Université Côte d'Azur, BCL
Philosophy of Language: Natural Language Ontology
Schedule
Time: Mondays 16h-18h (starting October 3, 2022)
In hybrid format:
Room 128, Campus St Angely, 25 ave Mitterand, bâtiment de l'horologe, Nice
Please contact me for the ZOOM link: fmoltmann@unice.fr
Handouts
Handout 1 : Ontology, Semantics, and Syntax (October 3)
Handout 2 : Reference and Predication (October 10)
Handout 3 : Quantification and Special Quantification (October 17)
Handout 4: Implicit Arguments and Event Semantics (October 24)
Handout 5: Parameters of Evaluation (November 7)
Handout 6: Nonexistents? (November 14)
Handout 7: Ontology and Grammatical Categories (November 21)
Handout 8: The Core-Periphery Distinction in Natural Language Ontology (November 28)
Handout 9: The Chomskyan Challenges to Referentialist Semantics 1 (December 5)
Handout 10: The Chomskyan Challenges to Referentialist Semantics 2 (December 12)
Course Description
Ontology as part of philosophy concerns itself with the most general notions of being. Natural language ontology, which is part of both linguistics and philosophy, has as its subject matter the ontology that is implicit in natural language. That is, it concerns itself with the kinds of entities that play a role in the meaning of sentences, with the ontological categories that are reflected in the structure of language, notions such part and whole, existence, time and space, the abstract-concrete distinction. This course will give a general introduction to natural language ontology, and will deal in particular with the following topics:
- The role of ontology for both semantics and syntax
- The various ways in which entities play a role in the meaning of sentences
- Chomsky’s arguments that natural language does not involve reference to entities at all and ways of responding to the various cases Chomsky put forward.
- The way ontological categories are reflected in syntax and semantics
- Event semantics and its limits
- The ontological core-periphery distinction
The course will start October 3 and will be given in hybrid format in English on Mondays (16-18h). The course is suited for advanced undergraduates and graduate students as well anyone interested in the topic, External auditors very welcome, but they need to register formally as auditors at the Université Côte d'Azur (details of how to do that soon!).
An additional hour (18h-19h) will be reserved for in-person discussions of the material, possibly in French.
Recommended reading:
‘Natural Language Ontology’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, fall 2022 edition, Natural Language Ontology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Student evaluations of the course
Here is what the students wrote (anonymously) about what they liked about the course (no negative remarks):
- 'I am very grateful for this fantastic opportunity: to be tutored by an expert! Many great new things were presented and many ideas were shared. I am very interested and want to continue my development in the field further. There are so many things I did not know!'
- 'I liked how the instructor was available to us. The topics were really interesting and made us evolve as linguists. It was a real pleasure to have been your student.'
- 'I liked the disponibility of the instructor, her kindness and that she was understanding!'
- 'It was nice to have a class with other participants via ZOOM, the patience and respect of the pedagogical framework by the teacher.'
- 'The professor'