24.900  Introduction to Linguistics

two missing subscripts in semantics lecture notes

As one of you just pointed out to me:

The pronoun "she" in sentence (11) should have a subscript "i", and in sentence (13b), the NP "Sue's" should also have a subscript "i".

I think this should be self-evident, but you should make the correction anyway. My apologies.

Announced on 15 May 2011  11:07  p.m. by David Pesetsky

don't worry about meats and animals!

Several of you have written to ask about the reference in the study guide to Middle English names for animals and meats. Final exam-wise, don't worry about this!

But in case you're interested, it's a little story that I intended to discuss but didn't have time for. The observation is that a set of names for meats that entered the language during the Middle English period come from French:

pork, beef, veal, mutton, venison

-- while the Middle English (and Modern English) names for the corresponding animals are Anglo-Saxon, i.e. Germanic, in origin:

swine/sow (i.e. pig), cow, calf, sheep, deer

That tells you who did and who didn't eat meat during the period when the lords were French-speaking and the peasants were Anglo-Saxon!

But as I said, don't worry about this for the exam. (And the vegetarians among you especially don't have to worry!)

-DP

Announced on 15 May 2011  9:09  p.m. by David Pesetsky

Reminder: TODAY - Final Exam Review Session for 24.900

This will take place on Sunday at 3:00 in room 32-141 (ground floor, Stata Center).* It will last no longer than 90 minutes (perhaps less, depending on questions).

Bring your copy of the Final Exam review (or an electronic device to view it on), and any other materials you think might be useful.

My plan for this meeting is very boring. I will work my way though the review guide, answering your questions and adding various remarks of my own. One or more TAs will also be present to help me along. So the event really belongs to *you*, and will be guided by the questions you ask.

Needless to say, attendance is optional - but recommended, especially if you are concerned about any aspect of the exam. I will *not* be teaching any new material, so you need not worry about that.

See you then!

-DP

*At some point, I thought we might start a half-hour later, so please note the 3:00pm starting time.

Announced on 12 May 2011  9:22  p.m. by David Pesetsky

final exam study guide, historical and dialects summaries & slides...

...posted

update 5/13: I've renamed all the various "summaries" and "lecture notes" with the name "lecture notes" so they'll be easy to find. But the content is not changed.

Announced on 12 May 2011  9:14  p.m. by David Pesetsky

don't forget the on-line evaluation

Dear 24.900 students,

Thank you once again for being a great class! Announcements about the final exam review session and similar matters will come soon (today or tomorrow).

Meanwhile, this message is intended to remind you to complete the on-line evaluation for this class. Most of you have probably received multiple e-mails about this, but if not, you should go to http://web.mit.edu/subjectevaluation/ to evaluate 24.900 and your other classes.

There are special questions for 24.900 connected to the communications component (CI-H) of the class. Your answers to these questions will be especially useful, as we work to refine that aspect of the course -- but of course we are interested in *all* your thoughts about 24.900.

Thank you again!

-DP

Announced on 11 May 2011  2:26  p.m. by David Pesetsky