An overview of the mathematical foundations of theoretical and computational linguistics. Topics covered include set theory, morphisms, logic and model theory, algebra, lattices, lambda calculus, probability theory, information theory, and basics of formal language theory. A strong emphasis is put on the linguistic application of the mathematical concepts in the student and analysis of natural language data.

 

In this seminar. we will examine the syntax of various "inversion" constructions, found in many languiages, those in which some VP-internal (or small clause-internal) phrase appears in pre-verbal position, followed by the verb and then the subject. The constructions include Locative Inversion, Predicate Inversion, Quotative Inversion, certain cleft and expletive constructions, OVS constructions in SVO languages, and others. We will examine the core properties of these constructions – and look at various analyses throughout the history of generative grammar of how Inversion constructions are derived.

Phonological representations play key roles in our understanding of phonological generalizations in languages. We will study a variety of representations in phonology and its interfaces, particularly with phonetics and morphology. We will aim to understand how the choice of representation impacts phonological analyses in a variety of frameworks. This class will be research-oriented and guided by students' particular interests.

An overview of the acquisition of morphology as a computational problem. Topics covered will include a characterization of the primary linguistic data, stages that child learners go through as they acquire their morphologies, and learning algorithms that have been proposed for various aspects the acquisition process, including segmentation, inflection, and paradigm discovery.

An overview of the mathematical foundations of theoretical and computational linguistics. Topics covered include set theory, morphisms, logic and model theory, algebra, lattices, lambda calculus, probability theory, information theory, and basics of formal language theory. A strong emphasis is put on the linguistic application of the mathematical concepts in the student and analysis of natural language data.

The internal structure of words and the place of the word in syntax, phonology, and the lexicon. A variety of analytical methods -- distributional, experimental, and computational-- will be introduced.

This course is an introduction to the formal analysis of natural language semantics, particularly within the framework of generative grammar. It aims to help students develop the ability for semantic analysis essential for their own research. During the course, students will gain hands-on experience with semantic analysis by exploring selected topics in detail, such as predication, modification, conjunction, negation, and quantification.

When speakers are exposed to a new language, they are often confronted with structures that they have not previously encountered, and the ways in which they produce and perceive these new structures may provide insight into the nature of their native language grammars as well as potential universal biases. We will consider data along the continuum of language contact, ranging from the adaptation of borrowed words by speakers with no prior knowledge of the lending language through the behavior of true bilinguals.

An introduction to Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP). Arabic is an interesting language with complex morphology and dialectal variation, both of which pose problems for standard approaches to NLP. The course will cover linguistic facts of Arabic, existing corpus resources, and existing computational solutions to standard problems such as morphological analysis, morphological tagging, syntactic parsing, and application topics such as sentiment analysis.

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.

This course examines first language acquisition by children and adults. Course topics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics of first language acquisition; acquisition of signed and spoken languages; comparison of monolingual and bilingual language development; atypical language development. Course assignments include analyses of child data drawn from the CHILDES corpus.  

This course is a follow–up to previous work in syntax.  We will consider in greater detail various general topics in syntax that concern some of the major structures that have been discussed in the syntactic literature.  Readings will be drawn from classical and contemporary syntactic research, and we’ll look at raising & control, relative clauses, and restructuring, as well as topics that you may be considering for QPs and/or your own research.  We’ll spend 3-4 weeks on each topic, with time at the end for presentations of your final papers.

The class will survey a wide range of computational approaches to problems in historical linguistics and language change. Each week will consist of discussion on a new topic: students will gain an understanding of the range of problems in historical linguistics and the strengths and weaknesses of existing treatments and will begin to consider how their individual computational expertise may be broad to bear on these problems in the future.

An in-depth survey of natural phonology from a computational perspective. Topics vary by year and may include formal language theory (subregular hierarchy, finite-state transductions), computation modeling (maximum entropy grammars, Hidden Markov Models), and machine learning.

 

 

This seminar will explore the syntax of Prepositional Phrases from a comparative point of view and considering recent theoretical developments. We will examine critically cartographic and non-cartographic approaches and explore the possibilities of extraction out of PP´s in view of Phase Theory. Time permitting, we will link prior studies of PP´s to the syntax of existential constructions. Students are required to write a squib by the end of the semester based on their language or a language of their choice. 

An overview of the mathematical foundations of theoretical and computational linguistics. Topics covered include set theory, morphisms, logic and model theory, algebra, lattices, lambda calculus, probability theory, information theory, and basics of formal language theory. A strong emphasis is put on the linguistic application of the mathematical concepts in the student and analysis of natural language data.

This course explores linguistic prosody with focus on its relation with syntax and semantics. Topics include recent theories on syntax-phonology and semantics-phonology interface. Students will explore the prosodic patterns of the languages of their own interest to apply and evaluate theories. Students will also learn experimental methods for prosody research and computational analysis of speech. 

 

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.

