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Super Semantics
(LINGUAE, Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS; New York University)
November 21-22, 2017 - Rethymno, Crete
Most of the results discussed in this course were obtained thanks to funding from the European Research Council (Advanced Grant FRONTSEM, 2013-2018)
Instructor: Philippe Schlenker (E-mail: philippe.schlenker@gmail.com)
Topic
While formal semantics has been a success story of contemporary linguistics, it has been narrowly focused on spoken language. The course introduces to systematic extensions of its research program: beyond spoken language, beyond human language, and beyond language. 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, five recent articles have proposed analyses of the semantics/pragmatics of primate alarm calls, an important topical extension of semantics. In each area, two unifying questions arise about (i) the division of labor between syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and (ii) the need for a semantics for gradient/iconic representations.
(Recent extensions of iconic semantics pertain to music semantics, but these will not be discussed for reasons of time. Students are welcome to ask questions about this topic, however.)
Main readings and links
Readings that are not linked to the references can be found in the Dropbox folder (see below). Optional readings are mentioned with the description of each class.
(The results described below are new and/or summarized with a new perspective, hence numerous self-citations - with apologies.)
• Sign language semantics
Optional background: Zucchi: Formal semantics of sign languages
Schlenker, Philippe: to appear, Visible Meaning: Sign Language and the Foundations of Semantics. Final version to appear as a target article (with peer commentaries) in Theoretical Linguistics.
Shorter version available as:
Schlenker, Philippe: 2016. Logical Visibility and Iconicity in Sign Language Semantics: Theoretical Perspectives [Handbook Article]. Manuscript, Institut Jean-Nicod and New York University.
Some resources on Greek Sign Language (note: these are resources I found online; I do not know whether they have been validated by experts)
• Signs vs. gestures
Schlenker, Philippe: 2017, Iconic Pragmatics [LingBuzz] Accepted with minor revisions in Natural Language & Linguistic Theory.
• Gestures
Optional background: Abner et al. 2015: Gestures for linguists. [pdf]
Schlenker, Philippe: 2017, Gestural Grammar. [LingBuzz]
Schlenker, Philippe: 2017, Gestural Semantics. [LingBuzz]
• Primate semantics
Optional background: Zuberbühler 2009, Survivor Signals.
Schlenker, Philippe; Chemla, Emmanuel; Zuberbühler, Klaus: to appear, Semantics and Pragmatics of Monkey Communication. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics.
Longer version:
Schlenker, Philippe; Chemla, Emmanuel; Schel, Anne; Fuller, James; Gautier, Jean-Pierre; Kuhn, Jeremy; Veselinović, Dunja; Arnold, Kate; Cäsar, Cristiane; Keenan, Sumir; Lemasson, Alban; Ouattara, Karim; Ryder, Robin; Zuberbühler, Klaus: 2016, Formal Monkey Linguistics. Target article in Theoretical Linguistics.
Preprint version Published version
Shorter version:
Schlenker, Philippe; Chemla, Emmanuel; Zuberbühler, Klaus: 2016, What do Monkey Calls Mean? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20, 12, 894–904.
Penultimate version (final version to appear in TICS): [pdf]
Published version [gated]
Supplement (for later): Music semantics
Optional background: Jackendoff and Lerdahl 2006, The Capacity for Music.
Schlenker, Philippe: 2017, Outline of Music Semantics. Music Perception. [LingBuzz]
[This is a summary of Prolegomena to Music Semantics, which discusses several issues that are omitted here]
Longer version:
Schlenker, Philippe: 2016, Prolegomena to Music Semantics. [LingBuzz]
Video: Prolegomena to Music Semantics (IRCAM Workshop on Emotional Archetypes: Music and Neuroscience, June 9, 2016) [question period] [slides - with links to sound examples]
Other readings: if they are not linked on this page, they will be made available in this Dropbox folder.
Slides will be made available in this Dropbox folder.
Topics
Topics discussed will be among the following (but there might not be time for the entire list):
1. Sign language semantics
2. Signs vs. gestures
3. Gesture semantics
4. Primate semantics
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