| Week |
Month |
Date |
Topic |
Content |
Videos |
Breadth Readings |
Depth Readings |
Assignments |
| 1 |
Jan |
5 |
Syntax: Theory vs. Data |
empirical foundations, constituency, part of speech, arguments vs. adjuncts, grammatical functions |
Müller's Introduction to Grammatical Theory |
Textbook Ch. 1
Schutze (2011) |
Chomsky (1965) Ch.1 |
|
| 7 |
Mahowald et al (2016) |
| 2 |
12 |
Formal Languages |
Finite State Grammar, Phrase Structure Grammar, the X̄ Schema |
Müller's intro to PSGs
Müller's intro to X̄ |
Textbook Ch. 2
Chomsky (1956)
Chomsky (1970) |
Ding et al. (2017) |
Ch. 2 Comprehension Questions and Exercises |
| 14 |
Frank & Christiansen (2018) |
| 3 |
19 |
Government and Binding Theory |
the T-model, theta criterion, case principle |
Müller's intro to GB part I
Müller's intro to GB part II
Müller's intro to GB part III |
Textbook Ch. 3
Chomsky (1977) |
Larson (1988) |
Ch. 3 Comprehension Questions and Exercises |
| 21 |
Koopman and Sportiche (1991) |
| 4 |
26 |
Minimalist Grammar |
basic architecture, valence, feature checking, agreement, little-v, move, merge |
The Minimalist Program: Achievements and Challenges |
Textbook Ch. 4
Collins and Stabler (2016) |
Cinque (2005) |
Ch. 4 Comprehension Questions and Exercises |
| 28 |
Merchant (2005) |
| 5 |
Feb |
2 |
Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar |
Haed-feature convention, meta-rules, feature descriptions, Structure sharing, cyclic structures, unification |
Müller's intro to GPSG |
Textbook Ch. 5+6
Gazdar (1981) |
Yang et al (2017) |
Ch. 5+6 Comprehension Questions and Exercises
Midterm Abstract |
| 4 |
Jackendoff & Wittenberg (2014) |
| 6 |
9 |
Lexical Functional Grammar |
constituent-structure, functional-structure, completeness and coherence in LFG |
Müller's intro to LFG |
Textbook Ch. 7 | Borjars (2020) | Asudeh & Toivonen (2009) | Kaplan (1995) |
Hopper and Thompson (1980) |
Ch. 7 Comprehension Questions and Exercises |
| 11 |
Dowty (1991) |
| 7 |
16 |
Categorial Grammar |
rules, forward application, backward application, lambda calculus |
Müller's intro to Categorial Grammar |
Textbook Ch. 8
Steedman (2020) |
Kratzer (1996) |
Ch. 8 Comprehension Questions and Exercises |
| 18 |
Keenan and Comrie (1977) |
| 8 |
23 |
Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar |
Feature Structures, Head-Complement Schema, Linearization rules, Projection of head properties, Inheritance hierarchies and generalizations |
Müller's Intro to HPSG |
Textbook Ch. 9
Sag, Wasow, Bender (2002) |
Müller and Wechsler (2014) |
Ch. 9 Comprehension Questions and Exercises |
| 25 |
Sag et al (2019) |
| 9 |
Mar |
2 |
Construction Grammar |
Constructions and sub-constructions, the head-complement construction, variants of construction grammars |
Goldberg: Good enough language production |
Textbook Ch. 10
Kay and Fillmore (1999)
Goldberg (2003) |
Fillmore, Kay, O'Connor (1988) |
Ch. 10 Comprehension Questions and Exercises |
| 4 |
Tomasello (2000) |
| 10 |
9 |
Dependency Grammar |
nucleus and satellites, No-tangling principle, No-dangling principle, and Sentence-root principle |
Manning Dependency Parsing Video |
Textbook Ch. 11
de Marnaffe and Nivre (2019) |
Futrell, Mahowald, Gibson (2015) |
Ch. 11 Comprehension Questions and Exercises |
| 11 |
Manning et al (2020) |
| Assessment |
| Critical Thinking |
20% |
Discussion Forum |
5% |
Post questions, response to questions, or comments about the week's readings on the Canvas Discussions Section. 10 discussions (1 per week) each 0.5% |
| Paper Presentation |
15% |
Pick a paper from the "Depth Reading" column. Read it carefully, summarize its argument, and present it in class. Take a look at this introduction to argument maps to see how you can use this method for your presentation |
| Analytic Skills |
40% |
Assignments |
40% |
10 weekly comprehension questions and exercises from the textbook each worth 4% |
| Research Skills |
40% |
| Midterm Abstract |
10% |
A two page abstract modeled as a submission to a conference like NELS or WCCFL. |
| Peer-review |
5% |
Write a 1-page peer-review of a midterm abstract assigned to you. Read the golden rule for peer-reviews here or Brian Lucey's tips on writing peer-reviews. |
| Final Paper |
25% |
Expand your abstract to a 6-10 pages paper similar to a conference proceedings paper. |
| Policies |
| Late Submission |
Late assignments will be graded as though they were not late, but then 5% of the grade earned will be deducted for each day the assignment is late, with a maximum penalty of 50%. All late work must be turned in by the Friday before your final exam. This policy can be waived if lateness is due to medical reasons or other special circumstances. |
| Submission Format |
Submit your assignments using Canvas. Files should be in PDF. Typed assignments should use Times New Roman (12pt), 1 inch margins, 1.5 line spacing. Handwritten assignments must follow similar margins and spacing and must be legible. If the answer cannot be determined due to illegibility, no points are assigned to that answer. Do not include your name or any identifying information in the assignment. In order to avoid grading biases, assignments are graded anonymously. |
| Grading |
We use the following grading 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. You are permitted to work together on the assignments. However, you must write up and submit your own unique assignments. |
| 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 and he/his/him for pronouns. No titles or last name needed.
|
| Philosophy |
| Participation |
We believe that our class benefits enormously from you sharing your thoughts and questions. Your background, life experiences, knowledge, thoughts, and ideas make you unique, and our classroom diverse. This diversity of perspectives is the foundation of learning in a classroom. At a larger scale and within a scientific community, it is also a major contributor to scientific progress. Therefore, sharing your thoughts and questions can help us learn and build a wider, stronger community of scholars.
Some of you may worry that your classmate's asking questions and sharing ideas may disrupt the class progress. Judging when to ask a question or share an idea is tricky but also part of education. Instead of discouraging it, we would like to practice it together. Here is flowchart that you might find useful. Ultimately, we trust your judgments.
|
| Questions |
We genuinly believe that there are no "stupid" questions in a classroom. The point of going to a class is to learn together and questions are our best tool to achieve that. It is easy to show that your question will help us learn no matter what. Your question is either:
(1) not framed well; in which case you give us a chance to explain the topic better. Chances are we did not explain it well the first time and many of your classmates are wondering about it too.
(2) framed well and has an answer we know; in which case we can help you as well as your classmates who have the same question learn it too! You have also helped us consolidate our knowledge by explaining it again.
(3) framed well but has an answer we do not know; in which case we can find the answer together and your question has helped all of us learn!
(4) framed well and does not have an answer yet; in which case you found a research topic someone can start working on and benefit the field!
As you see, your question has helped our learning either way. So please ask!
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