Courses

The Autumn Quarter of this sequence explores the role of language in articulating, maintaining, and subverting power relations in society. Some of the questions we discuss include: How does language support structures of power and privilege? How does language shape our assumptions and beliefs? How does language motivate us to act or keep us from acting? Is language a basic human right? How does language influence the ways we think about race, gender, sexual orientation, and species? How do we use language to perceive or shape the identity of others? Typical texts used include George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

Crosslistings: COGS 22000

This course offers a brief survey of how linguists analyze the structure and the use of language. Looking at the structure of language means understanding what phonemes, words, and sentences are, and how each language establishes principles for the combinations of these things and for their use; looking at the use of language means understanding the ways in which individuals and groups use language to declare their social identities and the ways in which languages can change over time. The overarching theme is understanding what varieties of language structure and use are found across the world's languages and cultures, and what limitations on this variety exist.

Crosslistings: COGS 22000

This course offers a brief survey of how linguists analyze the structure and the use of language. Looking at the structure of language means understanding what phonemes, words, and sentences are, and how each language establishes principles for the combinations of these things and for their use; looking at the use of language means understanding the ways in which individuals and groups use language to declare their social identities and the ways in which languages can change over time. The overarching theme is understanding what varieties of language structure and use are found across the world's languages and cultures, and what limitations on this variety exist.

What is the relationship between physical processes in the brain and body and the processes of thought and consciousness that constitute our mental life? Philosophers and others have puzzled over this question for millennia. Many have concluded it to be intractable. In recent decades, the field of cognitive science--encompassing philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, and other disciplines--has proposed a new form of answer. The driving idea is that the interaction of the mental and the physical may be understood via a third level of analysis: that of the computational. This course offers a critical introduction to the elements of this approach, and surveys some of the alternative models and theories that fall within it. Readings are drawn from a range of historical and contemporary sources in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and computer science. (B) (II)

Cross-lists: LING 36520,PHIL 26520,PHIL 36520,PSYC 26520,PSYC 36520,LING 26520,SIGN 26520,EDSO 20001,COGS 30001,EDSO 30001

Instructor: Melinh Lai

This course offers a brief survey of how linguists analyze the structure and the use of language. Looking at the structure of language means understanding what phonemes, words, and sentences are, and how each language establishes principles for the combinations of these things and for their use; looking at the use of language means understanding the ways in which individuals and groups use language to declare their social identities and the ways in which languages can change over time. The overarching theme is understanding what varieties of language structure and use are found across the world's languages and cultures, and what limitations on this variety exist.

A foundational principle of cognitive science is that the workings of cognitive systems--whether biological, mechanical, or digital--can be productively represented by the operation of formal computational models. This course provides a survey of popular modeling frameworks (such as Bayesian rational agents, connectionist networks, dynamical systems, etc.), as well as the cognitive phenomena that these models have been used to simulate. We will discuss the theoretical commitments of these models, assess strengths and weaknesses of each framework for addressing different types of cognitive questions, and analyze the implications of these models’ successes and failures for our understanding of the mind.

Cross-lists DATA 20002; LING 20002/30002; PSYC 22002

A foundational principle of cognitive science is that the workings of cognitive systems--whether biological, mechanical, or digital--can be productively represented by the operation of formal computational models. This course provides a survey of popular modeling frameworks (such as Bayesian rational agents, connectionist networks, dynamical systems, etc.), as well as the cognitive phenomena that these models have been used to simulate. We will discuss the theoretical commitments of these models, assess strengths and weaknesses of each framework for addressing different types of cognitive questions, and analyze the implications of these models’ successes and failures for our understanding of the mind.

Cross-lists DATA 20002; LING 20002/30002; PSYC 22002

This course will introduce students to a selection of empirical methods drawn from a range of disciplines that contribute to cognitive science, including experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, linguistic analysis, and artificial intelligence. Students in this course will learn to design scientific experiments and analyze data with inferential statistics, culminating in a final independent project of their own design. Along the way, we will also discuss the philosophies of science invoked when connecting measurements of experimental.

Cross-list LING 20004

Instructor: Melinh Lai

This course is an introduction to the study of speech sounds and their patterning in the world's languages. The first half of the course focuses on how speech sounds are described with respect to their articulatory, acoustic, and perceptual structures. There are lab exercises both in phonetic transcription and in the acoustic analysis of speech sounds. The second half focuses on fundamental notions that have always been central to phonological analysis and that transcend differences between theoretical approaches: contrast, neutralization, natural classes, distinctive features, and basic phonological processes (e.g., assimilation).

