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Peter Alrenga
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
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BA, Stanford University
MA and PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz
Prof. Alrenga joins the Linguistics program in September 2009, after a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in Semantics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of
Chicago, where he worked with Prof. Chris Kennedy on an NSF-funded project on the "Parameters of Comparison."
Prof. Alrenga's research interests lie in semantics, syntax, and pragmatics. Particular topics include the structure and interpretation of comparative constructions; gradability, scalarity, and vagueness; (in)definiteness and anaphora; and negation.
He teaches courses in formal semantics, pragmatics, and general linguistics.
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Courses
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Fall 2009
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Course number
with link to course Web site
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Course title
with link to course description
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Sec |
Instructor |
Days |
Time |
Room |
| CAS LX 502 |
Semantics I
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A1 |
Alrenga
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TR |
9:30-11 |
KCB 102
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Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. In this course, we will examine meaning from a variety of perspectives, including: how it is encoded in words and sentences, how native speakers interpret language, and how truth and falsehood can emerge from the complexity of the grammar. We will also touch on various aspects of pragmatics - the function of meaning in a communicative setting.
[Prereq: CAS LX 250 or equivalent.] |
Spring 2010
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Course number
with link to course Web site
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Course title
with link to course description
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Sec |
Instructor |
Days |
Time |
Room |
| CAS LX 500 |
Topics in Linguistics: Negation
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B1 |
Alrenga
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TR |
3:30-5 |
TBA
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[Description for Spring 2010] An examination of the diverse strategies for expressing negation in natural languages (cf. not, no one, un- in English). Topics include: negation and scope, polarity items/concord, antynomy and reversal, and morphosyntactic variety in the expression of negation.
[Prereq: CAS LX 250 Foundations of Language] |
| CAS LX 503 |
Semantics II
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A1 |
Alrenga
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TR |
11-12:30 |
TBA
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Introduction to the semantics of natural language at an intermediate level. Topics include (but are not limited to) predication and quantification, scope and anaphora, problems of discourse analysis, various issues at the interface of semantics and pragmatics, and crosslinguistic semantics.
[Prereq: CAS LX 502 Semantics I or equivalent.] |
Fall 2010
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Course number
with link to course Web site
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Course title
with link to course description
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Sec |
Instructor |
Days |
Time |
Room |
| CAS LX 245 |
Language and Mind
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A1 |
Alrenga
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MWF |
2-3 |
TBA
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Foundations of linguistics as a science, in relation to cognitive science, philosophy of language, and psychology, including a critical overview of the research program initiated by Noam Chomsky. Students read and discuss original works, and write short essays.
[No prerequisites.] |
| CAS LX 502 |
Semantics I
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A1 |
Alrenga
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MWF |
10-11 |
TBA
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Semantics is the study of linguistic meaning. In this course, we will examine meaning from a variety of perspectives, including: how it is encoded in words and sentences, how native speakers interpret language, and how truth and falsehood can emerge from the complexity of the grammar. We will also touch on various aspects of pragmatics - the function of meaning in a communicative setting.
[Prereq: CAS LX 250 or equivalent.] |
Spring 2011
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Course number
with link to course Web site
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Course title
with link to course description
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Sec |
Instructor |
Days |
Time |
Room |
| CAS LX 240 |
Great Linguists
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A1 |
Alrenga
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MWF |
10-11 |
TBA
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Introduction to linguistics through writings of important linguists, including Descartes, Saussure, Sapir, Jespersen, Bloomfield, and Chomsky. Students read original works and write short essays. Lectures and discussion place readings in the tradition of structural linguistics, within a broad humanistic context.
[No prerequisites.] |
| CAS LX 504 |
Topics in Pragmatics
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A1 |
Alrenga
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M |
4-7 |
TBA
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Covers the main areas of linguistic pragmatics, the study of language use and the relation between meaning and context. We will study pragmatic phenomena such as presuppositions, implicatures, anaphora, and focus, from the perspective of linguistic semantics.
[Prereq: CAS LX 502 Semantics I or permission of the instructor] |
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