A study of linguistic change. Some general topics to be discussed are the genetic classification of languages; language families, language, and prehistory; reconstruction; types of sound change; types of semantic change; borrowing.

A hands-on introduction to statistical methods in linguistics using R. Topics covered include aggregation and summary, descriptive statistics, data visualization, hypothesis testing, regression analysis, and an introduction to hierarchical modeling. Students will gain experience with quantitative analysis of real-world linguistic data sets, including corpus data and experimental data, with emphasis on a connection to students¿ own theoretical research.

Course Description: LIN 572 explores how to plan & implement an instructional course in all its  phases. Although it‘s focus is on design of a one-semester college-level course, the theory and  implementation ideas developed are relevant and applicable to instruction in all educational  settings, including K-12 classes, and industrial, corporate and governmental training courses &  seminars. In a given semester LIN 572 will adopt a specific curriculum design framework and  will explore the practical creation of courses within that framework. 

In Spr 2022, LIN 572 will explore “Understanding by Design” (UbD), which takes an  unconventional, “backwards” approach. UbD begins from the desired course outcomes, then  moves to assessment, and only then moves to content design and instruction. UbD principles  will be develpoed in the context of a concrete joint task: designing an Introduction to Linguistics  course. Pursuing this task we will: develop a syllabus, curriculum guide, lesson plans,  classrooms activities, pedagogical strategies, etc. We will also explore alternative delivery  models, including standard lecture format, flipped classroom, blended classroom, etc. 

Course Objectives: 

• Gain theoretical understanding of, and practical experience with, course design in all its  phases.  
• Master the “Understanding by Design” framework, which includes: 

• • Identification of Desired Results (What should students know, understand, and be  able to do? What is the ultimate transfer sought as a result of this unit? What  enduring understandings are desired? What essential questions will be explored in depth and provide focus to all learning?)
  • Determination of Assessment Evidence (How will one know if students have  achieved the desired results? What will one accept as evidence of student  understanding and their ability to use (transfer) their learning in new situations?  How does one evaluate student performance in fair and consistent ways?)
  • Planning of Learning Experiences and Instruction (How does one support learners as  they come to understand important ideas and processes? How does one prepare  them to autonomously transfer their learning? What enabling knowledge and skills  will students need to perform effectively and achieve desired results? What  activities, sequence, and resources are best suited to accomplish the goals?) • Create a course of one’s own design. 

Course Work: The work for LIN 572 will involve: 

• Weekly lectures 
• Weekly readings in the textbook & occasional additional readings. 
• Weekly homework assignments. 
• One brief lesson taught by each individual student on a content unit of their choice. • A final project consisting of course designed by the student using UbD principles &  procedures studied in class. For PhD students this will be a college level course of any  kind. For MA students this will be an AP-level course and exam description.

A detailed consideration of recent developments in syntactic theory, including treatments of constituency and word order, grammatical relations, typological variation and linguistic universals, and constraints on grammatical rules and representations.

A study of recent developments in phonological theory, with particular attention to nonlinear models of phonological representation and constraint-based models.

An introduction to the theoretical foundation of computational linguistics. The course emphasizes the importance of algorithms, algebra, logic, and formal language theory in the development of new tools and software applications. Empirical phenomena in phonology and syntax are sampled from a variety of languages to motivate and illustrate the use of concepts such as strictly local string languages, tree transducers, and semirings. Students will develop familiarity with the literature and tools of the field.

Coming soon!

Alternative titles for this course are, in increasing order of presumptuousness: 

• Syntax beyond syntax 
• Rethinking syntax from the ground up 
• Syntax for a modern age 
• Syntax done right 

The premise is a simple one: every syntax course starts out with big picture questions — language acquisition, syntax as a window into the human mind, genetic endowment — and dangles those carrots in front of you to get you interested, but two weeks in they suddenly disappear and all you get is the stick of constituency tests and binding and linearization algorithms. This course develops an alternative vision of syntax that is all about the carrots. Make no mistake, if you want to analyze syntactic phenomena, there will be tons of opportunities for you, but this course presents a vision of linguistics where languages and their idiosyncracies are just a means to an end. 

