Language and Logic Courses
Advanced Course
Formal Semantics of Pictorial Narratives,
Dorit Abusch (Cornell University, USA) and Mats Rooth (Cornell University, USA)
Week 1, 17:00 – 18:30, Room 247A, Floor 2 Room 292, Floor 4
The class looks at current research on the semantics and pragmantics of pictorial narratives such as comics, emphasizing methods of possible worlds semantics and dynamic semantics. Such narratives show intriguing parallels with natural language narratives, and equally intriguing differences. Topics include propositional semantics for pictures, indexing, temporal progression, sentences that describe pictures, and explicit and implicated intensionality.
Overview slides from the first day are at http://conf.ling.cornell.edu/mr249/esslli-pictorial-overview.pdf.
TOpics
- Anaphora / Indexing Monday
- Temporal relations and aspect Tuesday
- Dynamic semantics Wednesday
- Pictorial free perception Thursday
- Sentences describing pictures, viewpoint-centered semantic values Friday
Readings
- Abusch (2015) Possible worlds semantics for pictures
- Greenberg (2013) Beyond resemblance
- McCloud (1993) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
- Greenberg (2017) The geometry of pictorial representation
- Abusch (2012) Applying discourse semantics and pragmatics to coreference in picture sequences
- Dehejia (1997) Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India
- Abusch (2014) Temporal succession and aspectual type in visual narrative
- Dekker (2012) Dynamic Semantics
- Abusch and Rooth (2017) The formal semantics of free perception in pictorial narratives
- Cumming, Greenberg, and Kelly (2017) Conventions of viewpoint coherence in film
- Eckardt (2015) The Semantics of Free Indirect Discourse
- Hinterwimmer (2017) Two kinds of perspective taking in narrative texts
- Rooth and Abusch (2017) Picture descriptions and centered content
- Ross (1997) Semantics of Media