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CSMN4020 - Linguistic Agency

Course content

The Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature (CSMN) is based at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas (IFIKK) at the University of Oslo. It is a Center of Excellence mainly funded by the Norwegian Research Council.
The overarching goal is to understand the normative dimensions of the human mind in terms that allow us to see them as integrated parts of the natural world.

The project is structured into three main areas of research: rational, linguistic and moral actions. The Masters courses within the CSMN framework fall into these 3 catagories.

Courses in linguistic agency cover topics in the area of communication and context, herein the semantics/pragmatics distinction, metarepresentations, and language acquisition. Courses will address issues on the interface between philosophy and linguistics.

Language as Cognitive Science, September 2011:

Look at the semester pages for further information.

Meaning and Intuitions, September 2009:

"This is a seminar about meaning and intuitions. We will assume no prior
background in our lectures. Several classes will take up H. P. Grice's
theory of meaning (1957) and its development through Lewis, Stalnaker and
Thomason.

Three of the lectures will be on the nature of intuitions and their role in
philosophy and linguistics. The central topic of these lectures is how
philosophy can be (and should be) done without appeal to intuitions.
Philosophers' use of the word 'intuitive' and cognate terms is part of a
defective linguistic practice, a practice in which these words denote
nothing."

Relevance theory and pragmatics, October 2008:

The first three days of this course, taught by Professor Deirdre Wilson, outline the basic concepts of relevance theory and its implications for pragmatics. Topics covered include the differences between formal and cognitive approaches to pragmatics, strengths and weaknesses of the Gricean approach, relevance theory as a theory of cognition and communication, an overview and illustration of relevance-theoretic accounts of explicit communication, implicatures, metaphor and irony, and the implications of this approach for the architecture of the mind. Written-up versions of these lectures are available, together with self-test questions, homework discussion questions and a list of possible essay topics with reading lists.

The last two days of the course, taught by Professor Herman Cappelen, outline some alternative approaches to various issues in pragmatics. This part of the course will focus on issues of how to distinguish semantics from pragmatics. Questions to be discussed include: the nature and cognitive role of minimal propositions, the coherence of the so-called ‘content relativistic’ view, the connection between semantic content and what was said, the significance of relativism for pragmatics (e.g. whether truth relativism provides an alternative account of underdeterminacy of content). Throughout, comparisons will be made to Relevance Theoretic approaches to these issues.

Learning outcomes

The aim is to give students an in depth knowledge of a specific topic within within the philosophical field of linguistic agency. Through active participation in class and writing of an essay, students will develop the ability to express themselves in academic forms, both orally and in writing.

Admission

Only master degree students can formally enroll, and take the course for credit.

You may regiter for the course in the Student Web.

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

Prerequisites

No obligatory prerequisites beyond the minimum requirements for entrance to higher education in Norway.

Teaching

Teaching may take the form of supervised reading or active participation in CSMNs workshops and seminars, or any combination of the above depending on the length of the seminar or workshop in question.

For detailed information, please refer to the Events section of the CSMN home page

Exam information

Essay of aprox. 10 pages.

Assessment and grading

Course grades are awarded on a descending scale using alphabetic grades from A to E for passes and F for fail. Read more about the grading system .

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