V61.0004 Introduction to Semantics
Prof. Anna Szabolcsi
Fall 2001
Course Description:
This course is an introduction to the compositional semantics of sentences. Compositionality means that the meaning of a complex expression is a function of the meanings of its parts and of how they are put together. That is, if you know what the words the, mailman, dog, bit, and bought mean and you are in command of the grammar of English, you automatically know how the meaning of the sentence The mailman bit the dog differs from that of The dog bit the mailman or The mailman bought the dog. Pursuing matters a bit further, we will ask, for example,
How do the sentences He is rich and honest and He is rich but honest differ in meaning?
How does the recommendation This excellent man has stopped beating his neighbors sneak in information it does not say directly?
Why can you say The problem took care of itself but not Itself took care of the problem?
Why don't I don't understand anything and I don't understand something mean the same?
Why it is natural to say I caught butterflies for an hour but not (in the same sense) I caught a butterfly for an hour?
How come Usually, a sonnet talks about love means Most sonnets talk about love?
To be able to address such questions, the course will introduce the fundamentals of set theory, propositional logic and predicate logic, generative syntax, and formal semantics. The texts are Allwood et al. Logic in Linguistics, Cambridge UP (chapters 1 to 5), and Fromkin, ed., Linguistics: An Introduction to Linguistic Theory, Blackwell's, (the chapters Syntax I-II, Semantics I-II-III).
Last Modified: October 21, 2007