LING209A: Computational Linguistics 1 (graduate, UCLA)
Spring 2023, Spring 2022

Introduction to the core computational properties of grammars, starting with the simplest finite systems that express unboundedness, and working up to systems that resemble the tools of contemporary linguistic theory. Themes include the role of recursion, the relationship between structure and interpretation (both sound and meaning), the relationship between grammars and probabilities, and the relationship between derivations and parsing.

LING213A: Grammatical Development (graduate, UCLA)
Winter 2023

Overview of the fundamentals of language acquisition theory. Themes include language acquisition as an example of inductive inference, arguments from the poverty of the stimulus, the representation and use of input in learning, the abstractness of acquired linguistic knowledge, and the role of extralinguistic cognition. Throughout, we discuss a range of methods that are used to probe these questions in different linguistic domains.

LING185A: Computational Linguistics 1 (undergraduate, UCLA)
Fall 2022, Winter 2022, Spring 2021

Overview of formal computational ideas underlying the kinds of grammars used in theoretical linguistics and psycholinguistics, and some connections to applications in natural language processing. Topics include recursion, relationship between probabilities and grammars, and parsing algorithms. Prerequisites: LING120B and either CS32 or Program in Computing 10C

LING254: Topics in Linguistics; Computational Models of Learning (graduate, UCLA)
Fall 2022, co-taught with Tim Hunter

Graduate proseminar on computational models of grammar learning. We discuss the relationship between (i) (relatively) data-driven approaches that frequently come under the heading “distributional learning”, and (ii) approaches to learning that are more top-down and framed in terms of substantive linguistic concepts (e.g. “noun”, “verb”, “argument”). On the distributional learning side, we consider work both from a formal language theory angle and from a statistical learning angle. On “top-down” side, we consider work on linguistically-grounded models of learning via parameter-setting. Throughout, we consider the relationship between these types of models and behavioral studies of potentially-similar mechanisms in humans.

LING254: Topics in Linguistics; Linguistic Knowledge and Extralinguistic Cognition in Grammar Development (graduate, UCLA)
Fall 2021

Proseminar in psycholinguistics discussing how properties of child learners, both linguistic and extralinguistic, interact with properties of their environment in enabling the acquisition of a grammar. We discuss various phenomena in the development of syntax and semantics from infancy through childhood, examining the influences of linguistic biases and knowledge, extralinguistic cognitive abilities (e.g. statistical sensitivities, executive functions, pragmatic reasoning), and their interaction with experience.

LING254: Topics in Linguistics; Models of Syntax Learning and Learnability (graduate, UCLA) 
Winter 2021 [syllabus]

Graduate proseminar discussing models of early syntax acquisition from two different literatures: language acquisition/learnability models in linguistics, and statistical/distributional learning models in computational cognitive science. These literatures have historically made different assumptions about the roles of prior knowledge and mechanisms for learning from data in the early stages of acquiring a grammar. Our goals are to bring these approaches in conversation with each other, ask how they relate to empirical developmental findings, and ask how they might jointly inform our theories of grammar development. Topics include syntactic parameters, grammatical categories, argument structure, phrase structure, and movement dependencies.

LING449R: Topics in Psycholinguistics; Syntactic and Semantic Arguments in Language Acquisition (undergraduate, University of Maryland) 
Spring 2018 [syllabus]

Advanced undergraduate seminar on the acquisition of argument structure. Investigation of syntactic and semantic representations of arguments and argument relations, and how those relations are acquired by infants learning their first language. Specific topics include formal approaches to argumenthood and argument relations, correspondences between verb meanings and verb distributions, and theories of how these correspondences are used by children acquiring a grammar.

Advising

Graduate

Doctoral dissertations (chair): Katya Khlystova

Doctoral dissertations (committee member): Zhongshi (Andy) Xu, Anissa Gladney

MA theses (committee member): Ian White

Faculty advisor, Graduate Summer Research Mentorship: Kerri Devlin (2021)

Undergraduate

Honors theses: Shalinee Maitra (2022), Jordan Schneider (co-advisor with Naomi Feldman, 2019)

Research assistants, UCLA: April Alvarez, Xinyue Cui, Sofia Duffy, Emily Freedman, Nicole Fuches, Serena Gutridge, Elaine Heidmann, Shalinee Maitra, Alexander Gonzalez Paz, Ana Sofia Rodriguez, Jose Angelo Urrutia, Hanyu Zhou

Research assistants, University of Maryland: Erika Arrigo, Abigail Kameny, Lillianna Righter, Alexander Shushunov, William Simpson, Gbemileke Soyoye, John-Paul Teti

PULSAR Graduate Fellow, University of Maryland Language Science Center: co-instructor for a seminar to introduce undergraduate students to language science research opportunities (2015)