LING 130: FORMAL SEMANTICS

Professor: Sophia A. Malamud

COURSE SYLLABUS

INDEX

• Course Description
• Outline of the Course, with links to lecture notes, reading and homework assignments, etc.
  

  Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8
  Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16
  Mini-Conference

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course introduces the components and formal mechanisms underlying meaning in human language and uses them as a window on the human mind, its psychological development and adult cognitive processes. Topics include what kinds of concepts a noun or a determiner can encode; how these "atoms" of meaning are combined in a mathematical procedure to yield the meaning of sentences; how semantic ambiguities can be explained. Formal tools from Set Theory and Predicate Logic will be introduced and applied both to the linguistic and to the cognitive characterization of meaning.

INSTRUCTORS

Course Instructor: Sophia A. Malamud 204 Brown Anthropology Department 781-736-2225 E-mail Office Hours: Monday 3-4pm, Tuesday 2-3pm, or by appointment

Guest Instructor: Olga Batiukova 256 Volen Computer Science Department 781-736-2726 E-mail

PREREQUISITES

• None
• Some background in Syntax is convenient, but not necessary.

ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE

The course introduces students to the study of language meaning in several stages.
In the initial stage, we define the basic concepts (such as "meaning", "literal meaning", "model-theoretic semantics", "reference", etc.), and lay the philosophical foundations for semantics.
Our guest instructor, Olga Batiukova, will then teach a two-week portion of the course concerning the study of word meaning - lexical semantics.
The third stage will build on the concepts from lexical semantics and philosophy of language to build a theory of meaning for more complex expressions, focussing on sentences and noun phrases. We will then explore the meanings of predicates, and finally talk about semantic phenomena that unify all of these elements, such as events, tense, polarity, questions, and impersonals.

READINGS

The textbook will be available from the Back Pages Books bookstore.
You can order the books from them online (using PayPal), or you can come to the store. Please order the books even if they are not in stock yet, to guarantee yourself a copy.
They deliver to campus (Shapiro Center) in the first two weeks of classes (days and hours to be announced); you can also pick up the books in the store, or call the store to discuss possible shipping arrangements.

"Informal lectures on formal semantics." by Emmon Bach, SUNY Press, 1989.


Additional readings will be distributed by the instructors through LATTE or in class.

I will revise the readings as we progress, so make sure to check this page every week!

REQUIREMENTS AND GRADE

Qualifying for a grade The coursework will involve 11 homeworks, two take-home reviews, and a research project that involves four stages: (1) meeting with me to discuss a topic and select readings that might be helpful, (2) submitting an outline of the project that includes a summary of the readings and a description of your research plan, (3) creating a handout or slides for a presentation, and presenting at the Mini-Conference, and finally, (4) writing a term paper. You must complete ten homeworks, both exams, and all four stages of the project to qualify for a grade. Since what is happening in class is important, you will not do well in this class if you don't attend. If you absolutely have to miss a class, make sure you work through the slides or handouts, which you can download from the website. I am also most willing to help you catch up. If you miss more than five classes, you might not qualify for a grade.          If you qualify for a grade, it will be calculated as follows:
Homework assignments (together)	50%		There will be eleven homework assignments, handed out once a week, most weeks. The homeworks will be usually due on the following Monday at the beginning of class. They will be graded on a scale of 0-10. Your lowest homework grade will automatically be dropped at the end of the semester, and will not figure in the calculation of your final grade. If you skip any homework, that grade of zero will be dropped. No late homeworks: please talk to me BEFORE the due date if there is a problem.
Midterm review and Final review	10%		Instead of homework, in the middle of the term and during the last week you will receive take-home reviews with short-answer questions about the topics covered in class. The midterm review will be due on Monday, Oct. 13. The final review will be due on Monday, Dec. 8.
Project planning	10%		Students will complete a research project on a topic in formal semantics and language meaning. To help with the planning of the research, there are various intermediate deadlines for various stages of the project. You should plan carefully, communicate with me in a timely manner, and meet all due dates.
Presentation at the Mini-Conference	10%		At the end of the semester, we will hold a Mini-Conference, open to the public, where students will present their projects. You will receive feedback about the content and presentation of the work.
Term paper	15%		After receiving the feedback on their project presentations, students will then write a final paper reporting on their project (at least 5 pages, double-spaced). Don't freak out: you'll get extensive help (from me) in the course of the semester, in everything from selecting a topic, to formatting presentation handouts, etc. In fact, you will have to attend mandatory meetings with me to discuss the project in the course of the semester.
Attendance and participation	5%		It's a very small class, and your active participation in class discussions is crucial for learning the material. It's important to come to class on time, and to attend all classes, so latenesses and absences will influence this part of the grade. This part of the grade will also cover such things as communicating with me in a timely manner if there are any problems.

OUTLINE OF THE COURSE