| 050.317/617 - Introduction to Natural Language Semantics |
| Fall 2000 M,W 12:00 - 1:30 234 Krieger Hall |
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This course is an introduction to the formal semantics of natural language. We will address both the conceptual and empirical issues that a semantic theory must grapple with, as well as some of the logical machinery that has been developed to deal with such problems. After discussing some foundational questions, we will build up analyses for central phenomena including patterns of inference, quantification, scope ambiguities, and anaphoric dependence, and (time permitting) tense and modality. |
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| Course Requirements | |
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Semantics is not a spectator sport. To learn this material, it is absolutely crucial that you not only attend lectures and do the readings, but also go through the process of constructing formal derivations and experience the joy of coming up with analyses yourself. To stimulate your desire to do this, there will be (roughly) weekly problem sets, worth 60% of the grade. These will be assigned on Wednesday and will be due the following Monday. Since I will discuss these problem sets at the beginning of class on the day they are due, I will not accept any late problem sets. However, each student may drop the grade of one problem set. Twice during the course (precise dates to be announced), I will give two take-home exams, which will essentially be longer problem sets with broader coverage. Each of these will count for 15% of the grade. The remaining 10% of the grade will be given on the basis of constructive class participation. I encourage/implore you to work together with your fellow students on the weekly problem sets (though not on the two take-home exams). However, once you have finished your discussions, I expect you to write up your answers on your own. On the papers you turn it, please feel free to include questions or flag those parts of the assignment about which you are less sure, so that I can have a sense of how you are feeling about the material. And do not hesitate to contact me or the TA if you having difficulties - whether as a result of some topic being unclear or difficult, or my putting too much work on you, or something else. If I find out early, we can do something about it. Otherwise, problems may (and often do) snowball. |
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| Reading | |
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The primary text for the course will be
This text is available from the bookstore. To a lesser degree, we will make use of readings from other sources, including the following two texts:
As I assign additional readings, I will make these available in the glass cabinet of the Cognitive Science reading room (232 Krieger Hall), as well as at the reserve desk of Eisenhower library. Since everyone will need to make use of a limited number of copies of these articles, you should borrow them for as brief a period as possible. I expect that as the term progresses, at least some of the readings will also be made available in PDF format on the library's web site at http://milton.mse.jhu.edu/library/reserves/. |
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| Software | |
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To help you during the part of the course devoted to learning the basics of first order predicate calculus, we will be making use of the following software package:
This is available at the bookstore in both Macintosh and PC versions. |
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| (Tentative) Course Outline and (Partial) Reading List | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This overly ambitious outline will almost certainly be revised depending upon our rate of progress. A partial reading list is provided for certain topics. More will be added during the course of the term.
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