David I. Beaver
Professor — PhD, Edinburgh
Professor, Director of the Cognitive Science Program, Interim Graduate Advisor

Contact
- E-mail: dib@utexas.edu
- Office: RLP 4.708
- Campus Mail Code: B5100
Biography
I am a Professor in the Linguistics and Philosophy Departments at The University of Texas at Austin, and Director of the Cognitive Science Program.
My research and teaching concerns linguistic meaning, an area traditionally subdivided into two subfields, semantics and pragmatics. The methodologies I use include computational studies of large corpora of text, experimental work, and theoretical modeling using tools from logic and statistics. The main empirical topics I have worked on are presupposition (how what we take for granted is reflected in what we say), anaphora (how words like pronouns pick up their meaning from prior context), and topic/focus (the way that we use melody and other linguistic features to indicate what question is being addressed and what the answer is). I also have interests in temporal and event semantics, in the automatic extraction of psychological and social features in text and dialogue, and in broader philosophical, psychological and computational themes from cognitive science.
Courses
LIN 393 • The Politics Of Language
40304 • Fall 2022
Meets F 9:00AM-12:00PM RLP 4.710
LIN 365 • Bias
39630 • Spring 2022
Meets MW 1:00PM-2:00PM GDC 2.210
(also listed as HDO 365)
LIN 380M • Semantics I
39670 • Spring 2022
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM RLP 4.710
LIN 389S • Rsch In Syntax And Semantics
40685 • Fall 2021
Meets M 9:00AM-12:00PM RLP 4.710
UGS 303 • Minds And Machines
63260-63275 • Fall 2021
Meets MW 11:00AM-12:00PM RLP 0.102
Wr
ID
LIN 365 • Bias-Wb
40420 • Spring 2021
Meets MWF 1:00PM-2:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
(also listed as HDO 365)
LIN 380M • Semantics I-Wb
40460 • Spring 2021
Meets W 9:00AM-12:00PM
Internet; Synchronous
CGS 360 • Bias
29321 • Spring 2020
Meets MW 1:00PM-2:00PM GDC 2.210
(also listed as HDO 330, LIN 373)
LIN 380M • Semantics I
39805 • Spring 2020
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM RLP 4.710
LIN 389S • Rsch In Syntax And Semantics
39830 • Spring 2020
Meets W 9:00AM-12:00PM RLP 4.710
CGS 380 • Language And Power
28804 • Fall 2019
Meets W 3:00PM-6:00PM RLP 4.710
(also listed as LIN 393S, PHL 391)
LIN 380M • Semantics I
40165 • Spring 2019
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM RLP 4.710
LIN 389S • Rsch In Syntax And Semantics
40185 • Spring 2019
Meets W 9:00AM-12:00PM RLP 4.710
CGS 380 • Intro To Cognitive Science
29355 • Fall 2018
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM RLP 1.108
(also listed as C S 395T, LIN 392, PHL 383C, PSY 394U)
LIN 389S • Rsch In Syntax And Semantics
40600 • Spring 2018
Meets F 9:00AM-12:00PM CLA 4.710
UGS 303 • Minds And Machines
62535-62550 • Spring 2018
Meets MW 11:00AM-12:00PM PAR 301
Wr
ID
LIN 381S • Semantics II
40910 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM CLA 4.710
PSY 394U • Intro To Cognitive Science
43398 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM CLA 1.108
UGS 303 • Minds And Machines
63055-63070 • Spring 2017
Meets MW 11:00AM-12:00PM CLA 1.104
Wr
ID
CGS 360 • Intro To Cognitive Science
32730 • Spring 2016
Meets MWF 12:00PM-1:00PM CLA 0.112
(also listed as LIN 373, PHL 365)
UGS 303 • Minds And Machines
62030-62045 • Spring 2016
Meets MW 11:00AM-12:00PM CLA 1.104
Wr
CGS 380 • Intro To Cognitive Science
32705 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM SEA 2.108
(also listed as C S 395T, LIN 392, PHL 383C, PSY 394U)
LIN 389S • Rsch In Syntax And Semantics
40100 • Fall 2015
Meets F 11:00AM-2:00PM CLA 4.710
CGS 380 • Intro To Cognitive Science
33840 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM SEA 2.108
(also listed as C S 395T, LIN 392, PHL 383C, PSY 394U)
LIN 380M • Semantics
41170 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM CLA 0.108
