Topics in Language Processing: Discourse
(CLPS 1389, formerly COGS 1840)Spring 2012 | syllabus
Over the last decades psycholinguists have converged on a generally accepted framework for describing how humans process language at the sentence level. Much less is understood, however, about processing at the discourse level, where multiple sentences are understood to form a coherent whole. In this course we take an in-depth look at the question of discourse processing. Students will master material covering research methods in psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics, as well as formal approaches to discourse pragmatics. By the end of the course, students will be able to read and critique primary literature and will have developed their own proposals for novel research.
Prerequisite: one of CLPS 0800 (COGS 0450), CLPS 1800 (COGS 1410), CLPS 1820 (COGS 1480)
Introduction to Syntax
(CLPS 1330, formerly COGS 1310)Spring 2012 | syllabus
This course introduces students to the syntax of natural languages. Students will gain practice conducting linguistic analysis and evaluating linguistic argumentation for data sets drawn from a variety of languages.
The course begins with an exploration of syntactic phenomena from a typological perspective, so that students may gain an appreciation of both the regularity and variation observed for syntactic systems across the world’s languages. After this introduction, our attention shifts to developing an understanding of syntactic theory and the types of analyses that have been proposed to account for cross-linguistic patterns.
Prerequisite: CLPS 0030 (COGS 0410)
Introduction to Linguistic Theory
(CLPS 0030, formerly COGS 0410)Fall 2011 | syllabus
The ability to speak and understand a language involves having mastered (quite unconsciously) an intricate and highly structured rule-governed system. Linguists seek to model that rule system. This course introduces the principles underlying phonology (the principles which govern how sounds are put together), syntax (the rule system governing sentence structure), and semantics (the system which relates sentences to meanings).
Language Processing
(CLPS 1800, formerly COGS 1410)Spring 2011
This course explores the nature of language processing with the goal of understanding how we produce and comprehend language. Topics include speech production and speech perception, lexical processing, and syntactic processing. Experimental investigations are studied in an attempt to understand the processes and mechanisms employed in the everyday use of language.
Prerequisite: one of CLPS 0020 (COGS 0010), CLPS 0030 (COGS 0410), or CLPS 0800 (COGS 0450)