LING2006 Semantics (Spring 2024)
Undergraduate course, Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2024
Meeting Time and Location
- Lecture: Friday 9:30-11:15, Lee Shau Kee Building 306
- Tutorial: Wednesday 9:30-10:15, Li Dak Sum Building 218
Teaching Staff
- Instructor: Dr. Zhuo Chen
- Email: zhuochen[at]cuhk.edu.hk
- Office hours: 1 hr before midterm, 2 hrs before final, otherwise by appointment
- Teaching Assistant: Yige Chen
- Email: yigechen[at]link.cuhk.edu.hk
- Office hours: Wednesday 14:00-16:00, at G19 Leung Kau Kui Building or via Zoom
Course Syllabus
Assessment Scheme
- Homework assignments (45%): There will be a total of 3 take-home written homework assignments (15% each). 20% of your raw score will be taken off for each day overdue.
- Midterm (20%): There will be 1 in-class midterm on Mar 1 (Week 8).
- Final exam (25%): There will be 1 final exam. The final exam will be cumulative. It will be conducted on Apr 23 (Tue), 4-6pm, exact place TBA.
- Participation (10%): Consistent and active participation in lectures and tutorials is required. For each missed class meeting without a documented family or medical emergency, 2% will be taken off.
Course Schedule
| Week | Lecture | Topic | Tutorial | Readings | Materials | Events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 12 | Introduction | N/A | Saeed2016, pp. 1-17 | ||
| 2 | Jan 19 | Meaning, denotation, reference | Jan 17 | Saeed2016, pp. 1-17, 22-29 | [Tutorial Slides] | |
| 3 | Jan 26 | Lexical meaning I: Ambiguity, vagueness, indeterminacy | Jan 24 | Saeed2016, pp. 51-67, 69-75 | ||
| 4 | Feb 2 | Lexical meaning II: Lexical sense relations | Jan 31 | Saeed2016, pp. 51-67, 69-75 | [Tutorial Slides] | |
| 5 | N/A | No class: Lunar New Year | Feb 7 | [Tutorial Slides] | ||
| 6 | Feb 16 | Thematic relations I: Theta-roles and participants | N/A | Saeed2016, pp. 149-156 | ||
| 7 | Feb 23 | Thematic relations II: Grammatical relations and theta-roles | Feb 21 | Saeed2016, pp. 155-164 | [Tutorial Slides] [Flowchart for Ambiguity, Vagueness & Indeterminacy] | HW1 due 11:59pm, Feb 24 |
| 8 | Mar 1 | Midterm | Feb 28 | [Tutorial Slides] | Midterm: In class | |
| 9 | N/A | No class: Reading week | N/A | |||
| 10 | Mar 15 | Sentence semantics I: Truth | N/A | Saeed2016, pp. 84-91 | ||
| 11 | Mar 22 | Sentence semantics II: Entailment, presupposition | Mar 20 | Saeed2016, pp. 94-105 | [Tutorial Slides] | |
| 12 | N/A | No class: Good Friday | Mar 27 | [Tutorial Slides] | ||
| 13 | Apr 5 | Conversational implicature and Grice’s maxims of conversation | N/A | Saeed2016, pp. 210-217 | HW2 due 11:59pm, Apr 3 | |
| 14 | Apr 12 | Speech acts I: Performatives | Apr 10 | Saeed2016, pp. 229-237 | [Tutorial Slides] | |
| 15 | Apr 19 | Speech acts II: (In)direct speech acts | Apr 17 | Saeed2016, pp. 237-247 | [Tutorial Slides] | HW3 due 11:59pm, Apr 17 |
| 16 | Apr 22 | Make-up class (9:30-11:15am, WMY 507) | N/A | Final exam: Apr 23 4-6pm, YIA LT6 |