Dafydd Gibbon, GS A3: Computers and the English Language

Curricula: SI, SII, M (Zwischenprüfung möglich)

Class notes.

In addition to the everyday use of computers for writing texts, communicating by email, research on the world-wide web, students of language are also faced with the fascinating question of understanding the principles by which languages work, how people manage to talk and understand, and indeed how computers talk - and, in some sense, understand.

This class introduces basic applications of computers in linguistics, dealing with three main areas:

1. Computer supported analysis of texts in English and other languages, with the aim of understanding how words are actually used in context, rather than relying only on dictionaries.
2. Basic methods for analysing spoken language, such as recording, computer based editing, construction of `concrete poetry'.
3. Construction of a computer-based dictionary for English compound words and idioms.

Each of the three phases will start with a lecture and be followed by practical project work and reports. At the end of term, students may take the `Zwischenprüfung' in this class. For further information, reading list, etc., please consult our Internet site