Cognitive Science 0234 - Introduction to Semantics

This course presents Semantics as a cognitive phenomenon: what aspects of the representation of reality are relevant for speakers when they use language to convey meaningful utterances? The first part of this course will provide insights into topics such as the nature of meaning, the problem of sense and reference, lexical semantics, meaning as logic form, and meaning as context of use. The second part will explore the relation between language and cognition from a cognitive-functional framework. The third part will show how linguistic structures in different languages are motivated through the cognitive principles proposed in the second part. We will apply this approach to morphosyntactic analysis, particularly the nature of grammatical categories, the semantic basis of grammatical relations such as subject and object, as well as voice constructions in different languages. Evaluation is based on several reading reports, class discussion and a final paper on one of the topics covered in the class. It is desirable that students have a previous course in linguistics or computer science.

Mind, Brain, and Information Writing and Research There is no prerequisite, but it is desirable that students have a previous course in linguistics or computer science. In this course students are expected to spend at least eight to ten hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes doing the core readings, as well as all the assignments, preparing short presentations, and analysis of problem sets relevant for this class.