Semantics
In semantics we approach the theory of grammar from the side of meaning, with theoretical and experimental research in a range of areas, including modality, attitude verbs, speech acts, argument structure, causal constructions, quantification, and anaphora.
Grammars pair sounds or gestures with meaning. In semantics we approach the theory of grammar from the side of meaning. What sorts of meanings does the grammar yield and by what rules are these meanings assembled? Answering these questions involves us in others. What is the syntax, relative to which sound and meaning are paired? How do the meanings of expressions relate to acts of using expressions and to various aspects of cognition, especially those deployed immediately in communication? And how does semantic knowledge develop in children? At Maryland we address these questions with theoretical and experimental research in a range of areas, including modality, tense, aspect, argument structure, causal constructions, comparatives, attitude reports, implicature, presupposition, reference, number and quantification.
Our work proceeds in close collaboration with colleagues in syntax, acquisition and psycholinguistics. We have a special relation to the Department of Philosophy, with a long history of connections between the two. Alexander Williams is an Associate Professor in the department, Valentine Hacquard is an Affiliate Professor, and we work closely with others in the department, especially professors Paolo Santorio and Fabrizio Cariani. Philosophy at Maryland is strong not only in language, but also in logic and the philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Together with our students, we meet regularly at the Meaning Meeting.
Maryland is among a group of departments that participate in MACSIM, the annual Mid-Atlantic Colloquium of Studies in Meaning. Many of our semantics students also take courses in the Philosophy Department, and have led PHLING, a graduate student research group comprising students from the departments of linguistics and philosophy, which now continues as the Meaning Meeting.
Primary Faculty
Valentine Hacquard
Professor, Linguistics
Affliliate Professor, Philosophy
Member, Maryland Language Science Center
1401 F Marie Mount Hall
College Park
MD,
20742
Alexander Williams
Associate Professor, Linguistics
Associate Professor, Philosophy
Member, Maryland Language Science Center
1401 D Marie Mount Hall
College Park
MD,
20742
Secondary Faculty
Norbert Hornstein
Professor Emeritus, Linguistics
3416 G Marie Mount Hall
College Park
MD,
20742
Jeffrey Lidz
Professor and Chair, Linguistics
Member, Maryland Language Science Center
1413 Marie Mount Hall
College Park
MD,
20742
ActivitiesExplore more of our research activities
Word learning challenges explain nonadult possibility language comprehension in preschoolers
On the challenge of learning what "have to" means.
Author/Lead: Valentine HacquardNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Ailís Cournane (NYU, Anouk Dieuleveut (Maryland *21, Geneva), Chiar Repetti-Ludlow (*24, Carnegie Mellon)
This article presents two experiments testing English children’s understanding of the “force” of modals, asking whether they understand that can expresses possibility and have_to expresses necessity. Prior studies show that children tend to over-accept necessity modals in possibility situations and argue this behavior stems from conceptual difficulties reasoning about open possibilities. However, these studies typically test modal force using epistemic modality (knowledge-based), which is less input-frequent than nonepistemic modalities (actual-world priorities or goals) and involves speaker perspective-taking. Our results with more familiar teleological (goal-oriented) modality show that preschoolers have an adult-like understanding of possibility can, but they seem to treat necessity have_to as a possibility modal, in affirmative (Experiment 1) and arguably in negative sentences (Experiment 2). We take these systematic errors to call into question conceptual accounts. We argue that younger preschoolers’ difficulties with modal force are due to word-learning challenges: They treat necessity modals as possibility modals.
Thematic Content, Not Number Matching, Drives Syntactic Bootstrapping
Toddlers do not expect the structure of a sentence to match the structure of the concept under which they view its referent.
Contributor(s): Jeffrey Lidz, Alexander WilliamsNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Laurel Perkins *19, Tyler Knowlton *21
Children use correlations between the syntax of a clause and the meaning of its predicate to draw inferences about word meanings. On one proposal, these inferences are underwritten by a structural similarity between syntactic and semantic representations: learners expect that the number of clause arguments exactly matches the number of participant roles in the event concept under which its referent is viewed. We argue against this proposal, and in favor of a theory rooted in syntactic and semantic contents – in mappings from syntactic positions to thematic relations. We (i) provide evidence that infants view certain scenes under a concept with three participant relations (a girl taking a truck from a boy), and (ii) show that toddlers do not expect these representations to align numerically with clauses used to describe those scenes: they readily accept two-argument descriptions (“she pimmed the truck!”). This argues against syntactic bootstrapping theories underwritten by mappings between structural features of syntactic and semantic representations. Instead, our findings support bootstrapping based on grammatical and thematic content. Children’s earliest inferences may rely on the assumption that the syntactic asymmetry between subject and object correlates with a difference in how their referents relate to the event described by the sentence.
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Visual perception supports 4-place event representations: A case study of TRADING
Can adults visually represent a trading as a single event with four participants?
Contributor(s): Alexander Williams, Jeffrey LidzNon-ARHU Contributor(s): Ekaterina Khylstova (UCLA), Laurel Perkins (UCLA)
Events of social exchange, such as givings and tradings, are uniquely prevalent in human societies and cognitively privileged even at early stages of development. Such events may be represented as having 3 or even 4 participants. To do so in visual working memory would be at the limit of the system, which throughout development can track only 3 to 4 items. Using a case study of trading, we ask (i) whether adults can track all four participants in a trading scene, and (ii) whether they do so by chunking the scene into two giving events, each with 3 participants, to avoid placing the visual working memory system at its limit. We find that adults represent this scene under a 4-participant concept, and do not view the trade as two sequential giving events. We discuss further implications for event perception and verb learning in development.
Read More about Visual perception supports 4-place event representations: A case study of TRADING