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Syllabus()(Spring(2013(LING)GA(3340.002(Seminar(in(Seman<cs:
Algebraic(seman<cs(and(mereology

Spring 2013 LING-GA 3340.002

Seminar in Semantics: Algebraic semantics and mereology

Time: Thu, 12:30PM - 3:15PM

Place: NYU Dept. of Linguistics, 10 Washington Place, first floor, room 104
Professor: Lucas Champollion
Units: 4

Prerequisite: LING-GA 1340 (aka Semantics I) or permission of the instructor.

Note: The system lists LING-GA 2370 (Semantics II) as a prerequisite, but Semantics I or
exposure to an equivalent amount of semantics (e.g. self-study of Heim and Kratzer 1998,
chapter 1-6) is de facto sufficient and will lead to permission being granted.
Auditors are welcome, as are students from other departments, schools, and universities.

Course description:
Expressions like John and Mary or the water in my cup intuitively involve reference to
collections of individuals or substances. The parthood relation between these collections and
their components is not modeled in standard formal semantics of natural language, but it
takes central stage in what is known as algebraic semantics, a subfield that relies on
mereology (the theory of parts) as its formal underpinning.
This course starts with a gentle introduction into algebraic semantics, and presents selected
applications involving plural, mass reference, measurement, aspect, and distributivity. We will
encounter issues involving natural language metaphysics and philosophy of language, and
how these issues interact with semantic theory depending on how they are resolved.
The script of an earlier and shorter version of this course is available at http://www.nyu.edu
/projects/champollion/champollion-esslli-2012.pdf. This course will be based on recent and
current research by the instructor, in particular Champollion (2010), a summary of which is
available at http://www.nyu.edu/projects/champollion/champollion_dissertation_summary.pdf.
For the complete manuscript, please email champollion@nyu.edu.
Students will be asked to write and present one 10-15 page paper, one 2-page abstract of that
paper, and three short reviews of abstracts of their fellow students. Submission of these
abstracts to a semantics conference will be encouraged.

Selected topics:
Mereology - algebraic semantics; axiomatization of classical extensional mereology;
comparison to set theory
Metaphysics - events, intervals, degrees; thematic roles, measure functions,
homomorphisms; sums and groups
Nouns - semantic theories of singular and plural; dependent plurals; cumulative reference,
divisive reference, quantized reference; group nouns; mass nouns; atomicity
Measurement - temporal and spatial trace; measure functions and degrees; measure nouns;

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pseudopartitives; monotonicity; the measurement puzzle

Verbs - event semantics; thematic roles; aspectual composition; temporal vs. spatial aspect
Distributivity - lexical and phrasal distributivity; meaning postulates; D operator; leakage;
nonatomic distributivity; covers; each vs. all; distance distributivity; cross-linguistic similarities
and differences
Putting it all together - higher-order parametrized properties; cross-domain generalizations;
stratified reference; open questions

References:
Champollion (2010). Parts of a whole - Distributivity as a bridge between aspect and
measurement. Penn Ph.D. dissertation.
Heim and Kratzer (1998). Semantics in generative grammar. Blackwell.
Tentative syllabus with recommended readings:
(Required)readings)will)be)announced)in)class.)
)

Week Dates Topics Recommended reading

1 Jan 31 Introduction; axioms of Read Champollion & Krifka to

class starts at 1:50
mereology appear as background for the first
half of the course, and my
10-page dissertation summary if
you know where things will be
going in the second half. -- A lot of
the seminal readings in algebraic
semantics are by Link, and are
collected in Link 1998.

2 Feb 7 Moltmann presentation on Moltmann)2005)and)2012)as

) alternatives to CEM; nouns:
singular/plural
prepara=on)for)her)talk.)Link)1998)ch2
has)a)good)if)dated)overview)of)plural
seman=cs.)Zweig)(2009))is)a)locallyG
produced)applica=on)of)algebraic
seman=cs)to)dependent)plurals)(it's)a
journal)paper)based)on)his)disserta=on),
and)is)summarized)in)my)disserta=on.

3 Feb 14 Nouns (continued): Barker)(1992))in)prepara=on)for)Chris'

) count/mass; measure nouns; presenta=on
group nouns; noun phrases;
cumulative and collective
readings; Chris Barker
presents Barker (1992)

4 Feb 21 Verbs: functions (measure Landman)(1996))if)the)discussion)of

functions, thematic roles); collec=ve)and)cumula=ve)readings)on
sum homomorphisms; the)handout)is)not)clear
lexical cumulativity; verb
phrases; cross-domain

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generalizations; aspectual
composition

5 Feb 28 Chs 3 A first approach to )

distributivity (lexical vs
phrasal, atomic vs
nonatomic); meaning
postulates; D operator;
covers

6 Mar 7 Degrees and measurement; )

Anna's presentation)on
algebraic)seman=cs)beyond
mereology

7 Mar 14 Monotonicity)of)measurement; Linguis=cs)graduate)open)house)takes

rela=ng)aspect)and place)today
measurement;))Ch 7 Measure
functions

Spring ) ) )
Break

8 Mar 28 Distributivity and stratified )

reference; Chs 1 and 4
Strata Theory;)Ch 5 Minimal
Parts

9 Apr 4 Stratified reference Moltmann)1991)on)spa=al/temporal

continued; spatial aspect; Ch measure)adverbials)and)minimal)parts;
6 Aspect and space Gawron)2005)and)Champollion)2009)on
spa=al)aspect

10 Apr 11 Ch 9 For, each, all Winter)2002)on)"all",)"gather")and)"be

numerous";)Sec=on)6.2.6)of)Zweig)2008
on)"all")and)cumula=ve)readings

11 Apr 18 Ch 9 For, each, all (contd.) )

12 Apr 25 Ch 8 Section 8.4 (scope of Deo)and)Piango)2011;)Champollion

for-adverbials) SALT)2013)poster)(in)prep)

) May 2 no(class(b/c(of(SALT(conference abstracts due Wed May 1)23:59pm

13 May 9 Distance distributivity; abstract reviews due Thu May 9)at

Champollion)2012)(Amsterdam beginning)of)class
Colloquium)2011)

14 May)16 miniconferences )

Term papers due: Tuesday September 3, 2013 (first day of classes)

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