Linguistics 566:
Introduction to Syntax for Computational Linguistics

A core course in UW's Professional Master's in Computational Linguistics

Autumn 2009

Course Info

• Lecture: MW 1:30-2:50, MGH 254, and online
• Text: Sag, Wasow and Bender 2003 (errata in the textbook)
• Our GoPost bulletin board
• Our CollectIt dropbox
• GradeBook

Instructor Info

• Emily M. Bender
• Office Hours: 10/2 11:30-12:30, Fridays 10:30-12:30 thereafter & by appt.
• Office: Padelford A-219
• Phone: +1 (206) 543-6914
• Email: ebender at u

Links

• HPSG page at Stanford
• HPSG page at Ohio State
• DELPH-IN (DEep Linguistic Processing with HPSG INiative)
• HPSG Bibliography
• Treehouse wiki page on latex

Syllabus

Description

This course covers fundamental concepts in syntactic analysis such as part of speech types, constituent structure, the syntax-semantics interface, and phenomena such as complementation, raising, control, passive and long-distance dependencies. We will emphasize formally precise encoding of linguistic hypotheses and the design of grammars that can scale up to ever larger fragments of a language such as is required in practical applications. Through the course, we will progressively build up a consistent grammar for a fragment of English. Problem sets will introduce data and phenomena from other languages.

Course goals

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Recognize certain classes of syntactic phenomena
• Build analyses of those phenomena in the HPSG framework
• Apply the process of building a formalized analysis to test linguistic hypotheses

Note

Note: To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from Disabled Student Services indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to the instructor so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in this class.

Requirements

• Weekly problem sets: 50% Students are encouraged to work on the problem sets in small groups, but answers should be written up individually
• Midterm exam: 15% (take-home, no collaboration allowed)
• Final exam: 35% (take-home, no collaboration allowed)
• Up to 2% adjustment for in-class or GoPost participation.

Late homework policy

I would like to be able to post the answer keys to homeworks immediately after you turn them in, so that you can compare your answers while the issues are still fresh in your mind. However, if there are students who haven't yet turned in their homework, I can't do that. Accordingly, I have adopted the following late-homework policy:

• Homework is due at the start of class on the date posted.
• Unless you've made prior arrangements with me, homework turned in within one day of the due date will receive 80% credit, two days 70% credit. No credit after that, though I will still be willing to look it over and make comments.
• By prior arrangements, I mean contacting me no later than the day before the homework is due (i.e., Sunday for homework due Monday) with the reason you feel you can't complete your homework on time. At that time, I will decide whether or not to grant an extension, and for how long.
• This policy also applies to the midterm exam.
• No late finals will be accepted.

Schedule of Topics and Assignments (may be updated)