Ling C: Introduction to Formal Semantics
Ekaterina Vostrikova (University of Göttingen)
In this course, we discuss aspects of linguistic meaning and ways of modelling it in formal semantics. Students will develop experience with the formal system proposed in Heim & Kratzer (1998). We will focus on compositionality, i.e. how the meanings of larger structures are built up from the meanings of their smaller parts. We will cover the interpretation of transitive and intransitive predicates, names, pronouns, definite descriptions, quantifiers, and such connectives as conjunction and disjunction. We will see how their denotation contributes to the interpretation of a whole sentence.