The course concludes with an examination of writing systems and computational linguistics. Finally, questions of the relationship of the mind and computers will be raised as the course turns to computational syntax and semantics. Why do we want to teach computers to talk and how do we do it. The section will examine recent successes and failures in attempting to program computers to comprehend human speech in order to come to an understanding of how such research can help us understand more about ourselves. Linguistics 110 raises the awareness of what it means to speak a language, the most complex symbolic system humans have ever devised, yet one which is mastered, unconsciously, between the ages of two and six.
Language holds together all our cultural and social institutions.
This course points out how the superficial differences among individual languages and dialects hide a deeper universal grammar which binds all human beings together.