(also listed as PHL 391)
UGS 303 • Minds And Machines
65245-65270 • Spring 2014
Meets MW 10:00AM-11:00AM CLA 0.126
CGS 380 • Intro To Cognitive Science
33865 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM SZB 426
(also listed as C S 395T, LIN 392, PHL 383C)
LIN 380M • Semantics I
41400 • Fall 2013
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM CLA 0.108
UGS 303 • Minds And Machines
64725-64750 • Spring 2013
Meets MW 10:00AM-11:00AM CAL 100
UGS 303 • Minds And Machines
63950-63975 • Spring 2012
Meets MW 11:00AM-12:00PM CAL 100
CGS 380 • Intro To Cognitive Science
33490 • Fall 2011
Meets F 9:00AM-12:00PM SEA 4.242
(also listed as C S 395T, LIN 392, PHL 383C, PSY 394U)
LIN 380M • Semantics I
40770 • Fall 2011
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BEN 1.124
LIN 393S • Socl Meaning & Socl Lang Proc
41270 • Spring 2011
Meets W 2:00PM-5:00PM PAR 10
CGS 380 • Intro To Cognitive Science
32775 • Fall 2010
Meets F 9:00AM-12:00PM SEA 3.250
(also listed as C S 395T, LIN 392, PHL 383C, PSY 394U)
LIN 380M • Semantics I
40795 • Fall 2010
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 210
UGS 303 • Mind And Reason
64105-64130 • Fall 2010
Meets MW 2:00PM-3:00PM GRG 102
CGS 360 • Intro To Cognitive Science
33105 • Spring 2010
Meets MWF 10:00AM-11:00AM UTC 3.132
(also listed as LIN 373, PHL 365, PSY 341K)
LIN 380M • Semantics I
41565 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 303
UGS 302 • Mind And Reason-W
64667 • Fall 2009
Meets TTH 9:30AM-11:00AM PAR 101
C1
CGS 360 • Intro To Cognitive Science
32580 • Spring 2009
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM UTC 3.124
(also listed as LIN 373, PHL 365, PSY 341K)
LIN 380M • Semantics I
40600 • Spring 2009
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM PAR 10
LIN 373 • Intro To Cognitive Science
41660 • Spring 2008
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 303
(also listed as PHL 365, PSY 341K)
LIN 381S • Semantics II
41700 • Spring 2008
Meets M 12:00PM-3:00PM UTC 3.120
LIN 380M • Semantics I
42315 • Fall 2007
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM PAR 103
LIN 380M • Semantics I
42000 • Fall 2006
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM PAR 201
Publications
Years
2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001
Previous Millennium | Selected Talks
To appear
Denlinger, K. and D. Beaver, Presupposition and Negation, in V. Deprez and M. Teresa Espinal, The Oxford Handbook of Negation, Oxford University Press.
Denlinger, K. and D. Beaver, Linguistic Accommodation (Annotated Bibliography), Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford University Press.
Beaver, D. and J. Stanley, Hustle: the Politics of Language, under contract with Princeton University Press.
2019
Destruel, E., D. Beaver, and E. Coppock (2019). It’s not what you expected! The surprising nature of cleft alternatives in French and English. Frontiers in Psychology, 10:1400
2018
Beaver, D. and J. Stanley (2018). Toward a Non-Ideal Philosophy of Language. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 39(2), 503-547.
Tonhauser, J., D. Beaver, and J. Degen (2018). How projective is projective content? Gradience in projectivity and at-issueness. Journal of Semantics 35:3, 495–542.
Berez-Kroeker, A. L., L. Gawne, S. Smythe Kung, B. F. Kelly, T. Heston, G. Holton, P. Pulsifer, D. Beaver, S. Chelliah, S. Dubinsky, R. P. Meier, N. Thieberger, K. Rice, and A. Woodbury (2018), Reproducible research in linguistics: A position statement on data citation and attribution in our field, Linguistics 56:1, 1–18.
2017
Beaver, D., C. Roberts, M. Simons, and J. Tonhauser, Questions Under Discussion: Where Information Structure Meets Projective Content, Annual Review of Linguistics 2017 3:1, 265-284
Simons, M., Beaver, D., Roberts, C., & Tonhauser, J. (2017). The Best Question: Explaining the Projection Behavior of Factives. Discourse Processes, 54(3), 187-206.
