Pragmatics: modeling language use.

LING 80 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Meaning is highly context dependent, and this class will help you learn to make sense of it. Take for example a simple, basic word like "or." “We will hire either Sue or Mary” strongly conveys that we won’t be hiring both Sue and Mary. But in “Joan is smarter than either Sue or Mary” that same little word or means the opposite: it means that Joan is smarter than both Mary and Sue. How is it possible that the same word sometimes means ’not both’ and sometimes ‘both'? Similarly, "Can you open the window?" is typically not just a request of one's abilities, but a request for action. How do we navigate this all so effortlessly in some cases, and with sometimes difficulty in others? And how do children learn to do this? As it turns out, this variability of meaning is not unwieldily but rather logically grounded and predictable given an understanding about both language and how we use it. This class will tell you how. You will be exploring current models of language use, in ways that will enrich your awareness of the powers and dangers of human language in context.