This course is an introduction to intensional semantics, and is meant to be a follow-up to the introductory course on Formal Semantics. This course will provide a thorough and advanced introduction to the phenomenon of “intensionality” in natural language, the core techniques and results of intensional (often referred to as “possible-world”) semantics, as  well as discussion of various foundational issues and results in formal semantics. 

During the first three days we will examine in depth the semantics of sentential complements, the de re / de dicto distinction, and modal auxiliaries. Then, for the rest of the course and depending on the interests of the students, we will explore two among various topics so as to employ the analytic tools gained from these studies. Some such topics include, for instance, conditionals, interrogative clauses and tense/aspect morphology, concealed questions, etc.

Recommended textbook: https://web.mit.edu/fintel/fintel-heim-intensional.pdf