Linguistics 270: Meaning, Fall 2017
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- Course Location: Swift Hall rm. 107
- Course Time: T, Th 9:30-10:50am
- Instructor: David Potter
- dkp1@u.northwestern.edu
- Office: Swift Hall rm. 208
- Office Hours: M 12:00-2:00 PM, W 3:00-5:00 PM & by appointment
- Teaching Assistant: Hyosik Kim
- hyosikkim2021@u.northwestern.edu
- Office: Swift Hall rm. 007
- Office Hours: M 2:00-3:00PM, F 12:00-1:00PM
- Course Description:
- People use language to convey information. What makes a language suitable for this purpose, and how does it work? This question is at the center of the study of linguistic meaning. In this course, we will consider questions like these: How do the meanings of words like everyone, a, hit, and saw, give rise to the similarities and differences between Everyone saw a hit, Everyone hit a saw, A saw hit everyone, etc.? Can we always tell for sure what a given sentence means, and does it mean the same on all occasions? Does meaning come from sentences or from a speaker’s use of sentences? What are the different types of meaning (e.g., linguistic, contextual, social)? What’s the place of meaning in an overall theory of language? We will explore a variety of approaches to these questions and discuss their theoretical assumptions, methodological tools, and empirical strengths and weaknesses. LING 270 satisfies the WCAS Area II (Formal Studies) Distribution Requirement.
- Syllabus: LING 270 Fall 2017