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This course in cognitive science explores linguistics through a computational lens. It introduces students to formal and functional linguistics paradigms, conversation studies, and metapragmatics. Through the analysis of conversation data and computational thinking, students will develop reasoning skills applicable across various fields. The course also covers assessing computational techniques in functional linguistics through a Turing Test approach, evaluating the skills acquired.
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CPATH in a LinguisticsOriented Intro to Cognitive Science Robert RotenbergLA&S-Anthropology
The CPATH Pedagogical Task • Develop the intellectual and reasoning skills needed to apply computational thinking to the problems and projects in their field, whether the field is in the arts, sciences, humanities, or social sciences.
HON 207 Introduction to Cognitive Science • Sophomore-level Liberal Studies course for University Honors Program Students. • Taught by CDM and LA&S Faculty from various departments. • Course design varies with the instructor’s discipline. • A linguistics approach was approved by the requirement committee in 2008. • This was the first offering of this version of the course.
Understanding Linguistics’ Scholarly Paradigms • Formal Linguistics: The study of the relationships between the parts of language that permit information to be encoded and decoded (“Regular Expressions,” “Classes, Objects and Properties,” “Generative Grammar,” and “Sound Patterns.” • Functional Linguistics: The study of language in use (pidgins, creoles and argots,” “discourse studies,” “studies of speech genres (i.e. conversation),” “dialect studies,” and “first and second language acquisition.”
Conversation Studies • Sequences, Pre-sequences and Narration (turn-taking behaviors, conventional exchanges and storytelling that creates the structure of conversation). • Deictics (context-specific particles that maintain or change the contexts of the exchanges, i.e. pronouns, verb tenses). • Pragmatics (conjoining others to react to the contexts you establish, i.e., question/answer, request/approval). • Metapragmatics (setting and achieving an agenda during interaction that communicates an identity to others).
Metapragmatics • The “agendas” of the people participating in the conversation (Searle’s intentionality) is discoverable from the patterns of the pragmatics of their utterances. For example: • Who talks the most? • Who interrupts whom? • Who provides the preferred response to others? • Who provides responses that are not preferred or are distracting to others? • Who dominates by telling stories? • Who predominantly asks questions?
Conversation Analysis as algorithm Each step below ‘Recording’ is recursive.
Communication: Transmission of information from one process or object to another. Communication here is understood meta, relating to the analytical process, rather than phenomenological, relating to the data
Coordination: the control of the timing of ‘computation’ in order to achieve a certain goal.
Assessment: Did students develop the skills to apply computational techniques to the problems and projects in functional linguistics?
Assessment of Computational Thinking • Turing Test: If you are in a conversation with a stranger through a chat program, how do you know you are conversing with a human?