2016
Beaver, D. and J. Frazee (2016), Semantics, in R. Mitkov (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Computational Linguistics 2nd edition (2 ed.), appeared online June 2015. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199573691.013.29.
Velleman, L. and D. Beaver (2016), Question-based models of information structure, in C. Fery and S. Ishihara (eds.), The Handbook of Information Structure, Oxford University Press.
Destruel, E., D. Beaver, and L. Coppock (2016), Clefts: Quite the contrary!, in Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21, University of Edinburgh, UK.
2015
Beaver, D. and J. Frazee (2015), Semantics, in Ruslan Mitkov (ed.), The Handbook of Computational Linguistics, Oxford University Press (online edition).
Beaver, D. and L. Coppock (2015), Novelty and Familiarity for Free, Proceedings of the 2015 Amsterdam Colloquium, Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation, pp. 50-59.
Coppock, E. and D. Beaver (2015), Definiteness and Determinacy, Linguistics and Philosophy 38:5, pp. 377–435.
Destruel, E., L. Velleman, E. Onea, D. Bumford, J. Xue and D. Beaver (2015), A cross- linguistic study of the non-at-issueness of exhaustive inferences, in Schwarz, Florian (ed.), Experimental Perspectives on Presuppositions, Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics Series Vol. 45, Springer (pp. 135- 156).
2014
Pennebaker J., C. Chung, J. Frazee, G. Lavergne, and D. Beaver (2014), When Small Words Foretell Academic Success: The Case of College Admissions Essays, PLoS ONE 9(12): e115844. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115844
Coppock, E. and D. Beaver (2014). A Superlative Argument for a Minimal Theory of Definiteness, in T. Snider (ed.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 24, eLanguage.net (pp. 177–196).
2013
Coppock, L. and D. Beaver (2013), Principles of the Exclusive Muddle, Journal of Semantics, doi:10.1093/jos/fft007.
Tonhauser, J., D. Beaver, C. Roberts, and M. Simons (2013), Towards a taxonomy of projective content, Language 89(1): 66-109. (Awarded Best paper in Language, 2013)
Destruel, E. and D. Beaver (2013), Review: The expression of information structure, Language 89:3, pp. 647–653.
Coppock, E. and D. Beaver (2013). Mere-ology. In Falaus, A. (ed.), Alternatives in Semantics. New York: Palgrave, pp. 150-173.
Beaver, D., J. Cope, K. von Fintel (2013). Semantics and Pragmatics, in Anderson, S., J. Moeschler, and F. Reboul (eds.), L’interface langage-cognition / The Language-Cognition Interface, Librarie Droz, Geneva/Paris.
2012
Beaver, D. and B. Geurts (2012), Presupposition, in Maienborn, C., K. von Heusinger, and P. Portner (eds). Semantics: An. International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning vol. 3, de Gruyter Mouton, Berlin, pp. 2432-2459
Coppock, E. and D. Beaver (2012). Weak Uniqueness: The only difference between definites and indefinites. in Anca Chereches (ed.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 22, eLanguage, pp. 527-544.
Coppock, E. and D. Beaver (2012). Exclusivity, Uniqueness and Definiteness. In Piñon, C. (ed.), Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics, CSSP, Paris (pp. 59--76).
Coppock, E. and D. Beaver (2012). Exclusive Updates! In Aloni, M., F. Roelofsen, G. Weidman Sassoon, K. Schulz, V. Kimmelman and M. Westera (eds.), Logic, Language and Meaning, Springer, Berlin, (pp. 291–300).
Coppock, E. and D. Beaver (2012). Sole Sisters. In Ashton, N., A. Chereches, and D. Lutz (eds.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 21, eLanguage (pp. 197–217).
Velleman, D., D. Beaver, E. Destruel, D. Bumford, E. Onea and E. Coppock (2012). It-clefts are IT (inquiry terminating) constructions, In Anca Chereches (ed.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 22, eLanguage (pp. 441-460).
2011
Edgar Onea and David Beaver (2011), "Hungarian Focus is not Exhausted", In Ed Cormany, Satoshi Ito & David Lutz (eds.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 19, eLanguage, pp. 342–359.
Mandy Simons, Judith Tonhauser, David Beaver, and Craige Roberts (2011), What projects and why. In D. Lutz and N. Li (eds.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory XX, CLC Publications, Cornell, pp. 309-327.
