General course information Session 1: 7/08/2011 1

Instructors Rajesh Bhatt –Ling Dept, UMASS Amherst –Syntax, Syntax-Semantics Interface Fei Xia –Ling Dept, Univ. of Washington –Computational linguistics Both –XTAG project at UPenn –The Hindi/Urdu Project 2

3 Contact –Rajesh: –Fei: Do not use our CU address Office hours: by appt

4 Course home page, etc. Course url: –Syllabus –Slides: The slides will be online shortly after class. –Assignments The syllabus page at CULearn.colorado.edu points to our course url. Please check your s regularly.

Course Objectives Introduce students to the design of treebanks Demonstrate how treebanks can inform research in theoretical linguistics Show that treebanks play an important role in CL. 5

6 Prerequisites An introductory syntax class Speak, or know the syntax of, a foreign language Computational background would be helpful but is not required: –basic unix/linux commands –a programming language (C, C++, Java, Perl, Python) –use RegEx Regular access to a computer would also be helpful.

7 Grades Attendance and class participation: 70% Assignments: 30% In addition, there will be optional assignments that are highly recommended.

Required assignments Assignments are given on Fridays Due at noon the following Thursday If you have any questions about lectures or assignments, please let us know ASAP in class or by . Turn in your assignments by . 8

Optional assignments Very helpful in understanding the course material They are not required because of students’ other activities. If you turn in the assignments, we will provide feedback. Not going to affect your grade either way. 9

Colorado machines You need to get an account on “verbs” machine –unix, not Windows or Mac –we will use basic unix commands: e.g., ls, cd, more, less –To log in: run ssh If you don’t have an account, contact let us know right now. –user id and password are the same as the ones for your CU account The directory for the course on “verbs” –/home/verbs/shared/LSA7800_076 10

11 Course contents

Course plan 1: Introduction to treebanks 2: Using treebanks in linguistic studies 3: Creating a treebank 4: PropBank 5: Multi-representational treebanks 6: Historical treebanks 7: Using treebanks in CL studies 8: Discourse Treebank 12