NYU 22 - Super Semantics
September - October 2022 - NYU
(The schedule is still somewhat tentative, as we will adapt things as the seminar progresses)
TOPIC
While formal semantics has been a success story of contemporary linguistics, it has traditionally been narrowly focused on spoken language. Systematic extensions of its research program have recently been explored: beyond spoken language, beyond human language, and beyond language proper. 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.
The seminar will focus on the typology of meaning operations in nature, with three main systems: compositional semantics (including trivialized versions thereof found in animals, with alarm calls corresponding to separate utterances); iconic semantics as found in pictorial narratives and in some sign language and gestural constructions; and a less well-known system of 'featural interpretation', found in some bird calls and in music semantics, in which individual acoustic features (such as loudness, frequency, frequency changes, or harmonic stability) give rise to designated inferential effects.
The seminar will start with a discussion of the interaction between logic and iconicity in sign language.
Note: a special issue of Linguistics & Philosophy devoted to Super Linguistics is in the works, and seminar participants will thus have an opportunity to read ongoing research on this topic.
Relevant:
Abusch and Rooth on pictorial free perception
Altshuler and Schlöder on pictorial representations (but check for a more recent paper)
Charnavel on dance
Altshuler and Schlöder on pictorial representations (but check for a more recent paper)
Charnavel on dance
INSTRUCTOR
Email: philippe.schlenker@gmail.com
Note: P. Schlenker will be present at NYU for 8 weeks in September-October 2022. In addition, he will be at NYU for advising purposes for 3 weeks in April-May 2023 (precise dates to be determined later).
TIME AND PLACE
Main sessions: Tuesdays, 3:30pm-6:10pm, Room 103, 10 Washington Place
Discussion sessions: Unless otherwise noted, Mondays 4-5:45pm, 4th floor syntax/semantics lounge, 10 Washington Place
SYLLABUS
See below.
Honor Code
To foster learning and discussion, students are discouraged from using phones, tablets or laptops during class, unless this is solely to take notes and/or follow the pdf slides as they are presented (with all other applications closed).
[Summary of some data on this topic]
[Effects of laptop multitasking on users and nearby students]
Important
(i) Please 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) The discussion sessions (open to all graduate students, whether registered or not) will be scheduled over the summer by way of an online poll of interested participants. Please fill out the poll if you are interested! The information will also be useful to schedule guest talks, hence multiple slots will be provided. Thanks a lot for your patience in filling this out!
APPOINTMENTS
The instructor will be available for appointments both in person and on Zoom (depending on the student's preference).
PRE-REQUISITES
At least one graduate-level course in formal semantics.
REQUIREMENTS
Besides active class participation:
(i) 1 class presentation + 1 squib/mini-literature review (in some cases, the squib may be replaced with an additional 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 (this includes topics in spoken language semantics that may be tangentially related to the Super Semantics topics we'll discuss).
You are encouraged to take the opportunity of this seminar to explore new datasets and propose new generalizations.
Please contact the instructor soon after the beginning of the term to discuss (i) and (ii).
READINGS AND SLIDES
If they are not linked below, they will be made available in this Dropbox folder.
SCHEDULE AND TOPICS [to be adapted as we go]
8 weeks in September-October - see below for sessions and readings.
–General sessions (2 hours 40 per week) will be held on Tuesdays, 3:30pm-6:10pm
–Discussion sessions (1 hour 45 per week) are open to all graduate students (whether registered or not for the course).
Topics
• Iconicity in sign language semantics
• Typology of gestural enrichments
• Music semantics
• Animal semantics
REFERENCES
See below for details.
General surveys
Schlenker, What is Super Semantics?
Patel-Grosz et al., Super Linguistics: An Introduction
Some chapters of What it All Means will be made available as optional, non-technical background readings.
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE AND READINGS
(to be adapted as we go)
Main sessions are in black; normal schedule: Tuesdays 3:30pm-6:10pm (unless otherwise noted), WP 103
Discussion sessions are in blue; normal schedule: Mondays 4pm-5:45pm, 4th floor syntax/semantics lounge
Monday, September 5: No class (Labor Day)
Tuesday, September 6: Introduction. Combining Logic and Iconicity in Sign Language I: Iconic Plurals
Optional background: What it All Means chapter 2 (introductory)
Schlenker and Lamberton, Meaningful Blurs
Monday, September 12: Discussion session: Jonathan Lamberton on linguistics and ASL elicitation methods (to be confirmed; in ASL, with ASL-English interpreting)
Tuesday, September 13: Combining Logic and Iconicity in Sign Language II: Iconological Semantics
Monday, September 19: Discussion session: John David Storment on emojis
Tuesday, September 20: Combining Logic and Iconicity in Sign Language III: Iconological Semantics.
Squib #1 due (by email, 9pm EST)
Monday, September 26: Discussion session: Soren Schlassa on iconicity
Tuesday, September 27: Sign with Iconicity vs. Speech with Gestures
Reading: One of the following:
What it All Means chapter 12 (introductory)
Schlenker, Iconic Pragmatics
Optional: Tieu et al., Co-speech gesture projection: evidence from inferential judgments
For later: Esipova 2019
Monday, October 3 : Discussion session: Alaa Sharif on repetition-based pluractionals in sign and in gestures
Tuesday, October 4: Music Semantics
Reading: Schlenker, Musical Meaning within Super Semantics
Shorter (and older) alternative: Schlenker, Outline of Music Semantics
[Monday, October 10 – No class - Fall break]
Tuesday, October 11 : 4pm Discussion session: Jennifer Judge on music (NYU classes meet on a Monday schedule)
Squib #2 due (by email, 9pm EST)
Monday, October 17 : Discussion session: Zhuoye Zhao on temporal expressions in signs and gestures
Tuesday, October 18: End of Music Semantics. Animal Semantics I: Birds
One of the following:
What it All Means chapter 1 (introductory)
Schlenker et al. Formal Monkey Linguistics (long)
Schlenker et al. What do Monkey Calls Mean? (short)
Useful as well: Berthet et al. Animal Linguistics: a Primer
Relevant on birds:
Suzuki et al. 2017 Wild Birds Use an Ordering Rule to Decode Novel Call Sequences (recommended!)
Suzuki and Matsumoto 2022 Experimental evidence for core-Merge in the vocal communication system of a wild passerine (recommended!)
Schlenker et al. 2022 The ABC-D of Animal Linguistics
Magrath 2020 on interpsecies communication
Monday, October 24 : Discussion session: Alaa Sharif on telicity in signs and in gestures
Tuesday, October 25: Animal Semantics II: Primates (last general session)
Mini-term paper due: Friday, November 4, 2022, 9pm EST (by email)
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 one squib and give a class presentation (or write an additional squib). In some cases, the squib may be replaced with an additional class presentation.
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.
Instructions for the mini-term paper
The mini-term paper should be a more elaborate version of B. above. The key is to find some crisp empirical and/or formal result, not to write something long. Approximate length: 6-10 pages.
