 2015 - 2016 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 0627-4191-01 | Parsing Seminar: Computation and Cognition | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| FACULTY OF HUMANITIES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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University credit hours: 4.0
Course description
Part I: Computation. In the first half of the semester we will cover mathematical and computational approaches to parsing. We start by reviewing the basic algorithms for parsing with regular and context-free formalisms, both deterministically and probabilistically. We discuss the notions of weak and strong generative capacity, looking in detail at context-sensitive node admissibility conditions, generalized phrase-structure grammar, and the Lambek calculus. We then turn to mildly context-sensitive formalisms, focusing in particular on combinatory categorial grammars, tree-adjoining grammars, and minimalist grammars.
Part II: Cognition. In the second half of the semester we discuss attempts to understand how human parsing works. We start with the classical proposals of Yngve, Miller and Chomsky, and Kimball, and then proceed to characterizations of the memory loads in different parsing strategies. We discuss the Strong Competence Hypothesis and its relation to the question of whether non-canonical constituents should be part of the grammar. We will look at proposals that tie processing difficulties to the geometric notion of open dependencies in proof nets, along with other attempts to capture processing costs in terms of resource management, such as Gibson's dependency locality theory. We also discuss approaches, such as Hale's surprisal and entropy-reduction proposals, that relate processing difficulty to the information content of the current input element.
Requirements: attendance and participation, reading, and a research paper
Prerequisites: Advanced Computational Linguistics
Part II: Cognition. In the second half of the semester we discuss attempts to understand how human parsing works. We start with the classical proposals of Yngve, Miller and Chomsky, and Kimball, and then proceed to characterizations of the memory loads in different parsing strategies. We discuss the Strong Competence Hypothesis and its relation to the question of whether non-canonical constituents should be part of the grammar. We will look at proposals that tie processing difficulties to the geometric notion of open dependencies in proof nets, along with other attempts to capture processing costs in terms of resource management, such as Gibson's dependency locality theory. We also discuss approaches, such as Hale's surprisal and entropy-reduction proposals, that relate processing difficulty to the information content of the current input element.
Requirements: attendance and participation, reading, and a research paper
Prerequisites: Advanced Computational Linguistics