Adrian Brasoveanu Assistant Professor, Linguistics Department, UC Santa Cruz
Linguistics, UCSC, Stevenson Faculty Services, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064	email: abrsvn at gmail.com webpage: http://people.ucsc.edu/~abrsvn	CV (pdf)
TEACHING – Winter 2012: Semantics B (Ling 232, UCSC), Graduate Seminar in Semantics: Statistical & Cognitive Modeling for Formal Semantics (Ling 239, UCSC), Graduate Syllabus Description of the broader research program: Capturing the particular ways in which natural language interpretation proceeds is usually taken to involve rich abstract representations and fairly complex operations over such representations. Under this view, two general goals of formal semantics are to (i) identify patterns of interpretation that seem to involve such abstract (non-overt / latent) representations and operations and (ii) design logical systems in which the 'right' range of representations and operators can be defined and in which these representations and operators interact in the 'right' way. At the same time, providing solid empirical foundations for increasingly sophisticated formal semantic theories requires increasingly sophisticated methods of empirical investigation and statistical analysis of the resulting data. In addition, semantic theories should be complemented and further constrained by cognitive theories of (i) how such structured, abstract and compositionally assembled representations and operations can be learned / induced from 'raw' observed data and (ii) the kinds of mechanisms that underlie the processing of such representations and operations in actual natural language usage. The seminar will focus on establishing and solidifying multiple connections between detailed, formally sophisticated semantic theories (of quantifier scope, interpretation of indefinites etc.) and modern Bayesian methods of data analysis, as well as cognitive models (based on Bayesian ideas) of learning abstract, highly structured representations of the kind deployed in formal semantics. Schedule (subject to change): Intro to Statistical & Cognitive Modeling (Week 1) Intro to Bayesian Data Analysis (Weeks 1-4) Quantifier Scope, Indefinites and Sentence-internal Readings (Weeks 4-8) Bayesian Cognitive Modeling for Formal Semantics: Learning the Meaning of Number Words and Quantifiers (Weeks 8-10) Course materials: readings available on the eCommons page for the course various R scripts, handouts etc. will be posted on the LaLoCo page TEACHING – Summer 2011: Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate TEACHING – Winter 2011: Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate Semantics B (Ling 232, UCSC), Graduate TEACHING – Spring 2010: Semantics C: Partiality in Natural Language Semantics, Graduate Linguistics 233, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz Time: TuTh 10:00-11:45 ++ Location: The Cave Description: Semantics C will be dedicated to partiality in natural language semantics. We will read the following two books: R. Muskens (1995) Meaning and Partiality and E. Krahmer (1998) Presupposition and Anaphora. R. Muskens (1995), Meaning and Partiality. In this book, Montague Semantics is partialized by replacing the logic which underlies that system by a partial variant. The result is a theory not unlike Barwise and Perry's original formulation of Situation Semantics or Kratzer's present version of that theory: possible worlds become partial possible worlds or situations, ordered by a part-of relation. As soon as this natural structure of situations is available within Montague Semantics, the framework supports many analyses of semantic phenomena that were originally carried out within the competing Situation Semantics approach and we thus obtain a synthesis between two semantic frameworks that are usually thought to be incompatible. But there is an important difference between the Barwise and Perry theory and mine: while these authors are revolutionary and