This course provides an introduction to modern formal semantic theory, as instantiated by the textbook of Heim & Kratzer (1998), with a particular focus on the syntax-semantics interface. The aim of the seminar is to introduce students to the fundamentals of a compositional, type-driven semantics, and to teach students how to compositionally interpret English sentences. This course introduces the core components of semantic theory such as quantification, modification, binding and presupposition, and examines how to analyse them.
What do you learn?
Students will learn how to read, appreciate, and critically evaluate research articles that use a semantic formalism based on Heim & Kratzer (1998). Students will also acquire the basic tools in formulating their own analysis in such a framework, and they will learn methods of how to formulate lexical entries in the Heim & Kratzer notation.