Undergraduate Course: Simulating Language (LASC10018)
Course Outline
| School |
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College |
College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type |
Standard |
Availability |
Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) |
SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits |
20 |
| Home subject area |
Language Sciences |
Other subject area |
None |
| Course website |
None |
|
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| Course description |
How is language learned, and how do we process language? What drives language to change, and how can we predict the time-course of that change? What are the origins of language and how did it evolve in humans? These are some of the questions that can be tackled by building working models of language in computer simulations.
The aim of this course is to give an introduction to some of the techniques
of computational modelling and simulation and show how they have been used to shed light on debates in: language acquisition, language change, and language evolution. The focus will be mainly on learning how to assess the literature in these areas, rather than a practical course on simulation techniques, although there will be a few practical sessions working with a user-friendly simulation package.
Because of this, although its subject is computational modelling, this course does not require any prior computational or mathematical training whatsoever. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites |
Visiting students should have at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| Prospectus website |
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/visiting-exchange/courses |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Delivery period: 2010/11 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
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WebCT enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
| Location |
Activity |
Description |
Weeks |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
| Central | Lecture | | 1-11 | | | | 14:00 - 14:50 | | | Central | Lecture | | 1-11 | 14:00 - 14:50 | | | | | | Central | Lecture | | 1-11 | | | | | 14:00 - 14:50 |
| First Class |
Week 1, Monday, 14:00 - 14:50, Zone: Central. Room 1.17, Dugald Stewart Building |
| Additional information |
Class Location:
Rooms 1.17, Dugald Stewart Building |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
- An ability to critically assess research papers that use modelling techniques;
- an understanding of connectionism, evolutionary computation, and multi-agent models;
- a basic ability to develop the foundations and specifications of computational models. |
Assessment Information
| 100% Coursework |
| Please see Visiting Student Prospectus website for Visiting Student Assessment information |
Special Arrangements
| Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser |
Prof Simon Kirby
Tel: (0131 6)50 3494
Email: s.kirby@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary |
Ms Stephanie Fong
Tel:
Email: S.Fong@ed.ac.uk |
|
copyright 2010 The University of Edinburgh -
1 September 2010 6:12 am
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