Introduction to the Study of Language for Computer Scientists

2023/2024

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

3

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент больших данных и информационного поиска

Статус:

Курс по выбору

Когда читается:

4-й курс, 1 модуль

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Language is a characteristic property of human cognition, and theoretical linguistics aims to understand what the knowledge of language is, how it is obtained and how it is used. The present course discusses the nature of the knowledge of language, its relation to learning, linguistic diversity and universals, and introduces the fundamentals of linguistic analysis. It also surveys some of the contemporary language-related tools and highlights their successes and limitations.

Learning Objectives

• The course acquaints students with the objectives and methods of contemporary theoretical linguistics.
• The course aims to develop the basic analytical skills that are required for adequately addressing various problems at various levels of language (grammar, meaning, sound/sign).

Expected Learning Outcomes

• familiarity with basic units of language (feature, phoneme, morpheme, word, phrase, clause)
• familiarity with the fundamentals of dependency grammar
• familiarity with the fundamentals of categorial grammar
• ability to discuss phrase structure rules and projection
• ability to name criteria for the identification of syntactic units
• ability to describe a system of argument structure representation
• ability to distinguish heads from their dependents
• ability to represent an arbitrary sentence in terms of constituent structure
• ability to exemplify natural-language data underpinning linguistic theory
• familiarity with computational tools in relation to natural-language tasks
• ability to understand and discuss the range of issues at the core of the course

Course Contents

• Knowledge of language: what it is and what it isn’t
• Units of language
• Representing grammatical knowledge
• Language in society
• Computational tools

Assessment Elements

• Weekly mini-tests
• Written exam
• Homework

Interim Assessment

• 2023/2024 1st module
  0.25 * Homework + 0.35 * Weekly mini-tests + 0.4 * Written exam

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Carnie, A. (2012). Syntax : A Generative Introduction (Vol. 3rd ed). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=531592

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Pinker, S. (2013). Learnability and Cognition : The Acquisition of Argument Structure (Vol. New ed). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=585970