ENS20-Foundational Topics in Semantics

Foundational Topics in Semantics

Spring 2020: the Inferential Typology of Language

Philippe Schlenker

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

Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris - February-March 2019

Instructor: Philippe Schlenker (LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS; New York University)

with 2 guest lectures by Amir Anvari (LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod)

Emails: philippe.schlenker@gmail.com; amiraanvari@gmail.com

Practical

Units: 4 ects

Schedule: Mondays 2-4pm, February-March 2020, Salle de Séminaire, Pavillon Jardin, ENS (entrance at 24 rue Lhomond)

1st class: February 3, 2020.

Pre-requisites

At least one course in formal semantics (e.g. Semantics I), or the instructor's permission

Announcement (March 12, 2020): for the time being, all remaining classes will be taught remotely (in view of the Coronavirus pandemic). Please check this website often and contact the instructors if you don't receive information by email.

On a practical level, our intention is to

1. use Zoom as first best option (information to follow later - please check your mailbox before class);

2. be ready to use Skype as a 2nd best.

=> if you intend to attend, please send Amir Anvari and myself your Skypename.

Topic

Contemporary semantics has uncovered an exquisitely detailed typology of linguistic inferences, which includes standard ('at-issue') entailments, but also implicatures, presuppositions, supplements, expressives, and several further inferential types. While lexical accounts have been given in several cases, recent research typically asks (i) whether predictive algorithms can be defined to account for this diverse inferential behavior, and (ii) whether this typology is specifically linguistic or has broader cognitive or communicative roots. The fact that quite a few inferential types can be found in improvised gestures and even visual animations (Tieu et al. 2019) suggests that we have an ability to divide new informational content 'on the fly' among this rich typology; the question is how. This course will survey several parts of this inferential typology and recent attempts to derive it.

Note: Overlaps with the Cogmaster course on Super Semantics will be small (there will be cases, such as the discussion of cosuppositions, in which we will go quite a bit beyond the Super Semantics class).

Tentative topics (depending on participants' background; we will assume some knowledge of implicature computation)

• Presuppositions [details depending on participants' background]

Heim 1983

Beaver and Geurts, Presupposition (SEP)

Schlenker, Presupposition Projection: Two Theories of Local Contexts (Language & Linguistics Compass)

For later: Schlenker, Presupposition Projection: the New Debate

• Maximize Presupposition, Blind implicatures and Logical Integrity [2 guest lectures by Amir Anvari]

Anvari, Logical Integrity [corrected link]

• Cosuppositions

Schlenker, Gesture Projection and Cosuppositions (L&P); Iconic Presuppositions (NLLT)

For later: Esipova, Composition and projection of co-speech gestures

• Supplements and expressives

Potts, Conventional implicature and expressive content [or something else] (handbook)

Schlenker, The semantics and pragmatics of appositives (handbook)

• Iconic inferences

Greenberg Beyond Resemblance, or The Semantics of Pictorial Space

Schlenker and Lamberton, Meaningful Blurs

For later: Abusch on visual narratives

Important

Please sign up for the class 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 and can assess how many people will attend).

Honor Code

To foster learning and discussion, students are discouraged from using phones, tablets or laptops during class, unless this is solely for note-taking (with other applications closed).

[Summary of some data on this topic]

[Effects of laptop multitasking on users and nearby students]

Requirements

Besides active class participation, at least:

(i) 40% of the grade: 2 squibs (due early in the semester)

Note: a squib may be replaced with a class presentation (to be discussed with the instructor).

(ii) 60% of the grade: 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 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

All readings that are not linked below are available in this Dropbox folder.

Background readings:

Schlenker, The Semantics/Pragmatics Interface

Optional (extension of the inferential typology to gestures and visual animations)

Schlenker, Gestural Semantics

Tieu et al. 2019, Linguistic Inferences Without Words

Schedule [to be adapted as we go]

February 3 Presupposition I: Stalnaker's analysis

Reading: Schlenker, Presupposition Projection, Language & Linguistics Compass

Note: Yoad Winter is scheduled to give a talk on presuppositions in the LINGUAE seminar of Thursday, February 6, 11:30am.

February 10 Presupposition II: Heim's dynamic semantics

February 17 Presupposition III: Non-dynamic reconstruction of local contexts

February 24 Presupposition IV: Order and structure in the computation of local contexts

Squib #1 due!

March 2 Maximize Presupposition, Blind Implicatures and Logical Integrity I (Amir Anvari)

Reading: Anvari, Logical Integrity

March 9: no class (Cogmaster break)

For the time being, all remaining classes will be taught remotely (in view of the Coronavirus pandemic). Please check this website often and contact the instructors if you don't receive information by email.

March 16 Maximize Presupposition, Blind Implicatures and Logical Integrity II (Amir Anvari)

Squib #2 due!

March 23 Supplements I

Reading: Schlenker The Semantics and Pragmatics of Appositives [handbook article]

March 30 Supplements II

April 6 Iconic inferences

Background reading: Sections 4.1-4.3 of Schlenker 'What is Super Semantics?'

Optional: Greenberg 2013; Schlenker and Lamberton 2020

April 9, 9pm: mini-term paper due!

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. 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. Your squib should be empirically and formally precise. Be sure to specify in your review:

(i) the empirical problem that is addressed, and the generalizations that are discussed [state them precisely];

(ii) what the main formal proposal is;

(iii) how the formal analysis is applied to several 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. Your squib should be empirically and formally precise. 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.