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SLP148 Language and Computation

Unit Outline

Semester 2, 2008

Convenor: Dr. Rosalind Thornton

Prerequisites: None

Students should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.

About This Unit

The goal of the course is to introduce students to the study of language from the differing perspectives of computer scientists and linguists. The course will explore how these fields interact by focusing on how computers and human minds treat words as units of language.

The course begins with a seemingly simple question: How do we define a word? Does the definition refer to units of meaning, or to units of sound, or 'shape' (e.g. the spaces on each side), or all of these? On the computational side, we will explore how computers identify words and the sentences they make up. How does a computer count the words in your essay, and how does the spellchecker work? How does a computer deal with searching texts for particular words or phrases? Is a document just a 'bag' of words? What principles underlie web search engines like Google? On the linguistics side, we'll question whether human minds work in the same way as computers by studying some morphology (the theory of how word subparts are composed into words), and how words combine to form larger units of language. We'll look at the organizational principles of print and electronic dictionaries, and examine psycholinguistic evidence from language breakdown as a way of investigating how people store words in the mental lexicon.

The course does not assume any prior knowledge of either linguistics or computing, and it has no prerequisites. Assessment is by means of assignments, in-class tests and an exam.

Teaching Staff

Role Name Email Room Office hours
Convenor R. Thornton Rosalind.Thornton@ling.mq.edu.au    
Lecturer, Tutor C. Oliveira claudia.oliveira@ling.mq.edu.au C5A539 Tuesday 10-11, Thursday 10-11
Lecturer, Tutor D. Molla-Aliod diego@ics.mq.edu.au E6A331 Monday 5-6, Friday 10-11

All emails related to SLP148 should be sent to slp148-admin@ics.mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.

Classes

Each week you should attend 2 hours of lectures, a one hour tutorial and a one hour practical. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.

Note that Practical sessions and tutorials commence in week 1.

You should have selected a tutorial and a practical session at enrolment. You should attend the tutorial and practical session you are enrolled in. If you do not have a class, or if you wish to change one, you should see the enrolment operators in the E7B courtyard during the first two weeks of the semester. Thereafter you should go to the Student Centre.

Required and Recommended Texts

There is no set textbook for the computing portion of the unit; readings will be assigned throughout the semester, in conjunction with lecture notes.

The linguistics portion of the unit will use the text below. Other readings will be made available on e-reserve.

Unit Web Page

The web page for this unit can be found at http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/units/slp148/index.htm. Note that the majority of the unit materials are publicly available while some material requires you to log in to Moodle to access it.

The unit will make use of discussion boards hosted within Moodle. Please post questions there, they will be monitored by the staff on the unit.

Learning Outcomes

A student completing the unit should have:

  1. A basic understanding of formal descriptions of human languages, with special emphasis on words and their make-up (i.e. morphology).
  2. A basic understanding of the psycholinguistics of word storage and retrieval in the human mind.
  3. A basic understanding of the issues involved in the automated processing of text documents.
  4. A basic understanding of the issues that computers face to find information in text documents.
  5. Basic programming experience with the Python programming language.
  6. Ability to implement a simple text processing application.

In addition to the discipline-based learning objectives, all academic programs at Macquarie seek to develop students' generic skills in a range of areas. One of the aims of this unit is that students develop their skills in the following areas:

Teaching and Learning Strategy

SLP148 is taught via lectures, tutorials and practical sessions in the laboratory. Lectures are used to introduce new material, give examples of the use of programming methods and techniques and put them in a wider context. While lectures are largely one to many presentations, you are encouraged to ask questions to the lecturer to clarify anything you might not be sure of. Tutorials are small group classes which give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and with a tutor who has a sound knowledge of the subject. You will be given problems to solve each week prior to the tutorial; preparing solutions is important because it will allow you to discuss the problems effectively with your tutor and maximise the feedback you get on your work. Practical classes give you an opportunity to practice your programming skills under the supervision of a practical demonstrator. Each week you will be given a number of problems to work on; it is important that you keep up with these problems as doing so will help you understand the material in the unit and prepare you for the work in assignments.