seek to replace Montague Grammar by their new theory, my approach is evolutionary. I do not want to abandon Montague Grammar, I want to reform it. I think we simply have not exploited Montague's paradigm to the full as yet. E. Krahmer (1998), Presupposition and Anaphora. Chapter 2 centers around the analyses of anaphoric reference in discourse. It discusses a number of well known solutions (in particular File Change Semantics, Discourse Representation Theory, Pratt's Quantificational Dynamic Logic, Dynamic Predicate Logic and Montagovian discourse grammars). Chapter 3 discusses negation and disjunction in discourse. Chapter 4 concentrates on the usage of partial logics in the analysis of presupposition. It investigates the relevance of partiality in the current dynamic treatments of presupposition. Chapter 5 focuses on the relationship between presuppositions and classical Montague Grammar. Combining results from chapter 4 with Muskens' partialization of Montague Grammar results in a system which properly encompasses the Montagovian systems of Hausser 1976, Cooper 1983 and, of course, Karttunen and Peters 1979. The resulting Presuppositional Montague Grammar is both technically clean and empirically satisfactory. Various ways of bringing the system up to the present syntactic and semantic standards are discussed. Chapter 6 studies presuppositions from the dynamic perspective. Chapter 7 is concerned with the presuppositions triggered by definite descriptions. Course materials: Handout 1: Quantification in FOL [Adrian] Handout 2: Two type logics (Muskens 1995, Ch. 2) [Adrian] Handout 3: PTQ revisited (Muskens 1995, Ch. 4) [Adrian] Handout 4: Going partial I (Muskens 1995, Ch. 5) [Robert] Handout 5: Going partial II (Muskens 1995, Ch. 6) [Heather] Handout 6: Situations & Propositional Attitudes (Muskens 1995, Ch. 7 & Ch. 8) [Kevin] Handout 7: Names (Muskens 1995, Ch. 9) [Anie] Handout 8: Intro to DRT (Kamp & Reyle 1993, Ch. 1 + part of Ch. 2) [Lauren] Handout 9: Intro to DPL+GQ [Adrian] Handout 10: Intro to CDRT+GQ [Adrian] Handout 11: Invited Lecture, Klaus von Heusinger, Two specific indefinite articles in German Handout 12: Negation and Disjunction in DRT (Krahmer 1998, ch. 3 / Krahmer & Muskens 1996) [Boris] Handout 13: Karttunen & Peters (1979) followed by Krahmer (1998), Ch. 4 [Nick and Nico] Handout 14: Presupposition and Montague Grammar (Krahmer 1998, Ch. 5) [Bern] Handout 15: van der Sandt (1992) followed by Krahmer (1998), Ch. 6 [Mark and Oliver] Handout 16: Krahmer (1998), Ch. 7 [Nate] Pragmatics (Ling 117, UCSC), Undergraduate. We will read and discuss in detail chapter 1 and parts of chapters 2 and 4 from Kamp & Reyle (1993) From Discourse to Logic. Senior Research Seminar (Ling 190, UCSC), Undergraduate TEACHING – Winter 2010: Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate TEACHING – Spring 2009: Semantics II (Ling 116, UCSC), Undergraduate Senior Research Seminar (Ling 190, UCSC), Undergraduate TEACHING – WINTER 2009: Semantics B, Graduate Linguistics 232, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz Time: MW 2-3:45 ++ Location: The Cave Office hours: TBA & by email appointment Description: The goal of the course is to give the participants the technical skills to understand the Montagovian solution to the problem of compositionality -- that is, to understand how the meaning of a natural language expression is a function of the meanings of its subexpressions and the way they are syntactically put together. To put it differently, we will learn the basics of rigorously designing a syntax-semantics interface in the Montagovian tradition. Our specific goal is to be able to read Montague's PTQ and Hendriks 1993 Ch.1 by the end of the quarter. Our textbook is Dowty et al 1981 "Introduction to Montague Semantics". The readings for the entire course are available on the WebCT page for the course, which you can access by logging into WebCT and selecting this link: LING-232 Semantics B, #37056. TEACHING – FALL 2008: Seminar in Semantics: Decomposing Quantification, Graduate Linguistics 239, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz Time: 1:00-4:30 ++ Location: The Cave Office hours: TBA & by email appointment Description: The seminar will examine phenomena like correlatives across domains (individuals, times & eventualities, possible worlds and degrees) and the interpretation of same / different in quantificational contexts that support the idea that natural language quantification is a composite notion, to be decomposed / analyzed in terms of discourse reference to dependencies that is multiply constrained by the various components that make up a quantifier. We will examine a variety of languages and a variety of static and dynamic approaches to these phenomena. For a more detailed description of the project of decomposing quantification, see Decomposing Quantification. Course materials: Handout 1 & Syllabus: Cross- & Intra-Sentential Evidence for Decomposing Quantification Handout 2: Quantification in First-Order Logic Handout 3: Intro to DPL slides 6up Handout 4: DPL & Dynamic Generalized Quantification Handout 5: Compositional DRT & Dynamic Generalized Quantification Handout 6: Carlson 1987 [MATT] Handout 7: Barker 2007 [RYAN] [Handout 8: Brasoveanu 2008] Handout 9: Moens & Steedman 1988 [JUDITH] Handout 10: Webber 1988 [ROBERT] Handout 11: Roberts 1989 [SCOTT] TEACHING – SPRING 2008: Semantics, Undergraduate Linguist 130A (Introduction to Linguistic Meaning) & Linguist 130C (Logic Laboratory), Department of Linguistics, Stanford University Time: Ling 130A - MonWedFri 10:00-10:50 AM & Ling 130C - TBA ++ Location: CummsArt 4 Office hours: TBA & by email appointment Textbook: Introduction to Natural Language Semantics (CSLI Lecture Notes), Henriëtte de Swart TEACHING – FALL 2007: Seminar in Semantics: Indefinites, Graduate Linguistics 237, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University Time: TBA ++ Location: TBA Office hours: TBA & by email appointment Description: Static and dynamic approaches to the semantics of indefinites (and definites). Their referential vs. quantificational status, their scopal properties (exceptional wide scope), their interaction with modal anaphora & quantification. Indefinites cross-linguistically, types of indefinites (argumental vs. predicative, bare nouns, NPI’s, free choice, wh-indefinites, specific indefinites etc.) and their semantic / pragmatic properties. Indefinite-like items in the modal, temporal / aspectual & degree domains. TEACHING – SPRING 2007: Pragmatics, Undergraduate Linguistics 117, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz Time: TuTh 4–5:45 ++ Location: Engineering Two, 194 Office hours: TBA & by email appointment Textbook: Pragmatics and Natural Language Understanding (Tutorial Essays in Cognitive Science Series), Georgia Green Math Foundations, Graduate ++ brief course description Linguistics 265, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz Time: TuTh 10–11:45 ++ Location: TBA Office hours: TBA & by email appointment TEACHING – WINTER 2007: Introduction to Linguistics, Undergraduate Linguistics 20, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz Time: MWF 2-3:10 ++ Location: Baskin Engineering 152 Office hours: TBA & by email appointment TEACHING – FALL 2006: Introduction to Dynamic Semantics, Graduate, co-taught with Sam Cumming Invited mini-course, Dynamic Semantics Workshop, Institutt for filosofi, ide- og kunsthistorie og klassiske (IFIKK), University of Oslo ++ syllabus, some of the slides, the corresponding handout Introduction to the Study of Language, Undergraduate Linguistics 101, Department of Linguistics, Rutgers University ++ handouts for the presupposition and conversational implicature (part 1 & part 2) lectures	Site Index HOME Semantics & Pragmatics LaLoCo Lab Optimality Theory Teaching Dissertation
Please let me know if the pdf files do not display / print properly (abrsvn at gmail.com).

