24.903/24.933  Lang & Structure III: Semntics

final puzzles - extensions, experiments

Hi everyone.

A few people have contacted me for extensions for the final puzzles. I wanted to mention the policy we told you about again, just in case you missed it in class.

The puzzle due-date is tomorrow, but we are happy to grant extensions. If we don't get your puzzle solution by tomorrow, we will automatically assume that you would like to take us up on that. There will be no penalty for taking us up on the extension offer.

We will treat all solutions that we get by next Wednesday (5/18) as having been handed in on time. We can't give extensions beyond that.

I'd also like to remind everyone who has taken part in an extra credit experiment or has contacted Martin Hackl's lab to do so to please send me a brief message.

Thanks to those who have suggested topics for tomorrow. Feel free to still do so or bring your questions to class.

See you tomorrow.
Jan

Announced on 10 May 2011  3:19  p.m. by Jan Anderssen

puzzles - final and new pdfs

Hi everyone 24.903 -

I've uploaded the final version of the puzzles, we'll bring print outs to class today. The pdfs of the class handouts are all updated too, hopefully they'll display ok everywhere now. If not, let me know please.

See you in a bit
Jan

Announced on 04 May 2011  1:30  p.m. by Jan Anderssen

puzzles - preview

Hi everyone -

I've uploaded a preview of the puzzles that we've chosen. Details may change - I'll upload the final version tomorrow, but it should be pretty similar to what's up there now.

Btw. some of you alerted me to the fact that there were some issues with the pdf files. I found out that there was a bug with the pdf creation mechanism for Apple's iWork applications which I've been using. The resulting pdfs look fine in Apple's pdf reader, but may look bad in other readers, or even crash them. I never looked at them with Acrobat, so I never noticed that they're all flawed. Sorry for any trouble you've been having! I'll try to export the files again over the weekend and upload new versions, which will hopefully work better!

I hope there are no problems with the puzzles pdf file, but if you encounter any, you should let me know.

Jan

Announced on 04 May 2011  1:23  a.m. by Jan Anderssen

clarifications for assignment four

hi everyone -

based on some feedback about the last assignment i posted a few notes (in the assignments folder, nothing new to do though, just clarifications). they concern the rules (same as before, i just wrote them out again), and the last question (i wrote out a few paragraphs on what a lexical entry for negation might look like (tentatively) in case you want to compute the meaning for the last sentence).

have a good weekend with all that's going on!
jan

Announced on 30 April 2011  2:01  a.m. by Jan Anderssen

alternative reading on events

Hi folks,

This concerns the Davidson (1967) paper: If you find it hard to get through (maybe the lengthy argumentation against all kinds of positions that one could, but Davidson won't, take is a little cumbersome), I've uploaded a different paper - an introduction to a more recent collection of research papers on event semantics. It's under optional readings, Pianesi and Varzi (2000).

So if Davidson bothers you, you can look at that one alternatively (or, of course, in addition :)). It's longer, but you can focus either on the philosophical background (sections 2 and 3) or on the linguistic applications (sections 4 and 5 - we'll focus more on this part), or use it to get a paraphrase of some of Davidson's arguments.

Jan

[I hope those of you who already read the paper have liked it, or at least not been bothered enough to have wished for an alternative!]

Announced on 15 April 2011  6:13  p.m. by Jan Anderssen