Module Database

Information for module PLING202

This module is available for: The next academic year(provisional)

If you're a member of UCL you can add this module to your personalised course list

This information is for guidance only. If you are a UCL undergraduate interested in studying one of these courses, you must seek permission from both the providing department and your 'home' department. Appearance in this database is not a guarantee that a course is running in any particular academic year.


Module code:PLING202(Add to my personalised list)
Title:Philosophy of Language
Credit value:15
Division:Division of Psychology and Language Sciences
Module organiser:Nathan Klinedinst
Organiser's location:Chandler House
Organiser's email:n.klinedinst@ucl.ac.uk
Available for students in Year(s):
Module prerequisites:PLING201 Pragmatic Theory or equivalent 
Module outline:A selection from the following topics will be covered: - Foundational issues in semantic theory - Theories of truth as theories of meaning - Reference and referring expressions - Quantificational terms vs. referring expressions - Semantic reference and speaker reference - Proper names - meaning and understanding - Definite descriptions - meaning and understanding - Indexicals - meaning and use - Vagueness - Saying and implicating - Minimalism versus contextualism - Saturation versus free enrichment - Free enrichment versus implicature - Word meaning and concepts  
Module aims:- To show the origins of semantic and pragmatic issues within philosophy of language and the connections between linguistic/psychological evidence and formal/philosophical theorizing - To explore the different ways the distinction between semantics and pragmatics is posited by various theoretical approaches and the different empirical implications that result - To develop an understanding of the different communicative functions (e.g. referring, quantifying, predicating) of linguistic expressions - To show the application of the three preceding points to the meaning and use of specific expressions in the language (such as proper names, definite and indefinite descriptions, demonstratives, indexicals, predicates)  
Module objectives:Intended learning outcomes: - Understanding of the concepts and distinctions outlined in the first three aims of the module given above in (21) - Knowledge of the key contribution of certain specific philosophers of language (e.g. Mill, Frege, Russell, Kaplan) to the issues - Understanding of key differences in the meaning and communicative function of a range of linguistic expressions (e.g. proper names, quantifiers, descriptions, demonstratives, indexicals, predicates)  
Key skills provided by module: 
Module timetable:https://cmis.adcom.ucl.ac.uk:4443/timetabling/moduleTimet.do?firstReq=Y&moduleId=PLING202 
Module assessment:Unseen two-hour written examination 100.00%.
 
Notes:available as subsidiary course(numbers permitting); UCL students can register on Portico, intercollegiate students should contact s.anyadi@ucl.ac.uk 
Taking this module as an option?:Available as an option module 
Link to virtual learning environment(registered students only)http://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=6892 
Last updated:2012-08-03 08:02:01 by