Topics and pre-requisites vary by semester and section. May be repeated for credit as topics change. A1. Topic for Spring 2024: Truth. This course grapples with how to understand the notion of truth, incorporating perspectives from ancient to modern times. We'll consider puzzles related to the language surrounding racism, lying vs. other forms of deception, vagueness, partial truths, the future tense, presupposition, subjective language about opinions, bullshit, and dogwhistles. [Prereq: CAS LX 250 or consent of instructor] B1..Topic for Spring 2024: Metrics and Evaluation in Natural Language Processing. Much recent progress has been made in Natural Language Processing, sometimes accompanied by descriptions like "human-level performance." This course serves as an introduction to how "progress" is measured and evaluated, and invites broader discussions about claims of human parity. 4 cr. [Prereqs: CAS LX 250, Introduction to Linguistics, and CAS LX 496/GRS LX 796, Computational Linguistics, or equivalent, by consent of the instructor.]
FALL 2025 Schedule
| Section |
Instructor |
Location |
Schedule |
Notes |
| A1 |
Yacovone |
CAS 204B |
MWF 11:15 am-12:05 pm |
Topics in Linguistics: Child Language Acquisition
This course explores current and classic theories of language acquisition and assesses the empirical evidence underlying them. Students will learn through lecture, hands-on research, and lab-based demonstrations. Topics include linguistic nativism/empiricism, speech/sign perception, word recognition, and other sentence processing phenomena.
Pre-requisite: LX 250, or consent of instructor |
FALL 2025 Schedule
| Section |
Instructor |
Location |
Schedule |
Notes |
| B1 |
Kim |
CAS 208 |
TR 9:30 am-10:45 am |
Topics in Linguistics: Cognitive Science of Language
This course serves as an introduction to studying language as a part of broader cognitive science, exploring questions about the nature of linguistic representations, how they are processed and acquired, and how they interact with other cognitive domains.
Prerequisite: LX 250, or consent of instructor |
FALL 2025 Schedule
| Section |
Instructor |
Location |
Schedule |
Notes |
| C1 |
Kim |
CAS 204B |
TR 11:00 am-12:15 pm |
Topics in Linguistics: Contemporary Research in Neural Network Models of Language
This seminar will discuss contemporary research in computational linguistics and cognitive science, focusing on neural network models. We aim to survey new research directions enabled by recent technological advances, contra things possible e.g., in the second wave of connectionism.
Prerequisite: LX 496/796 or CS 505, or consent of instructor |
SPRG 2026 Schedule
| Section |
Instructor |
Location |
Schedule |
Notes |
| A1 |
|
|
TR 3:30 am-4:45 am |
|
SPRG 2026 Schedule
| Section |
Instructor |
Location |
Schedule |
Notes |
| B1 |
|
|
TR 9:30 am-10:45 am |
|
Note that this information may change at any time. Please visit the MyBU Student Portal for the most up-to-date course information.
