Language and its Structure III: Semantics and Pragmatics

A cartoon illustrating the concept of structural ambiguity.

A cartoon illustration of structural ambiguity.  (Image courtesy of MIT OpenCourseWare.)

Instructor(s)

MIT Course Number

24.903 / 24.933

As Taught In

Spring 2005

Level

Undergraduate

Cite This Course

Course Description

Course Description

This course gives an introduction to the science of linguistic meaning. There are two branches to this discipline: semantics, the study of conventional, "compositional meaning", and pragmatics, the study of interactional meaning. There are other contributaries: philosophy, logic, syntax, and psychology. We will try to give you an understanding of the concepts of semantics and pragmatics and of some of the technical tools that we use.

Related Content

Kai von Fintel. 24.903 Language and its Structure III: Semantics and Pragmatics. Spring 2005. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare, https://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA.


For more information about using these materials and the Creative Commons license, see our Terms of Use.


Close