About this course

This course is about learning to read the primary literature in semantics, capitalizing on the skills you developed in Semantics I. You’ll be exposed to a diverse range of empirical phenomena central to modern research in formal semantics, and to new formal tools, some of them state-of-the-art. You’ll develop your ability to approach and critically engage with new and possibly unfamiliar research. The reading we’ll be doing is fairly diverse topic-wise: I’ve tried to put together a happy melange of accessible papers on core topics (though in the end, each of our topics pushes us beyond the basic truth-conditional paradigm you focused on in Semantics I).

Our units and the corresponding readings are given in the table on the home page. Some of the readings will be more central than others. I’ll flag these as we go. Note: the separation in this list is somewhat artificial; many readings cross-cut topics (modality and event semantics, dynamics and modality, and so on). I hope this creates some nice resonances as we go.

Requirements

Most importantly, I ask you to keep up with the reading, which will be steady but manageable — on the order of 2 key readings per week. Come to class prepared with your questions and ready to discuss the reading. Each enrolled student will give 1–2 short presentations on an assigned reading (the precise number will depend on enrollments, scheduling vagaries, and interest).

As for written work, there will be periodic problem sets to help you get comfortable when new formal techniques are introduced (e.g., problem sets on the basics of intensional semantics, event semantics, dynamics, and so on). Each enrolled student will write a short squib-like term paper (10–12 pp). Plan to meet with me no later than the end of March to discuss possible topics. Our last one or two meetings will be devoted to squib presentations.

Your instructor

I’m Simon. We’ve met. You can reach me by email at . My office is in the Linguistics Department, 18 Seminary Place, #203A, and my office hours are: