Semantics Semantics Workshop Semantics PROF. SAVINA RAYNAUD COURSE AIMS The aim of the course is to set the question “what its meaning?" against a background of pre-theoretical assumptions or intuitions inherent in verbal language, in order to provide a basic answer with the aid of theory and history. COURSE CONTENT Language and languages: the species-specific ability to communicate in one or more languages. Overview of the subject: contributions by philosophers of language, linguistics and the cognitive sciences. Speech acts; the sense and identity of meaning based on noun and verb phrases; communicational assertions and implications. The basic realms of semantic theory: referential, predicative-argumentative, inferential. The current status quaestionis (state of the art) and its history. The descriptive and evaluative levels: words and works; happy and unhappy acts; telling the truth. READING LIST A. FRIGERIO, Filosofia del linguaggio, Apogeo, Milan 2011 F. DIODATO, Il problema del significato. Tra linguistica e filosofia del linguaggio, Liguori, Naples 2007: selected essays from the first, second and third parts, explained and commented on at lectures. Course material and slides will be published on the Blackboard website. TEACHING METHOD Lectures on theory and the history of theory. Students studying for degrees in Philosophy and Classical/Modern Languages will attend further lectures/exercises on certain topics: philosophical or linguistic/philological. ASSESSMENT METHOD Oral examination to assess: 1. the ability to progress from pre-theoretical (implicit and intuitive) know-how to the gradual outline and critical foundations of a basic semantic theory; 2. the ability to apply this knowledge to actual writings (of your own or by others), an aim to be pursued further on a systematic basis during the " Workshop" (see below). NOTES This intensive single-semester course (30 hours) will be taken as the first module of the second semester. It is taken as an introduction to the Semantics Workshop (optional). Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage at http://docenti.unicatt.it/web/searchByName.do?language=ENG or on the Faculty notice board. Semantics Workshop PROF. SAVINA RAYNAUD COURSE AIMS The aim of the course is to test out the effectiveness and adequacy of the theoretical skills learned during the Semantics course and further students’ general understanding of the subject. COURSE CONTENT Semantic studies of texts handed out at lectures/composed at lectures based around specific topics: recognition/creation of predicative-argumentative relations, referential expressions and inferential operations, also studied along contrastive/translational lines (studies of the semantics of lexical entries and morpho-syntactic structures) within individual statements and complete texts. READING LIST Study grid (worked out on the basis of the reading list for the Semantics course) and supplementary documents handed out at the beginning of the workshop and uploaded to the Blackboard website. TEACHING METHOD The workshop is based along the lines of supervised practical work (SPW) aimed at reinforcing skills - critical and practical – connected with the relationship between data and theories. ASSESSMENT METHOD The skills learned during practical laboratory work will be assessed based on the reading and correcting of individual papers handed in at the end of the workshop. The results will be given and discussed during the examination. NOTES Further information can be found on the lecturer's webpage at http://docenti.unicatt.it/web/searchByName.do?language=ENG or on the Faculty notice board.