| Week |
Month |
Date |
Topic |
Content |
Code |
Readings |
Assignments |
| 1 |
January |
6 |
Linguistic Data vs. Theory |
grammar vs. syntax, formal language theory, syntactic categories, acceptability, grammaticality, competence, performance |
Google Colab Intro |
- Wintner (2001) Ch.1
- Chomsky (1957) Ch.1,2,6 (Optional)
|
|
| 8 |
| 2 |
13 |
Regular Grammars |
properties of regular languages, finite-state automata, weak and strong generative capacity, Is natural language regular? |
FSA and REs in Python |
- Wintner (2001) Ch.2
- Chomsky (1957) Ch. 3 (Optional)
|
Quiz 1 |
| 15 |
| 3 |
19 |
| 21 |
| 4 |
27 |
Context Free Grammars |
derivation, derivation tree, properties of context-free languages, applications to natural language, The Chomsky Hierarchy, Weak and Strong Generative Capacity of CFGs, Transformational Grammars, Mildly Context Sensitive Grammars and Languages, A working context free grammar for basic English sentences, Capturing Word Order in Languages of the World, The X-bar Schema |
CFGs in Python |
- Wintner (2001) Ch.3
- NLTK Ch.8
- Chomsky (1957) Ch. 4,5 (Optional)
|
Quiz 2 |
| 29 |
| 5 |
February |
3 |
| 5 |
| 6 |
10 |
A Context Free Grammar with X-bar Schema |
Argument Structure, Thematic Roles, Agreement, Selection |
|
- Wintner (2001) Ch.4
- NLTK Ch.8
|
Quiz 3 |
| 12 |
| 7 |
17 |
Subcategories, Feature Structures, and Agreement |
|
|
NLTK Ch.9.1 |
Quiz 4 |
| 19 |
| 8 |
24 |
Case Marking and Alignment |
|
|
NLTK Ch.9.1 |
Quiz 5 |
| 26 |
| 9 |
March |
3 |
Questions |
Polar Questions and Wh-Questions |
|
NLTK Ch.9.3.4 |
|
| 5 |
| 10 |
10 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 12 |
| Assessment |
| Analytic Skills |
100 Points |
| Weekly Quizzes |
40 Points |
5 weekly quizzes on Canvas, 8 points each. Questions come from the readings of the week and lecture materials. Each quiz has several question-types (covering a specific sub-topic of the week) and the exact questions in that question-type are randomly selected from a bank of questions. You can re-take quizzes multiple times. Your highest grade will be recorded. Quizzes are available until exam week. |
| Midterm Quiz |
10 Points |
Similar to weekly quizzes, except that questions are on the materials of weeks 1-5. Available until exam week. |
| Final Project |
50 Points |
Select a piece of text and write a grammar using Python's NLTK package that would generate the selected piece of text. The text must contain at least one question. |
| Policies |
| Deadlines |
There are no deadlines. All assignments must be submitted during the quarter before the the exam week. |
| Submission Format |
Submit your assignments using Canvas. Quizzes can be found in the Quizzes section. If an answer is handwritten and cannot be determined due to illegibility, no points are assigned to that answer. Do not include your name or any identifying information in the assignments. In order to avoid grading biases, all grading is done either automatically or anonymously. |
| Grading |
The points you earn during the course will turn into your letter grade according to the following scale:
A+ = 100-97 A = 97-93, A- = 93-90, B+ = 90-87, B = 87-83, B- = 83-80, C+ = 80-77, C = 77-73, C- = 73-70, D+ = 70-67, D = 67-63, D- = 63-60, F = 60-0.
For any submission, if you believe there have been grading mistakes, you can ask for re-grading. The assignment will be graded by a new grader and the second grade will be recorded. |
| Integrity |
We follow the UC Davis code of academic conduct. |
| Accessibility
|
Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a disability must initiate the request with the UC Davis Student Disability Center. Professional staff will evaluate the request, recommend reasonable accommodations, and prepare a letter of accommodation for the faculty. Students should contact the SDC as soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations.
|
| Addressing the Instructor
|
I prefer Masoud. No titles or last name needed.
|