Each week you should:

Lecture notes will be made available each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or the assigned readings.

Topic List

In the following table, the prefix C indicates a Computing topic and L a Linguistics topic

Week Lecture 1 Lecture 2 Tutorial Practical
1 C: A Computing Perspective L: A Linguistics Perspective C C
2 C: Word Counting L: Corpus Linguistics C C
3 C: Tokenisation L: Defining Words L C
4 C: Sentence Segmentation L: Morphology C C
5 C: Morphological Analysis L: Word Classes I L C
6 C: Parts of Speech L: Word Classes II C C
7 C: Word Stemming Mid-semester Test C C
Recess
8 Public HolidayL: Lexicons L C
9 C: Text Search L: Words and Meaning L C
10 C: Web Search L: Corpus Lexicography C C
11 C: Automated Question Answering L: Corpus Terminography L C
12 C: Spell Correcting L: Linearity and Hierarchy in Human Language L L
13 C: Exam L: Exam L  

Relationship Between Assessment and Learning Outcomes

  1. The mid-class test and final exam will assess the theoretical knowledge of the student. This covers learning outcomes 1 to 4.
  2. The Computing project will assess the programming ability (outcome 5) and the implementation of a practical system (outcome 6).
  3. The Linguistics assignment will further assess the student's understanding of key concepts.
  4. The assessed tutorial exercises will assess the ability of the student to summarise and combine the topics of both Linguistics and Computing.

Task Planned Date Total Marks
Tutorial Questions Each week 5
Mid-term Class Test Week 7 15
Assignment in Computing Week 8 20
Assignment in Linguistics Week 12 20
Exam Week 13 40

Your final grade will depend on your performance in each part separately. In particular, to pass this unit you must meet all the following requirements:

All assignments should be submitted via the online Moodle system at http://moodle.ics.mq.edu.au by the time specified in the assignment description.

All work submitted should be readable and well presented.

Late work will be accepted with a penalty of 20% of the marks for the assignment per day submitted late. Hence, an assignment submitted five days late will not get any marks. If you cannot submit on time because of illness or other circumstances, please contact the lecturer before the due date.

Examinations

The final exam will take place during the lectures of week 13.

You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is the final day of the official examination period.

Special Consideration

The only exception to not sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration. Information about unavoidable disruption and the special consideration process is available on the web (PDF).

If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period. For details of the Special Consideration policy specific to the Department of Computing, see the Department's policy page.

To be eligible for special consideration you must show a genuine interest in the unit by participating in its activities. In particular:

Plagiarism

Please refer to the Department of Computing Plagiarism Policy for the definition of plagiarism, advice on avoiding it and the penalties in place if you are found to have submitted plagiarised work.

University Policy on Grading

Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).

On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive. Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.

It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.

Student Support Services

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.

Staff-Student Liaison Committee

The Department of Computing has established a Staff-Student Liaison Committee at each level (100, 200, 300) to provide all students studying a Computing unit the opportunity to discuss related issues or problems with both students and staff.

For each meeting, an agenda is issued and minutes are taken. These are posted on the web at:

Details of the regular meeting dates will be posted on the unit home page. Anyone with an interest in Computing units may attend. This includes staff involved in the teaching and administration of the units, and all students currently taking a Computing unit at that level. There are formal Liaison Committee representatives for each unit who attend to present the views of the student body; all students are welcome and are encouraged to attend.

The meetings are usually held in the Department of Computing Meeting Room, E6A357.

To forward agenda items or get in touch with your representative, send an email to slp148liaison@ics.mq.edu.au.

If you have exhausted all other avenues, then you should consult the Director of Teaching of the Department of Computing (Dr Steve Cassidy) or the Head of Department of Computing (Assoc. Prof. Tony Sloane). You are entitled to have your concerns raised, discussed and resolved.

Comments to: diego@ics.mq.edu.au

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