Universität Wien

160019 SE Seminar in this subject area (2013S)

Formal Pragmatics: exhaustivity inferences and interrogative semantics and pragmatics

8.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 16 - Musikwissenschaft und Sprachwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Details

Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 16.05. 09:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 1 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Thursday 16.05. 13:45 - 16:30 Seminarraum 4 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 17.05. 09:45 - 13:00 Seminarraum 4 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Wednesday 22.05. 09:30 - 12:00 Hörsaal 1 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Wednesday 22.05. 13:00 - 15:45 Hörsaal 1 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Thursday 23.05. 09:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 1 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 24.05. 09:30 - 12:00 Hörsaal 1 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Friday 24.05. 13:00 - 15:45 Hörsaal 1 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG
  • Monday 27.05. 09:30 - 11:00 Hörsaal 1 Sensengasse 3a 1.OG

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

1. Exhaustivity and scalar implicatures
We will begin with a systematic introduction to the classical view of
SIs. The major observation we will focus on is that any approach to
SIs must say something about alternatives and the way they are
determined. This raises the possibility that the theory of SIs should
be connected to a well known grammatical theory of alternatives,
namely the theory of association with focus (Rooth 1992). We will
formulate an alternative grammatical approach to SIs and will compare
the two resulting approaches in light of various challenges that have
recently been presented to both. We will discuss also some recent
experimental studies that are relevant to these issues

2. Interrogative semantics and pragmatics

- We will introduce two major theories of interrogative semantics:
Hamblin/Karttunen semantics and partition semantics
- We will discuss recent semantic theories of embedded interrogatives
- We will discuss recent semantic/pragmatic accounts of so-called weak
island effects

Assessment and permitted materials

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Examination topics

Reading list

For part 1:
- Sauerland, Uli, Scalar Implicatures in Complex Sentences,
Linguistics and Philosophy 27, 2004.
- Chierchia, Fox, Spector, Scalar Implicature as a Grammatical
Phenomenon, in An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning,
eds. Paul Portner, Claudia Maienborn et Klaus von Heusinger, Mouton de
Gruyter. http://lumiere.ens.fr/~bspector/EALING/ChierchiaFoxSpector.pdf
- Fox & Katzir, On the characterization of alternatives
(http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/fox/FoxKatzir.pdf)
- Chemla & Spector, Experimental Evidence for Embedded Scalar
Implicatures, in Journal of Semantics 28(3), 2011
- van Tiel, Embedded Scalars and Typicality, Journal of Semantics, 2013

For part 2:
- Heim, Interrogative semantics and Karttunen's semantics for 'know',
http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/jUzYjk1O/Interrogative%2094.pdf
- Klinedinst & Rothschild, Exhaustivity in questions with
non-factives, http://semprag.org/article/view/sp.4.2/pdfarticle
- Egre & Spector, A uniform semantics for embedded
interrogatives.http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/WJkNWNmZ/Egre_Spector_EmbQuestions.pdf
- Fox & Hackl, The universal density of measurement,
http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/fox/UDM_revised.pdf

Association in the course directory

Master allgemeine Linguistik: MA1-M3
Master allgemeine Linguistik: MA1-APM4B
Code Diplomstudium: 215

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:35