Schedule 25/26
View our complete schedule of linguistics short courses across all three terms. All courses are taught by UCL Linguistics PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Visit the UCL Linguistics Short Courses homepage for more information.
Term 1 Courses
Presupposition
Instructor: Timothy Jantarungsee
Duration: 7 sessions
Format: In-person
| Session | Topic | Date/Time/Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Empirical properties of presuppositions [Handout PDF] |
Wed 29th Oct, 14:00-15:00, CH G06 |
| 2 | Satisfaction Theory I [Handout PDF] Readings: If you have little and are lazy: Heim (1988) On the Projection Problem for Presuppositions If you have a bit more time: Above + Kadmon (1990) Chapter 6 If you're a nerd: Both above + Rothschild (2011); Beaver (2001) Part II; Heim (1982) |
Thu 30th Oct, 11:00-12:00, CH G06 |
| 3 | Satisfaction Theory II [Handout PDF] Readings: Same as Session 2, plus: Geurts (1996) Local satisfaction guaranteed: A presupposition theory and its problems Mandelkern (2016) Dissatisfaction theory |
Thu 6th Nov, 11:00-12:00, Room 101 |
| 4 | Trivalent Theories & the Definite Descriptor [Handout PDF] Readings: Coppock & Champollion (2025) Invitation to Formal Semantics, pp. 328-358 Beaver (2001) Presupposition and Assertion in Dynamic Semantics, Chapter 2 |
Thu 13th Nov, 11:00-12:00, Room 204, 40 Bernard Street |
| 5 | Cross-linguistic presupposition [Handout PDF] Readings: Lisa Matthewson. Presuppositions and Cross-Linguistic Variation (2006) Lisa Matthewson. Pronouns, Presuppositions, and Semantic Variation (2009) |
Thu 27th Nov, 11:00-12:00, CH G06 |
| 6 | Middle Kleene and bi-dimensional semantic accounts [Handout PDF] Readings: Benjamin R. George. Some remarks on certain trivalent accounts of presupposition projection (2014) Karttunen & Peters. Conventional implicature (1979) Kadmon (2001) - sections on K&P account |
Thu 27th Nov, 11:00-12:00, CH G06 |
| 7 | Presuppositions as Anaphora and Proof-Theoretic Semantics [Handout PDF] Readings: van der Sandt (1992) Presupposition Projection as Anaphora Resolution Krahmer & Piwek (1999) Presupposition Projection as Proof Construction Geurts, Beaver & Maier (2024) Discourse Representation Theory |
Thu 11th Dec, 17:00-18:00, CH B07 |
Introduction to Morphology
Instructor: Abdullah Almuhaysh
Duration: 5 sessions
Format: In-person
| Session | Topic | Date/Time/Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What Is Morphology About? | 5th Nov, 15:00-16:00, Room 201 CH |
| 2 | More Morphological Phenomena | 12th Nov, 15:00-16:00, Room G03 CH |
| 3 | The Morphology and Phonology Interface | 19th Nov, 15:00-16:00, Room 301 CH |
| 4 | Morphosyntax: The Morphology and Syntax Interface | 26th Nov, 17:00-18:00, Room 201 CH |
| 5 | Morphological Universals: *ABA and Greenberg Universal 20 | 3rd Dec, 15:00-16:00, Room 201 CH |
Term 2 Courses
Topics in Experimental Pragmatics
Instructors: Erying Qin, Joseph Keir Petrie, Dr. Shenshen Wang
Duration: 5 sessions
Format: In-person
| Session | Topic | Date/Time/Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction to experimental pragmatics | Mon 16th Feb 2026, 14:00-15:00, Room 116 CH |
| 2 | Why Are Negative Sentences Hard to Process? | Tue 17th Feb 2026, 14:00-15:00, Room 116 CH |
| 3 | Context and More: Open Questions for the Dynamic Pragmatic Theory | Wed 18th Feb 2026, 14:00-15:00, Room 116 CH |
| 4 | Question: what questions tell us about pragmatic language skills | Thu 19th Feb 2026, 14:00-15:00, Room 116 CH |
| 5 | Perspective-taking in implicature derivation: what developmental studies tell us about pragmatic inferences | Fri 20th Feb 2026, 14:00-15:00, Room 116 CH |
Syntax | NP Ellipsis
Instructor: Andrew Duy La
Duration: 5 sessions
Format: In-person
| Session | Topic | Date/Time/Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction to NPE | Wed 25th Feb 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 116 CH |
| 2 | The nature of the gap in NPE | Wed 4th Mar 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 116 CH |
| 3 | Deriving the gap in NPE | Wed 11th Mar 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 116 CH |
| 4 | Licensing of NPE | Wed 18th Mar 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 116 CH |
| 5 | NPE in classifier languages | Wed 25th Mar 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 116 CH |
Meaning in Use: Applications of Pragmatics
Instructor: Saki Stait
Duration: 5 sessions
Format: In-person
| Session | Topic | Date/Time/Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slurs and the 'Pejoration treadmill' | Thu 26th Feb 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room B07 CH |
| 2 | Linguistics as a Foundation for Legal Reasoning I Guest speaker: Hedi Baghi |
Thu 5th Mar 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 201 CH |
| 3 | Linguistics as a Foundation for Legal Reasoning II Guest speaker: Hedi Baghi |
Thu 12th Mar 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 201 CH |
| 4 | Introduction to Discourse Analysis and Speech Act Theory Guest speaker: Grace Buckingham |
Thu 19th Mar 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 201 CH |
| 5 | Pragmatics: The Key That Opens the Door to Implicature — and So Much More Guest speaker: Xinxin Yan |
Thu 26th Mar 2026, 16:00-17:00, Room 201 CH |
Term 3 Courses
Term 3 schedule will be published soon. Please join our mailing list to receive updates.