Course Name	English Semantics
Credits	3
Professor(s)	Name	Sei-Rang Oh
	Affiliation	Department of English Language and Literature

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Course Objectives

In general, linguistic analysis of natural language semantics aims to provide insight into two basic questions: (i)How can we represent the meaning of a sentence in order to capture the semantic intuitions of native speakers? (ii) How can we compose the semantic representations of the constituent parts into the desired semantic representation of the whole?

The aim of this course is to familiarize students with various semantic phenomena and related topics. The course will be divided into two major parts: The first part will focus on the introduction of a range of general semantic phenomena and relevant discussions, and the second part will introduce the fundamentals of formal semantic analysis of English, including some basic formal tools.

MAIN TEXTBOOK and FURTHER READINGS

Reading packet of selected book excerpts (for the 1st part of the semester; to be photocopied)

Portner, Paul. 2005. What is Meaning? Fundamentals of Formal Semantics. Blackwell Publishing. (for the 2nd part of the semester; selected chapters only)

Hurford, J., B. Heasley, and M. Smith. 2007. Semantics: a course book. 2nd edition. Cambridge.

ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Assignment: 1 practice assignment

Grading Scheme: Midterm exam 35%, Final exam 35%, Quiz 10%, Assignment 5%, Presentation 5%, Attendance/participation 10%

COURSE SCHEDULE

Course Outline

Week 1:   Introduction: What is Meaning?

Week 2:   Different approaches to meaning

Week 3:   Semantic relations between words I

Week 4:   Semantic relations between words I

Week 5:   Semantic relations between sentences I

Week 6:   Semantic relations between sentences II

Week 7:   Meaning in context

Week 8:   Midterm exam

Week 9:   Conversational principles

Week 10:  Introduction to Formal Semantics

Week 11:  Putting a meaning together from pieces

Week 12:  More about predicates

Week 13:  Modifiers

Week 14:  Student Presentations

Week 15:  Review/ Final exam

CONTACT DETAILS

Tel: 055-772-1130 (Humanities Building 101-424); e-mail: seirangoh@gnu.ac.kr