Computational Linguistics

Administration

Instructor:: Shuly Wintner. Office hours: Wednesday 13:00-14:00, Eshkol Tower 1217. Phone: (828)8180.
Teaching assistant:: Yael Cohen-Sygal
Times:: Spring 2002, Wednesday, 16:00-20:00. We will have an occasional recitation ("tirgul"), probably on Wednesday 10:00-12:00.
Place:: Rabin 5002
Prerequisites:: Computational models (203.3510). Students without the required background should talk to the instructor prior to registration.
Attendance:: Optional but highly recommended.
Grading:: The final grade will be based on 4-6 home assignments (approximately 33%) and two mid-term exams (approximately 33% each). There will be no final exam.
Mid-term exams:: The first mid-term will cover the first half of the material and will take place on 1 May or 8 May (during class time) The second mid-term will cover the other half of the material and will take place on 19 June (during class time).
Home assignments:: Approximately 5 home assignments will be handed out during the semester. Submission is mandatory. Homework is to be done independently and plagiarism will not be tolerated.

Content

Textbook:

There is no recommended textbook for this course, but some of the material can be found in Speech and Language Processing, by Daniel Jurafsky and James H. Martin. It's a good book, albeit too shallow sometimes.

Syllabus:

Introduction

Applications of natural language processing
The structure of natural languages
Different levels of language understanding: morphology, syntax and semantics
Ambiguity

Morphology

Introduction to morphology: word structure
Inflections and derivations
Finite-state automata
Finite-state transducers

Syntax

Introduction to syntax: the structure of natural languages
Context-free grammars: grammars, forms, derivations, trees, languages
Parsing: top-down, CYK algorithm, Earley algorithm, bottom-up chart parsing
The complexity of natural language
The limitations of CFGs
Unification grammars: feature structures and unification

Semantics

Lexical semantics and WordNet
Montague grammars

Announcements

15 January 2004: Second midterm exam with its solution.
26 June 2002: Final grades are available here.
18 June 2002: Solution to home assignment 4 is available as Word .doc.
16 June 2002: HW3 was graded. You can pick up your work at my office.
9 June 2002: The second mid-term exam will take place during class time on June 19th (in the classroom). There will be no class on that day. Good luck.
9 June 2002: This week's lecture will have two parts: the first will be an ordinary lecture, which will include a conclusion of the course. The second part will be a recitation of unification grammars and will take place at the computer lab, room 571.
30 May 2002: Deadline extension for home assignment 3. Please submit by June 5th.
28 May 2002: 10 points increase in your mid-term grade: submit a proposal for a mid-term exam; if it's good, your mid-term grade will increase by up to 10 points. Please submit your proposal by June 12th.
28 May 2002: Grades were updated. The mid-term grades reflect a 10 point increase ("factor"). Please check your grades and verify that no errors were made.
23 May 2002: Clarification: in HW3, please print all derivation trees.
20 May 2002: One-week deadline extension for home assignment 3. Please submit by June 1st.
15 May 2002: Instructions for using PCPATR are available in PDF or Word .doc format.
12 May 2002: A recitation (tirgul) will take place on Wednesday, 15 May, 10:00-12:00, at the computer lab (room 565).
8 May 2002: Mid-term grades are available. The grades reflect a 10 point increase ("factor").
8 May 2002: Home assignment 3 is available in PDF or Word .doc format.
6 May 2002: The first mid-term exam is available as PDF or Word .doc. Solutions are available in PDF or Word .doc.
30 April 2002: Solution to home assignment 2 is available as PDF or Word .doc.
25 April 2002: Submission of home assignment 2 is extended to Sunday. If you submit it before Sunday 9:00am, there's a chance you'll have it for the mid-term exam. Otherwise, you can submit by Sunday midnight.
23 April 2002: The recitation (tirgul) of Wednesday, 24 April, 14:00-16:00, is moved again, back to room 344 (terrace building, third floor). Sorry for the mess.
22 April 2002: Submission of home assignment 2 is extended to Thursday at 17:00.
22 April 2002: The recitation (tirgul) of Wednesday, 24 April, 14:00-16:00, is moved to room 571.
21 April 2002: A third recitation (tirgul) will take place on Wednesday, 1 May, 18:00-20:00 (right after the exam), at the computer lab (room 571).
11 April 2002: A second recitation (tirgul) will take place on Wednesday, 24 April, 14:00-16:00, at the computer lab (room 344, terrace building).
10 April 2002: The first mid-term exam will take place on May 1st, during class.
10 April 2002: The second home asignment is available.
8 April 2002: A recitation (tirgul) will take place on Monday, 15 April, 14:00-16:00, at the computer lab (room 571, near the computer center, main building).
8 April 2002: Input for home assignment 1 is available in PDF or Word .doc format. Note that some inputs are grammatical while others are not; your progrma only has to cope with the grammatical inputs.
19 March 2002: There's an error in one of the examples of home assignment 1. The first analysis of "tagdil" should be g.d.l+second person, singular, masculine (rather than third person).

Computational Linguistics

Administration

Content

Announcements

Copies of the slides

Home assignments

Links