Bart Geurts and David Beaver (2011), Presupposition. In E. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
David Beaver and Dan Velleman (2011), The communicative significance of primary and secondary accents. Lingua 121:11, (pp.1671-1692, doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2011. 04.004)
2010
Vagueness is Rational Under Uncertainty (with Joey Frazee), 2010. In Maria Aloni, Harald Bastiaanse, Tikitu de Jager and Katrin Schulz (eds.), Logic, Language and Meaning: 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 16-18, 2009, Revised Selected Papers, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence,Volume 6042, 2010, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-14287-1, Springer. (pp. 153-162).
Hancock, J., D. Beaver, C. K. Chung, J. Frazee, J. W. Pennebaker, A. Graesser, and Z. Cai, "Social Language Processing: A Framework for Analyzing the Communication of Terrorists" and Authoritarian Regimes, 2010, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression 2:2 (pp. 108-132).
The NXT-format Switchboard Corpus: A Rich Resource for Investigating the Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics and Prosody of Dialogue (with S. Calhoun, J. Carletta, J. Brenier, N. Mayo, D. Jurafsky, and M. Steedman), 2010, Language Resources and Evaluation.
Have you Noticed that your Belly Button Lint Colour is Related to the Colour of your Clothing?, 2010. In R. Bauerle, U. Reyle, and T. E. Zimmermann (eds.), Presuppositions and Discourse: Essays offered to Hans Kamp, Elsevier, Oxford. (pp. 65–99).
2009
Presupposition, Conventional Implicature, and Beyond: A unified account of projection (with Craige Roberts, Mandy Simons, and Judith Tonhauser). In Nathan Klinendinst and Daniel Rothschild (eds.) Proceedings of New Directions in the Theory of Presupposition, ESSLLI, Toulouse, 2009.
Investigating properties of projective meaning (with Craige Roberts, Mandy Simons, and Judith Tonhauser). Workshop on Projective Meanings, OSU, 2009.
Addendum: Investigating properties of projective meaning (with Craige Roberts, Mandy Simons, and Judith Tonhauser). Addendum to "Investigating properties of projective meaning." Workshop on Projective Meanings, OSU, 2009.
2008
Sense and Sensitivity: How Focus Determines Meaning, (with B. Clark), 2008. Blackwell, Oxford. (Amazon.com)
As brief as possible (but no briefer), 2008, Theoretical Linguistics 34:3 (pp. 213-228).
Discourse Representation Theory (with B. Geurts), 2008. In E. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
2007
Aloni, M., D. Beaver, B. Clark and R. van Rooij (2007) “The Dynamics of Topic and Focus”. In Aloni, M., A. Butler, and P. Dekker (eds.), Questions in Dynamic Semantics, Elsevier, Amsterdam (pp. 123-145).
When Semantics Meets Phonetics: Acoustical Studies of Second Occurrence Focus. (with B. Clark, E. Flemming, T. F. Jaeger and M. Wolters), 2007. Language 83.2 (51 pages).
On the logic of verbal modification (with Cleo Condoravdi), 2007. In M. Aloni, P. Dekker and F. Roelofsen (eds.), Proceedings of the Sixteenth Amsterdam Colloquium, ILLC/Department of Philosophy University of Amsterdam, pp. 3--9.
To Memorize or to Predict: Prominence labeling in Conversational Speech (with A. Nenkova, J. Brenier, A. Kothari, D. Jurafsky, S. Calhoun and L. Whitton), 2007. In Proceedings of NAACL-HLT 2007.
Accomodation (with Henk Zeevat), 2007. In Ramchand, G. and C. Reiss (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces, Oxford University Press (pp. 503–538).
2006
The (non)Utility of Linguistic Features for Predicting Prominence in Spontaneous Speech (with J. Brenier, A. Nenkova, A. Kothari, L. Whitton and D. Jurafsky), 2006. In Proceedings of IEEE/ACL 2006 Workshop on Spoken Language Technology.
2005
Bad Subject: (Non-)Canonicality and NP Distribution in Existentials (with Itamar Francez and Dmitry Levinson), 2005. In E. Georgala and J. Howell (eds.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory XV, CLC Publications, Ithaca, New York.
The Puzzle of Ambiguity (with T. Wasow as main author and A. Perfors), 2005. In P. Sells (ed.), Essays in Honor of Steve Lapointe, CSLI Publications.
