Note: This syllabus is currently under construction and details may change.
Course Description
Satisfies the CORE Quantitative Reasoning requirement. What do autocomplete and spell checkers have in common? Can a computer tell a good review from a bad one just by reading the words? How do tools like ChatGPT know what to say next, and how do they say it so fluently? In this course, we explore the linguistic principles behind the tools you use every day. No programming experience or math beyond high school is required: we teach Python from scratch in guided notebooks, starting with your very first line of code in week one. You’ll see how a machine breaks a sentence into words, build a program that sorts reviews into positive and negative, and explore how neural networks and AI tools produce fluent text one word at a time. Along the way, you’ll discover where these tools still get language wrong, and ask what it would mean for a machine to understand a sentence at all. No prerequisites: all you need is curiosity about language.
Course Details
- Title: LING-UA 6 Patterns in Language
- Mondays and Wednesdays 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM (1/19/2027 – 5/4/2027), Location: TBA
- Instructor: Lucas Champollion — office hours by appointment
- Course assistants names and office hours TBD
- Prerequisites: None; this course assumes no prior knowledge of linguistics or computer science, and only high-school level math background. Don’t worry if you are not a native speaker of English.
- Antirequisites: You must not have taken the BICS summer course LING-UA 901 “Language and Computers”. If you take this course (LING-UA 6), you will not be able to take “Language and Computers” in the future.
How to contact us
Do not email us. We anticipate that there will be a high number of duplicated requests and so we are asking students to post questions on the discussions board on Brightspace. You are encouraged to answer each other’s questions on the board. Please check if someone else has answered your question before posting. There is an option to post anonymously if you prefer, and in that case only the instructors will see your name. The board is monitored regularly Monday through Friday.
If you are uncomfortable posting on the discussions board, you can also contact us through one of the following ways:
- Ask the professor or a course assistant in person after class.
- Attend office hours.
- If you can’t make it to any of the office hours, talk to us after class to request an appointment.
Required textbooks and materials
Required materials will be provided via Perusall. Instead of a traditional textbook, we will be using a variety of materials, such as articles, book chapters, and videos. There is no need to purchase anything.
Course requirements
There will be no exams in this class. Instead, course requirements will include Jupyter assignments, reading assignments, and in-class quizzes.
You are expected to participate regularly in reading discussions on the Perusall platform, log on repeatedly throughout the week, and complete all assigned readings and videos in their entirety.
Class grade
The class grade will be calculated using the following proportions:
- Jupyter Assignments (70%): These form the core of your grade and are designed to assess your practical understanding of the course material.
- Perusall Reading Assignments (15%): Low-stakes assignments to ensure you are consistently engaging with the readings and participating in discussions.
- In-Class Quizzes (15%): Brief, low-stakes checks to reward attendance and review recent concepts. The lowest in-class quiz score will be dropped.
Perusall
Perusall is a free service that allows Facebook-style discussions to take place online and asynchronously. For more information, see https://perusall.com/about.
A 95-100%
A- 90-94%
B+ 87-89%
B 83-86%
B- 80-82%
C+ 77-79%
C 73-76%
C- 63-72%
F 0-62%
Course policies
Contact us early
There will not be any extra credit issued on request. No incomplete grades will be assigned in this course. For best results, we recommend doing all the homework assignments and not missing class. If a problem outside of class affects or might affect your performance, contact the course assistants without delay. Don’t wait until due dates have passed. Don’t wait until the end of the term, or we won’t be able to help you. If something prevents you from continuing your studies for a long time, also let the Dean of Students know.
Attendance and Tardiness
We expect you to attend class unless you are sick or have another important reason to stay away. You do not need to provide an excuse in case you miss class. We won’t ask why you’re away if we don’t see you. That said, we much prefer if you ask questions in class than outside of class.
Late Assignments
We will accept late submissions for Jupyter assignments for up to 24 hours, but in that case your grade will be docked 10% regardless of cause. To avoid technical issues, we recommend submitting early and often. You can submit as many times as you want. Only your last submission counts.
Perusall assignments have a built-in 7-day late policy but this will result in a lower score for the assignment. See details on the Perusall platform.
Collaborating
We encourage you to work on Jupyter assignments in pairs, but you must work on each part of the homework assignment yourself, and you must write up and turn in your own answers. If you work in pairs, please add to your Jupyter homework the names of the student that you worked with. As long as you both follow the rule above, this will not affect your grade or their grade.
Incomplete Grade Policy
No incomplete grades will be assigned in this course.
Academic Honesty/Plagiarism
Cheating may cost you your grade. Examples of cheating are: copying another student’s work with or without that student’s knowledge; reproducing ideas that are not your own without attribution; including solutions from answer keys, public sources, or AI-generated content (Wikipedia, ChatGPT, etc.) into one’s homework; presenting the output of a translation service (Google Translate, DeepL) as your own work. You will fail any homework on which you have cheated. You will fail the course and be reported if you cheat repeatedly.
For details on NYU’s Academic Integrity Policy please visit: Academic Integrity for Students at NYU
For details on CAS’s Academic Integrity Policy please visit: http://cas.nyu.edu/academic-integrity.html
Disability Disclosure Statement
New York University is committed to providing equal educational opportunity and participation for students of all abilities. We work with NYU students to determine appropriate and reasonable accommodations that support equal access to a world-class education.
Students requesting academic accommodations are advised to reach out to the Moses Center for Student Accessibility as early as possible in the semester for assistance.
Moses Center for Student Accessibility
Telephone: 212-998-4980
Website: http://www.nyu.edu/csa
Email: mosescsa@nyu.edu
Perusall disclaimer
NYU asks me to include the following language in my syllabus:
“During this class, students will be required to use Perusall as a part of course studies, and thus, will be required to agree to the Terms of Use (TOU) associated with Perusall. Perusall requires users to be over the age of 18 in order to legally agree to the TOU and to create an account.
Perusall collects, use, and disclose for business purposes, the following categories of information about students and instructor: Identifiers (such as name, email address); device identifiers (such as IP address); internet or other network or device activity (such as browsing history or app usage); education data; location data; user-generated content; and other information that identifies or can be reasonably associated with students or instructors. This information will identify users to Perusall and companies with whom it shares data.
Perusall is not an NYU service and not supported by NYU IT. Therefore, the user should not use their NYU login and password. Login and password information should be unique.
You should read carefully the Perusall Terms of Use (https://app.perusall.com/legal/terms), Privacy Policy (https://app.perusall.com/legal/privacy), and FERPA Compliance Statement (https://app.perusall.com/legal/terms) regarding the impact on your privacy rights and intellectual property rights. If you have any questions or objections regarding those Terms of Use or the impact on the class, you are encouraged to speak to the instructor prior to enrollment.”
I asked Brian Lukoff, the CEO of Perusall, to comment on this and he replied: “We absolutely do NOT sell customer data. It is in our interest to keep all of our customer data secure and only used for appropriate purposes!”
