Presupposition
(LSCP, CNRS)
Cogmaster, December 2017 (LC2)
Instructors: Philippe Schlenker
Directeur de Recherche, Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris; Global Distinguished Professor, New York University
Advanced Grant Leader, ERC
E-mail: philippe.schlenker@gmail.com
Directeur de Recherche, LSCP, Paris
Starting Grant Leader, ERC
E-mail: em.chemla@gmail.com
Teaching Assistant: Jeremy Kuhn, post-doctoral fellow, Institut Jean-Nicod
E-mail: jeremy.d.kuhn@gmail.com
Topic
In the 1980's, the analysis of 'presupposition projection' led to the development of a new and more powerful type of semantics, called 'dynamic semantics'. In recent years, pragmatic alternatives within classical semantics were developed. We will provide an introduction to this debate, first by developing an explicit 'dynamic semantics' for presuppositions , and then by developing a pragmatic alternative to it, the 'Transparency Theory'.
Requirements
Besides active class participation:
(i) read the assigned papers;
(ii) formal exercises will be assigned.
Honor Code
To encourage learning and discussion, the use of phones, tablets or computers is strongly discouraged during class, unless it involves taking notes and referring to writings assigned for the class (in which case all other applications should be closed).
Discussing homeworks with classmates
You are allowed to discuss homework assignments with your classmates. But in case you engage in substantive discussions of solutions:
(i) you must indicate in your write-up the names of classmates with which you discussed solutions in some depth, and
(ii) you must write up your answers to the assignment by yourself. Under no circumstances are you to share typed-up answers to the assignments or to discuss the actual write-ups.
Slides, Problem Sets and Readings: they will be made available in this Dropbox folder.
Sessions (still tentative; to be adapted as we go)
Monday, November 27, 2017 Monday, December 4, 2017 Monday, December 11, 2017 Monday, December 18, 2017 | Dynamic Semantics I (Schlenker) Readings: Schlenker 2011 'Two Theory of Local Contexts', Part I only TA session: review lecture material + discuss Problem Set #1 Experimental approaches to presuppositions vs. implicatures (Chemla; no TA session by Jeremy Kuhn) [Slides in the dropbox] Readings: TBD Dynamic Semantics II. Transparency Theory I Readings: Schlenker 2016, Section 3 Optional: : Schlenker 2008, Be Articulate Problem Set #2 in the Dropbox folder. Due date: Sunday, December 17, 12 noon. TA session: discuss Problem Set #1 + Problem Set #2 Note: On Wednesday, December 13, 11:30am-1pm, Cornelia Ebert will give a talk on co-speech gestures. Their contributions have been analyzed in presuppositional terms by some researchers, hence this talk might be of interest to some students (the author has an alternative analysis of co-speech gestures). Transparency Theory II Readings: Schlenker 2016, Section 3 Problem Set #3 in the Dropbox folder. Due date: Sunday, January 7, 12 noon. TA session: discuss Problem Set #2 + Problem Set #3 |