We will cover a variety of topics, including: 

1. Why syntax is the least important aspect of language 
2. Why syntax is the most important aspect of language 
3. Why the competence-performance distinction is a red herring 
4. The problem of induction and the logical fallacy of constituency tests 
5. Why wh-agreement in Irish and Chamorro is like sibilant harmony in Slovenian 
6. How to make syntax probabilistic, and why it’s trivial 
7. The many ways to fail at syntactic learning 
8. Evolutionary pathways from Merge to Move 
9. What’s so special about parasitic gaps anyways? 
10. How to link syntax and processing, and how much (or little) syntax we need for that 11. High-level syntax without syntactic machinery 
11. Syntax beyond humans, syntax beyond cognition 
12. A thought-experiment: syntax in a world of perfect machine-learning 

But as so often, a picture says more than a thousand words: 

Don’t you worry, by the end of the course you’ll understand.

Information structure (IS) relates the referent of a word to the preceding discourse or narrative, distinguishing the referent as given, via prior mentions in discourse, or novel, introduced to discourse for the first time. Information status of a word has an effect on the choice of referring expressions, as well as on sentence intonation. In this course, we will investigate the acoustic-prosodic expression in read and spontaneous speech insofar as it relates to the information status of words and referring expressions. The course will introduce you to an IS annotation scheme which has been used to investigate the prosody-IS interface in diverse languages. You will also be invited to explore the acoustic-prosodic correlates of information status in a language of your choice by reviewing the relevant published research and analyzing a small sample of read/spontaneous speech data.

Instructor: Owen Rambow, owen.rambow@stonybrook.edu

We use language to convey our cognitive states (what we believe, desire, intend) and to affect our audience’s cognitive state (make them adopt a belief, desire, or intention).  Furthermore, we must model our fellow discourse participants’ cognitive state in order to be a cooperative discourse participant (the common ground).  There is a vast literature which covers this topic, spanning the disciplines of cognitive science, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, linguistics (semantics and pragmatics), philosophy, and social psychology.  Frequently, the terms used in different disciplines for the same concept are different, and authors are not always aware of related work.

In this seminar, we want to tackle this vast literature, but always with a view towards the computational modeling of cognitive state.  Language use is inherently dynamic: our cognitive state and our model of our discourse partners’ cognitive state are updated in response to the evolving discourse.  Understanding conversation means modeling change.  Core concepts we will cover include belief, desire, intentions; the common ground; presuppositions; argumentation; and belief and sentiment analysis in NLP.

The course readings and class presentations will cover three areas:

• The theoretical and experimental literature, sampled from the different disciplines mentioned above. 
• The existing annotated corpora and empirical resources available for studying this phenomenon (English, but there are also some resources in Spanish and Mandarin).
• The computational literature, including recent models based on neural methods.

Participants will be required to critically present several papers over the course of the semester, and work on a class project, possibly as part of a group.  Class projects will be tailored to the interests of the students, but they should include the use of existing annotated resources.  Possible projects include:

• Use machine learning to predict cognitive state (belief, sentiment, intention, common ground, or other aspects -- a lot of variants of this task are possible and interesting).
• Choose one or more theoretical papers and validate the claims made in them using the existing empirical resources, perhaps suggesting extensions or changes to the analyses as needed.
• Investigate how cognitive state relates to other aspects of interaction, such as politeness or power.
• Using a theoretical or experimental paper, determine a need for an annotated resource and perform initial steps towards creating such a resource.

Theory and practical methodology of language and literacy instruction and assessment to children and adolescents for whom English is not their first language, in alignment with current state, national, and professional standards. Inquiry into instructional approaches, standard-based and data-driven lesson planning, and reflective practices in the teaching and assessment of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Review and evaluation of resources and technologies. 3 credits, letter graded (A, A-, B+, etc)

Content-based language and literacy instruction and assessment to children and adolescents for whom English is not their first language, in alignment with current state, national, and professional standards. Teacher candidates design standard-based and data-driven curricular modules for teaching language through mathematics, the sciences and the social studies, engage in reflective and collaborative practices, and evaluate web-based technologies. 3 credits, letter graded (A, A-, B+, etc)

Study of the acquisition of a second language by children and adults. The focus is on data; the systematicity of the learner' errors, the ease of acquisition in childhood, etc., the adequacy of theories (e.g. Interlanguage processes, the monitor model, the critical period) to explain data, and the reliability of methods of obtaining data. Students conduct an empirical study testing a current hypothesis.