A study of the computational challenges that arise in the interpretation of natural language utterances. Students are introduced to the logical description of sentence meaning and how these descriptions can be constructed in an algorithmic fashion. The course includes a significant programming component. The selection of topics varies from year to year and may include propositional and first-order logic, typed logics, model theory and model checking, mereology, intensional semantics, quantifier scope, pronoun resolution, discourse representation, scalar implicatures, game-theoretic pragmatics, lexical semantics, and Bayesian inference.

In adult second language learners, the second language phonetics is often produced through apparent modification of the L1 system. Seeing how the learner’s sound system changes gives us clues about many aspects of sound structure, including the relative plasticity and stability of categories. This seminar is designed to be accessible to a wide range of students. Activities will include reading of representative papers, tutorials in articulation, aerodynamics, acoustics, and sociophonetics, and hands-on analysis of data of interest to the student. The overall goal for the class is for all students to develop a solid sense of how to read and evaluate work in the field, and to get there through active engagement. Students taking the course for the regular 3 credits will participate regularly and actively, and will complete one individual project which will include written work and a short overview presentation to the class; alternative credit arrangements can be discussed the first week of classes. The exact content of readings, activities and assignments will depend on the interests and strengths of the students. 

The seminar will consider syntax-PF interactions, broadly conceived.  Some topics we'll look at are hierarchical representation and linearization, spellout and phases, ellipsis, syntactic copying and reduplication, and intonation.  Particular emphases will be determined by the interests of the participants.

Requirements:  do the reading, participate in discussion, write a couple short pieces and a longer research paper.  Those taking the course for partial credit are welcome and will be asked to do a subset of the work.

Much phonological research focuses on the extent and limits of cross-linguistic variation in the mapping of meaning to sound and the question of whether cross-linguistic preferences for certain patterns can be explained by articulatory and/or perceptual factors. We will examine typological generalizations in various areas of phonological theory as well as formal and functional explanations for these generalizations. The specific topics covered will be determined to some extent by student interest, but may include the following: vowel and consonant inventories; syllable structure, including positional restrictions on particular classes of sounds; stress, pitch accent, and tone; phonology-morphology interactions such as reduplication, templatic morphology, and word size restrictions; and intonation systems. 

An overview of the mathematical foundations of theoretical and computational linguistics. Topics covered include set theory, morphisms, logic and model theory, algebra, lattices, lambda calculus, probability theory, information theory, and basics of formal language theory. A strong emphasis is put on the linguistic application of the mathematical concepts in the student and analysis of natural language data.

Course Description

Morphology is the study of words, word formation, and word analysis. This course is about computational morphology, which is the study of these topics from a computational perspective.

One of the most influential approaches today, and the one that drives much of the software on laptops and smartphones, is based on finite-state technology. Much of the course is dedicated to understanding how this technology works, to understanding how it relates to linguistic theories of morphology, and to becoming a proficient user of this technology for morphological analysis.

Course Objectives

The goal of this course is to become familiar with both the theory and the practice of computational methods of morphological analysis and recognition. In particular we study weighted finite-state transducers and the composition operation, which generalizes many morphological processes including concatenation, truncation, root-and-pattern morphology and others. We pay special attention to irregular morphology and exceptions. Students will learn to use the grammar libraries Thrax and Pynini that are part of the openFST toolkit

http://www.openfst.org/twiki/bin/view/FST/WebHome

In addition to these core topics, depending on the students' interests, additional topics covered include higher-level logical and DATR-like descriptions of morphology and the machine learning of morphology.

Course website

jeffreyheinz.net/classes/18F/

Experimental work has the potential to expand the observed range of human linguistic behavior, potentially adjudicating between competing theories about the cognitive machinery that generates and regulates our phonology and morphology. Artificial language experiments aim to expose linguistic biases that cannot be easily observed in existing languages; but do they tell us anything specifically about Universal Grammar, or do they merely expand our understanding of the human mind? We will try to get closer to the answer this semester. 

In this seminar we will look at issues involving three (related) topics in syntactic theory: islands, edges, and phases. The first of these will involve going back a bit into the syntactic literature to cover early discussion of islandhood, including subjacency and barriers, and then look at how some island effects are (or are not) covered under minimalism.
Edges and phases will then be discussed with respect to issues of successive cyclic movement, tucking-in, phasehood, dynamic phase theory, and relevant aspects of cartography.

Requirements: weekly readings, discussions, occasional short written responses, and a research paper (which can be joint work with others in the class)

Auditors (and folk taking it for less than 3 credits) are welcome. In order of priority, auditors are expected to (i) come to class (ii) do the primary readings (iii) do the short writing assignments (iv) be part of at least joint research project.

Readings:
• Chomsky, Noam (1986) Barriers
• Adger, D., de Cat, C., and Tsoulas, G.(eds) (2004) Peripheries: syntactic edges and their effects.
• Numerous recent articles on syntactic movement