Schedule

Monday & Wednesday, 12:30-1:45 in 824 Flanner.

Topic

This course will be an introduction to the project of constructing a compositional semantic theory for a natural language like English. As such it will be as much a linguistics course as a philosophy course. The course will break down into three parts. We will begin bybriefly discuss some of the central concepts of syntax and semantics, and the reasons for thinking that there is a compositional semantics for English to be found. We will then consider how we might give a semantic theory adequate to handle a small fragment of English. For the rest of the semester, we will continually expand this fragment, as we extend our theory to handle an increasingly diverse class of English sentences.

Students should be aware that the material covered in the course is highly mathematical; it might be useful to think of the course as somewhere between a logic course and a more standard philosophy course.

Format

Given the nature of the material, the course will involve a fair bit of lecturing. But I encourage, and expect, students to interrupt frequently with questions, objections, and thoughts.

Texts

The main text will be Chierchia & McConnell-Ginet's Meaning and Grammar. Other readings will be made available in PDF form via links from the syllabus.

Assignments

Like a logic class, the primary means of evaluation will be exams and short take-home assignments. The midterm exam and (non-cumulative) final exam will each be worth 35% of the final grade; short take home assignments will, collectively, be worth 10%. The remaining 20% of the final grade will be given on the basis of class attendance and participation.

Grading

The midterm exam and (non-cumulative) final exam will each be worth 35% of the final grade; short take home assignments will, collectively, be worth 10%. The remaining 20% of the final grade will be given on the basis of class attendance and participation.

Each assignment is required, in the sense that failure to complete one or more assignments is sufficient to fail the course.

Notre Dame has no official way of indexing numerical grades to letter grades. This is the system that will be used in this course:

A	94+
A-	90-93
B+	87-89
B	83-86
B-	80-82
C+	77-79
C	73-76
C-	70-72
D	60-69
F	59-

Honor code

In all of their assignments, students are responsible for compliance with the University’s honor code, information about which is available here. You should acquaint yourself with the policies and penalties described there.

Sometimes, it can be hard to know what, exactly, the honor code implies with respect to different disciplines. For this reason, the philosophy department has prepared a document explaining, using examples, what the honor code requires of students when writing a philosophy paper. I strongly recommend that you read this document, which is available here. It is possible to violate the honor code without intending to do so; the best way to avoid this is to carefully read through the philosophy department's guidelines.

If you are in doubt about what the honor code requires of you in a particular case, please ask me.