Nouns and Adjectives

Overview

Our plan in this class is twofold. On the one hand, we want to go through some classics and some recent work on noun meaning, on adjectives, and on noun-adjective interactions. On the other hand, we want to ask some very general questions about the nature of lexical categories, taking nouns and adjectives as our case studies.

Requirements

Everyone who attends the class is expected to do the reading and participate in the discussion. Students taking the course for credit must also 1) choose one of the readings marked with a "*" and prepare a 15-minute presentation of the core issues, ideas and arguments; 2) write a research paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructors. The paper is due at the end of finals week.

The Plan

The following is a rough week-by-week plan for the course. We very well may end up diverging from it depending on the progress we make and the particular topics that people express interest in, but this provides a starting point. Since we want to allow for a certain amount of flexibility, depending on the interests and pace of the class, please check the class website regularly for updates of readings and handouts.