Semantics and Pragmatics

After completing this course you will have:

• developed an understanding of the relationship between language and meaning on word, sentence and utterance level;
• learned semantic theories about the understanding of different aspects of meaning in words, how they can be described, and how grammar and syntax contribute to meaning;
• learned pragmatic theories about how language users achieve their goals in verbal interaction with others.

The course assumes a good proficiency in written and oral English. The course assumes ENG1100 - English Grammar, an introduction or similar knowledge.

Students have to be admitted to Master studies in the Language Program or LAP.

Students at UiO must apply for courses in StudentWeb.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

The examination in this course is not available for external candidates. Only students admitted to the course may sit for the examination.

Seminar, two hours per week for 14 weeks, 28 hours in all.

Attendance is an obligatory class requirement (80%). Additional absences must be justified (please contact the exam coordinator).

Students are required to submit two short essays at appointed times. The essays must be approved by the course teacher for the student to be allowed to take the exam.

The obligatory requirements must be fulfilled in order to qualify for the exam.

The evaluation will be based on a take home exam spanning over 3 days.

You are required to write 6 standard pages minimum / 10 standard pages maximum (a standard page consists of 2,300 characters). This does not include references and bibliography. In the evaluation, both content and language are taken into account.

You can usually resit an exam, but the conditions depend on whether you had a valid reason for absence from the regular exam. Read more about resitting an exam.

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Results will be available on the StudentWeb within three weeks of the exam.

You may request an explanation of your grades, and you may also appeal against your grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals.

Evaluation

Feedback from our students is essential if we are to provide the best possible education. As a student at the University of Oslo you will be asked to participate in various types of evaluation of our courses. Every time a course is given, we ask students to participate in mid-term evaluations, and periodically we ask them to participate in periodic evaluation of the course.

Reports from periodic evaluations (in Norwegian)

Overlapping courses

Books:

• Saeed, John: Semantics. Blackwell (Parts 1 and 2).
• Black, Elizabeth 2002: Pragmatic stylistics. Edinburgh University Press.

Compendium:

• Austin, John Langshaw. 1999. How to do Things with Words. In Coupland N. And Jaworski, A. The Discourse Reader, pp. 63 – 75, Source: J.L. Austin 1962 How to Do Things With Words, OUP
• Brown, Penelope and Levinson, Stephen. 1999. Ch 19: Politeness, in (eds) Coupland, N & Jaworski, A: The Discourse Reader pp: 321 - 335
• Grice, Herbert Paul. 1989.Ch 2: Logic and Conversation, in Studies in the Way of Words 1989 pp 22-40
• Harris, Sandra. 2001. Being Politically Impolite: Extending Politeness Theory to Adversarial Political Discourse, in Discourse & Society 12: 451 Sage Publication
• Kolaiti and D. Wilson. 2012. Corpus Analysis and Lexical Pragmatics: An Overview, in UCLWorking Papers – available online.
• Wikipedia: Speech Act. 8 pages
• Wikipedia: Word Sense disambiguation: 5 pages
• Wilson, D & Sperber, D : Relevance Theory, online version of their paper of the same title in Horn, L and Ward, G (eds) Handbook of Pragmatics Oxford, Blackwell

If you have a disability or a health problem that entails significant inconvenience in an examination situation, you may be considered for special examination arrangements. Mothers who are breastfeeding may apply for extra time to complete the exam.

A student may sit this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do so in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit the exam.

Once the course requirements have been fulfilled, they remain valid for the current and the next two semesters that the course is taught.