Semantics
The research agenda of Semantics
is to develop a theory of meaning that explains how
competent speakers of a natural language come to understand
the meaning of simple expressions (e.g. words) or complex
expressions (phrases, sentences, etc.) of their language
and how these expressions can be used in a given situation
to perform speech acts such as conveying information,
requesting information, requesting an action, performing an
action, etc.
An important distinction in
semantics is that between "Lexical Semantics" – roughly the
study of meanings that are memorized (e.g. what is the
meaning of cat, mouse, big, the, chase, etc.) –
and "Compositional Semantics" – the study of meanings that
arise when two or more expressions are combined to form
larger expressions (e.g. The cat chased the big mouse.
The mouse chased the big cat. etc.). Although both
sub-disciplines inform each other and are essential to
achieve a comprehensive understanding of meaning, they are
fairly different in terms of their research methods,
resources, and related disciplines. While lexical semantics
interacts most closely with the study of concepts in
philosophy and
psychology,
compositional semantics is more closely related to
Syntax, Logic, Pragmatics,
Philosophy of Language, and Computer Science.
People
People at Pomona College whose research lies
in or overlaps to some extent with compositional semantics
are Jay D. Atlas, and Kim Bruce, and Martin Hackl.
People at Pomona College whose research overlaps to some
extent with lexical semantics are Bill Banks, and Debby Burke.
Courses in Semantics
LCS 106: Semantics, LCS185T: Topics in Syntax and
Semantics
Related Courses
LCS60:
Logic, LCS 105:
Syntax, LCS107:
Pragmatics, CS??:
Mathematical and Computational Foundations of
Linguistics, LCS162:
Memory and Language, 185M: Topics in Mind and Language
Semantics Links
This is link to an on-line archive of preprint articles in
semantics. http://semanticsarchive.net/
This is a link to Kai von Fintel's (MIT) semantics weblog
which reports on all kinds of current events that are of
interest to semanticists. http://semantics-online.org/blog/