Introduction to the linguistic study of language pathology, concentrating on experimental approaches and theoretical explanations. Discussion of Specific Language Impairment, autism, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, normal aging, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, hemispherectomy and aphasia. Focuses on the comparison of linguistic abilities among these syndromes, while drawing clear comparisons with first and second language acquisition. Topics include the lexicon, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Relates the lost linguistic abilities in these syndromes to properties of the brain.

This course is a graduate introduction to natural language processing - the study of human language from a computational perspective. It covers syntactic, semantic and discourse processing models, emphasizing machine learning or corpus-based methods and algorithms. It also covers applications of these methods and models in syntactic parsing, information extraction, statistical machine translation, dialogue systems, and summarization. The subject qualifies as an Artificial Intelligence and Applications concentration subject.

ELLOandfriends is a social networking platform for students of English linguistics. It is the home of the ELLO-wiki, where you can find information and exercises dealing with topics ranging from Morphology to Sociolinguistics. We also have a blog, where you can find video recordings of lectures and podcasts. Beyond all this, you can get in touch with other students, form groups and discuss all the questions you might have. Best of all: ELLOandfriends is absolutely free.

Human communication is vastly more complex than that of any other species we know about. It is so complex that linguists are only just beginning to identify the processes in the brain that are related to understanding language. This unit looks at how language is understood by taking an interdisciplinary approach.

This class will provide some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. Throughout the course, we will be learning (in many different ways) that human language is a surprisingly intricate -- yet law-governed and fascinating mental system. In the first 2/3 of the class, we will study some core aspects of this system in detail. In the last part of the class, we will use what we have learned to address a variety of questions, including how children acquire language, ways in which languages are affected by contact with other languages, and the representation of linguistic phenomena in the brain, among others.

This core-curriculum linguistics class will provide some answers to basic questions about the nature of human language. Topics include the intricate system that governs language, how it is acquired, the similarities and differences among languages, and how spoken (and signed) language relates to written language, among others.

Introduction to the current research questions in phonological theory. Topics include: metrical and prosodic structure; features and their phonetic basis in speech; acquisition and parsing; phonological domains; morphology; and language change and reconstruction. Activities include problem solving, squibs, and data collection. The year-long Introduction to Phonology reviews at the graduate level fundamental notions of phonological analysis and introduces students to current debates, research and analytical techniques. The Fall term reviews issues pertaining to the nature of markedness and phonological representations - features, prosodies, syllables and stress - while the second term deals with the relation between the phonological component and the lexicon, morphology and syntax. The second term course will also treat in more detail certain phonological phenomena.

Introduction to theories of syntax underlying work currently being done within the lexical-functional and government-binding frameworks. Organized into three interrelated parts, each focused upon a particular area of concern: phrase structure; the lexicon; and principles and parameters. Grammatical rules and processes constitute a focus of attention throughout the course that serve to reveal both modular structure of grammar and interaction of grammatical components. This course is concerned with the concepts and principles which have been of central significance in the recent development of syntactic theory, with special focus on the "Government and Binding" (GB) / "Principles and Parameters" (P&P) / "Minimalist Program" (MP) approach. It is the first of a series of two courses (24.951 is taught during the Fall and 24.952 is taught in the Spring). This course deals mostly with phrase structure, argument structure and its syntactic expression, including "A-movement". Though other issues (e.g. wh-movement, antecedent-contained deletion, extraposition) may be mentioned during the semester, the course will not systematically investigate these topics in class until 24.952. The goal of the course is to understand why certain problems have been treated in certain ways. Thus, on many occasions a variety of approaches will be discussed, and the (recent) historical development of these approaches are emphasized.

An introduction to Java syntax covering simple Java expressions and the declaration of concrete classes and methods.

Lectures, reading, and discussion of current theory and data concerning the psychology and biology of language acquisition. Emphasizes learning of syntax and morphology, together with some discussion of phonology, and especially research relating grammatical theory and learnability theory to empirical studies of children.

Introduction to fundamental concepts in syntactic theory and its relation to issues in philosophy and cognitive psychology. Examples and exercises from a variety of languages. This course will acquaint you with some of the important results and ideas of the last half - century of research in syntax. We will explore a large number of issues and a large amount of data so that you can learn something of what this field is all about. From time to time, we will discuss related work in language acquisition and processing. The class will emphasize ideas and arguments for these ideas in addition to the the details of particular analyses. At the same time, you will learn the mechanics of one particular approach (sometimes called Principles and Parameters syntax). Most of all, the course tries to show why the study of syntax is exciting, and why its results are important to researchers in other language sciences. The class assumes some familiarity with basic concepts of theoretical linguistics, of the sort you could acquire in 24.900.

At the end of this unit you can write an e-mail about escencial inventions.

Relationship between computer representation of knowledge and the structure of natural language. Emphasizes development of the analytical skills necessary to judge the computational implications of grammatical formalisms, and uses concrete examples to illustrate particular computational issues. Efficient parsing algorithms for context-free grammars; augmented transition network grammars. Question answering systems. Extensive laboratory work on building natural language processing systems. 6.863 is a laboratory-oriented course on the theory and practice of building computer systems for human language processing, with an emphasis on the linguistic, cognitive, and engineering foundations for understanding their design.

This course covers the entire family of programming languages, starting with an introduction to programming languages in general and a discussion of the features and functionality that make up a modern programming language. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: identify the common concepts used to create programming languages; compare and contrast factors and commands that affect the programming state illustrate how execution ordering affects programming; identify the basic objects and constructs in Object-Oriented Programming; explain the characteristics of pure functional functions in functional programming; describe the structures and components utilized in logical programming. (Computer Science 404)

Syntax Untangler is an online activity that asks the learner to visually mark up a short primary text in any language, in order to improve small-scale reading skills. Any instructor can easily create and publish their own Syntax Untangler content (go to the Instructor Tools link). Players get instant feedback about whether they found the right answer(s). Syntax Untangler is particularly designed for training language learners to recognize and parse linguistic features.