Contents

Introduction

Introduction

One of the most successful programs in semantics has been the identification of meaning universals. Recently, there has been a surge in research combining semantic and cognitive science to explain the origins of such universals. We will introduce this current and theoretically rich debate, taking this opportunity to teach computational methods to study language and cognition, e.g., learning models, minimal-description length, or information theory. We will start with an overview of the linguistic debates about universals. Then, we will focus on the universals that evolve from increasing learnability and reducing complexity. We will discuss iterated learning as a mechanism connecting learnability and language-level patterns. Next, we will present the pressure towards languages that are optimized for communication. Finally, we will discuss the universals emerging as a tradeoff between these pressures. Throughout, we will use convexity in nominal semantics and the universals of quantification as case studies.

Table of contents

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Lectures

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Acknowledgments