Last modified 25 Aug 2010
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Class meetings: MWF 10:00-10:50, Herring Hall 125 Instructor contact: Office, Herring Hall 209; Tel. (348)-6225, email, kemmer AT rice.edu Instructor office hours: After class, MW 11:00-11:50, and Th 3:00-4:00, and by appointment. T.A. contact: Carlos Molina-Vital, crm5@ (rice.edu) T.A. office and hours: Herring Hall 127, Wed 3:00-4:00 Course schedule Reading list (not yet linked) Links to semantics research. Linked as related materials arise. |
The aim of this course is to introduce some basic approaches to the study of meaning in Linguistics and related fields (primarily Cognitive Science and Psychology). The primary focus will be on word meaning (lexical semantics), but at the outset we will observe approaches to sentence meaning that relate to one theory of meaning and then move on to the main approach, cognitive semantics, and focus on the lexicon.
The general theme running through the course is how best to describe meaning in human language.
Theoretical topics covered include categorization; construal; acquisition of concepts; metaphor; blending; metonymy; compositionality; mental spaces; lexical semantic change. Various semantic domains will be examined in connection with these topics, e.g. color terms, kinship, dimensional terms, verb meaning; but two domains will be treated in depth from various perspectives: the the semantics of space and motion, including dimenionality and shape; and the semantics of everyday concepts.
Some questions we will deal with are the following.
General
Representations
Data
Categorization
Nature of mind
The course readings will be accessed, and assigned work will be submitted and graded, through Owlspace, the course management program used for many Rice courses. Problem assignments will be linked to this page as we get to them, but answers are to be uploaded to Owlspace like the other assignments described below.
The Course Schedule is being filled in and should be completely on line by the end of the week. It will still be somewhat tentative as these readings are new and we are not sure how much time we'll need to discuss each.
Readings are articles and excerpts from books (there is no textbook). Readings will be made available on Owlspace in .pdf form. The Course Schedule, when filled in, will indicate when we will discuss each reading in class. The full reading list with references to required and recommended readings will be available on Owlspace in the form of pdf downloads.
Students are expected to read the assigned readings in time for the class discussion posted on the Course Schedule, and to submit, via Owlspace, a written "Response Writing" as described below.
These are small writings on assigned readings, due before the class in which each reading is discussed. These are expected to be about 2-3 paragraphs in length. They are designed to get you to read and think about the reading before the discussion and consider how the readings relate to each other.
Each Response Writing is a short discussion of what the article is about or a response to a particular pre-posed question about the current reading or a comparison of readings. Sometimes students will be asked to summarize goals or content of readings, sometimes they will be asked to compare an author's view with one of the previously-read authors' views on a particular point.
The questions for the short response writings will be posted on Owlspace and also be linked to the heading for this section above. They are due before class on the date specified on the Course Schedule. They are to be submitted online via by uploading a Word file (not a .pdf) to Owlspace.
These writings must be entirely original with the student, except for possible use of paraphrased points or short quotes from the readings (both of these must be referenced, including page number), or points that you draw from other readings in or outside the class, also cited with page number and reference. These readings are essentially the student's own summary and reflections on what he or she has read.
The response writings will not receive letter grades, but will be logged online as part of the course requirements, on a small point scale. 15% of the grade is based on the Response Writings and 5% on class participation. See late policies on assignments below.
The semantic problems will be posted to Owlspace, and linked to this page, as we get to them.
Total number of problem assignments is 5, with one to two weeks to complete them. Each problem will take about 5 pages of double-spaced text to deal with. (This is highly approximate! Some students write very concisely but manage to include a lot of information, and others do the opposite. ) The problems will be fairly time-consuming. Good ones tend to take anywhere from 4-10 hours of thought and writing. So leaving them until the night before will show in the quality of the work.
The points for each semantics problem will be specified at the time of posting. Points earned on the Semantics Problems are based on a confluence of the following factors: understanding of the issues in the problem; degree of original insight in the analysis; level of detail of treatment; and clarity of thinking and writing. Students typically get better as more experience in writing semantics assignments is gained.
The Honor Code policy for each semantics problem will be posted along with it on the page where the problem is described. It will be specified what materials can be used (e.g. use of dictionary or not, or other kinds of sources) and what level of collaboration is possible for a given problem.
I hope there are no late Problem Assignments. They lead to problems for me in figuring out how much credit to deduct to be fair to the others.
The Reading Responses will have a short grace period. If you don't submit them by the end of that, I will assume you chose to prioritize other things. I don't take it personally if you do.
The Graduate Final Paper should be a self-chosen problem in semantic analysis with a theoretical dimension. It should be a short paper of 10-12 pages, and include some empirical data that is analyzed.
Graduate students should see the instructor for exploration of topics so that a topic of the right scope for the time period available can be found in the course of mutual discussion. A preliminary discussion with the instructor should take place before November and then a short proposal/abstract (one paragraph) given to the instructor by about Oct. 15. Further consultation will also be available as need arises.
For undergraduates, the Semantics Problems constitute 80% of the grade; 15% is based on the Response Writings; and 5% is based on class participation. (Possibly we will adjust these percentages, but if so it will be before the assignments are posted. )
Criteria for the Response Writings are: clarity of expression; thoughtful consideration of the relevant issues; original observations of how ideas in the readings relate to concepts in the class (class lecture, discussion, other readings); overall structure/progression of ideas in a way a reader can follow logically.
Criteria for Problems: Discovery of generalizations about the meanings of the items analyzed and their relation to other lexical items in the problem; use of supporting data; clarity of writing; structure/progession of ideas to bring reader to an idea of the complete analysis.
For graduate students, grading is based 30% on the final paper and 60% on the Semantics Problems. The remaining 10% is based on Response Writings and participation broadly construed (including submission of proposal/abstract for the final paper, discussions with instructor etc.).
Graduate students should register for Ling 515, which is the graduate level version of the course.
Graduate students with background in Cognitive Linguistics can use their background to engage in the material in a different way. See instructor for discussion of this issue.
If you have a documented disability that will impact your work in this class, please contact me to discuss your needs. Additionally, you will need to register with the Disability Support Services Office in the Ley Student Center.
© 2010 Suzanne Kemmer
Last modified 25 Aug 2010