Updated schedule After Test 1

Oct 1	Review test & Quantification	3.1, 3.2	NONE
Oct 3	Quantification	3.3 & 3.4	Pg 55, exercise (1) & (2)
Oct 8	Quantification	3.5
Oct 10	Ambiguity	What is Syntax? (see below) Chapter 4 Intro, 4.1 & 4.2	Pg 56, exercise (4) & (7)
Oct 15	NO CLASS	CUNY MONDAY
Oct 17	Quantification	3.3 & 3.4	Pg 55, exercise (1) & (2)
Oct 22	Quantification	3.5
Oct 24
Oct 29	Finish up Ambiguity SQUIB discussion	Chapter 5 up to 5.3 (pg 79-88)
Oct 31	Modality	Counterfactuals 5.3	Exercise 1 – pg 92 (due Nov 12)
Nov 5	Modality	Chapter 8 Intro, 8.1 & 8.2
Nov 7	Aktionsarten	8.5 8.6 & 8.7 for Squib ideas	Pg 173 (1 & 2) (due Nov 14)
Nov 12	VerbClasses	9.1, 9.2, 9.3
Nov 14	Tense & aspect		Pg 200 (1) (due Nov 19)
	5-7pm	John McWhorter Colloquium at CUNY-GC
Nov 19	Tense & Aspect	9.4 & 9.5	NONE
Nov 21	SQUIB topic workshop	NONE	Test 2
Nov 26	SQUIB workday	Test 2 DUE Squib Topic Due
Nov 28	NO CLASS	Happy Thanksgiving!
Dec 3	Thematic Structure	10.4	Work on Squib
Dec 5	Theta Roles	NONE	Work on Squib
Dec 10 & 12	Presentations
Dec 17, 5pm		SQUIB DUE

 

 

August August 29

Introduction to Class

1. Syllabus
2. Major Assignments
3. Semantics is Math
4. Pragmatics vs. Semantics
5. ‘Dog’
6. How many different meanings does ‘meaning’ have?

Read:    Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought, Chapter 1

Homework: None

September September 3

Cultural Root of Semantics

1. Erin McKean: The Joy of Lexicography
   1. How not prescriptive we will be
2. Patricia Kuhl
   1. Cultural Root of Semantics and Language learning

i.     Speech Community

Read:    Intro Chpt 1 & 1.1 – 1.3

Homework: 1 page on your semantic landscape

September 5

NO CLASSES

September 10

Meaning

1. Formal meaning
   1. Denotation
   2. Sense/Reference
2. Lexical vs. Structural Ambiguity
   1. Exercise on advertising
3. Catemegoric vs. Syncatemegoric
   1. Exercise on function words
4. Truth conditions
   1. Denotations
   2. Possible worlds
   3. Truth Conditions

i.     Entailments
ii.     Contradictions

Read:    1.4-end of Chpt 1

Homework: Exercise 1, 2, 3

September 12

Implicature & Presupposition

1. Why is implicature different than entailment?
   1. ‘I broke a finger.’
2. Principles
   1. Relevance
   2. Informativeness
3. Presupposition
   1. Survives Negation
4. Entailment
   1. Does not survive negation

Read:    Spark Notes on Truth Tables

Peter Williams on Truth Tables

Homework: NONE

September 17

Truth Tables – what they are and what they can mean

1. And
2. Or
   1. Inclusive
   2. Exclusive
   3. Not

Read: 2.1 & 2.2 up to page 32

Homework: NONE

September 19

More Practice with Truth and Truth Tables

1. Triples
2. But

Read: 2.3

Homework: Pg 40, exercises 4, 5, 6 & Handout

September 24

More with truth tables

September 26

Predicates and Arguments

1. 1, 2, 3 place predicates
   1. Limitations on the world
   2. Verbs
   3. Adjectives

1. Noun
2. Preposition
3. Argument structure

Read: Wikipedia on Predicates and Arguments – link is on the website.

