The Logic Lecture

My account of last year's lecture

Tonight was the annual Alice Ambrose/Tom Tymoczko Logic Lecture, given by Barbara Partee, a very well-known semanticist. It was really great. First we had hors d'oeuvres and mingling in the Dewey Common Room, and I was not the only student this year, which was kind of a relief but also a little disappointing. I felt so special last year. Two other TAs were there and they're both very nice and one of them is from China, so we talked about that, and Professor Partee talked to us and so did John Connolly, who is really super cool. Then we all went into dinner and Jay offered us wine and Julia burst out with, "REALLY?" Yes, really. We each got two inches of white wine in plastic cups just like big girls. Jay was at our table, as was Barbara Partee, and so we got to talk to her, which was nice.

This was the first year I really understood the lecture, which was about negation and intentionality in Russian and English. Because of the Russian aspect, Kendra came, and I hope she was able to get some enjoyment from it because I certainly did. It touched on so many things we've discussed this year in my seminar, and there was also a lot of talk about quantifiers which is, of course, what I've been working on all semester with these goshdarn children and teachers who refuse to let them out of the classroom for five minutes and don't seem to understand that that's why we have a campus school. Ahem.

This was just the sort of thing I needed, because at this point in the semester I'm finding myself growing increasingly apathetic about everything, and now I'm all excited about negation and all I want to do is study logic and be Barbara Partee when I grow up.