Instructor: Kyle Rawlins
Lecture: MW 1:30-2:45, 134a Krieger Hall
TA: Lilia Rissman
Kyle's office hours: Wed 9-11
Lilia's office hours: Tues 9:30-10:30
Short registrar description: This course is an introduction to the study of meaning in natural language. We address both the conceptual and empirical issues that a semantic theory must grapple with, as well as some of the formal machinery that has been developed to deal with such problems. After discussing foundational questions, we turn to formal semantics and pragmatics, as well as their interfaces with syntax and the lexicon. Specific topics covered include conversational implicature; presupposition, type-driven composition, quantification and scope, lexical aspect, argument structure, and the nature of lexical representations of meaning.
Syllabus in PDF format (last updated 9/2).
Slides for Sep. 2. (Set theory material was on the board, no slides for it.)
Slides for Sep. 9.
Slides for Sep. 12-14.
Slides for Sep. 28.
Slides for thematic roles / proto-roles.
Slides for lexical semantics wrap-up.
Slides for Grice part 1.
Readings are available in a password protected directory here. Ask one of us if you don't know the password.
Assignment 1 is here in PDF form. This homework makes reference to "Lewis' advice", which we didn't cover in class. David Lewis, in a famous paper ("General Semantics", 1970) said: "In order to say what a meaning is, we may first ask what a meaning does, and then find something that does that."
Assignment 2 is here.
Assignment 3 is here.
Assignment 4 is here.
The takehome midterm is here.
Assignment 5 is here.
Please type your assignments (though for complex diagrams and such, you can hand-draw them; if you are having trouble with something on a particular assignment that is due, just write it out and ask us later how to do it). The following links are designed to help you do so.
If you are technically inclined, LaTeX has the potential to make your life much easier (at least while you're writing up homework assignments for this class).
A LaTeX tutorial I ran last
spring
The not so
short introduction to LaTeX (PDF)
Hypertext help with LaTeX
(useful as a reference)
LaTeX for
Linguists
I cannot vouch for any of the following links. Let me know if they aren't helpful, or if you know of something better.
Creating
mathematics inside Microsoft Word
A collection of links on writing
equations in Word
OpenOffice (a free, cross-platform Word alternative) has an equation editor. Here's the full manual in PDF format.