Crosslistings: CHDV 20150/30150; COGS 22002; EDSO 20150/30150

This course can also be taken by students who are not majoring in Linguistics but are interested in learning something about the uniqueness of human language, spoken or signed. It covers a selection from the following topics: What is the position of spoken language in the usually multimodal forms of communication among humans? In what ways does spoken language differ from signed language? What features make spoken and signed language linguistic? What features distinguish linguistic means of communication from animal communication? How do humans communicate with animals? From an evolutionary point of view, how can we account for the fact that spoken language is the dominant mode of communication in all human communities around the world? Why cannot animals really communicate linguistically? What do the terms language "acquisition" and "transmission" really mean? What factors account for differences between "language acquisition" by children and by adults? Are children really perfect language learners? What factors bring about language evolution, including language speciation and the emergence of new language varieties? How did language evolve in mankind? This is a general education course without any prerequisites. It provides a necessary foundation to those working on language at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Crosslistings: CHDV 20150/30150, COGS 22002, EDSO 20150/30150

This course can also be taken by students who are not majoring in Linguistics but are interested in learning something about the uniqueness of human language, spoken or signed. It covers a selection from the following topics: What is the position of spoken language in the usually multimodal forms of communication among humans? In what ways does spoken language differ from signed language? What features make spoken and signed language linguistic? What features distinguish linguistic means of communication from animal communication? How do humans communicate with animals? From an evolutionary point of view, how can we account for the fact that spoken language is the dominant mode of communication in all human communities around the world? Why cannot animals really communicate linguistically? What do the terms language "acquisition" and "transmission" really mean? What factors account for differences between "language acquisition" by children and by adults? Are children really perfect language learners? What factors bring about language evolution, including language speciation and the emergence of new language varieties? How did language evolve in mankind? This is a general education course without any prerequisites. It provides a necessary foundation to those working on language at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

Crosslistings: COGS 22003

This course is an introduction to basic goals and methods of current syntactic theory through a detailed analysis of a range of phenomena, with emphasis on argumentation and empirical justification. Major topics include phrase structure and constituency, selection and subcategorization, argument structure, case, voice, expletives, and raising and control structures.

Crosslistings: COGS 22003

This course is an introduction to basic goals and methods of current syntactic theory through a detailed analysis of a range of phenomena, with emphasis on argumentation and empirical justification. Major topics include phrase structure and constituency, selection and subcategorization, argument structure, case, voice, expletives, and raising and control structures.

Crosslistings: COGS 22003

This course is an introduction to basic goals and methods of current syntactic theory through a detailed analysis of a range of phenomena, with emphasis on argumentation and empirical justification. Major topics include phrase structure and constituency, selection and subcategorization, argument structure, case, voice, expletives, and raising and control structures.

This is an advanced undergraduate course in theoretical syntax. Through readings from the primary research literature, we will reach the deepest understanding we possibly can of (a) the overarching goals of syntactic theory; (b) various aspects of, or subareas within, current syntactic theory; and (c) a range of empirical phenomena whose investigation has enabled us to push forward our theoretical understanding of syntax.

Crosslistings: COGS 22004/32004

This course familiarizes students with what it means to study meaning and use in natural language. By “meaning” we refer to the (for the most part, logical) content of words, constituents, and sentences (semantics), and by “use” we intend to capture how this content is implemented in discourse and what kinds of additional dimensions of meaning may then arise (pragmatics). Some of the core empirical phenomena that have to do with meaning are introduced: lexical (i.e., word) meaning, reference, quantification, logical inferencing, presupposition, implicature, context sensitivity, cross-linguistic variation, speech acts. Main course goals are not only to familiarize students with the basic topics in semantics and pragmatics but also to help them develop basic skills in semantic analysis and argumentation.

Crosslistings: COGS 22004/32004

This course familiarizes students with what it means to study meaning and use in natural language. By “meaning” we refer to the (for the most part, logical) content of words, constituents, and sentences (semantics), and by “use” we intend to capture how this content is implemented in discourse and what kinds of additional dimensions of meaning may then arise (pragmatics). Some of the core empirical phenomena that have to do with meaning are introduced: lexical (i.e., word) meaning, reference, quantification, logical inferencing, presupposition, implicature, context sensitivity, cross-linguistic variation, speech acts. Main course goals are not only to familiarize students with the basic topics in semantics and pragmatics but also to help them develop basic skills in semantic analysis and argumentation.

