Lign 104: Language and Conceptualization

Prof. Andrew Kehler
Department of Linguistics
University of California, San Diego
kehler@ling.ucsd.edu
(858) 534-6239

Spring, 2001
MWF, 11:15-12:05, Bldg U413, Room 2
Office Hours: Wed 3-4, Thurs 3-4, or by appt. (McGill 5137)

TA: Anne Sumnicht, sumnicht@ling.ucsd.edu
Office Hours: Tues 11-12, Wed 12:30-1:30 (McGill 2133)

Overview

We will cover the core areas of language comprehension - including the lexicon, grammar, semantics, and discourse - with respect to the manner in which we conceptualize our world. Two fundamental aspects of cognition will continually come into play: people's ability to focus their attention on a subpart of a situation, and their ability to analyze a situation as coherent. We will concentrate on language phenomena whose mere existence sheds the most light on fundamental questions about language processing and cognition. We will begin by focusing on discourse-level phenomena, and work our way down through sentence-level phenomena and ultimately to word meaning.

Prerequisites

Ling 101 is strongly recommended. Enthusiasm for the complexity of natural language is essential.

Readings

The following book is required:

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, University of Chicago Press, 1980, ISBN 0-226-46801-1.

There will also be a series of required and optional papers, available for checkout from the linguistics library in McGill Hall 2126 when not available on line. These will be announced when available.

Available on-line:

Prince, Ellen. The ZPG Letter: Subjects, Definiteness, and Information-status. In Discourse Description: Diverse Analyses of a Fundraising Text, Sandra Thompson and William Mann (eds), John Benjamins B.V., Philadelphia/Amsterdam, pp. 295-325, 1992. Postscript version. PDF version.

Administrivia

Your grade will be based primarily on three moderately-lengthed but academically substantial papers which present your analyses of data with respect to the concepts discussed in class. The source of the data will be of your choosing. Each paper will be worth 30%, and will be due approximately during week five, week eight, and finals week. The remaining 10% will be based on class participation and demonstrated level of interest and engagement in the material.

You are encouraged to work together in discussing the concepts from the class. Of course, all work handed in is to be yours alone. Your chosen data set must be unique in the class.

Please turn off your cell phones before entering the classroom.

Schedule

I.

Introduction (Day 1)

Slides from Lecture 1, 4/2/01

II.

Attention, Reference, and Metonymy (Weeks 1 to 3)

(a)

Why do languages afford us many ways to refer to things? Why do they have pronouns? What this tells us about cognition.

(b)

How do we build a mental model of a discourse in which we are participating? How can we model level of attention?

Slides from Lectures 5-6, 4/11/01-4/13/01

(c)

Other forms of reference: deixis, demonstratives, nonpronominal definite reference. What are the differences?

Slides from Lecture 7, 4/16/01

Slides from Lecture 8, 4/18/01

(d)

Metonymic reference: Why do languages allow it? What types are there? How do we interpret it?

Slides from Lecture 9, 4/20/01

III.

Coherence and Metaphor (Weeks 4 to 6)

(a)

How do we interpret discourses to be coherent? What causes us to infer unstated information necessary to do so?

(b)

In what ways can successive utterances in a discourse be related to one another?

Slides from Lectures 10-12, 4/23/01 -- 4/27/01

(c)

Where is the interface between linguistic and world knowledge?

(d)

How does discourse coherence give rise to discourse structure?

Slides from Lecture 13, 4/30/01

(d)

Coherence and coreference, intentional coherence.

Slides from Lectures 14-15, 5/2/01 -- 5/4/01

(e)

Metaphor: Why does it exist? How do we recognize and interpret it? The ramifications of the pervasiveness of metaphor on linguistic theory.

Slides from Lecture 16, 5/7/01

Slides from Lectures 19-20, 5/14/01-5/16/01

IV.

Attention, Coherence, Constructions, and Lexical Semantics (Weeks 7 to 9)

(a)

Attempts at describing nonsyntactic phenomena with syntactic means: `Respectively' constructions and the so-called Coordinate Structure Constraint

Slides from Lecture 21, 5/18/01

Slides from Lecture 22, 5/21/01

(b)

Lexical coherence, frame semantics, and the role of perspective. What types of information do lexical items evoke and presuppose?

Slides from Lecture 23, 5/23/01

Slides from Lecture 24, 5/25/01

(c)

Syntax, Causality, and Constructional Meaning. Do syntactic constructions contribute to semantic interpretation beyond the modification relationships manifest in the syntactic structure? What is the relationship between choice of syntactic form and the hearer's discourse model?

Slides from Lecture 25, 5/30/01

Slides from Lecture 26, 6/01/01

Slides from Lecture 27, 6/04/01

(d)

More on lexical semantics: what world knowledge do we need to associate with words to interpret language? How does salience affect which knowledge is used?

Slides from Lecture 28, 6/06/01

V.

Conclusion: Tying it All Together (Week 10)

Slides from Lecture 29, 6/08/01