Semantics
K Allan
8 points * 3 hours per week * First semester * Clayton
The subject introduces students of linguistics to linguistic semantics and the relevant areas of psychology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, communications, language studies and education. It reviews theories about meaning in natural languages, and methodologies for investigating semantics, with a view to providing the basis for further critical studies of semantics and pragmatics.The scope of semantics is outlined, relating semantics to dictionary structure, syntax, prosody and semiotics. We see how the meaning of a language expression relates to worlds and to other language expressions. Semantic relations between language expressions from words to sentences to discourses are examined in the light of decompositional and cognitive semantics, empirical semantics and model theoretic semantics. Formal semantics is introduced via set theory, propositional and predicate logic, possible worlds semantics and model theory. Finally we look at regional, cultural and social aspects of meaning.
Assessment:
Class exercises: 40% * Test (1 hour): 55% * Class participation: 5%
Prescribed text
Allan K Natural language semantics Blackwell, 1995