Homework: Pg 41 exercise 9 & Handout 3.3

Homework: Test 1

October October 1

Predicates & Arguments

Read: 3.1, 3.2

Homework: NONE

October 3

Test 1 Due

Quantification – One and All

1. The existential and universal quantifiers
   1. It is the case
   2. It is not the case

Read: 3.3 & 3.4

Homework: Pg 55, exercise (1) & (2)

October 8

One and All Part II

Intersective and Non-intersective Adjectives

1. Defining ‘all’ in terms of ‘not one not’
2. Intersective & non-intersective adjectives

Read: 3.5

Homework:  NONE

October 10

What makes it all interesting: Ambiguity!

1. Scopal ambiguity
2. I saw a man on the hill with a telescope.

Read: What is Syntax? Lexical Categories and Tree Structure ONLY – don’t worry about movement or constituents.  Chapter 4 Intro, 4.1 & 4.2

Homework: Pg 56, exercise (4) & (7)

October 15

            CUNY Monday – NO CLASS

October 17

Hey, this isn’t Syntax!

1. Trees
   1. Phrases and units – VERY brief!
2. Types
   1. A world of entities and truth
3. Functions
   1. Back to predicates and arguments, but now as functions!

Read: 4.3

Homework: NONE

October 22

Functions, Types and Composition

1. Types of functions: building it up into compositional Semantics
2. Relationship between units and words
3. Syntax-Semantics interface

Read: 4.4 (long)

Homework: Pg 75 (1)

October 24

Lambdas

1. Lambda abstraction

Read: NONE

Homework: Pg 76 (3)

October 29

More Lambdas!

1. More work with lambdas

Read: Chapter 5 Intro & 5.1

Homework: Pg 76 (5)

October 31

Happy Halloween!

Ghosts and Otherworldly Creatures

1. Modality and possible worlds
   1. Logical
   2. Epistemic
   3. Deontic

Read: 5.2 & 5.3

Homework: Modality HO

November November 5

More of the Other Worlds

1. Modality and Possible worlds
2. Counterfactuals

Homework: Pg 92 (1)

Read: NONE

November 7

John McWhorter Colloquium at CUNY-GC 5-7pm (at 5^th & 34^th)

“Is There No Such Thing as a Creole?”

Is it a Fact or isn’t it!

1. More modality and counterfactuals
   1. Discussion Questions on pg 92 & 93
2. Squib Topic Workshop

Homework: NONE

Read” Chapter 8 Intro, 8.1 & 8.2

November 12

Verb Classes

1. Aktionsarten!
2. Vendler’s Classes
   1. Features

i.     Telicity
ii.     Durativity
iii.     Static

i.     States
ii.     Activities
iii.     Accomplishments
iv.     Achievements

1. Diagnostics
   1. In 10 minutes

i.     Accomplishments J
ii.     States L
iii.     Activity L
iv.     Achievements

1. Time before the event takes place
2. It takes time

i.     Accomplishments J
ii.     Achievements J
iii.     State J
iv.     Activity L

i.     State J
ii.     Activity J
iii.     Accomplishment L
iv.     Achievement J

Homework: Pg 173 (1)

Read 8.5 8.6 & 8.7 for Squib ideas

November 14

More verb classes

1. More on Aktionsarten

Homework: Pg 173 (2)

Read: 9.1, 9.2 & 9.3

 

November 19

Bringing it together in time

1. Tense and Aspect

Homework:

Read: 9.4 & 9.5

 

November 21

At the end of time

1. Tense and Aspect
   1. I didn’t turn off the stove!
2. Review for Test 2

Homework: Test 2

Read: NONE

 

November 26

TEST 2 DUE

SQUIB TOPIC DUE

LAST DAY TO TURN IN HOMEWORK!

 

Read: 10.1, 10.2

 

November 28

Happy Thanksgiving!

December December 3

Who does What: Thematic Structure

1. Thematic Roles

Homework: Work on Squib

Read: 10.4

 

December 5

Finishing up theta roles

1. More on Theta Roles
   1. Lexical Conceptual Structure

Homework: Work on Squib

 

December 10

            PRESENTATIONS

December 12

            PRESENTATIONS

December 17

            5pm, SQUIB DUE