2018/2019

2018/2019

DM270

L-LIN/01 (GLOTTOLOGY AND LINGUISTICS)

DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES

THEORETICAL AND APPLIED LINGUISTICS; LINGUISTICS AND MODERN LANGUAGES

PERCORSO COMUNE

1°

(25/02/2019 - 05/06/2019)

6

36 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

JEZEK ELISABETTA (titolare) - 6 ECTS

Familiarity with basic notion in general linguistics, particularly syntax, semantics and pragmatics, as they are offered in the three-year Bachelor's degrees in Humanities.

In this course we learn how to conduct semantic analysis focusing on the interplay between lexical/semantic representations, syntactic forms and pragmatics. The course privileges a corpus-based approach to linguistic investigation.

THEORIES AND MODELS OF NATURAL LANGUAGE SEMANTICS

The course provides an overview of the main theories and models of natural language semantics. Theories of formal, cognitive, probabilistic and distributional nature are introduced and discussed through the analysis of specific linguistic phenomena in a cross-linguistic perspective. Special attention is payed to recent contributions aiming at integrating formal and distributional models. The course includes lab activities in which students independently performs the analysis of a semantic phenomenon using one or a combination of the theories discussed, and empirical evidence (digitalized corpora and/or human judgements) and/or linguistic resources (computational lexicons, distribution models, etc.) to support/verify their claims.

1. Introduction.
3. Referential theories.
4. Mentalist and cognitive theories.
5. Structuralist theories.
6. Prototypes and categories.
7. Distributional semantics.
8. Probabilistic approaches.
8. Systems of meaning representation.

Interactive Lectures
Slides
Lab with group activities aiming at applying the models introduced and discussed in class to the analysis of empirical data.

Readings

Bernardy, Jean-Philippe, Rasmus Blanck, Stergios Chatzikyriakidis, and Shalom Lappin. 2018. "A Compositional Bayesian Semantics for Natural Language." In Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Language Cognition and Computational Models, pp. 1-10.

Boleda, Gemma and Aurélie Herbelot. 2016 "Formal distributional semantics: Introduction to the special issue." Computational Linguistics 42, no. 4: 619-635.

Chierchia, Gennaro, and Sally McConnell-Ginet. 200. Denotation, Truth, and Meaning. In: Meaning and grammar: An introduction to semantics. MIT press, pp. 53-99.

Clark, Stephen 2015. Vector space models of lexical meaning. In: Shalom Lappin and Chris Fox (eds) The Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 493–522.

Croft, William and Alan D. Cruse 2004. Categories, concepts and meanings. In: Cognitive Linguistics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 75-105.

Jackendoff, Ray 1996. Conceptual Semantics and Cognitive Linguistics, in Cognitive Linguistics, 7–1, 93–9.

Jezek, Elisabetta 2016a. Theories on the Nature of Meaning. In: The Lexicon: An Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 62-74.

Jezek, Elisabetta 2016b. Systems of Word Meaning Representation. In: The Lexicon: An Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 83-96.

Final oral exam covering material from the entire course.
Final assignment (5 pages) reporting the results of an in-depth corpus-based analysis of a semantic phenomenon previously agreed during office hours. The text in pdf format must be sent to jezek@unipv.it 7 days before the exam.

Material for the course - including the updated list of readings, the slides of the lectures, the instructions for the final assignment - are available on the KIRO platform (access with personal username and password).