Logic and Conversation, Fall 2013

Place: University of Amsterdam, Science Park, room will differ from class to class
Time: Fall 2013, Block 2, Mondays 13.00-15.00 and Thursdays 17.00-19.00
Coordinator: Floris Roelofsen
Teaching assistant: Ivano Ciardelli
Guest lecturers: Jeroen Groenendijk and Matthijs Westera
Course syllabus: click here

Overview

The theme of the course is the interplay between semantics and pragmatics in the interpretation of natural language discourse, and the role of logic in formulating semantic and pragmatic theories. Traditionally, logic is concerned with the characterization of valid reasoning and argumentation, and focusses on capturing the informative content of sentences, as determined by the interpretational conventions pertaining to the language that the sentences are part of. However, when analyzing the use and interpretation of sentences in conversation (rather than reasoning/argumentation), other aspects of meaning become of interest as well. The course focusses on three such aspects, which play a central role in current research in semantics and pragmatics. Each of these is discussed in a block consisting of 4-5 lectures.

First, we examine the notions of conversational implicature and exhaustive interpretation, which are concerned with information that can be conveyed by speakers in uttering a sentence above and beyond the informative content of the sentence as determined by the relevant linguistic conventions. For instance, if I say that I saw some of Hitchcock's movies, I typically imply that I didn't see all of them, although this does not follow from the linguistic conventions concerning the string of words that I uttered.

Second, we examine the notion of presuppositions, which is not concerned with the information that is provided in uttering a sentence, but rather with the information that is assumed to be common knowledge among the conversational participants in order for the utterance to be felicitous to begin with. For instance, if I say that I will bring my son to the picknick, I act as if I take it to be common knowledge that I have a son.

Finally, we examine the framework of inquisitive semantics, where sentence meanings do not only capture informative content but also inquisitive content. This logical framework is particularly useful for the analysis of conversation because, evidently, sentences are not only used in conversations to provide information, but just as much to request information from other participants.