Course Description
If a computer can beat humans at Jeopardy!, does it follow that machines can think? Is it possible to predict the spread of the flu based on patterns in Google searches? Did Shakespeare really write that sonnet? Scientists use patterns in language to answer these questions, using the same concepts that underlie such everyday applications as search engines, automatic translators, speech recognition, spell-checkers, and auto-correction tools. We examine these applications, focusing on the technological and linguistic ideas behind them and gaining practical hands-on experience and insight into how they work. No programming experience is required; students only need curiosity about language and some everyday experience with computers.
Course Details
- Title: LING-UA 6 Patterns in Language
- Mondays and Wednesdays 11am-12:15pm, Silver 411
- Instructor: Lucas Champollion — office hours by appointment
- Course assistants: Abhinay Bodi and Maanas Lalwani
- Abhinay’s office hours: Wednesday 10-11am, 10 Washington Place, room 312, or by appointment
- Maanas’ office hours: Wednesday 2:30-3:30pm, 10 Washington Place, room 312, or by appointment
- 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
We will be using the second edition of the textbook Language and Computers by Lelia Glass, Markus Dickinson, Chris Brew, and Detmar Meurers, as well as some supplementary texts and videos. All of these materials will be provided free of charge. There is no need to purchase anything.
Dr Lelia Glass, the first author of the revised edition of the textbook, will have access to the comments and questions you post on Perusall (see below). Your comments and questions will help inform Dr Glass’ work but will not themselves be published. Dr Glass will not have access to your scores or grades for the class. If you prefer not to be associated with your comments by name either by Dr Glass or by other students, you are free to post anonymously. In this case, only the instructor and TAs will be able to identify you. This will not affect your score.
Course requirements
There will be no exams in this class. Instead, grades will be based primarily on problem sets and reading assignments.
Jupyter assignments (a mix of manual and programming) will be worth 85% of the course grade, and the lowest problem set will be dropped. There will be ten such assignments.
Reading assignments on Perusall, which include Facebook-style discussions, will be worth 15% of the course grade. You are expected to participate regularly in discussions on the Perusall platform, log on repeatedly throughout the week, and complete all assigned readings and videos in their entirety. The score for your reading assignments will be calculated automatically by Perusall based on how you interact on the platform.
Class grade
The class grade will be assigned as follows:
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 Students with Disabilities as early as possible in the semester for assistance.
Henry and Lucy Moses Center for Students with Disabilities
Telephone: 212-998-4980
Website: http://www.nyu.edu/csd
Email: mosescsd@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!”
