Academics

(Cross-listed as PHIL 040)

This course is an introduction to theories of meaning in natural language. When we investigate how languages are used in communication, we recognize two interacting systems: the semantic information that is part of our knowledge of a language and the pragmatic principles that guide our interpretation of the use of the language. We will be using the tools of symbolic logic to help us analyze sentential meaning.

In this course, we will develop a theory of linguistic meaning and interpretation and investigate various parts of the semantic structure of English in it. Rather than lecture you on recent discoveries semanticists and philosophers have made, the assignments are structured to lead you to make some of these discoveries for yourself. As a result, you will not only learn what semanticists have figured out, but how they figure things out. This will allow you to continue to investigate linguistic meaning on your own or in future academic work.

This course counts for distribution in humanities under the philosophy rubric and in social sciences under the linguistics rubric.