Crosslistings: COGS 22005

Why is the plural of child in English children and not *childs? Why is undoable ambiguous ((i) 'unable to be done', (ii) 'able to be undone'), while unkillable isn't (only 'unable to be killed')? Unhappier is intuitively composed of several, smaller pieces: un-, happy, and -er; but what about unkempt? These questions are the purview of MORPHOLOGY, the field of linguistics devoted to studying the internal structure of words and how they are formed. Consequently, in this course we will investigate the nature of morphemes, in all their cross-linguistic shapes and guises. Key concepts which will frame our discussion include inflection, syncretism, allomorphy, and blocking. The only prerequisite for this course is LING 20001: Introduction to Linguistics.

Prerequisites

LING 20001 recommended.

The majority of modern linguistic analysis looks at language as a static system, which L1 learners acquire based on the data they are exposed to in early childhood, without access to its history. Learners are unconcerned with why their language is the way it is, or how it got that way; they only need to know its structure and extrapolate which rules will produce the correct outputs. Understanding this linguistic competence is the task that occupies most working linguists. In this course, however, we will explore how language systems get into the state they’re in when learners encounter them, with their idiosyncrasies and irregularities. Historical linguistics gives us, among other things, the power to explain synchronic irregularities. In doing so, we will discover patterns of regularity in how grammars change over time across different languages. For instance, the English verb forms was and is have an s where their plural counterparts were and are have an r. To the L1 learner and the synchronic linguist, the question is: “How is this system learnable and what rules will correctly (re)produce it?” But as historical linguists we will inquire further: “How did the distribution of these forms come about in the first place? Does some former regularity underlie it? If so, what rule accounts for it?” We will find that synchronic irregularity tends to emerge from the operation of regular principles, some of which work to obscure rules that had once been part of speakers’ grammars.

Cross-list ANTH 47300

Crosslistings: ANTH 47305, CHDV 21920/41920, CHSS 41920, COGS 22007, EVOL 41920, PSYC 41920

This course is designed to review critically some of the literature on the phylogenetic emergence of Language, in order to determine which questions have been central to the subject matter, which ones have recurred the most, and to what extent the answers to these are now better informed. The class will also review new questions such as the following: What is the probable time of the emergence of modern language(s)? Should we speak of the emergence of Language or of languages, in the plural?

In this seminar, we will explore aspects of speech perception and production, focusing on learning in both children and adults. Additional readings will focus on the importance of contextual information (both linguistic and social) in understanding speech perception and production.
 

This course is intended to provide a foundation for students to pursue the quantitative study of phonology in the context of human interaction, and of speech and perception in the context of language. Specifically, this course focuses on how to design, conduct, and analyze a phonological experiment. We will approach laboratory phonology from the perspectives of both the speaker and the listener, with each perspective constituting roughly half the course. In the process, we will gain and practice skills in experimental phonetic and psycholinguistic work, while testing aspects of current phonological theory.

Crosslistings: COGS 22016

This course provides an in-depth study of advanced topics at the intersection of computation and language, oriented toward linguists and cognitive scientists. The class will focus on both scientific and engineering perspectives - the use of computational modeling to address advanced scientific questions in linguistics and cognitive science, as well as the design of computational systems to solve engineering problems. Topics will include machine translation, parsing, automatic speech recognition, transformer models, and large language models (LLMs), where we will focus on the implementation of these techniques. Students will work towards formulating research questions that can be addressed with complex computational methodology. Students will learn how to generate scripts and implement advanced computational techniques from scratch. Prior knowledge of Python is required.

Large Language Models are becoming increasingly prevalent in all aspects of our lives. But what is their place in linguistics? What linguistic phenomena do they exhibit and not exhibit? And what does this even tell us? In this class, we will address the use of LLMs in linguistics and related fields - both their limitations and advantages. This will include a discussion of the models that LLMs are founded on, how they can be probed for linguistic representations, and used as linguistic or psycholinguistic subjects. Ultimately, we will attempt to answer the question of the usefulness of these models and the ways they could be used as tools for linguistic research.