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Paper

Semantics of Spatial Expressions (from Semantics and Cognition), by Ray Jackendoff

WRT: 1 hour

Slides from classroom discusson of slides

Part A

Some advisory committees write reports that consist of an executive summary accompanied by something like 30 slides, which are supplemented by explanatory legends that supply useful detail beyond what is captured in the slides. If the slides are prepared according to 6.xxx maxims, the legends are essential, because the slides will be too telegraphic to be understood on their own. The legends range in length from a sentence to a page, tending to peak at a half page. This page, taken from a report of the Naval Research Advisory Committee, illustrates.

This format is the one to be used for the project report for those of you doing projects.

In this exercise, you are to try your hand at an abbreviated version of this format. In particular, you are to provide a slide show report on the thoughts of Jackendoff, except that:

• You are not to provide an executive summary
• You are not to produce more than a half dozen slides
• Your legends should be closer to a sentence than a page.

Include in your slides, or legends, or both, a demonstration that you have read and understood the paper.

You may borrow freely from illustrations that appear in the paper. If you use PowerPoint or Impress regularly, great but you need not fight with slide making software or fret about not having such software. You may cut and paste or roughly trace material from the paper or provide your own rough sketches of what you have in mind.

Part B

With a big red pencil, or equivalent, identify salient, slogan, symbol, and surprise (if any), in your slides or legends.