LING5207

In this course, we will explore some semi-advanced to advanced topics in the field of natural language semantics. Broadly construed, natural language semanticists study how human beings process complexity in meaning in language, with the building blocks being how small units of meaning compose together to form larger and larger units, all of which are produced and understood in milliseconds. Building on the fundamental foundations of semantic theory learnt in Semantics, Advanced Semantics is geared towards providing expansive knowledge on several vital topics that current vibrant research in the field is concerned with. The array of topics include quantifier scope, definiteness and indefiniteness, plurals and mass/count nouns, attitude predicates and attitude ascription, event semantics, tense and aspect, modality and conditionals, questions, focus and alternative semantics, and imperatives. As we make our way through the critical last few decades of formal semantics through these vast and diverse topics, we will balance empirical coverage and formalism with development of intuition and methodology.

prereq: LING 5205 - Semantics I

011040

Every Spring