Q450/B490: How Language Works

Q450/B490: Fall 2006
How Language Works: a Multidisciplinary, Computational Perspective
Indiana University Cognitive Science Program, Computer Science Department

Where, when, who, how

Time and place

TuTh, 1:00 - 2:15, LH 030

Instructor: Mike Gasser

Office hours: M 2-3:30, Eigenmann 804; Th 2:30-4:00, Lindley 230H
Email (please put "Q450" or "B490" in the subject line)

Grades

Oncourse site

Overview and prerequisites

This course looks at what makes human language unique. We'll focus on these two general topics:

what meaning is (or even if it is)
what grammar is

and will also spend some time on the way language is used to persuade.

For each topic, we will consider how it might be realized cognitively, socially, and within the physical world; we will look at both simplified artificial languages and data from real natural languages; and we will approach the topic from four vantage points:

how it could be described as a property of language or particular languages
how it could be accessed and used in comprehension and production by people or machines
how it could be learned by children or machines
how it could have evolved (could evolve) in populations of real or artificial agents

Coursework will include homework assignments and a project in which some property of language is simulated computationally. Students are expected to be reasonably competent programmers; no previous coursework in linguistics is required.

Readings

The textbook is the online book How Language Works. This edition (3.0) of the book is currently in preparation. There may be some additional readings.

IU | COGS | CSCI