Course for international guest/part time students
- Faculty
- Faculty of Humanities
- Organization
- BTK Department of English Linguistics
- Code
- BMI-ANGD17-CNy17aE.55
- Title
- Lexicology - Foundations and Perspectives: Introduction to Formal Semantics
- Usual semester
- Autumn
- ECTS
- 3
- Language
- Learning outcomes
- This course aims to provide a general introduction to formal semantics and its interfaces with syntax and (towards the end of the course) pragmatics.
- Course content
- On the menu are the following topics: (a) the subject–predicate relation and the different ways (syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic) in which it can be approached; predication and modification; (b) the Compositionality Principle and its detractors (incl. idioms, ‘expletives’, and semantics ex nihilo); (c) type-theoretic semantics; (d) event semantics, Tense and Aspect; (e) quantifiers and type-theoretic compositionality (type shifting and Quantifier Raising), and quantifier scope ambiguity; (f) upward and downward entailment, and the licensing of polarity-sensitive expressions; (g) modality; (h) conventional and conversational implicatures; (i) information structure, focus and the exhaustiveness implicature; (i) the semantics of silence: silent arguments, silent verbs, silent operators. The students are expected to be familiar with the fundamentals of syntactic structure (the material covered in the Syntax lecture course and the Syntax seminar).
- Assessment method
- A final test. The students are also expected to participate in in-class discussions and to do occasional non-grade exercises.
- Bibliography
- Heim, Irene & Angelika Kratzer. 1998. Semantics in Generative Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell. Portner, Paul. 2005. What is Meaning? Fundamentals of Formal Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell. *Note: The Syntax seminar usually covers Chapters 1 -- 3 and Chapters 5 -- 7 of BESE (https://mek.oszk.hu/05400/05476/05476.pdf). You shall be able to answer the questions listed here: http://seas3.elte.hu/coursematerial/BurukinaIrina/BasicSyntaxRevision.pdf