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This course unit will allow students to engage directly with the research literature on some of the core phenomena in the study of meaning and learn about different theoretical and empirical approaches in semantics and pragmatics. Possible topics, to be decided on in consultation with the students, include quantificational determiners like every, tense and aspect, modal expressions such as should and must, focus-sensitive particles like too and only, and comparison constructions such as the highest mountain.

Compulsory Pre-requisite: LELA20282 - Semantics. Students who do not meet the pre-requisite must have academic approval in order to be enrolled on this unit.

The aim of this course is to familiarise students with some of the central debates and topics in semantics and pragmatics, through the close reading of original research articles.

One two-hour class per week, one one-hour seminar per week.

The course will run as a mixture of teaching by the instructor and student-led discussions. The instructor will introduce the concepts and formal tools required for understanding a set of key research articles in this area; student teams will take responsibility for presenting and leading the discussion of readings in their area of interest.

E-Learning: All course material, including lecture handouts, practice exercises, links to electronically available readings, and course and assessment info will be made available on Blackboard. Students will be able to discuss all aspects of the course with their peers and the teaching staff on the discussion board.

The course convenor offers two consultation hours every week.

By the end of this course students will:

• Have gained knowledge of the empirical phenomena and issues central to the study of the formal semantics and pragmatics of natural language, in particular English:
• Have deepened their understanding of the formal apparatus and theoretical concepts used in the study of natural language semantics and pragmatics;
• Have developed their ability to understand formal analyses and test their predictions on novel data.

By the end of this course students will have developed:

• The ability to critically read and synthesize published research articles;
• Skills in problem-solving and abstract and logical thinking;
• The ability to construct and refine an argument, recognise flaws in arguments, and assessing the merits of contrasting explanations.

By the end of this course students will have developed:

• The ability to formulate abstract generalisations from data and synthesize complex issues;
• The ability to manage their own learning self-critically;
• The skill and confidence of leading a class discussion;
• Team working and presentation skills.

• Angelika Kratzer (2012), Modals and Conditionals (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
• Paul Portner and Barbara Partee (2002, eds.), Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings (London: Blackwell).
• Jon Barwise & Robin Cooper (1981), “Generalised Quantifiers and Natural Language,” Linguistics & Philosophy, 4(2): pp. 159-219.

Selected readings: 
 

• Paul H. Portner and Barbara Partee (2002, eds.), Formal Semantics: The Essential Readings  
  (London: Blackwell).
• Claudia Maienborn, Klaus von Heusinger & Paul H. Portner (2011, eds.),  
  Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning (Berlin: De Gruyter).
• Maria Alona and Paul Dekker (2016), The Cambridge Handbook of Formal Semantics 
  (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).