Linguistics 501: Formal Foundations of Linguistic Theory

General

Modern linguistic theory requires a working familiarity with several “formal” disciplines, e.g. set theory, logic, lambda calculus, formal language theory, au- tomata, probability theory, etc. The point of this course is to provide that familiarity, with particular attention to how those disciplines can be and are used in our ﬁeld.

Instructor

Name: Mike Hammond Email: hammond at u dot arizona dot edu (reliable) Phone 621-5759 (unreliable) Oﬃce: Douglass 308 Hours: Wed. 2–3, Thurs. 10–11, and by appointment

Text

Hammond, Michael. 2010. Introduction to the mathematics of language. U. of Arizona.

Course Website http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~hammond/ling501-f12/

Requirements

Homework 14.25% × 7 ≈ 100% A missed assignment or the lowest score will be dropped.

1 Schedule Week Date Topic Reading Due 1 8/21 Overview (IML chs.1,2) 8/23 Set Theory IML ch.3 2 8/28 Set Theory 8/30 Sentential Logic IML ch.4 HW#1 3 9/4 Sentential Logic 9/6 TBA 4 9/11 Sentential Logic 9/13 Sentential Logic HW#2 5 9/18 Predicate Logic IML ch.5 9/20 Predicate Logic 6 9/25 Predicate Logic 9/27 Modal Logic HW#3 7 10/2 Temporal Logic 10/4 Montague Grammar Montague (1973) 8 10/9 Montague Grammar 10/11 Montague Grammar HW#4 9 10/16 Montague Grammar 10/18 Generalized Qs Barwise & Cooper (1981) 10 10/23 Generalized Qs 10/25 Formal Languages IML chs.6,7 HW#5 11 10/30 Formal Languages 11/1 Formal Languages 12 11/6 Formal Languages 11/8 Formal Languages HW#6 13 11/13 Formal Languages 11/15 Probability IML chs.8,9 14 11/20 Probability 11/22 No class Thanksgiving! 15 11/27 Probability 11/29 Probability HW#7 16 12/4 TBA 12/6 No class 17 12/11 No class HW#8

Readings are to be done before class on the day of the week for which they are listed. Be aware that due dates are real.

2 Readings

Barwise, Jon & Robin Cooper. 1981. Generalized quantiﬁers and natural language. Linguistics and Philosophy 4. 159–219.

Hammond, Michael. 2010. Introduction to the mathematics of language. U. of Arizona.

Montague, R. 1973. The proper treatment of quantiﬁcation in ordinary English. Approaches to Natural Language 49. 221–242.