This seminar consists of three self-contained units, each devoted to a distinct topic in philosophy of language. Each unit runs four weeks witha fixed structure. The first meeting covers foundations and classic papers. The second focuses on the most important recent contribution: a core paper or an excerpt from a recent book. The third and fourth meetings take up further contributions and recent responses. Here are the units with the recent contribution explicitly indicated.

Unit 1. Polysemy. Many words seem to have several distinct but related meanings: a book can be heavy (the physical object) and also boring (thecontent). What does it mean for a word to have multiple, related meanings, and what follows for the theory of meaning? (Liebesman & Magidor, Pr operty Versatility and Copredication ; Pietroski, ConjoiningMeanings)

Unit 2. Question-sensitive semantics for desire ascriptions. Whether "Ann wants to take the train" sounds true seems to depend on which alternatives are being considered. Is the meaning of want sensitive to a background question or set of options, and how should the semantics of desire relate to decision theory? (Phillips-Brown, "What Does Decision Theory Have to Do with Wanting?"; Blumberg & Hawthorne, "Desire")

Unit 3. Update and underspecification. Speakers often use context- sensitive expressions without settling exactly what they mean, and communication still seems to go fine. How does a conversation update when what is said is left underspecified, and what does this show about the relationship between meaning, context, and communication? (Egan & Sundell, "All Update Is Goat Update"; King, Felicitous Underspecification)

The seminar is open to students at all levels of technical background. Units 1 and 3 are approachable with no formalism at all. Unit 2 is more technical, but exposure to basic ideas in semantics and decision theory will be enough, and those will be