Adrian Brasoveanu

Assistant Professor, Linguistics Department, UC Santa Cruz

Linguistics, UCSC, Stevenson Faculty Services,
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

email: abrsvn at gmail.com
webpage: http://people.ucsc.edu/~abrsvn

TEACHING – Winter 2012:

Semantics B (Ling 232, UCSC), Graduate
Seminar in Semantics: Statistical & Cognitive Modeling for Formal Semantics (Ling 239, UCSC), Graduate

Syllabus

Description of the broader research program:
Capturing the particular ways in which natural language interpretation proceeds is usually taken to involve rich abstract representations and fairly complex operations over such representations. Under this view, two general goals of formal semantics are to (i) identify patterns of interpretation that seem to involve such abstract (non-overt / latent) representations and operations and (ii) design logical systems in which the 'right' range of representations and operators can be defined and in which these representations and operators interact in the 'right' way.
At the same time, providing solid empirical foundations for increasingly sophisticated formal semantic theories requires increasingly sophisticated methods of empirical investigation and statistical analysis of the resulting data.
In addition, semantic theories should be complemented and further constrained by cognitive theories of (i) how such structured, abstract and compositionally assembled representations and operations can be learned / induced from 'raw' observed data and (ii) the kinds of mechanisms that underlie the processing of such representations and operations in actual natural language usage.
The seminar will focus on establishing and solidifying multiple connections between detailed, formally sophisticated semantic theories (of quantifier scope, interpretation of indefinites etc.) and modern Bayesian methods of data analysis, as well as cognitive models (based on Bayesian ideas) of learning abstract, highly structured representations of the kind deployed in formal semantics.

Schedule (subject to change):

Intro to Statistical & Cognitive Modeling (Week 1)
Intro to Bayesian Data Analysis (Weeks 1-4)
Quantifier Scope, Indefinites and Sentence-internal Readings (Weeks 4-8)
Bayesian Cognitive Modeling for Formal Semantics: Learning the Meaning of Number Words and Quantifiers (Weeks 8-10)

Course materials:

readings available on the eCommons page for the course
various R scripts, handouts etc. will be posted on the LaLoCo page

TEACHING – Summer 2011:

Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate

TEACHING – Winter 2011:

Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate
Semantics B (Ling 232, UCSC), Graduate

TEACHING – Spring 2010:

Semantics C: Partiality in Natural Language Semantics, Graduate

Linguistics 233, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz
Time: TuTh 10:00-11:45 ++ Location: The Cave
Description: Semantics C will be dedicated to partiality in natural language semantics. We will read the following two books: R. Muskens (1995) Meaning and Partiality and E. Krahmer (1998) Presupposition and Anaphora.

R. Muskens (1995), Meaning and Partiality. In this book, Montague Semantics is partialized by replacing the logic which underlies that system by a partial variant. The result is a theory not unlike Barwise and Perry's original formulation of Situation Semantics or Kratzer's present version of that theory: possible worlds become partial possible worlds or situations, ordered by a part-of relation. As soon as this natural structure of situations is available within Montague Semantics, the framework supports many analyses of semantic phenomena that were originally carried out within the competing Situation Semantics approach and we thus obtain a synthesis between two semantic frameworks that are usually thought to be incompatible. But there is an important difference between the Barwise and Perry theory and mine: while these authors are revolutionary and seek to replace Montague Grammar by their new theory, my approach is evolutionary. I do not want to abandon Montague Grammar, I want to reform it. I think we simply have not exploited Montague's paradigm to the full as yet.
E. Krahmer (1998), Presupposition and Anaphora. Chapter 2 centers around the analyses of anaphoric reference in discourse. It discusses a number of well known solutions (in particular File Change Semantics, Discourse Representation Theory, Pratt's Quantificational Dynamic Logic, Dynamic Predicate Logic and Montagovian discourse grammars). Chapter 3 discusses negation and disjunction in discourse. Chapter 4 concentrates on the usage of partial logics in the analysis of presupposition. It investigates the relevance of partiality in the current dynamic treatments of presupposition. Chapter 5 focuses on the relationship between presuppositions and classical Montague Grammar. Combining results from chapter 4 with Muskens' partialization of Montague Grammar results in a system which properly encompasses the Montagovian systems of Hausser 1976, Cooper 1983 and, of course, Karttunen and Peters 1979. The resulting Presuppositional Montague Grammar is both technically clean and empirically satisfactory. Various ways of bringing the system up to the present syntactic and semantic standards are discussed. Chapter 6 studies presuppositions from the dynamic perspective. Chapter 7 is concerned with the presuppositions triggered by definite descriptions.

