Many of the readings are from the text book: Portner, Paul H. What is Meaning? Fundamentals of Formal Semantics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. ISBN: 1405109181. (Paperback)
| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| L1 |
Overview Meaning Grice on Non-natural Meaning |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 1 Optional Reading The following reading is optional for undergraduates in 24.903 and required for graduate students in 24.933: Grice, H. P. "Meaning." The Philosophical Review 66, no. 3 (1957): 377-388. |
| L2 |
Concepts of Meaning Circularity/Holism Truth-Conditions |
|
| L3 |
More on Truth-Conditions Meta-language vs. Object Language Semantic Properties of Sentences Some Obvious Shortcomings of Truth-Conditional Semantics (Slang, Honorifics) |
|
| L4 |
Truth-Conditions Propositional Logic Truth-Tables The Connectives |
Required Reading
Optional Reading
|
| L5 |
Tautologies, Contradictions De Morgan's Laws The Material Conditional |
|
| L6 |
The Material Conditional (cont.), as an analysis of "if" Initial Plausibility "Paradoxes" Pragmatic Inferences |
|
| L7 |
Pragmatic Inferences (cont.) Sentence (Truth-Conditional) Meaning vs. Speaker Meaning "I'm not hungry" Grice's Maxims of Conversation Quantity Implicatures Pragmatic Strengthening of "possible" (from Portner's Book) |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 11 |
| L8 |
Gricean Quantity Implicatures (cont.) Reasons to prefer a Pragmatic Approach over an Ambiguity Approach |
|
| L9 |
Gricean Quantity Implicatures (cont.) Applied to Strengthening of "some" and "or" (Truth-Conditionally: Inclusive, Pragmatically Strengthened to Exclusive) |
|
| R1 | Review Session 1 | |
| L10 | Gricean Story about "or" again |
Required Reading A refrigerator summary of Grice's maxims (PDF), and a sample derivation of a quantity implicature (PDF), meant to replace the calculation on pp. 201-202 of Portner's book. |
| L11 | Supplementing Material Conditional Truth-Conditions for "if" with Pragmatic Inferences | |
| L12 |
Problems for the analysis of "if" as Material Conditional + Pragmatic Implicatures New Topic: Compositionality Analyzing "Sheila barks" |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 2 |
| L13 |
Proper names have as their semantic value individuals Predicates have as their semantic value sets of individuals, or functions from individuals to truth-values Brief Discussion of Vagueness |
Required Reading Read the article on disjunction by R. E. Jennings in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Read especially carefully the section on "The Myth of Vel and Aut." |
| L14 |
Transitive Predicates (Functions from Individuals to Functions from Individuals to Truth-Values) Function Application as the Main Semantic Composition Principle |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 3 Optional Reading
|
| L15 |
The Lambda-notation for Specifying Functions Order of Arguments First Introduction to Relative Clauses |
|
| L16 |
Review of Semantic System Different kinds of Transitivity Alternations, Implicit Arguments Informal Discussion of Relative Clauses |
|
| L17 |
Relative Clauses Gaps, Variables, Fillers Predicate Abstraction |
Required Reading
|
| L18 |
Example Calculation: "Shelby is smart" Modifiers Predicate Modification |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 4 |
| L19 |
"smart dog" vs. "smart person" Perhaps, adjectives are not one-place predicates but functions from one-place predicates to one-place predicates Other Interesting Cases of Adjectives: "alleged murderer", "canine genius" |
|
| L20 |
Perhaps, adjectives are one-place predicates after all, but context-dependent ones "Pauline is a tall horse" |
|
| L21 |
Definite NPs "The" as a function from one-place predicates to individuals Partial function only defined for predicates that are true of exactly one individual Presuppositions The "King of France" |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 5.1, 5.2 |
| L22 | Quantifiers |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 6.1, 6.2 |
| L23 |
Natural Language Quantifiers Compared to Predicate Logic Quantifiers The Meaning of "most" Negative Polarity Items |
|
| L24 |
Negative Polarity Items (cont.) Licensing by Quantifiers in position of Downward Monotonicity (the Fauconnier-Ladusaw Hypothesis) |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 6.3 |
| L25 |
Frege vs. Russell on the meaning of "the" Attributive vs. Referential Uses of Definite Descriptions Pragmatic analysis of the two uses of Definite Descriptions |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 5.4.4, 5.4.5 |
| L26 |
Review of the analysis of "the killer of the black cat" (from problem set) More on Referential vs. Attributive |
|
| L27 |
Tense Semantic Values Relative to a Time of Evaluation The Past Tense Existential Quantification or Referential? Partee's Example "I didn't turn off the stove" Also: "Last month, I went for a hike" |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 8.1 |
| R2 | Review Session 2 | |
| L28 | More on the Past Tense and whether it is Referential or involves Existential Quantification (Contextually Restricted) | |
| L29 |
Aspectual Classes: States, Activities, Achievements, Accomplishments Instants vs. Intervals Accomplishments are only true of Intervals |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 8.2.1 |
| L30 |
"The World of Sherlock Holmes" Shifting the World of Evaluation |
|
| L31 | Modals |
Required Reading Portner, Ch. 8.3 |
| R3 | Review Session 3 | |
| L32 |
Conditionals again The Strict Implication Analysis |
|
| L33 |
Conditionals again (cont.) Stalnaker's Definite Analysis |