2004
The Optimization of Discourse Anaphora, 2004. Linguistics and Philosophy 27(1), pp. 3-56.
Five Only Pieces, 2004. Theoretical Linguistics 30, pp. 45-64.
Accomodating Topics, 2004. In H. Kamp and B. H. Partee (eds.), Context-Dependence in the Analysis of Linguistic Meaning, Current Research in the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface, vol. 11, Elsevier (pp.79-90).
Input-Output Mismatches in OT (with Hanjung Lee), 2004. In Reinhard Blutner and Henk Zeevat (eds.), Optimality Theory and Pragmatics, Palgrave/Macmillan, pp. 112--153.
2003
Always and Only: Why not all Focus Sensitive Operators are Alike (with B. Clark), 2003. Natural Language Semantics 11(4), pp. 323-362.
A Uniform Analysis of Before and After (with Cleo Condoravdi), 2003. In Rob Young and Yuping Zhou (eds), Proceedings of SALT XIII, CLC Publications, Cornell, pp. 37--54.
Form-Meaning Asymetries and Bidirectional Optimization (with H. Lee), 2003. In J. Spenader, A. Eriksson and Osten Dahl (eds.), Variation within Optimality Theory, University of Stockholm, pp. 138--148.
2002
A Partial Account of Presupposition Projection (with E. Krahmer), 2001. Journal of Logic, Language and Information 10(2), pp. 147-182.
Monotonicity and Focus Sensitivity (with B. Clark), 2002. In Brendan Jackson (ed.), Proceedings of SALT XII, CLC Publications, Cornell.
The Proper Treatments of Focus Sensitivity (with B. Clark), 2002. In C. Potts and L. Mikkelson (eds.) Proceedings of WCCFL XXI, Cascadilla Press. pp. 15-28.
Presupposition in DRT, 2002. In Beaver, D., L. Casillas, B. Clark and S. Kauffmann (eds.), The Construction of Meaning, CSLI Publications. pp. 23-43.
Pragmatics, and That's an Order, 2002. In Barker-Plummer, D., D. Beaver, J. van Benthem and P. Scotto di Luzio (eds.), Logic, Language and Visual Information, CSLI Publications. pp. 191-215.
The Construction of Meaning (editor, with L. Casillas, B. Clark and S. Kaufmann), 2002. CSLI Publications. (Amazon.com)
Words, Proofs and Diagrams (editor, with D. Barker-Plummer, J. van Benthem, and P. Scotto di Luzio), 2002. CSLI Publications. (Amazon.com)
2001
Beaver, D. and E. Krahmer (2001) “A Partial Account of Presupposition Projection”, Journal of Logic, Language and Information 10:2 (pp. 142–182).
Presupposition and Assertion in Dynamic Semantics, 2001. Studies in Logic, Language and Information, CSLI Publications. (NOTE: book available for electronic download.)
What does he mean? (with Wolters, M.), 2001. In Moore, J. and K. Stenning (eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey. pp. 1176-1180.
Previous Millenium
Pragmatics (to a First Approximation), 1999. In Gerbrandy, J., M. Marx, M. de Rijke and Y. Venema (eds.), JFAK --- Essays Dedicated to Johan van Benthem on the Occasion of his 50th Birthday, Vossiuspers, Amsterdam University Press. (13 pages).
The Logic of Anaphora Resolution, 1999. In Dekker, P. (ed.), Proceedings of the Twelfth Amsterdam Colloquium, Institute of Logic, Language and Computation Publications, Amsterdam. pp. 55-60.
Topic and Focus Sensitivity (with Aloni, M. and B. Clark), 1999. In Dekker, P. (ed.), Proceedings of the Twelfth Amsterdam Colloquium, Institute of Logic, Language and Computation Publications, Amsterdam. pp.61-66.
Presupposition Accommodation: A Plea for Common Sense, 1999. In Moss, L. J. Ginzburg and M. de Rijke (eds.), Logic, Language and Computation, vol.2, CSLI Publications. pp. 21-44. (revised version of Beaver, D. (1994) "An Infinite Number of Monkeys").
Presupposition, 1997. In van Bethem, J. and A. ter Meulen (eds.), The Handbook of Logic and Language, Elsevier. pp. 939-1008.
