Course description
Natural languages are sophisticated tools which enable us to express and understand an unbounded range of thoughts by assembling sentences that we have never before used or heard. Formal semantics uses tools from logic to study how this impressive result is achieved, that is, how the meaning of an expression is assembled from the meanings of its parts.
This course introduces the key logical tools of formal semantics and covers some central topics in semantics, like predication, quantification, definites, plurals, indexicals, modals, conditionals, questions, and presuppositions.
Textbook
Invitation to Formal Semantics
By Elizabeth Coppock and Lucas Champollion
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of predicate logic. Students wishing to refresh the relevant notions may study Chapters 3 and 4 of the textbook.
Program, material, and assignments
(will be updated as the course proceeds)
27 Feb. Introduction. What is formal semantics?
Material: Handout. Chapters 1 and 2 of the textbook.
If you lack prior knowledge of predicate logic, please read also Ch. 3 and 4.
Access to Moodle
If Moodle asks you for an enrolment key, it is: SUP9085903N02023