2020-21 Academic Catalog

A central part of the grammar of a language is the meaning associated with words and phrases. This course explores the multi-faceted system that speakers access both when producing sentences and when interpreting them. Topics include the complexity surrounding actually defining words, the meanings of various modal verbs, and theories of pragmatics and the rules of conversation, among other topics. Content will differ slightly, depending on whether students have had previous linguistics courses or not.