Semantics and Pragmatics
Linguistics Tripos Part II: Paper 10
MML Tripos Part II: Paper Li.10
Paper Coordinator 2013/14: Professor Kasia Jaszczolt
Past exam papers, examiners' reports, full reading lists and lecture handouts are available from the Linguistics Resources on CamTools.
Scope
The lectures associated with this paper introduce some of the contemporary approaches to meaning and linguistic communication. The course begins with an introduction to word meaning, including an analysis of the relations between words in a language system, words and concepts, and words and objects in the world. This includes an introduction to approaches to reference, sense, mental images and prototypes.
Sentence meaning is introduced by the presentation of the relation between (i) sentences and (ii) events and states, as well as an analysis of truth and falsity of sentences, stressing the importance of these notions for semantics. These lectures also introduce the ideas of truth conditions, models, and possible worlds. Particular attention is paid to problems posed by sentential connectives (such as 'and' or 'if...then') and so-called quantifying expressions ('some', 'few', 'all'). Other problems discussed include the interrelated topics of deixis, indefinite and definite descriptions, proper names, presupposition, anaphora, negation, and propositional attitude reports. Separate lectures are devoted to tense and metaphor. The currently dominant idea of 'dynamic semantics' is introduced in the example of Discourse Representation Theory.
Discussion of the limitations of theories of sentence meaning leads to the introduction of the distinction between sentence meaning and speaker's meaning. The role of an account of intentions in assessing speaker's meaning is also emphasized, as well as the principle of cooperation to which speakers adhere in conversation and which allows us to say how the speaker can communicate more than is actually said. All this is the domain of pragmatics: the study of meaning in context. Other problems discussed include theories of politeness, indirectness in discourse, cross-cultural communication, and the interface between semantics and pragmatics.
Teaching
You will receive sixteen lectures in total, eight in Michaelmas Term and eight in Lent Term. You will also have eight supervisions, normally three during Michaelmas Term, four in Lent Term and one in Easter Term. The Department will also be providing eight hours of optional practical classes.
This course is assessed through a three-hour written examination.
Preliminary reading:
Jaszczolt, K.M. (2002) Semantics and Pragmatics: Meaning in Language and Discourse. London: Pearson Education.
Allan, K. (2001) Natural Language Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kearns, K. (2000). Semantics. London: Macmillan Press
de Swart, H. (1998) Introduction to Natural Language Semantics. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Mey, J. (1993) Pragmatics: an Introduction. Oxford:
Blackwell. Second Edition.
Levinson, S.C. (1983) Pragmatics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elbourne, P. (2011) Meaning: A Slim Guide to Semantics Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Go to other Part II Linguistics papers:
- Linguistic Theory (Linguistics Tripos Part IIB only)
- Phonetics
- Phonology and Morphology
- Syntax
- Semantics and Pragmatics
- Historical Linguistics
- History of the French Language
- First and Second Language Acquisition
- Psychology of Language Processing and Learning
- Language Typology