In-depth exploration of the theories of literacy and language development of native English speakers and students who are English language learners pre-school through grade 12. The development and assessment of literacy skills among children at various stages of learning development and across disciplines will be examined. Attention will also be given to children with special needs and the integration of technology in the development of literacy skills.

Study of the systematic errors made by foreign language learners and the potential of various linguistic theories to predict and account for these errors.

Course Description: LIN 572 explores how to plan & implement an instructional course in all its  phases. Although it‘s focus is on design of a one-semester college-level course, the theory and  implementation ideas developed are relevant and applicable to instruction in all educational  settings, including K-12 classes, and industrial, corporate and governmental training courses &  seminars. In a given semester LIN 572 will adopt a specific curriculum design framework and  will explore the practical creation of courses within that framework. 

In Spr 2022, LIN 572 will explore “Understanding by Design” (UbD), which takes an  unconventional, “backwards” approach. UbD begins from the desired course outcomes, then  moves to assessment, and only then moves to content design and instruction. UbD principles  will be develpoed in the context of a concrete joint task: designing an Introduction to Linguistics  course. Pursuing this task we will: develop a syllabus, curriculum guide, lesson plans,  classrooms activities, pedagogical strategies, etc. We will also explore alternative delivery  models, including standard lecture format, flipped classroom, blended classroom, etc. 

Course Objectives: 

• Gain theoretical understanding of, and practical experience with, course design in all its  phases.  
• Master the “Understanding by Design” framework, which includes: 

• • Identification of Desired Results (What should students know, understand, and be  able to do? What is the ultimate transfer sought as a result of this unit? What  enduring understandings are desired? What essential questions will be explored in depth and provide focus to all learning?)
  • Determination of Assessment Evidence (How will one know if students have  achieved the desired results? What will one accept as evidence of student  understanding and their ability to use (transfer) their learning in new situations?  How does one evaluate student performance in fair and consistent ways?)
  • Planning of Learning Experiences and Instruction (How does one support learners as  they come to understand important ideas and processes? How does one prepare  them to autonomously transfer their learning? What enabling knowledge and skills  will students need to perform effectively and achieve desired results? What  activities, sequence, and resources are best suited to accomplish the goals?) • Create a course of one’s own design. 

Course Work: The work for LIN 572 will involve: 

• Weekly lectures 
• Weekly readings in the textbook & occasional additional readings. 
• Weekly homework assignments. 
• One brief lesson taught by each individual student on a content unit of their choice. • A final project consisting of course designed by the student using UbD principles &  procedures studied in class. For PhD students this will be a college level course of any  kind. For MA students this will be an AP-level course and exam description.

Investigation and evaluation of instructional planning and assessment aligned with current state, national, and professional standards. Teacher candidates practice content-based curriculum development, and use of technologies for language and literacy development among English language learners and reflect on their teaching in multi-level classrooms. Partnerships with colleagues, parents and the respective communities are explored. 3 credits, letter graded (A, A-, B+, etc)

Exploration, inquiry, and practice of English language instruction strategies and approaches. Prerequisite: Admission to MA TESOL Teacher Education Program.

Observation and practice of data-driven language and literacy instruction and assessment across disciplines for children and adolescents for whom English is not their first language. Teacher candidates are placed in diverse educational settings in pre-elementary through secondary levels for 50 hours of field experience. 1 credit, S/U grading May be repeated for credit.

TESOL teacher candidates receive supervised practice teaching by arrangements with selected schools across the region. The student teacher reports to the school to which he or she is assigned each full school day for the entire semester. Applications must be filed in the academic year preceding that in which the teacher candidate plans to take the course. 3 credits, S/U grading.

TESOL teacher candidates receive supervised practice teaching by arrangement with selected schools across the region. The student teacher reports to the school to which he or she is assigned each full school day for the entire semester. Applications must be filed in the academic year preceding that in which the teacher candidate plans to take the course. 3 credits, S/U grading.