Assignments

Below is a list of topics and readings that will be discussed in the seminar. Required readings are marked with an exclamation point. All readings will be placed in Marx Hall Library, with the exception of Stephen Neale's book Descriptions, which is available for purchase at the U. Store. Those intending to attend the seminar are encouraged to read the papers by Russell as soon as possible.

1. Russell's Theory of Descriptions

• ! Bertrand Russell. “On Denoting”.
• ! Whitehead and Russell. Principia Mathematica, selections.
• ! Bertrand Russell. “Descriptions”.
• ! Stephen Neale. Descriptions through Chapter 2.
• Delia Graff. “Descriptions as Predicates” through § III.

2. Referential Uses of Descriptions

• ! P. F. Strawson. “On Referring”.
• ! Keith Donnellan. “Reference and Definite Descriptions”.

a. Proposition Expressed v. Proposition Meant

• ! Neale. Descriptions §§ 3.1--3.6.
• ! Saul Kripke. “Speakers Reference and Semantic Reference”.
• ! Paul Grice. “Logic and Conversation”.
• Paul Grice. “Utterer's Meaning, Sentence Meaning, and Word-Meaning”.
• Gerald Gazdar. “Implicature” (ch. 3 of Pragmatics).

b. Quantifier Domain Restriction and Incomplete Descriptions

• ! Neale. Descriptions §§ 3.7--3.8.
• ! Howard Wettstein. “Demonstrative Reference and Definite Descriptions”.
• ! Murali Ramachandran. “A Strawsonian Objection to Russell's Theory of Descriptions”.
• ! Jason Stanley and Zoltán Gendler Szabó. “On Quantifier Domain Restriction”, selections.
• David Lewis. “Scorekeeping in a Language Game”.
• Scott Soames. “Incomplete Definite Descriptions”.
• Jason Stanley and Timothy Williamson. “Quantifiers and Context-Dependence”.
• Marga Reimer. “Incomplete Descriptions”.

c. Presupposition

• ! Robert Stalnaker. “Pragmatic Presupposition”.
• Lewis. “Scorekeeping in a Language Game”.
• Gazdar. “Presupposition” (ch. 5 of Pragmatics).
• Soames. “How Presuppositions are Inherited”.
• Soames. “Presupposition” (ch. 9 of Handbook of Philosophical Logic IV).
• Irene Heim. “On the Projection Problem for Presuppositions”.

3. Descriptions and Substitutivity

• ! W. V. Quine. “Three Grades of Modal Involvement”
• ! Arthur Smullyan. “Modality and Descriptions”.
• ! Neale. Descriptions chapter 4.
• Quine. “Quantifiers and Propositional Attitudes”.
• David Kaplan. “Quantifying In”.

4. Natural Language Quantification

• ! Jon Barwise and Robin Cooper. “Generalized Quantifiers in Natural Language”.
• Irene Heim and Angelika Kratzer. Semantics in Generative Grammar, selections.
• Gennaro Chierchia and Sally McConnell-Ginet. Meaning and Grammar, chs. 3 & 9.

5. Anaphora

• ! Gareth Evans. “Pronouns, Quantifiers & Relative Clauses I”.
• Evans. “Pronouns, Quantifiers & Relative Clauses II”.
• ! Neale. Descriptions, chs. 5--6.
• ! Hans Kamp. “A Theory of Truth and Semantic Interpretation”.
• George Wilson. “Pronouns and Pronominal Descriptions”.
• Heim. The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite NPs, selections.

6. Referential Indefinites

• ! Fodor and Sag. “Referential and Quantificational Indefinites”.
• ! Peter Ludlow and Stephen Neale. “Indefinite Descriptions: In Defense of Russell”.
• Jeffrey King. “Are Indefinite Descriptions Ambiguous?”.

7. Descriptions as Predicates

• ! Graff. “Descriptions as Predicates”.
• ! Lewis. “Adverbs of Quantification”.

8. Generic and Mass Descriptions

• ! Richard Sharvy. “A More General Theory of Definite Descriptions”.
• ! Manfred Krifka et al. Introduction to The Generic Book.
• Greg Carlson. “A Unified Analysis of the English Bare Plural”.
• Schubert and Pelletier. “Problems in the Representation of Generics, Plurals, and Mass Nouns”.

This page created by Delia Graff
URL: http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/research/graff/descriptions/fall99.html
Last modified: May 2001

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