Upcoming MA Course - Boeckx, Hinzen, TBA

Course Description: Interdisciplinary applications of linguistic concepts (2013/2014)

This course will be divided into three parts or 'modules', taught by three different instructors (Cedric Boeckx, Wolfram Hinzen, and a third one TBA). The language of instruction for all parts will be English.

Cedric Boeckx (Part I of the course)

The goal of this Part of the course is to familiarize students with the challenges of interdisciplinary, using 'biolinguistics' (in a broad sense of the term) as an example of a field where these challenges arise.

This part of the course will be divided into 5 sessions (2-hour each):

1. A bit of history of biolinguistics, and why the lack of progress can be attributed to the failure to grasp the depth of interdisciplinary challenges. Key reading: "The Chomsky-Piaget debate" (M. Piattelli-Palmarini, ed. 1980. Language and Learning. Harvard UP.)
2. The biological nature of linguists' "Universal Grammar" (key reading: C. Boeckx "What Principles and Parameters got wrong", online at Lingbuzz)
3. The biological nature of linguists' "Universal Grammar", Part II: how big data can inform theory (key reading: C. Boeckx and E. Leivada "Entangled parameters", PLoS One, 2013).
4. The comparative method: why we need a comparative Biolinguistics (key reading: F. de Waal and P. Ferrari, "Towards a bottom-up perspective on animal and human cognition", Trends in Cog. Sci. 2010).
5. The mapping problem: Adjusting the jargons (and ontologies) across fields (key reading: D. Poeppel "The maps problem and the mapping problem" Cognitive Neuropsychology, 2012.)

Students will be introduced to these challenges at various levels: conceptual, empirical, and technical. In addition to philosophical reflections, they will be taught (by means of specific examples) how to handle "big data" (from linguistics or biology).

The assignment for this part of the course (for students who choose to be evaluated for this part) will be a 5-page essay (content to be agreed upon after discussing it in person with the instructor).

Suggested days and times for this part of the course:

October 28 & November 4, 11, 18 & 25, Mon. 15:00-17:00; Room 103A (l'Edifici Josep Carner, Fac de Filologia, UB)

Wolfram Hinzen (Part II of the course)

The goal of this second part is to present the study of grammar in its interface with both philosophy and psychology, and in particular the study of cognitive disorders. The goals are:

1. To understand how the organization of grammar impacts on the organization of meaning.
2. To apply linguistic theory to the study of cognitive disorders, integrating (psycho- and neuro-) linguistics and (neuro-) psychiatry.
3. Connect foundational issues in linguistic theory with core topics in philosophy, such as the structure and content of thought

The organization of this part follows that of part I: 5 sessions, 2-hour each, three in December 2013, 2 in January 2014.

First we begin by developing a model of what lexical and grammatical organization implies for the organization of meaning. We then review comparative data that show how cognitive phenotypes and linguistic phenotypes can or cannot co-vary. Finally, we consider how linguistic considerations bear on traditional core topics of philosophy, such as truth and human nature.

The assignment for this part of the course will also be a 5-page essay, based on a selection of sample questions handed out in the beginning of the course, or else an alternative choice of topic, to be discussed with the instructor.

Suggested days and times for this part of the course:

December: 2, 9 & 16 & January 8 & 15: Mon. 15:00-17:00; Room: 103A. l'Edifici Josep Carner, Fac de Filologia, UB

Literature:

Hinzen, W. and M. Sheehan 2013. The philosophy of Universal Grammar. Oxford University Press.

Oh, T., R. McCarthy and P. McKenna 2005. Schizophrenic speech. Cambridge University Press.

Part III of the course (more details TBA)

Computational Linguistics

The goal of the Computational Linguistics Part of the course is to familiarize students with resources and tools to carry on experimental work with linguistic data.

1. Linguistic resources: Corpora and lexicons.
2. Linguistic tools: morphological analysers, parsers, chunkers.
3. Tools and algorithms for data analysis and predictive modelling.

Students who choose to be evaluated for this part will have to propose a research and write a paper using these resources and tools.

Suggested days and times for this part of the course:

December 2013 or January 2014.