depending in part on participants' interests:

• Do we refer to times and possible worlds?

• Are there monsters in natural language?

• Is presupposition dynamic?

• Is anaphora dynamic?

• Are implicatures Gricean?

• How does sign language illuminate Universal Semantics?

• What kind of meaning do gestures have?

• Can there be an animal semantics?

• Can there be a music semantics?

• Is there a natural language perspective on semantic paradoxes?

Syllabus: [pdf]

Important

Please

(i) sign up here if you plan to attend some or all of the seminar (irrespective of whether you plan to enroll or not; this is just so that the instructor has your email address, can assess how many people will attend, and which topics will be of particular interest to the audience).

(ii) fill out this Doodle poll if you wish to attend the student session.

Requirements

Besides active class participation, at least:

(i) 1 squib/mini-literature review + 1 additional squib or class presentation

(ii) 1 mini-term paper (to be emailed 10 days after the seminar end; ideally the mini-term paper will have been prepared by the two squibs/presentations in (i))

The squib and mini-term paper should be connected to the broad questions that will be addressed in the seminar.

Please contact the instructor soon after the beginning of the term to discuss (i) and (ii).

Readings

To be added later. If they are not linked below, they will be made available in this Dropbox folder.

Topics

To be finalized later.

Schedule [to be adapted as we go]

8 weeks in September-October 2017 - see below for sessions and readings.

–General sessions (2 hours 45 per week) are open to everyone

–Discussion sessions (1 hour 45 per week) are open to all students and postdocs (whether registered or not for the course).

1st session: Monday, September 11, 2017 (no session in Week 1)

Instructions for the mini-squib(s)

Choose between A, B, and C. In either case, please consult with the instructor ASAP. Registered students should write 1 squib and give a class presentation or write an additional squib.

Note: Your squib can be very short (up to approximately 2 pages). Ideally, it should present one very clear argument or empirical problem.

A. Write a brief review of an article that concerns one of the topics that will be discussed in the seminar.

Consult with the instructor on the choice of the paper. Be sure to specify in your review:

(i) the empirical problem that is addressed, and the generalizations that are discussed.

(ii) what the main formal proposal is

(iii) how the formal analysis is applied to selected examples.

(iv) what some strengths and weaknesses of the proposal are.

B. Write a squib related to one of the topics that will be discussed in the seminar. The squib should be very focused, and it should:

(i) define a clear problem, which could be:

(a) an empirical problem [interesting patterns of projection for connectives we haven’t discussed; empirical problems for the analyses we have discussed, etc.].

(b) a formal problem that arises in some of the theories we have discussed.

(ii) give a precise analysis of the relevant data and formalisms

(iii) discuss one or several possible solutions.

C. Give a class presentation, to be discussed with the instructor