Semantics II (Graduate, Rutgers, Spring 2026)
- Unit 1: Compositionality (handout)
- Compositionality, scoping
- Binding at LF
- Unit 2: Worlds
- Introduction to intensional semantics
- Attitudes, conditionals, and modals (discussion of von Fintel & Heim 1997–2023: Chapters 2 and 3)
- Unit 3: Inferences and Focus
- Presuppositions
- Implicatures and polarity items
- Focus and focus-sensitive particles
- Unit 4: Other objects
- Questions
- Events, entities, and mereology
Semantics II (Graduate, Rutgers, Spring 2021)
- Unit 1: Compositionality and Binding
- Unit 2: Focus, Inferences, Questions
- Part I: Focus and Alternative Semantics
Readings: Rooth (1992, 1996), Krifka (2006), Büring (2016: Chapters 2,3) - Part II: Implicatures and polarity-sensitive items
- Part III: Presuppositions
- Part IV: Questions and answers
- Part I: Focus and Alternative Semantics
- Unit 3: Worlds
- Part I: Modals, attitudes, and conditionals
Semantics I (Graduate, Rutgers, Fall 2019)
- Week 1: Preliminaries
- Week 2-1: Set theory, relations, and functions
- Week 2-2: Propositional logic
- Week 3: Predicate logic
- Week 4: Type theory
- Week 5-1: Basics of composition
- Week 5-2: Lambda calculus
- Week 6-1: NP modification and relative clauses
- Week 6-2: Determiners and generalized quantifiers
- Week 7-1: Variables and quantifier raising
- Week 7-2: Ways of scoping
- Week 8-1: Binding and pronouns
- Week 8-2: Intensional Semantics
- Week 10: VP modification and Event Semantics
- Week 11: Variable-free Semantics
- Week 12-1: Implicatures
- Week 12-2: Negative Polarity Items
- Week 13: Quiz and Thanksgiving
- Week 14: Presuppositions
- Week 15-1: Focus
- Week 15-2: Abstract workshop
The above handouts took insights from the following materials: Coppock & Champollion 2018, Charlow 2015, Heim & Kratzer 1998, Chierchia & McConnell-Ginet 2000, Heim 2011 Pragmatics class notes, Partee 2009 notes
Semantics of Questions (Graduate, Rutgers, Spring 2019)
New materials from 2024 Spring will be uploaded here shortly.
- Week 1-2: Introduction, Hamblin and Karttunen Semantics
- Week 3: Categorial approaches
- Week 4: Class canceled due to a weather emergency
- Week 5: Partition Semantics
- Week 6: Uniqueness, maximality, and negative islands
- Week 7: Higher-order readings (slides)
- Week 8: Pair-list readings of multi-wh questions
- Week 9: Spring break
- Week 10-11: Questions with a quantifier
- Week 12: Mention-some questions
- Week 13*: Variations of exhaustivity
- Week 14*: Question-embeddings vs other embeddings, false answer sensitivity
- Week 15*: Quantificational variability, and non-canonical questions
(* Student presentations)
Other courses:
Intro to Ling Theory (Rutgers, undergraduate, Fall 2020)
Qualifying Paper Workshop (Rutgers, graduate professional development seminar, Spring 2020)
Semantics (Rutgers, undergraduate, Fall 2019 & Spring 2020)
Pragmatics (Rutgers, undergraduate, Fall 2018 & Spring 2021)
Knowledge of Meaning (Harvard, undergraduate semantics, Spring 2017)
Word Structure (Harvard, undergraduate morphology, Spring 2017)
Semantics of Questions (Undergraduate & Graduate, Harvard, Fall 2016)
Yimei Xiang ∙ 向伊梅 