Master 2020/2021

Formal Approaches to Natural Language

Type: Compulsory course (Applied Linguistics and Text Analytics)

Area of studies: Fundamental and Applied Linguistics

Delivered by: School of Social Sciences

Where: Faculty of Humanities (Nizhny Novgorod)

When: 1 year, 2 module

Mode of studies: offline

Instructors: Natalia Morozova

Master’s programme: Прикладная лингвистика и текстовая аналитика

Language: English

ECTS credits: 4

Contact hours: 32

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course introduces students to the theoretical foundations and applied aspects of formal modeling in linguistics. The first part of the course is theoretical. It is meant to familiarize students with both linguistic and non-linguistics background with the general issues of linguistics methodology, the history and state-of-the-art of structural macro-paradigm in linguistics and the formal apparatus of linguistic analysis. The second, practice-oriented part of the course provides students with the applied skills of formal modeling in syntax. Students learn about the possibility of using formal modeling in machine learning, automated text analysis and corpus linguistics. The course is taught in the 1st module of the 1st year of studies. The skills obtained within the framework of the course are important prerequisites for such courses as "Automated Analysis of Natural Language" and the research seminar "Methodology and Research Methods in Applied Linguistics".

Learning Objectives

• mastering the basic and new methods and research techniques within the formal approach to the study of language;
• developing the ability to apply the methods of formal modelling in linguistics in one's own research;

Expected Learning Outcomes

• compares ontological, methodological and value-based premises of the main paradigms in linguistics
• analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of applying the modelling method in linguistics
• analyzes and compares the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods of structural linguistics
• describes a segment of speech using a syntactic formalism
• uses syntactic models to solve problems of applied linguistics

Course Contents

• General methodological problems in linguistics and the classification of methods
  Language as an object of linguistics. The notions of research methodology, method and technique in linguistics. General problems and systemic approach to methodology in linguistics. Macroparadigm as the basis for method classification in linguistics. History of linguistics as a paradigm shift.
• Structural linguistics: emergence, main premises and methods
  Structural paradigm in linguistics: emergence, main premises and methods. Structural method (1): distributional analysis. The concept of distribution. Types of distribution. Aims, procedural steps and examples of practical application. Structural method (2): immediate constituent analysis and transformational analysis. Aims, units of analysis and relationships between them. Advantages and disadvantages of the structural method.
• Modelling as a scientific method and the specifics of its application in linguistics. Classification of linguistic models.
  Modelling as a method of theory-based research. Common features of models. Features of linguistic models. The relevance and the specifics of applying models in linguistics. Classification of linguistic models.
• Overview of theories of formal syntax
  The notion of a metalanguage. Metalanguages of language description. The advantages of using formal metalanguages for linguistic description. The notions of graph and tree. Dependency and constituency grammars and their associated formalisms. Projectivity and и recursion. Noam Chomsky's generative grammar: aims, hypothesis, main premises.
• Applied aspects of the formal modelling of natural language
  Automated analysis and synthesis of natural language. Linguistic processor and its modules. Morphological analysis. Syntactic analysis. Semantic analysis. ETAP-3 linguistic processor and its application in the creation of the syntactically annotated corpus of the Russian language.

Assessment Elements

• Online test
• Participation in online seminars
• Online oral exam via Zoom

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (2 module)
  0.5 * Online oral exam via Zoom + 0.35 * Online test + 0.15 * Participation in online seminars

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Clive Matthews. (2016). An Introduction to Natural Language Processing Through Prolog. Routledge.
• Jurij D. Apresjan, & Dina B. Crockett. (2018). Principles and Methods in Contemporary Structural Linguistics: Vol. Reprint 2018. De Gruyter Mouton.
• Mazziotta, N., & Imrényi, A. (2020). Aspects of the theory and history of dependency grammar.
• Saumjan, S. K., & Miller, J. (2017). Principles of Structural Linguistics. De Gruyter Mouton.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Введение в языкознание, учебник для академического бакалавриата, Нижегородский государственный университет им. Н. И. Лобачевского, 2-е изд., перераб. и доп., 494 с., Немченко, В. Н., 2016
• Общая морфология : введение в проблематику, учебное пособие, 4-е изд., 383 с., Плунгян, В. А., 2012