Laurence R. Horn - Teaching
Spring 2008
146b/546b/PSYC329b: Language, Sex & Gender
Sex-based asymmetries in language structure and language use. Role of language as
encoding/reflecting/reinforcing social attitudes and behavior; the Whorfian question. The
"he/man" lexicon: sex-marking, reform, and resistance. Gender and sexual diversity as linguistic
variables. Real and perceived differences between male and female dialects, conversational
styles, and linguistic communities.
290b/690b Negation and Polarity
The grammar and meaning of negation and negative polarity. The asymmetry of negation vs.
affirmation. Semantic and pragmatic factors in the meaning of negative sentences: contradictory
vs. contrary opposition; conditions on affixal negation; metalinguistic vs. descriptive uses of
negation. The cross-linguistic representation of sentence negation; NegP and negative heads; the
Neg-criterion. Negative concord and double negation. The roles of configuration, scope,
entailment, and implicature in the licensing of polarity items. Prerequisite: some background in
syntax, semantics, and/or pragmatics, or permission of instructor.
