Postgraduate Course: Experimental Pragmatics (LASC11126)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Experimental pragmatics has recently emerged as an independent and productive discipline of linguistic research. It focuses on meaning in context, and employs experimental techniques from linguistics and psycholinguistics. This approach complements traditional methods of pragmatic enquiry, both by providing objective quantitative data and by enabling us to study things that are not necessarily accessible to
introspection, such as the time-course of processing. In this course, we examine some of the major topics in experimental pragmatics, such as implicature, presupposition, and reference resolution. We will consider what the experimental approach can add to our understanding of these issues. In particular, we will see how different pragmatic theories give rise to empirically testable predictions, and how we can design and conduct experimental research to confirm or disconfirm these predictions. And we will see how this approach can be useful in distinguishing between different theories when they are all apparently descriptively adequate. |
| Course description |
The course will give a general overview of the topics covered by current research in experimental semantics and pragmatics, and the methodologies used to investigate these topics. Specific areas covered will include implicature, presupposition, reference assignment, and the interpretation of figurative language. From a methodological point of view, we will discuss truth-value judgments, acceptability ratings, eye-tracking and reasoning tasks. We will also examine how to use online platforms to obtain experimental data, which may be useful for the assessed research exercise.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
98 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One midterm essay (a literature review); word limit 2000; worth 40% of the course.
Submission Deadline: Thursday 19th March 2015, 12 noon
Return Date: 10th April 2015
One short paper detailing a small new piece of experimental research; word limit 3000; worth 60% of the course.
Submission Deadline: Thursday 23rd April 2015, 12 noon
Return Date: 15th May 2015 |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
| The main goal of this course is to introduce and explain the motivation for the discipline of experimental pragmatics. Participants will become familiar with the methodological approach used in this field. Through engaging with the primary research literature, they will become aware of the current state of the art with respect to some of the key issues in experimental pragmatics, and will learn to what extent current pragmatic theories can depend upon experimental support. Participants will also learn how to develop and carry out their own experiments to address relevant theoretical questions.
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Reading List
Breheny, R., Katsos, N. and Williams, J. (2006). Are generalised scalar implicatures generated by default? An on-line investigation into the role of context in generating pragmatic inferences. Cognition, 100: 434-63.
Geurts, B., Katsos, N., Cummins, C., Moons, J. and Noordman, L. (2010). Scalar quantifiers: logic, acquisition, and processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 25(1): 130-48.
Geurts, B. and Pouscoulous, N. (2009). Embedded implicatures?!? Semantics & Pragmatics, 2, article 4: 1-34.
Noveck, I. A. (2001). When children are more logical than adults: experimental investigations of scalar implicature. Cognition, 78: 165-88.
Rubio, P. (2007). Suppression in metaphor interpretation: Differences between meaning selection and meaning construction. Journal of Semantics (Special Issue on Processing Meaning), 24(4): 345-371.
Sperber, D. & Noveck, I. A. (2004). Introduction to Experimental Pragmatics. In Noveck, I. A. & Sperber, D.(eds.), Experimental Pragmatics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 1-23. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
With regard to specific intellectual skills, participants will learn to
¿ read and critically assess the primary experimental literature
¿ evaluate the strength of experimental evidence and its impact on theory
¿ appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of competing experimental paradigms for pragmatic research
¿ conceive, design and conduct a simple pragmatics experiment. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Christopher Cummins
Tel: (0131 6)50 6858
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: |
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