Undergraduate - UnitATS3674 - Semantics and pragmatics: the study of meaning in human languages

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Linguistics
Offered	Clayton First semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Alice Gaby

Notes

Previously coded LIN3310

Synopsis

Semantics is concerned with the meaning of every kind of linguistic constituent and expression in language(from the smallest morphemes and words to complex sentences and texts), as well as the relationships that hold between them. Pragmatics is concerned with how speakers use linguistic forms in particular contexts to communicate more than the semantic content of those forms, as well as how their addressees draw inferences in order to arrive at a shared understanding (or not!). This unit considers the nature of linguistic meaning and how it can be best represented, drawing on natural language data from around the world.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students should:

able to explain the fundamental concepts for of linguistic semantics and pragmatics;
be able to apply techniques and procedures, methods and skills presented in the unit in order to combine theoretical exegesis of several methods of inquiry with detailed semantic analysis;
be equipped with the basic tools and skills needed to progress to original research in semantics and pragmatics;
be able to interpret the semantic and/or pragmatic content of natural language exchanges.