Course materials:
Handout 1: Quantification in FOL [Adrian]
Handout 2: Two type logics (Muskens 1995, Ch. 2) [Adrian]
Handout 3: PTQ revisited (Muskens 1995, Ch. 4) [Adrian]
Handout 4: Going partial I (Muskens 1995, Ch. 5) [Robert]
Handout 5: Going partial II (Muskens 1995, Ch. 6) [Heather]
Handout 6: Situations & Propositional Attitudes (Muskens 1995, Ch. 7 & Ch. 8) [Kevin]
Handout 7: Names (Muskens 1995, Ch. 9) [Anie]
Handout 8: Intro to DRT (Kamp & Reyle 1993, Ch. 1 + part of Ch. 2) [Lauren]
Handout 9: Intro to DPL+GQ [Adrian]
Handout 10: Intro to CDRT+GQ [Adrian]
Handout 11: Invited Lecture, Klaus von Heusinger, Two specific indefinite articles in German
Handout 12: Negation and Disjunction in DRT (Krahmer 1998, ch. 3 / Krahmer & Muskens 1996) [Boris]
Handout 13: Karttunen & Peters (1979) followed by Krahmer (1998), Ch. 4 [Nick and Nico]
Handout 14: Presupposition and Montague Grammar (Krahmer 1998, Ch. 5) [Bern]
Handout 15: van der Sandt (1992) followed by Krahmer (1998), Ch. 6 [Mark and Oliver]
Handout 16: Krahmer (1998), Ch. 7 [Nate]

Pragmatics (Ling 117, UCSC), Undergraduate. We will read and discuss in detail chapter 1 and parts of chapters 2 and 4 from Kamp & Reyle (1993) From Discourse to Logic.
Senior Research Seminar (Ling 190, UCSC), Undergraduate

TEACHING – Winter 2010:

Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate

TEACHING – Spring 2009:

Semantics II (Ling 116, UCSC), Undergraduate
Senior Research Seminar (Ling 190, UCSC), Undergraduate

TEACHING – WINTER 2009:

Semantics B, Graduate

Linguistics 232, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz
Time: MW 2-3:45 ++ Location: The Cave
Office hours: TBA & by email appointment
Description: The goal of the course is to give the participants the technical skills to understand the Montagovian solution to the problem of compositionality -- that is, to understand how the meaning of a natural language expression is a function of the meanings of its subexpressions and the way they are syntactically put together. To put it differently, we will learn the basics of rigorously designing a syntax-semantics interface in the Montagovian tradition. Our specific goal is to be able to read Montague's PTQ and Hendriks 1993 Ch.1 by the end of the quarter. Our textbook is Dowty et al 1981 "Introduction to Montague Semantics". The readings for the entire course are available on the WebCT page for the course, which you can access by logging into WebCT and selecting this link: LING-232 Semantics B, #37056.

TEACHING – FALL 2008:

Seminar in Semantics: Decomposing Quantification, Graduate

Linguistics 239, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz
Time: 1:00-4:30 ++ Location: The Cave
Office hours: TBA & by email appointment
Description: The seminar will examine phenomena like correlatives across domains (individuals, times & eventualities, possible worlds and degrees) and the interpretation of same / different in quantificational contexts that support the idea that natural language quantification is a composite notion, to be decomposed / analyzed in terms of discourse reference to dependencies that is multiply constrained by the various components that make up a quantifier. We will examine a variety of languages and a variety of static and dynamic approaches to these phenomena.
For a more detailed description of the project of decomposing quantification, see Decomposing Quantification.
Course materials:
Handout 1 & Syllabus: Cross- & Intra-Sentential Evidence for Decomposing Quantification
Handout 2: Quantification in First-Order Logic
Handout 3: Intro to DPL slides 6up
Handout 4: DPL & Dynamic Generalized Quantification
Handout 5: Compositional DRT & Dynamic Generalized Quantification
Handout 6: Carlson 1987 [MATT]
Handout 7: Barker 2007 [RYAN]
[Handout 8: Brasoveanu 2008]
Handout 9: Moens & Steedman 1988 [JUDITH]
Handout 10: Webber 1988 [ROBERT]
Handout 11: Roberts 1989 [SCOTT]

