2024-3Q Wednesday 9.10(17:15-18:55) W932 Linguistics D (LAH.A411)
Institute of Science Tokyo[Syllabus]

Linguistics D (LAH.A411)/ W932: Facts and Figures of Language

• Day 1 2024.10.04 Wittgenstein and Language Game / Is a subject necessary for language?
• Day 2 2024.10.16 Turing and Turing Machine / Is a word order really needed for language?
• Day 3 2024.10.30 Zipf and Zipf's Law / The criteria of language description
• Day 4 2024.10.06 Daniel Jones' 18 Cardinal Vowels / Is language static or dynamic?
• Day 5 2024.11.20 de Sussure and Semiotics / Is a thought first or a language first?
• Day 6 2024.11.27 Fillmore and Case grammar / Categorizing and naming objects
• Day 7 2024.12.04 Chomsky and Universal grammar / Conference / Examination

Day 1: 2024.10.09 Wittgenstein and Language game / Is a subject necessary for language?

• This class is one of the liberal arts courses in the 400 level of the master's program.
• Discussion is mandatory in this class.
• In addition to attendance, written exams and research presentations are required.
• If you wish to attend, please read the [Syllabus] carefully.
• Please prepare one of the following textbooks.
  • Linguistics For Dummies® Published by John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. 6045 Freemont Blvd. Mississauga, Ontario, L5R 4J3
    [Amazon] [Cheat Sheet]
  • An Introduction to Language: Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman and Nina Hyams
    [Amazon] [PDF] [PDF]
• Today's menu [Language game]

Day 2: 2024.10.16 Turing and Turing Machine

• Today's menu [Turing machine]

Day 3: 2023.10.30 Zipf and Zipf's Law / Set language description criteria to "understandable."

• Today's menu [Zipf's law]
• Additional Resources [pdf] Frequency of words
• Discuss the following items if you can make sense with Zipf's law.
  • The frequency of access to the web page
  • The population in a city (rank-size distribution of the city)
  • The top three percent of the people of income
  • The frequency of use of the notes in music
  • Expression level of the gene in cells
  • Scale of earthquake
  • The size of the fragments when the glass is broken
• How do you think the distribution of the kanji characters in a document?
• Better Poster Template [OSF Site] [pdf]
  Poster Template [pptx] [pdf]
• 2024.10.30 Homework [here] (deadline: today)

Day 4: 2023.11.06 Daniel Jones' 18 Cardinal Vowels / Is language static or dynamic?

Day 5: 2023.11.20 de Sussure and Semiotics / Is a thought first or a language first?

Day 6: 2023.11.27 Fillmore and Case grammar; Categorizing and naming objects; Chomsky and Universal Grammar.

Day 7: 2023.12.04 Conference and examination.