Undergraduate Course: Experimental Pragmatics (LASC10087)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| 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 |
Not entered
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visting students should have a knowledge of the subject at intermediate level. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
50 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One midterm essay (a literature review); word count 2500; worth 50% of the course
One two hour exam taken in exam conditions in the May diet; worth 50% of the course
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Experimental Pragmatics | 2:00 | |
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.
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.
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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.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Christopher Cummins
Tel: (0131 6)50 6858
Email: ccummins@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Francesca Kerr-Dineen
Tel: (0131 6)50 3961
Email: f.kerr-dineen@ed.ac.uk |
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