BA Linguistics

This course unit will provide an introduction to the conceptual, empirical and formal foundations of the study of meaning. We will look at how sentence meaning is composed from the meanings of the words it contains and how it relates to the situations in the world it describes. We will learn about the structure of the lexicon, lexical meaning relations, and the role of metaphor and metonymy in meaning extension. In addition, we will look at how context contributes to the resolution of lexical and structural ambiguity and the reduction of vagueness Students will also be introduced to empirical approaches to the study of meaning.

This unit is a prerequisite for LELA2028X Semantics and LELA2029X Pragmatics.

The course covers the following areas: The Introduction situates the study of meaning within linguistics and introduces the conceptual foundations of the study of meaning, most notably the principle of compositionality, the distinction between object and meta language, and the relationship between language, the world, and the mind. Students will then be introduced to relations between sentences such as entailment, synonymy, tautology, and contradiction and basic set theory as a tool for investigating the meaning of the major lexical categories of English. This approach will be compared with more cognitive approaches to the study of meaning such as prototype theory.

Students will be introduced to phenomena such as referential and quantificational noun phrases, negative polarity items, context dependency, and vagueness, lexical and structural ambiguity, as well as metaphor and metonymy as cognitive processes for meaning extensions.

One 2hr lecture per week plus 1hr seminar per week

E-Learning: All course material, including lecture slides, exercise sheets, and links to electronically available readings, and course and assessment information will be made available on the University's VLE. Students will be able to discuss all aspects of the course with their peers and the lecturer on the discussion board

Students will develop intellectual skills of:

• Accuracy of analysis
• Distinguishing between different dimensions of meaning
• Identifying logical relations between sentences.

Students will develop practical skills of:

• Identifying different types of meaning in texts
• Using different sources of data
• Providing concise and precise argumentation orally and in writing

Students will develop transferable skills of:

• Awareness of the communicative impact of word choice and choice of expressions
• Argumentation using empirical evidence
• Awareness of cross-linguistic differences

- Nick Riemer (2010),Introducing Semantics.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

- James R. Hurford, Brendan Heasley & Michael B. Smith (2007), Semantics:  A Coursebook, 2^nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

- Sebastian Löbner (2013), Understanding Semantics, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge).