Topics in semantics and pragmatics

Goals

This course is conceived as an introduction to some foundational topics on meaning and communication, as well as to the study of some recent developments and applications of some central notions in Semantics and Pragmatics.

Course plan

Structure of the course, contents and primary readings:

September 28: Introduction.

October 5, 12: Meaning and intentions

Grice, H. P. (1957) “Meaning”, Philosophical Review, 66, 377-88.

Gluer, Kathrin. & Peter Pagin (2003) “Meaning Theory and Autistic Speakers”. Mind and Language. 18(1): 23-51.

October 19: Saying and implicating

Grice, P., (1975) “Logic and conversation” (in Grice, P.: 1989, Studies in the Way of Words, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA)

October 26: Assertion

Stalnaker, R. (1978). “Assertion”. In P. Cole (Ed.) Syntax and semantics (Vol. 9, pp. 315–332). New York: Academic Press. Also in R. Stalnaker, Context and content. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999, pp. 78–95.

November 2, 9: Lying vs. Untruthfully Implicating

Pepp, Jessica (2019). “Assertion, Lying, and Untruthfully Implicating,” in S. Goldberg, ed., The Oxford Handbook on Assertion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Stokke, A. (2013). “Lying and asserting”. Journal of Philosophy, 110 (1), 33–60.

November 16: Communication and commitments

Mazzarella, Diana, Robert Reinecke, Ira Noveck, Hugo Mercier (2018), “Saying, presupposing and implicating: How pragmatics modulates commitment”. Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 133, August 2018, Pages 15-27 

November 23: Presuppositions

Abbott, Barbara (2008). “Presuppositions and common ground”. Linguistics and Philosophy, 21, 523–538.

November 30: Expressive meaning

Jeshion, Robin (2013). Slurs and Stereotypes. Analytic Philosophy 54 (3):314-329.

December 7: Code words

Khoo, Justin. (2017) “Code Words in Political Discourse.” Philosophical Topics 45, 2: 33–64

December 14: Inclusive language

(Class materials provided by the teacher)

Assessment

Class participation (10%), class presentation (10%), two or three short papers or problem sets that will be related to the reading questions (80%). There will be a reading assigned to each session. For each of the readings the teacher will provide in advance a list of “reading questions” that should help the students understand the reading and focus on its most relevant parts. In class, we will discuss those reading questions and the teacher will typically also present and discuss some additional material. In each of the sessions, one of the students will do a short presentation of one particular issue within the topic discussed in that session.

Bibliography

Abbott, Barbara (2008). Presuppositions and common ground. Linguistics and Philosophy, 21, 523–538.

Cohen, Jonathan & Kehler, Andrew (2021). “Conversational Eliciture”. Philosophers' Imprint 21 (12).

Hom, Christopher, (2010), “Pejoratives”, Philosophy Compass. Volume 5, Issue 2, 164–185

von Fintel, Kai: (2008). “What is presupposition accommodation, again?” Philosophical Perspectives 22 (1):137-170

García-Carpintero, M. (2018). On the Nature of Presupposition: A Normative Speech Act Account. Erkenntnis

Gauker, C. (2008). Against accommodation. Philosophical perspectives, 22, 171–205.

Gluer, Kathrin & Peter Pagin (2003) “Meaning Theory and Autistic Speakers”. Mind and Language. 18(1): 23-51.

Grice, H. P. (1957) “Meaning”, Philosophical Review, 66, 377-88 (also in Grice (1989))

Grice, H. P. (1969) “Utterer’s meaning and intentions”, (in Grice (1989))

Grice, P., (1975) “Logic and conversation” (in Grice, P (1989))

Grice, P., (1978) "Further notes on Logic and Conversation" (in Grice, P. (1989))

Grice, P. (1989) Studies in the Way of Words, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Geurts, B. (2019). “Communication as commitment sharing: speech acts, implicatures, common ground”. Theoretical Linguistics, 45(1-2), pp. 1-30.

Jeshion, Robin (2013). “Slurs and stereotypes”. Analytic Philosophy, 54(3): 314–329

Khoo, Justin. “Code Words in Political Discourse.” Philosophical Topics 45, 2 (2017): 33–64

Mazzarella, Diana, Robert Reinecke, Ira Noveck, Hugo Mercier (2018), “Saying, presupposing and implicating: How pragmatics modulates commitment”. Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 133, August 2018, Pages 15-27 

Pagin, Peter. 2014. Assertion. Stanford Enciclopedia of Philosophy.

Pepp, Jessica (2019). “Assertion, Lying, and Untruthfully Implicating,” in S. Goldberg, ed., The Oxford Handbook on Assertion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.

Potts, Christopher, (2007) “The expressive dimension”. 2007. Theoretical Linguistics 33(2): 165–197.

Reboul, Anne (2006), HOT Theories of Meaning: The Link Between Language and Theory of Mind. Mind & Language, Vol. 21 No. 5 November 2006, pp. 587–596.

Sennet, A. (2018). Presupposition triggering and disambiguation. In G. Preyer, Beyond Semantics and Pragmatics. Oxford: OUP.

Simons, Mandy. (2003). Presupposition and accommodation: Understanding the stalnakerian picture. Philosophical Studies, 112, 251–278.

Simons, M., Tonhauser, J., Beaver, D., & Roberts, C. (2011). What projects and why. Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT), 22, 309–327.

Soames, Scott (1989) “Presupposition”, In D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner (eds), Handbook of Philosophical Logic IV, 553-616.

Stalnaker, R. (1978). “Assertion”. In P. Cole (Ed.) Syntax and semantics (Vol. 9, pp. 315–332). New York: Academic Press. Also in R. Stalnaker, Context and content. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999, pp. 78–95.

Stalnaker, R. (2002). Common ground. Linguistics and Philosophy, 25, 701–721.

Stokke, A. (2013b). “Lying and asserting”. Journal of Philosophy, 110(1), 33–60.

Williamson, T. (1996/2000). Knowing and Asserting. Philosophical Review 105, pp. 489–523; included with some revisions as chapter 11 of his Knowledge and its limits. New York: Oxford UP, 2000.