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LC2 - Super Semantics Fall 2018
(LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS; DEC, Ecole Normale Supérieure)
(LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS; New York University)
Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris - October 2018-January 2019
Notes
(i) The content of LC2 is changing in 2018-2019, hence the new title 'Super Semantics' adopted here. The content will be remain decidedly interdisciplinary.
(ii) In later years, Emmanuel Chemla will be among the regular instructions for this new version of LC2.
Instructors
Salvador Mascarenhas (LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS; DEC, Ecole Normale Supérieure) Email: salvador.mascarenhas@ens.fr
Philippe Schlenker (LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS; New York University) Email: philippe.schlenker@gmail.com
Topic
While formal semantics has been a success story of contemporary linguistics, it has been narrowly focused on spoken language. Systematic extensions of its research program have recently been explored: beyond spoken language, beyond human language, beyond language proper, and even beyond systems with an overt syntax. First, the development of sign language semantics calls for systems that integrate logical semantics with a rich iconic component. This semantics-with-iconicity is also crucial to understand the interaction between co-speech gestures and logical operators, an important point of comparison for sign languages. Second, several recent articles have proposed analyses of the semantics/pragmatics of primate alarm calls, an important topical extension of semantics. Third, recent research has developed a semantics/pragmatics for music, based in part on insights from iconic semantics. Finally, the methods of formal semantics have newly been applied to reasoning and to concepts, which do not have a syntax that can be directly observed. The overall result is a far broader typology of meaning operations in nature than was available a few years ago. The course will offer a survey of some of these results, with topics that will change from year to year.
Credits: 6 ects
Time and place: Mondays, 1-3:30pm. First lecture: Monday October 1.
Salle Ribot, on 29 rue d'Ulm
Prerequisites
Students should have an ability to follow formal analyses, and they should thus have taken a serious introduction to formal logic or to formal semantics, or have significant experience with mathematical theories. If in doubt, please check with the instructors.
Requirements
Guidelines for the squibs and mini-term paper can be found HERE.
Participants will be invited to work on small projects (e.g. literature reviews, formal analyses of a set of phenomena, proposals for experiments ). Specifically:
(i) Two 2-page squibs [= short discussions] will be due starting early in the semester. Note: Squib #2 should preferably be a paper outline.
(ii) a mini-term paper (at most 10 pages) will be due at the end of the semester.
Squib deadlines:
Squib #1 December 17
Squib #2 January 14 [preferably a paper outline] Note: Squib #2 can be replaced with a brief class presentation on January 14. Please
(i) contact the instructors by January 7th if this is of interest;
(ii) tell the instructors (by email or in a meeting) by Friday, January 11th, 9am, what you intend to present.
Mini-term paper Deadline: February 8, 9pm
All papers should be submitted by email to: salvador.mascarenhas@ens.fr, philippe.schlenker@gmail.com.
Note (added January 3, 2019): Students should not get double academic credit for the same work. So if you are pursuing a project you started in another academic context, please (i) make an explicit note of this, and (ii) indicate what is new in the current version.
Course structure
Material for the class (readings, slides) will either (i) be linked to the sessions below, or (ii) be made available in this Dropbox folder.
Part A. Super Semantics in thought (Mascarenhas)
Part B. Super Semantics in communication (Schlenker, starting on November 12, 2018)
Sessions [tentative; to be adapted as we go]
Part A. Super Semantics in thought (Mascarenhas)
1. Preliminaries: philosophy of language, semantics, and pragmatics [slides]
2. Semantics in Reasoning #1: psychology of reasoning, various theoretical approaches, first look at the erotetic theory of reasoning [slides]
3. Semantics in Reasoning #2: erotetic theory of reasoning; combining ETR with probabilities: confirmation-theoretic approach; first look at interpretation-based theories of failures of reasoning [slides]
4. Semantics in Reasoning #3: interpretation-based theories of failures of reasoning; revisiting representativeness; the Wason selection task [slides]
Part B. Super Semantics in communication (Schlenker)
Reminder: readings that are not linked below will be found in this Dropbox folder.
Nov. 12: Introduction: Linguistic Inferences Without Words
Reading: Tieu et al. Linguistic Inferences Without Words
Optional: Schlenker Gestural Semantics
Nov. 19: Primate Semantics I
Optional background: Zuberbühler 2009, Survivor Signals.
Reading: Schlenker, Chemla, Zuberbühler Semantics and Pragmatics of Monkey Communication. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics. [pdf]
Longer version: Schlenker et al. Formal Monkey Linguistics. Target article in Theoretical Linguistics. Preprint version
Shorter version: Schlenker, Chemla, Zuberbühler What do Monkey Calls Mean? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20, 12, 894–904. Penultimate version: [pdf]
Nov. 26: Primate Semantics II (November 26; guest lecture by Mélissa Berthet)
Dec. 3: Sign Language Semantics I
Optional background: Zucchi, Formal semantics of sign languages
Reading: Schlenker Visible Meaning
Shorter alternative: Schlenker Logical Visibility and Iconicity in Sign Language Semantics: Theoretical Perspectives
Dec. 10: Sign Language Semantics II
Optional background: Delaporte and Shaw, introduction to their historical dictionary of ASL (on the history of LSF and ASL)
Dec. 17: Typology of Iconic Enrichments
Optional: Schlenker Iconic Pragmatics
Optional: Tieu et al. Co-speech gesture projection: evidence from inferential judgments
Jan. 7: Gestural Grammar
Background: Abner et al. 2015: Gestures for linguists. [pdf]
Optional: Schlenker Gestural Grammar
Jan. 14: Student presentations
Jan. 21: Music Semantics
Background: Jackendoff and Lerdahl The capacity for music
Optional: Schlenker Outline of Music Semantics [summary of Prolegomena to Music Semantics, which discusses several issues that are omitted here]
Links: Bernstein on meaning in music Bernstein on Strauss's Don Quixote Another take on the William Tell Overture
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