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Whereas semantics is concerned with the context-independent interpretation of sentences in relation to their subparts, pragmatics is concerned with the context-dependent interpretation of utterances that is related to but goes beyond sentence semantics, as the utterance of the same sentence can invite different - pragmatic - inferences, depending on the utterance situation composed of e.g. the speaker, the addressee, the place, the time. In this class, we will focus on the pragmatic phenomena of presupposition and implicature using experimental methods, aka “Experimental Pragmatics” (i.e. works that aim at promoting interaction between linguistic, psychological, and philosophical approaches to utterance interpretation). The class will be divided into two parts: In the first part, I will review research on presupposition and implicature as a recap and introduce methods of Experimental Pragmatics (with measures such as ratings, reading times, electroencephalogram/EEG), in the form of lectures. In the second part, we will work through a selection of case studies in the form of students' presentations and general discussions. |
