General provisions

The course is given within the Bachelor program of Language Technology, the Bachelor program of Languages, Linguistics B and as a freestanding course.

Entry requirements

Linguistics I, 7.5 credits, or 30 credits in a language subject

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide an introduction to the scientific description of linguistic meaning from both a semantic and pragmatic perspective.

For the grade Pass, after completing the course the student should be able to

• explain the basis for the distinctions between grammar, semantics and pragmatics made in some different theoretical frameworks
• account for the relationship between the definitions of concepts and their extension, and the relationship between concepts, language users' knowledge and knowledge in general, and discuss various theoretical and empirical complications associated with the idea that concepts capture the meaning of words;
• account for important lexical relations and apply them in reasoning about the relations of any given words
• account for the concept of entailment and perform elementary analyses based on logical semantics;
• account for some theoretical approaches that explain how the meaning and/or reference of linguistic expressions can depend on the context, and apply them in reasoning about authentic linguistic data.

Content

The course provides an introduction to the scientific description of linguistic meaning.

Historical review of different approaches to the description of linguistic meaning in linguistics. Basic semiotics. Both lexical and compositional semantics are covered. Extensions and extensional analysis. Definitions and prototypes. Introduction to truth-conditional semantics and logical analysis. The relation between semantics and pragmatics. Basic pragmatics: presupposition, tropes (e.g. irony, metaphor and metonymy), speech acts, conversational maxims and implicatures.

Instruction

The teaching consists of lectures, exercises and assessment. The student's own learning activities are of crucial importance for the work on the course.

Assessment

The course assessment has three components:

1. active participation during the analytic exercise sessions
2. two written assignments
3. an oral report

Directives regarding the exercises as well as the written and oral assignments are made available at the beginning of the course.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.