Course Description
Definite descriptions have played a key role in philosophy and linguistics, leading to elaborate formal frameworks for modeling definite reference in context. There also is a rich tradition of typological work across a wide range of languages. While certain core functions are arguably universal, there is substantial variation in the mapping from specific semantic functions to particular forms across languages. Recent years have seen a surge of work on detailed aspects of the meanings of specific forms in a wide range of languages, bringing together the formal and empirical traditions, and enriching our understanding of the core universal ingredients of definiteness. The more comprehensive cross-linguistic perspective also requires a broader look at the full range of referential expressions, such as bare nouns, pronouns and demonstratives, as part of the overall inventories available in a given language, with related questions at the semantics-pragmatics interface. Finally, the range of empirical methodologies employed is starting to include experimental methods to shed light on the relation between theoretical and processing issues. This course provides a comprehensive overview of definite reference, introducing key formal frameworks for modeling definiteness, universals and variation across languages, and the empirical methodologies for identifying the semantically relevant features of definiteness.
Area Tags: Semantics, Pragmatics, Variation, Psycholinguistics, Syntax, Discourse
(Sessions 1 & 2) Monday/Thursday 3:00-4:20
Location: ILC S415
Instructors: Dorothy Ahn & Florian Schwarz
Dorothy Ahn is an Assistant Professor at the Linguistics Department at Rutgers University – New Brunswick. As a semanticist interested in cross-linguistic typology, she investigates how the underlying building blocks of meaning compose to derive the patterns that we see within and across languages. To do so, She makes use of both formal theoretic and experimental approaches to natural language semantics and pragmatics. Recent research focuses on definiteness, reference, and sign language semantics.
Florian Schwarz is an Associate Professor and the Undergraduate Chair in the Linguistics department at UPenn, and also serves as the Associate Director for Education of mindCORE. He is an associate editor for Glossa Psycholinguistics and Natural Language Semantics. His research and teaching is concerned with the study of meaning, with particular interests in presuppositions, definites, intensional semantics, and – more recently – social meaning. In much of his work, he combines formal tools from semantics and pragmatics with experimental methods from psycholinguistics. Under the lead of Jeremy Zehr, his lab maintains PCIbex, a tool for implementing and hosting experiments online.
Dorothy Ahn will be teaching this course during Session 1. Florian Schwarz will be teaching during Week 1 and Session 2.
