Type of Credit: Elective
Credit(s)
Number of Students
This is an interdisciplinary course that will teach students to combine concepts from the fields of functional typology, cognitive neuroscience, and quantitative linguistics to analyze interesting linguistic phenomena. It will give students an opportunity to conduct real research into unresolved linguistic problems, using theoretical and experimental methods that are at the forefront of linguistic sciences.
The topic under discussion this year is word classes. We will investigate how word classes are distinguished in various linguistic subdisciplines, how this relates to the phenomenon of classification in cognitive neurosciences and psycholinguistics, and which problems arise from these analyses, especially considering languages of Taiwan and Southeast Asia. We will then explore how methods from quantitative linguistics can help us in analyzing phenomena related to word class distinctions in a more objective manner.
This class will be taught in English, and requires a basic knowledge of linguistics. Students are encouraged to work in small groups.
能力項目說明
In this course you will learn:
After finishing this course, you should be able to:
Week 1 – Introduction
Week 2, 3, 4, 5 – Classification in linguistics (Main lecturer: Rik De Busser)
In this module we will discuss the problem of word classes from a comparative perspective. We will look at different problems with traditional word class distinctions in traditional linguistics, taking into account the problems with distinguishing word classes in the Austronesian and the Sinitic language families.
Week 6, 7, 8, 9 – Classification in cognitive neurosciences (Main lecturer: Yao-Ying Lai)
In this module, we will discuss the issue of classification from the perspective of cognitive neurosciences and psycholinguistics. We will discuss (a) the tendency of classifications in human cognitive system, (b) different neurolinguistic approaches that examine how our brain processes word classes as encoded in the linguistics system, along with current controversies/challenges from the interdisciplinary perspective.
Week 10 – Midterms
Students (individually or in small groups) present an initial topic for their final project.
Week 11, 12, 13, 14 – Classification in quantitative linguistics (Main lecturer: Yu-Yun Chang)
This module will investigate (a) how word classes play an important role in the field of computational linguistics; and (b) why word class classification is challenging in real world application. In addition, some quantitative methods will be introduced to help better interpret the classification of word classes.
Week 15, 16 – Implementation
With the help of the lecturers and their colleagues, students will prepare and execute (individually or in small groups) an original analysis of a phenomenon related to word classes in a language of Taiwan or Southeast Asia, integrating the three modules discussed earlier during the semester.
Week 17 – Final presentation
Presentation of the research results in an internal workshop.
Week 18 – Feedback
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100-90 |
90-80 |
80-70 |
70-60 |
59-50 |
below 50 |
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A |
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excellent |
very good |
good |
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Reference works:
Bastiaansen, M. C., Linden, M. V. D., Keurs, M. T., Dijkstra, T., & Hagoort, P. (2005). Theta responses are involved in lexical—Semantic retrieval during language processing. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 17(3), 530-541.
Binder, J. R., Conant, L. L., Humphries, C. J., Fernandino, L., Simons, S. B., Aguilar, M., & Desai, R. H. (2016). Toward a brain-based componential semantic representation. Cognitive neuropsychology, 33(3-4), 130-174.
Caramazza, A., & Hillis, A. E. (1991). Lexical organization of nouns and verbs in the brain. Nature, 349(6312), 788.
Daniel Jurafsky & James H. Martin. 2006. Chapter 5: Word Classes and Part-of-Speech Tagging. Speech and Language Processing. New Jersey: Pearson.
Isac, D., & Reiss, C. (2013). I-language: An introduction to linguistics as cognitive science. Chapter 2: I-everything: Triangles, streams, words.
Kemmerer, D. (2014). Word classes in the brain: Implications of linguistic typology for cognitive neuroscience. Cortex, 58, 27-51.
Kemmerer, D. (2017). Categories of object concepts across languages and brains: the relevance of nominal classification systems to cognitive neuroscience. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 32(4), 401-424.
Kiefer, M., & Pulvermüller, F. (2012). Conceptual representations in mind and brain: theoretical developments, current evidence and future directions. cortex, 48(7), 805-825.
Vigliocco, G., Vinson, D. P., Druks, J., Barber, H., & Cappa, S. F. (2011). Nouns and verbs in the brain: a review of behavioural, electrophysiological, neuropsychological and imaging studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 35(3), 407-426.
Vogel, Petra Maria & Bernard Comrie. 2000. Approaches to the Typology of Word Classes (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 23). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Weekly readings will be made available at the beginning of the semester.