| Kommentar |
Verbs play a central role in language, and, unsurprisingly, have a complex and interesting semantics. This course will examine how we can analyse the meaning of verbs. We will look at topics such as tense, aspect (how verbs characterise the temporal development of a situation) and modality (e.g., necessity and possibility), thematic roles (who does what to whom, etc.), alternations ("Max opened the door" vs. "The door opened") and verb classes, and lexical decomposition of verb meaning (expressing meaning in terms of features or simpler sub-units).
Students will be required to complete weekly assignments and also conduct a short (15-30 minute) presentation on a topic chosen at the beginning of the course.
This course will assume familiarity with some basic concepts in semantics, so students should ideally have previously attended an introductory semantics course. Der Termin am 23.5.2012 wird wegen einer Konferenz ausfallen müssen. |
