Hauptseminar, WiSe 2016/17, Syntax-semantics Interface

General information

Time: Wednesday, 8.15-9.15 am

Room: IG 254

Olat course: https://olat-ce.server.uni-frankfurt.de/olat/auth/RepositoryEntry/4208361500

Summary

The syntax-semantics interface is concerned with the relation, the form and the meaning of a sentence. A central observation is that, usually, the meaning of a sentence is predictable on the basis of the meaning of the words used in the sentence and the way in which they are combined. In this course we will explore ways to make this general idea more precise. We will see how these approaches cover general phenomena, but we will also look at a range of phenomena that are challenges to this general observation and see how various approaches attempt to handle them.

The phenomena to look at may include:

• linking (the association of syntactic arguments with semantic argument slots)
• the interpretation of quantified expressions (such as "every book")
• semantic concord phenomena (as in substandard "nobody ain't doin' nothing")
• pragmatic effects on sentence interpretation

For meeting 2 =

• Work on the semantics assignment sheet: File:Exercises-predicatelogic.pdf
• Slides from meeting 1:

course requirement etc: File:Interface-slides01.pdf

predicate logic tutorial: download the file