Semantics
Objectives
a) Identification of the object of study of semantics; b) Recognition of the bases of analysis that support a semantic representation of the languages; c) Identification of the appropriate mechanisms that allow the construction of semantically relevant values in natural languages; d) Establishment of the relations of proximity and differentiation between semantics and pragmatics
General characterization
Code
711131053
Credits
6.0
Responsible teacher
Helena Virgínia Topa Valentim
Hours
Weekly - 4
Total - 168
Teaching language
Portuguese
Prerequisites
Available soon
Bibliography
Binnick, R. I. (ed.), 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(caps 17, 25, 26).
Campos, Mª H.Costa & Mª F. Xavier, 1991. Sintaxe e Semântica do Português. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta (caps. 8, 9, 11, 12).
Horn, L. & G. Ward (eds), [2004]2006 The Handbook of Pragmatics. Malden/Oxford: Wiley Blackwell (caps.4, 5, 6, 20);
Lopes, A. C., 1993. Sobre a referência nominal genérica. In Discursos: estudos de língua e cultura portuguesa. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta, pp. 115-134.
Lyons, J., 1977. Semantics. Cambridge: CUP.
Palmer, F., 1981. Semantics. Cambridge: CUP.
Teaching method
The Curricular Unit is theoretical-practical: the theoretical classes will focus mainly on the presentation and framing of the programmatic topics; practical classes will be centred on the discussion and presentation of papers prepared by the students.
Evaluation method
Available soon
Subject matter
1. What is studied when semantics is studied? Lexical and propositional domains of semantics; the relationship between use and mention; notion and occurrences of notions (relation type / token); linguistic, epilingualistic and metalinguistic activities
2. Lexical semantics: semantic relations between terms. Symmetric and asymmetric relations.
3. Propositional semantics:
3.1.Referencial expressions and nominal reference construction; typologies of nominal entities; anaphoric processes;
3.2. Predicative expressions: predicates and arguments; tense, aspect and modality markers.
4. Semantics & Pragmatics
From the study of the meaning of forms to the study of the use of forms:
(i) speech acts and subjectivity marking: intersubjective relations in the construction of utterrances;
(ii) "deixis" and ‘neighborhood’ relations among diferent types of subjects;
(iii) construction of a point of view: evidentiality in natural languages.