TEACHING – SPRING 2008:

Semantics, Undergraduate

Linguist 130A (Introduction to Linguistic Meaning) & Linguist 130C (Logic Laboratory), Department of Linguistics, Stanford University
Time: Ling 130A - MonWedFri 10:00-10:50 AM & Ling 130C - TBA ++ Location: CummsArt 4
Office hours: TBA & by email appointment
Textbook: Introduction to Natural Language Semantics (CSLI Lecture Notes), Henriëtte de Swart

TEACHING – FALL 2007:

Seminar in Semantics: Indefinites, Graduate

Linguistics 237, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University
Time: TBA ++ Location: TBA
Office hours: TBA & by email appointment
Description: Static and dynamic approaches to the semantics of indefinites (and definites). Their referential vs. quantificational status, their scopal properties (exceptional wide scope), their interaction with modal anaphora & quantification. Indefinites cross-linguistically, types of indefinites (argumental vs. predicative, bare nouns, NPI’s, free choice, wh-indefinites, specific indefinites etc.) and their semantic / pragmatic properties. Indefinite-like items in the modal, temporal / aspectual & degree domains.

TEACHING – SPRING 2007:

Pragmatics, Undergraduate

Linguistics 117, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz
Time: TuTh 4–5:45 ++ Location: Engineering Two, 194
Office hours: TBA & by email appointment
Textbook: Pragmatics and Natural Language Understanding (Tutorial Essays in Cognitive Science Series), Georgia Green

Math Foundations, Graduate ++ brief course description

Linguistics 265, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz
Time: TuTh 10–11:45 ++ Location: TBA
Office hours: TBA & by email appointment

TEACHING – WINTER 2007:

Introduction to Linguistics, Undergraduate

Linguistics 20, Department of Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz
Time: MWF 2-3:10 ++ Location: Baskin Engineering 152
Office hours: TBA & by email appointment

TEACHING – FALL 2006:

Introduction to Dynamic Semantics, Graduate, co-taught with Sam Cumming

Invited mini-course, Dynamic Semantics Workshop, Institutt for filosofi, ide- og kunsthistorie og klassiske (IFIKK), University of Oslo ++ syllabus, some of the slides, the corresponding handout

Introduction to the Study of Language, Undergraduate

Linguistics 101, Department of Linguistics, Rutgers University ++ handouts for the presupposition and conversational implicature (part 1 & part 2) lectures

Adrian Brasoveanu

TEACHING – Winter 2012:

Semantics B (Ling 232, UCSC), Graduate

TEACHING – Summer 2011:

Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate

TEACHING – Winter 2011:

Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate

Semantics B (Ling 232, UCSC), Graduate

TEACHING – Spring 2010:

Pragmatics (Ling 117, UCSC), Undergraduate. We will read and discuss in detail chapter 1 and parts of chapters 2 and 4 from Kamp & Reyle (1993) From Discourse to Logic.

Senior Research Seminar (Ling 190, UCSC), Undergraduate

TEACHING – Winter 2010:

Semantics I (Ling 53, UCSC), Undergraduate

TEACHING – Spring 2009:

Semantics II (Ling 116, UCSC), Undergraduate

Senior Research Seminar (Ling 190, UCSC), Undergraduate

TEACHING – WINTER 2009:

Semantics B, Graduate

TEACHING – FALL 2008:

TEACHING – SPRING 2008:

TEACHING – FALL 2007:

TEACHING – SPRING 2007:

TEACHING – WINTER 2007:

Introduction to Linguistics, Undergraduate

TEACHING – FALL 2006:

Invited mini-course, Dynamic Semantics Workshop, Institutt for filosofi, ide- og kunsthistorie og klassiske (IFIKK), University of Oslo ++ syllabus, some of the slides, the corresponding handout

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Please let me know if the pdf files do not display / print properly (abrsvn at gmail.com).