Local Satisfaction Preferred, 1996. In Dekker, P. and M. Stokhof (eds.), Proceedings of the Tenth Amsterdam Colloquium, Institute of Logic, Language and Computation Publications, Amsterdam. pp. 57-72.
When Variables Don't Vary Enough, 1994. In Harvey, M. and L. Santelmann (eds.), Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory IV, Cornell. pp.35-60.
An Infinite Number of Monkeys, 1994. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 42(3), pp.253-270.
The Kinematics of Presupposition, 1992. In Dekker, P. and M. Stokhof (eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth Amsterdam Colloquium, Institute of Logic, Language and Computation Publications, Amsterdam. pp. 17-36.
Selected Talks
The optimal rate of miscommunication (with Chi-Hé Elder). Communication & Cognition 2017 (ComCog), University of Fribourg, Switzerland slides
What Projects and Why (with Craige Roberts, Mandy Simons, and Judith Tonhauser). Semantics and Linguistic Theory XX, Vancouver, May 2010.
It's not size that counts: an even more tentative theory of second occurrence focus. Keynote address at WCCFL, USC, February 2010.
On the logic of verbal modification (with Cleo Condoravdi). Keynote address at the Amsterdam Colloquium, December 2007.
Corpus Pragmatics: something old, something new. Keynote address at the Texas Linguistic Society, November 2005.
Before and After in a Nutshell (with Cleo Condoravdi). Aggregate handout from talks presented at Cornell, NYU, MIT and UCSC. Actual nutshell now resides at UCSC.
Time after Time (with Cleo Condoravdi). Less formal talk on temporal prepositions given as Outreach Lecture at Chronos, 2008
Research Interests
I research and teach on the semantics and pragmatics of natural languages.
The methodologies I use include computational studies of large corpora of text, experimental work, and theoretical modeling using tools from logic and statistics.
The main empirical topics I have worked on are:
- Presupposition (how what we take for granted is reflected in what we say)
- Anaphora (how words like pronouns pick up their meaning from prior context)
- Topic/Focus (the way that we use melody and other features to indicate the question being addressed and what the answer is).
I also have interests in temporal and event semantics, in the automatic extraction of psychological and social features in text and dialogue, and in broader philosophical, psychological and computational themes from cognitive science.
I am the author of "Presupposition and Assertion in Dynamic Semantics" (CSLI Publications, 2001), and joint author (with Brady Clark) of "Sense and Sensitivity: how focus determines meaning" (Blackwell/Wiley, 2008), and have also authored many journal articles and book chapters (mostly available for electronic download from my publications page).
Other Courses
University of Texas at Austin classes (2006 to present)
Spring 2011
Fall 2010
- LIN 380M: Semantics I
- UGS 303: Mind and Reason
- CGS 380/LIN 392/PHL 383C/PSY 394U/CS 395T: Introduction to Cognitive Science (GRAD)
Spring 2010
- CGS 360/LIN 373/PHL 365/PSY 341K: Introduction to Cognitive Science
Fall 2009
- LIN 380M: Semantics I
- UGS 303: Mind and Reason
Spring 2009
- CGS 360/LIN 373/PHL 365/PSY 341K: Introduction to Cognitive Science
- LIN 380M: Semantics I
Spring 2008
- CGS 360/LIN 373/PHL 365/PSY 341K: Introduction to Cognitive Science
- LIN 381S: Semantics II
Fall 2007
Spring 2007
- LIN 393S: Information and Intonation
- LIN 350: Language, Meaning and Context
Fall 2006
- LIN 381M: Semantics I
Stanford classes (1997 to 2005)
Fall 2005
- Linguist 230A: Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics
- Linguist 32N (Freshman Seminar): Mind, The Linguist!
Winter 2005
- LSA.129: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Focus
- LING 230A: Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics
Fall 2004
- Introduction to Linguistics
Spring 2004
- Introduction to Cognitive Science
- LING 230B: Semantics and Pragmatics II
Winter 2004
- LING 230A: Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics
- LING 233A: Presupposition and Context Dependence
Spring 2003
- SSP 100 / LIN 144: Introduction to Cognitive Science
- LING 230A: Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics
Winter 2003
- LING233: Focus and Focus Sensitivity
Spring 2001
Winter 2001
Spring 2000
September 2000
- Symbolic Systems Honors College
Winter 2000
- LING 130: Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics
Spring 1999
- LING 230B: More Semantics and Pragmatics
- LING 232: Intonation and Meaning (with Edward Flemming)
- LING 230B: More Semantics and Pragmatics
- Metaphors We Talk By
September 1999
- Symbolic Systems Honors College
Winter 1999
- LING 130: Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics
- LING 232: Intonation and Meaning (with Edward Flemming)
Spring 1998
May-July 1998
- Electronic Course in Dynamic Semantics
September 1998
- Symbolic Systems Honors College
Fall 1998
Winter 1998
- LING 130: Introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics
Fall 1997
Language Log Posts
My recent posts are here.
