Dear students,

Welcome to the course of English semantics. This year we are especially happy to
welcome you here and we sincerely hope that you and your dear ones are doing fine
and are in good health.

As you might have already seen, this course is based on the textbook 'Semantics' by
John I. Saeed, the 4th edition. Please note that the 4th edition differs, in some parts
quite considerably, from the previous editions and thus you might not cover all the
obligatory course material if you use one of the earlier editions. Apart from that, the
exercises might also be different and you might not follow all the discussions in the
forum. In our messages we (the Teaching Team) will always refer to pages, chapters,
sections and exercises of the 4th edition, so you should all use the recommended
edition to avoid any confusion and misunderstanding.

As specified in the study guide for this subject, the course will include one
intermediate test (prueba de evaluación continua/ PEC), which will consist of a short
essay that you will have to write and/or a couple of open questions that you will have
to answer to demonstrate your familiarity with some of the main concepts of the
subject and your capacity to express and explain some fundamental semantic
properties of language. This test is not obligatory but you are strongly encouraged
to take it to show your familiarity with the subject. Moreover, and from a more
practical point of view, this will help you better prepare for the final exam, which will
consist of both theoretical and more practical questions covering all the contents of
the subject. More information on the exams will be posted later on, once we know
the format of the exam this year. Please make sure that you keep track of all the
new information that will appear in the forum of general inquiries and the main course
page.

Should you have any practical or organizational question or doubt, please use the
appropriate forum (general queries/consultas generales) to post your query. For
questions related to the contents of the course please use specific content-related
forums.

We wish you all a very successful term and hope that this subject will be interesting,
motivating and thought provoking.

And, of course, STAY SAFE!

All the best,

Teaching staff