| Lecture | Date | Material | Content | Lecturer |
| Foundations | ||||
| 1 | 3/9 | Book chapter 1 | Motivation | Floris |
| 2 | 6/9 | Book chapter 2 | Basic notions | Thom |
| 3 | 10/9 | Book chapter 3 | Operations on propositions | Floris |
| 4 | 13/9 | Book chapter 4 | First-order inquisitive semantics | Floris |
| 5 | 17/9 | Book chapter 5-6 | Question semantics | Floris |
| 6 | 20/9 | Book chapter 8 | Propositional attitudes: inquisitive epistemic logic | Floris |
| 7 | 24/9 | Book chapter 9 | Comparison with other frameworks | Floris |
| Some current research directions | ||||
| 8 | 27/9 | Kaplan / Stalnaker / Fritz | Two-dimensional semantics | Thom |
| 9 | 1/10 | van Gessel (2019) | Two-dimensional inquisitive semantics | Thom |
| 10 | 4/10 | Chierchia (2013) Pages 1-2, 20-22, and 26-40 Guerzoni & Sharvit (2014) | Negative polarity items | Floris |
| 11 | 8/10 | Crnic (2014) | Negative polarity items in questions | Floris |
| 12 | 11/10 | Groenendijk et al. (1996) | Dynamic semantics | Thom |
| 13 | 15/10 | Dotlacil and Roelofsen (2019) | Dynamic inquisitive semantics | Floris |
| 14 | 18/10 | Project presentations |
The grade will be based on two homework assignments (each counting for 20%) and a final paper (60%).
Assignments
- A latex template for drawing inquisitive semantics diagrams can be downloaded here.
- Assignment 1 will be posted on Tuesday 3/9, and will be due on Tuesday 17/9 (before class).
- Assignment 2 will be posted on Tuesday 17/9, and will be due on Tuesday 1/10 (before class).
Instructions for final paper
The final paper can be written either in groups of 2-3 students or individually. We encourage working in groups, but if someone has a particular topic that they want to work on and cannot find others interested in this topic, then working individually is perfectly fine of course. Students are encouraged to discuss possible topics with us early on in the course. Topics and groups should be determined by October 8 at the very latest and should be communicated to us by that date. A preliminary version of the paper is to be presented during the last lecture, October 18, and the final version is due after the exam week, on October 27 (midnight). See Appendix B of the textbook for pointers to some relevant literature, which may help in finding an interesting topic.
Grading criteria for final paperThe criteria are the same as for a master thesis, though of course here we do not expect as much as in the case of a thesis.- Correctness All claims should be correct, precisely formulated and carefully argued for.
- Writing The paper should be well-structured; the writing should be clear and concise. Typically, papers are around 10 pages. There is no official upper or lower bound, but quality is preferred over quantity: a single idea or result that is clearly explained in 7 pages is better than a collection of multiple half-baked ideas discussed in 15 pages.
- Difficulty Both conceptual and technical difficulty are taken into account.
- Originality The paper should contain some new results. This can take many forms: establishing previously unknown properties of one of the logical systems discussed in class, or closely related ones; further enriching the theories discussed; testing the predictions of the theories; developing new applications; developing a theory of your own that solves some of the remaining challenges for the theories discussed.
Late policyDeadlines are strict. Late submissions will be accepted until three days after the deadline, but 0.5 points will be subtracted from the grade per day.
- Correctness All claims should be correct, precisely formulated and carefully argued for.
- Writing The paper should be well-structured; the writing should be clear and concise. Typically, papers are around 10 pages. There is no official upper or lower bound, but quality is preferred over quantity: a single idea or result that is clearly explained in 7 pages is better than a collection of multiple half-baked ideas discussed in 15 pages.
- Difficulty Both conceptual and technical difficulty are taken into account.
- Originality The paper should contain some new results. This can take many forms: establishing previously unknown properties of one of the logical systems discussed in class, or closely related ones; further enriching the theories discussed; testing the predictions of the theories; developing new applications; developing a theory of your own that solves some of the remaining challenges for the theories discussed.