Search for pre-August 2008 LL contributions and mentions here.
Links to posts 11/2003 - 2/2007:
2007
- February 02, 2007: The Computational Linguistics Olympiad
- February 01, 2007: We accept cash
- January 31, 2007: Today's language knot: The stripped cleft sluice
- January 21, 2007: Lumps in the melting pot
2006
- October 18, 2006: Today's blog is brought to you by the letter R
- October 16, 2006: Language Log changes personality
- October 06, 2006: Armstrong's abbreviated article: Peter Shann Ford responds
- October 04, 2006: First Korean on the moon!
- October 03, 2006: Armstrong's abbreviated article: Notes from the expert
- October 03, 2006: Armstrong's abbreviated article: The smoking gun?
- October 02, 2006: One small step backwards
- September 21, 2006: Arrrstralopithicus
- August 25, 2006: Where's the beef?
- August 18, 2006: Denial of service attack
- August 18, 2006: Effing or Fucking?
- June 22, 2006: Ahem
- June 22, 2006: Extraterrestrial soccer report
- June 07, 2006: Mung gets Munged
- June 07, 2006: A sudden loss of innocence
- May 18, 2006: And people say we monkey around
- May 05, 2006: Francesco spells trouble
- May 04, 2006: On the internet nobody knows you are a space alien lizard
- April 29, 2006: Can you speak in rhinoceros?
- April 29, 2006: Wild? I was livid!
- April 28, 2006: Starlings linguists language loggers readers follow commented on the work of studied are damn smart!
- April 13, 2006: Police: Dead rapper fired first shot
- March 04, 2006: ... and the value of nothing
- February 26, 2006: New evidence for animal language...
2005
- August 02, 2005: Google gods: please make the * shine again!
- July 26, 2005: The the the and the thee the
- June 21, 2005: But how can you buy or sell a literary invention?
- June 18, 2005: Vietnamese restaurant and Google threaten strike?
- May 28, 2005: Pass the hat
- May 19, 2005: Juliet was wrong
- March 06, 2005: -*
- February 04, 2005: Rant
- January 29, 2005: Flag Waving
- January 29, 2005: Stark raven mad
- January 29, 2005: What is explanatory adequacy?
- January 28, 2005: Grammar is bad for kids
- January 28, 2005: Defecated to eggcorn fans everywhere
- January 24, 2005: Google recall (They stole his mind, now he wants it back.)
- January 09, 2005: ? taR .rM, siht si egaugnal tahW
2004
- December 09, 2004: Da da da
- September 07, 2004: Bisexual chic is back already
- August 26, 2004: BS conditional semantics and the Pinocchio effect
- August 24, 2004: Further adventures of Grice in Wonderland
- August 23, 2004: On not doing what you fail to understand a fictional Duchess told you not to
- July 21, 2004: Uphill and Downhill on the Alpe D'Huez Pitch Track
- July 11, 2004: A post post post toast post toast post toast post toast post
- July 10, 2004: Trapped on a toastless scope island
- July 01, 2004: Just so!
- June 29, 2004: NEWSFLASH: Safire reads Language Instinct
- June 23, 2004: Writing about writing about writing about writing about a film about Bush
- June 19, 2004: This is not your granddaughter's spelling bee
- May 13, 2004: To post verblessly is so jejune!
- May 08, 2004: An Escher Sentence in the wild
- April 24, 2004: Little words
- April 22, 2004: Henning Mangled
- April 15, 2004: Oop's I did it again
- April 03, 2004: Google's latest feature: the Counterexemplifier
- April 01, 2004: Just how good is the bible?
- March 02, 2004: There's no future in canoeing
2003
- December, 05, 2003: How far from the madding gerund? (100kG)
- December, 05, 2003: Re-naming and Necessity
- November 20, 2003: A shitload more brevity (The Maxims of Blog)