Prerequisites, communication, requirements

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.

COMMUNICATION

About any topic: write to us early in case of doubt.

We will communicate through this website and by email. Please make sure that you fill out the enrollment form above (redundantly available here) so we have your email address. 

Material for the class (readings, slides) will either (i) be linked to the sessions below, or (ii) be made available in this Dropbox folder.

Honor Code To foster learning and discussion, we ask students  NOT to use any computer, smartphone or tablet in class.
(If you  intend to use your computer for notetaking only, with all other applications closed, please contact the instructors to discuss your situation.)
[Summary of some data on this topic]
[Effects of laptop multitasking on users and nearby students]

REQUIREMENTS

The initial description of the course is available in this document. 

All details for the requirements, including detailed instructions for squibs are in this essential document.

Below is just a short version of it.

Topic first: Participants are invited to work on small projects (e.g., literature reviews, formal analyses of a set of phenomena, proposals for experiments). The first task is always the choice of a topic in Super semantics - please discuss possible topics with the instructors as early as possible.

Assessment: 

Beside readings and occasional short preparatory exercises (not to be handed out), students will write two squibs and one mini-term paper. The mini-term paper can build on the squibs, of course. Please send the squibs and mini-terms paper by email to all instructors. 

Squibs 1+2 = 50% of the grade. Mini-term paper: 50% of the grade.

Attendance is mandatory (please contact the instructors ahead of time if you encounter special difficulties).

• Squib 1:  due _____

• Squib 2: due _____

• Mini-term paper:  due _______

Individual & group work: You are encouraged to get feedback on your work not just from the instructors but also from one or several students. (If so, please indicate which other student(s) you discussed your work with.) In special cases, you may also work in groups of up to three participants; please discuss any such plans with the instructors ahead of time.  At least one of {squib 1, squib 2, mini-term paper} must be written in your name only.

Use of AI: You can use AI as you wok, but should credit it by explaining in detail how you used it.

Academic credit: Students should not get double academic credit for the same work. 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.

Logistics: All materials should be submitted by email to all three instructors:
emmanuel.chemla@ens.psl.eu,
spector.benjamin@gmail.com,
philippe.schlenker@gmail.com

Tangential information: In case you are interested in the following events (which bear a relation to the course), please contact the following: 

LINGUAE seminar (on Thursdays), devoted primarily to formal semantics/pragmatics and to sign language semantics (contact Lucie Ravaux, research coordinator of the LINGUAE team at linguae.paris@gmail.com)

LINGUAE-AL: Animal Linguistics seminar, online only, devoted to current research on animal linguistics (contact Lucie Ravaux, research coordinator of the LINGUAE team at linguae.paris@gmail.com)

LINGUAE-ML: Linguistics and Machine Learning Seminar (contact Yair Lakretz:  yair.lakretz@gmail.com)

Sessions, Class Material

Sept. 7: Introduction -  Linguistic Inferences without Words 

Reading: Tieu et al. 2019 Linguistic Inferences without Words

Optional: Schlenker, Gestural Semantics

Part A. Super Semantics in thought (Spector-Chemla)

Sept. 14: Emmanuel Chemla (on Zoom): Cognitive constraints on concepts and constraints on linguistic meaning.

Slides here.

Sept. 21: Benjamin Spector: communicative sources of constraints on lexical meaning.

Slides 1 (Theoretical Explanation for the NALL lexical gap) 

Slides 2 (Word Leaning Experiment on NALL) 

Readings:

Enguehard & Spector, 2021 

Zhou, Spector & Maldonado 2024 

Sept. 28: Benjamin Spector: Probabilistic Reasoning and Conditional Reasoning.

Slides (Conditionals and Probabilities) 

Background Reading:

Egré, Paul and Hans Rott, The Logic of Conditionals, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)

(This is a very formal presentation, which requires significant familiarity with either philosophical logic or formal semantics)

David Lewis, Probabilites of Conditionals and Conditional Probabilities 

Compact proofs of Lewis's results 

Oct. 5: Benjamin Spector: Conditional and Probabilistic Reasoning with Quantifiers and the Confirmation Paradox

Slides (Restrictor Constancy) 

McHugh & Klochowicz, New Experimental Evidence Against the Similarity Approach to Conditionals, Proc. SALT34, 2024. (Direct download of pdf file)

Irene Heim, Lecture Notes on Indexicality  (Direct download of pdf file)

Oct. 12: Emmanuel Chemla (on Zoom): Language and reasoning, the case of polarity items

Compositionality/negation in baboons [paper].

Are linguistic judgments driven by logic [paper], and are logical inferences influenced by linguistics [paper]

Part B. Super Semantics in communication (Schlenker)

Readings that are not linked below will be found in the Dropbox folder.

General reading for this part: One of the following:
Schlenker, What is Super Semantics? Philosophical Perspectives 2019 [published pdf in the Dropbox folder] 

Patel-Grosz et al. Super Linguistics: an Introduction, to appear in Linguistics & Philosophy (broader and less detailed than the preceding reference)

Optional background: What it All Means  (ask the instructor for a pdf copy).

Oct. 19. Sign language semantics I

Reading: Schlenker, Lamberton and Kuhn, Sign Language Semantics

Alternatives: Schlenker, Visible Meaning (long!)

Shorter alternative: Schlenker Logical Visibility and Iconicity in Sign Language Semantics: Theoretical Perspectives 

Introductory alternative: What it All Means Ch. 2

Oct. 26: no class [master break]

Nov. 2: Sign language semantics II

Optional: Schlenker et al. 2023 Iconic Syntax

Nov. 9:Typology of iconic enrichments 

Reading: Schlenker Iconic Pragmatics

Introductory alternative: What it All Means Ch. 12

Optional: Tieu et al. Co-speech gesture projection: evidence from inferential judgments

Extension to emojis: Tieu et al. Experimental evidence for a semantic typology of emoji: Inferences of co-, pro-, and post-text emoji

Background: Abner et al. 2015: Gestures for linguists. [pdf]

Nov. 16 Music semantics

Background: Jackendoff and Lerdahl, The capacity for music

Reading: What it All Means Ch. 15

Optional: Schlenker, Musical Meaning Within Super Semantics.  

Optional talk on dance (online): Pritty Patel-Grosz, Dance semantics and extensions to music (live online, November 7, 2020)

Links:   Bernstein on meaning in music Bernstein on Strauss's Don Quixote  Another take on the William Tell Overture  

Nov. 23: no class [PSL week]

Nov. 30: Animal Semantics I 

Reading:  one of the following:

• 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 (in the Dropbox folder)

• Introductory alternative: What it All Means Ch. 1

• More recent: Berthet et al. 2021 Animal Linguistics: a Primer

Entirely optional: I'Anson Price and Grüter 2015 (evolution of the waggle dance of bees)

Schlenker et al. 2025 Ancestral Iconicity

Note: there is a very recent issues of Proceedings of the Royal Society on animal vs. human languages.

Links:

Further readings and slides on animal linguistics 

BBC article Catherine Hobaiter on chimpanzee gestures.

Great ape gesture dictionary

Chimpanzee vs. Bonobo gestures
Humans' understanding of ape gestures; see also this.

Ape dance!

Tuesday, Dec. 8, 12:30:14:00 (non-standard day and time because of Job prospect day on Dec. 7): Animal Semantics II 

Reading: one of the following

• Suzuki and Matsumoto 2022

• Schlenker et al. 2023 The ABC-D of Animal Linguistics

Link on Suzuki on birds

Dec. 14 Animal Semantics III 

January 18, 9pm-Mini-term paper due