WiSe 2020/21 (Sailer): Semantics 1

General information

Please register at the olat course before the first meeting to get the information on the virtual meeting room!

Course description

Semantics is the study of the (literal) meaning of words and sentences. The meaning of a sentence is usually predictable from the words in the sentence and its syntactic structure. Yet, this relationship between form and meaning is not a simple one-to-one mapping. Instead, it is rich in ambiguities, pleonastic marking and elements without any identifiable meaning contribution. We will work on an account that is founded on classical tools of semantic research but still directly addresses these empirical challenges. After the class, the participants will be able to identify - and partly analyze - interesting semantic phenomena in naturally occurring texts. They will have acquired a basic working knowledge in formal logic, which they will be able to apply in the description of meaning

Time and place

• Tuesday 08:15-9.45
• Starting: 3.11.2020
• online via zoom

Olat course

Direct link: https://olat-ce.server.uni-frankfurt.de/olat/auth/RepositoryEntry/8836120582
Password: Sailer-WiSe2021

Modules

• Lehramt Englisch (L2/5, L3): FW 2A, FW 2B
• BA English Studies: 3.4(1)
• BA Empirische Sprachwissenschaft: K 6.1

Contact

Manfred Sailer
e-mail: sailer@em.uni-frankfurt.de
office: IG 3.214
office hours: contact via e-mail!
www: http://user.uni-frankfurt.de/~sailer/index.htm

Course requirements

L2 and L5

• regular attendance
• pass take home exam
• Modulprüfung (optional): grade on take home exam

L3

• regular attendance
• pass take home exam
• Modulprüfung (optional): große Hausabeit (4 CP = 120h!!!) - please talk to me on time if you consider this option!

MSc Wirtschaftspädagogik

• regular attendance
• pass take home exam
• Modulprüfung: short term paper (9-11 pages, 1 CP) <- not ideal

BA English Studies

• regular attendance
• pass take home exam
• literary scenario:

Part 1: Extract 15 ambiguous sentences from the text such that all types of ambiguity covered in class are represented provide unambiguous paraphrases of the readings determine the type of ambiguity

Part 2:

Define a formal model consisting of 3 characters from your text, which contains 2 properties, 1 2-place relation

Formulate 2 atomic formulae and compute their truth value.

Formulate 4 complex formulae with at least 1 logical connective in each and compute their truth value.

Formulate 1 complex formula with at least 2 logical connectives in

it and compute its truth value.

BA Empirische Sprachwissenschaft

K 6.1

• regular attendance
• Modulprüfung (obligatory): 90min. written exam: 11.2., 8.15-9.45

En 4.1

not possible: You have done this course as part of K6.1, so you can directly do constraint-based Semantics 2.

DH 6.1

not possible: You have done this course as part of K6.1, so you can directly do constraint-based Semantics 2.

Erasmus 6 CP

• regular attendance
• pass the assignment sheet
• 90min. written exam: 11.2., 8.15-9.45
• small literary scenario:

Part 1: Extract 4 ambiguous sentences from the text such that different types of ambiguity covered in class are represented provide unambiguous paraphrases of the readings determine the type of ambiguity

Part 2:

Define a formal model consisting of 3 characters from your text, which contains 2 properties, 1 2-place relation

Formulate 2 atomic formulae and compute their truth value.

Formulate 2 complex formulae with at least 1 logical connective in each and compute their truth value.

Formulate 1 complex formula with at least 2 logical connectives in it and compute its truth value.

The grade will be determined by the result of the written exam.