1.Course Code and Title: COGS 532/CENG 712: Theoretical Linguistics

2. Catalogue Data

A survey of history of linguistics, sound-meaning structural relations in language, grammatical categories and functions, the role of linguistic explanation, formal theories of language, modern linguistic theories, computational complexity and linguistic theories, linguistic architectures and modularity, relation of language to mind and computation.

3. Schedule :

Monitor (and contribute to) the newsgroup of the course. It is a forum for announcements and off-class discussion.

4. Lecturer: Cem Bozsahin (Spring 2008)

5.Background required

introductory formal language theory and/or introductory linguistics (depending on student background)

8. References

There is no textbook; but we have several resources:

0) Chomsky N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press.

1) Gazdar G., E. Klein, G. Pullum, I. Sag (1985). Generelized Phrase Structure Grammar. Harvard Univ. Press. (GKPS)

2) Sells, P. (1988). An introduction to contemporary linguistic theories. CSLI Publications, Stanford. (an old but reliable reference on GB, GPSG and LFG---don't worry about acronyms; you'll know them by heart in a few weeks).

3) Course reader consisting of several papers from several resources and theories (the material that is either too old, too new, or too cool to be available in a textbook). The hardcopy part of the reader is available from Copy Room, CEng Bldg, basement floor.

9. Course Objectives

The students are expected to have the following by the end of the course: 1) To gain an understanding of why linguistic theorizing is important to cognition and computation 2) To appreciate different aspects and subleties of various linguistic theories 3) To be able to read and understand analyses couched in rival theories so that their empirical coverage can be appreciated and understood 4) To be able to judge the quality of an analysis and its potential explanation

10. Course in relation to Program(s)

The course serves programs in Computer Engineering, Cognitive Science, and Linguistics. It is a core course in the Cognitive Science Program, and departmental elective in Computer Engineering and Linguistics.

11. Course Outline (matches weekly readings in Reading List'08)

Week 1-2: Structure in Language and Linguistic Explanation

Week 3: Language, Cognition and Computation

Week 4: Categories, Constructions, and Grammatical Relations

Week 5 and 6 : Transformational Grammar

Week 7 and 8 : Combinatory Categorial Grammar and Lexicalised Grammars

Week 9: Lexical Functional Grammar

Week 10: Generalized/Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar Here is Jonas Kuhn's and Stefan Muller's long introduction to HPSG (180 slides).

Week 11: Roundtable discussion: Please suggest a topic

Week 12-14: Student presentations of term research

Week 15: Party!

12. Course Conduct

The course will consist of 11 weeks of formal lecture, and 3 weeks of student presentations

13. Grading

Term Research Report : 35%

Final Exam : 30%

Homework: 20%

Discussion: 15%

Participation and full attendance (modulo obligatory leaves) are preconditions for Pass/Fail

Some earlier final exams:

Spring 2004

Spring 2005