General Information

Please fill out this online form to enroll

Instructors : Keny Chatain & Benjamin Spector

When and where: Wednesday 10h-12h30, Salle Séminaire du DEC (entering from 29 Ulm, take the hallway to your right, the room will be on your left)

FIRST CLASS ON WED. SEPT 25, 2024

Course description and prerequisites

This is the second module on natural language semantics offered at the Department of Cognitive Studies. We will cover advanced topics in semantics that weren’t covered in Semantics I, and we will revisit topics from Semantics I under a new light. We will focus on the following broad topics:

Note that Semantics I is a prerequisite for this course. If you have not taken Semantics I but would like to take this course, you must contact the instructor as soon as possible to see if this is a possibility.

Assessment 

• A small number of homework assignments (about 5)

• Class Participation

• Term paper (3-5 pages)

Course Content

This is the second module on natural language semantics offered at the Department of Cognitive Studies. We will cover advanced topics in semantics that weren’t covered in Semantics I, and we will revisit topics from Semantics I under a new light. We will focus on the following broad topics:

• Plural semantics: singular/plural markings, distributivity, collectivity, cumulativity, multiplicity inferences.

• Event semantics, tense and aspect: semantics of adverbs and adverbial phrases, interaction with pluralities, tense, aspect

• Intensional semantics: attitude verbs, conditionals

• Presupposition/trivalence: presupposition, projection, filtering.

• Homogeneity

• Indefinites and exceptional scope

• Semantics of pronouns and dynamic semantics

• Semantics of questions

• Scalar Implicatures and Exhaustivity Effects

• (Time Permitting) The semantics of intonation and focus