SoSe25: Constraint-based Semantics 2

General course description

This course presupposes a background in formal semantics compatible with the material discussed in Semantics 1 and similar courses. The first-order based logical framework of the introductory course to semantics will be developed into a higher order logic, which enables us to formulate a theory of quantification and sentence embedding in Lexical Resource Semantics (LRS). In this class we will focus on the possibilities that the LRS architecture offers for generalizing classical generalized quantifier theory to so-called polyadic quantifiers. These are notoriously difficult to handle for more traditional views on semantic composition in natural languages, but we will see that the constraint-based view of semantics can integrate them naturally.

Revision

You can access all videos from (Constaint-based) Semantics 1 here: https://www.english-linguistics.de/videos-semantics-1/

or follow the links below that also get you to some exercises.

First order predicate logic

• Wiki page on predicate logic (including definitons, videos etc.)
• Additional exercises
• First order models
• Syntax of predicate logic
• Semantics of predicate logic
• Truth tables
• Quantifiers

HPSG syntax

• Some videos
• Additional exercises

Lexical Resource Semantics

• Videos
• Additional exercises

Literary Scenario

Herman Melville' Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

• Text available at Projekt Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2701
• Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick