Global Arc

Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary area that lies at the intersection of formal linguistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. This course introduces core computational methods and concepts in the analysis of strings, grammars and logical inference. Two 90-minute classes.

This course is an introduction to the science of speech sounds (phonetics) and sound systems (phonology). Students will 1) learn how sounds from a wide variety of languages are produced, and learn to produce and transcribe them; 2) understand and analyze the acoustic properties of speech sounds using (free) software; 3) understand the unconscious knowledge speakers have of the rules and constraints that govern their native language's sound system; 4) extract phonological generalizations from phonetic data from various languages; 5) learn about the similarities and differences between the sound systems of the world's languages.

Syntax is the aspect of human language involved in building phrases out of words. How do words combine - like beads on a string? Are words the smallest building blocks of phrases? How can we make predictions about what is possible and impossible in these structures? This course aims to answer these questions while focusing on the methods linguists use to analyze natural language expressions. Explorations of universal properties of language structures, as well as the ways in which those structures can vary. Strong emphasis on building and testing hypotheses on the basis of both language data and foundational principles of the field.

The central issues and leading theories of linguistic semantics for natural languages. Analyses of specific linguistic phenomena will be used to illustrate the interaction of syntax and semantics, the relation between language and the world, and the role of linguistic meaning in communication and understanding. Prerequisite: 201 or instructor's permission.

Human language viewed from a social perspective. Topics will include social difference in the use of language, and linguistic differences as a function of geography, social group membership, and social status.

This course delves into the internal composition of words (morphology) across languages. What is a word? What can be inside of a word? Do all languages build words in the same way(s), with the same sorts of ingredients? How similar is word-building to sentence-building? We will engage deeply with both the empirical and theoretical side of this topic, exploring not just morphology, but also its interactions with phonology (sound systems) and syntax (sentence structure). This class is highly interactive and hands-on. Students will develop tools of analysis and argumentation that are applicable in all areas of linguistics and beyond.

Intonation is used in a language like English for several purposes. Different intonation contours signal different sentence types--questions, for example, have systematically different "tunes" from declarative statements, as do rebuttals, heges, and other speech-act types. In addition, the placement of the intonation nucleus signals what is new and what is old information, as in the difference between "JOHN died" and "John DIED." The course explores the principles of phonology, syntax, semantics and discourse structure that constitute our present understanding of such phenomena, both in English and across different language types.

This course covers the linguistic, psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, and sociolinguistic aspects of bilingualism. We examine language acquisition in monolingual and bilingual children, the notion of "critical age" for language acquisition, definitions and measurements of bilingualism, and the verbal behavior of bilinguals such as code-switching. We consider the effects of bilingualism on other cognitive domains, including memory, and examine neurolinguistic evidence comparing the brains of monolinguals and bilinguals. Societal and governmental attitudes toward bilingualism in countries like India and the U.S. are contrasted.

This course explores intonation (the melodic patterns of sentences), addressing questions like: What does punctuation (e.g., a comma) sound like? How can we measure intonation, acoustically? How is intonation different from "tone" in languages like Mandarin? How do we transcribe intonation and analyze it? Students learn how to use laboratory methods and computer software to study intonation in spoken languages. (We focus on Mainstream American English but study other languages/dialects as well.) We also examine how intonational features relate to other aspects of language, such as sentence structure, linguistic meaning, and social context.

What does it mean to understand an utterance? By producing and hearing utterances, we learn new things about the world and about the interlocutors, and communicate our own beliefs and desires. How does this happen? What types of inferences do we make in the process? This course provides an overview of how linguistics meaning and inferences have been analyzed from various angles. We will investigate key issues concerning 'meaning' in compositional/lexical semantics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. Topics will comprise types of linguistic inferences, and connections between language and time, causation and identity.