Brief description
Linguistic meaning and its role in communication. Topics include logical semantics, conversational implicature, presupposition, speech acts. Applications to issues in politics, the law, philosophy, advertising, and natural language processing. Those who have not taken logic, such as PHIL 150 or 151, should attend section. Prerequisites: Linguist 1, SymSys 1 (Linguist 35), consent of instructor, or graduate standing in Linguistics. 4 units.
Requirements
Attendance and participation (10%)
There are 18 participation points in total. You earn 1 point for each class meeting you attend. However, this is not the only way to earn participation points. We recognize that you might have to miss some classes. Thus, you can 1 credit for each section you attend and 0.25 credits for every screencast you watch from start to finish on Panopto.
The maximum number of participation credits is 20 (includes 2 extra credit points). Participation scores will be updated every other week on Canvas to help you track them.
Quizzes (20%)
These will be administered via Canvas. We will have about 10 in total. Each one will be about 5 short questions designed to make sure that you're keeping up with the material. They will always be open notes, open book, etc., but no collaboration will be permitted. Quizzes cannot be completed for credit after their due date. Your lowest two quiz grades (including 0s from missed quizzes) will be dropped from your final grade calculation.
Readings and associated assignments (50%)
Assignments will be distributed on Tuesdays and due one week later. They will often have readings associated with them. All readings will be distributed electronically via the website.
All assignments should be submitted via Canvas.
Assignments must arrive before the start of class on the day they are due. After 9:45 am Pacific, they are 1 day late, and so on for subsequent calendar days. Late assignments will be graded as though they were not late, but then 2% of the grade earned will be deducted for each day the assignment is late, with a maximum penalty of 35%. All late work must be turned in by Mar 16, 11:30 am Pacific. (This is the end of our scheduled exam period, though we will not be using that period.)
A special note about collaboration: you are permitted to work together on the assignments (but not on the take-home exam). However, you must write up and hand in your own unique assignment, and it must list at the top all the students with whom you worked.
Midterm exam, and final exam or final project (20%)
There will be two take-home exams, one distributed on Feb 8 and due by the start of class on Feb 15, and the other distributed on Mar 8 and due at the end of the class's scheduled exam period (which we will not use): Mar 16, 11:30 am. Both will mainly involve questions like those from the in-class exercises and weekly assignments. The exams are open notes, open book, but no consultation or collaboration with others is permitted.
Students enrolled in 230a and students taking this course for the Writing in the Major requirement will be required to submit a final project instead of taking the final exam. This will involve a number of preliminary steps that will be incorporated into optional questions on assignments 5, 6, and 7.
Collaborative final projects are an option with a group-size limit of two. They require special permission from Chris, and the final submission must include a short section explaining how the work was divided among the project members.
The final project is an option for everyone (a requirement only for the groups just mentioned). Doing a final project is highly recommended for students who think they might want a recommendation letter from Chris.
Exams and final projects must be turned in on time. (The policy on late work described above for assignments is only for assignments.)
Map from numerical final grades to letter grades
| Grade range | Letter grade |
|---|---|
| ≥ 100 | A+ |
| ≥ 94 | A |
| ≥ 90 | A− |
| ≥ 87 | B+ |
| ≥ 84 | B |
| ≥ 80 | B− |
| ≥ 77 | C+ |
| ≥ 74 | C |
| ≥ 70 | C− |
| ≥ 67 | D+ |
| ≥ 64 | D |
| ≥ 60 | D− |
| < 60 | No pass |
Academic honesty
Please familiarize yourself with Stanford's honor code. We will adhere to it and follow through on its penalty guidelines.
Students with documented disabilities
From Stanford's Office of Accessible Education:
Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE). Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in the current quarter in which the request is being made. Students should contact the OAE as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. The OAE is located at 563 Salvatierra Walk (phone: 723-1066, URL: http://oae.stanford.edu).
