The Linguistics Program Computer Proficiency Requirements

1. The Linguistics Program Computer Proficiency Requirements A guide for students

2. This document is intended to guide students within the Linguistics Program towards fulfilling the computer proficiency requirements necessary for graduation. It is divided into sections that are specific to different areas of linguistic study (i.e., phonetics & phonology, syntax & semantics, psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, etc.)

3. Contents Pertinent information for all linguistics students...1 Knowledge and use of Unicode fonts..............1.1 Where can Unicode fonts be obtained?..........1.2 Installation of Unicode font.............................1.3 The Linguistics Society of America style guide...1.4 Wayne State University's library website........1.5 LinguistList................................................. ...1.6 Phonology and Phonetics.....................................2 Courses offered in phonology and phonetics...2.1 Comprehension of non-standard symbols.......2.2 Unicode font.....................................................2.3 Formulas in Excel to explore data...................2.4 Use of Audacity and Praat..............................2.5 Rule formats...................................................2.6 Syntax and Semantics.........................................3 Corpora..........................................................3.1 Storage best practices...................................3.2 Information obtained through corpora...........3.3 Latex..............................................................3.4 Syntactic Trees..............................................3.5 Psycholinguistics........................................................4 Knowledge and use of PsychInfo database...........4.1 Formulas for data exploration................................4.2 Statistical analysis.................................................4.3 WSU classes for data analysis..............................4.4 Discourse analysis.....................................................5 What is discourse analysis?.................................5.1 Courses available.................................................5.2 Computer programs for discourse analysis..........5.3 How to obtain NVivo.............................................5.4 Sources for discourse analysis and corpus linguistics....……………………………………. 5.5 Corpus Linguistics................................................5.6 Historical linguistics...................................................6 WALS....................................................................6.1 Language Trees....................................................6.2

4. 1. Pertinent information for all linguistics students 1.1 Knowledge and use of Unicode fonts A Unicode font is a stable, universal, international font that is compatible with all computer platforms, programs and languages Unicode fonts establish a number for each character. This standard has been adopted by all industry leaders including Apple, Microsoft, HP, IBM, JustSystems, Oracle, Unisys and many others

5. 1. Pertinent information for all linguistics students 1.2 Obtaining Unicode fonts All computers running Windows XP or later have Lucida Sans Unicode font pre-installed, although it is not the best-looking font available. Similarly, Lucida Grande for the Mac provides all necessary symbols but is not very attractive. Better-looking unicode fonts can be obtained from SIL: http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/show_software_catalog.asp?by=cat&name=Font A program for the easy insertion of phonetic symbols is available for Mac: http://blugs.com/IPA/ A similar program for the PC is at: http://www.davidmontero.net/Linguistics.php A website for insertion of IPA symbols is at: http://weston.ruter.net/projects/ipa-chart/view/keyboard/

6. 1. Pertinent information for all linguistics students 1.3 Installation of Unicode fonts Windows Download font Once download is complete, follow these steps: Start Control Panel Appearance and personalization Fonts Right click (or “File”) and click “install font” In the folders box, click the folder that contains the font you downloaded Click “ok” In the “list of fonts” box, choose what font you want to add To select more than one font at a time, hold down CTRL while you click the fonts Check the box “Copy fonts to Font Folder” Click “ok” After these steps are completed, the font should be available in word processing programs

7. 1. Pertinent information for all linguistics students 1.3 Installation of Unicode fonts (continued) Mac Download font Once download is complete, follow these steps: In the Finder, open the folder that contains the font you want to install Select the fonts you want to install Drag and drop the Fonts in the Library Folder

8. 1. Pertinent information for all linguistics students 1.4 The Linguistics Society of America Style Guide Students should format their research papers according to to the standards set by The Linguistics Society of America The style guide can be found at: http://www.lsadc.org/info/pubs-lang-style.cfm

9. 1. Pertinent information for all linguistics students • 1.5 Wayne State University's library website to access relevant research • Wayne State University's library website has an abundance of research and resources for students • http://www.lib.wayne.edu

10. 1. Pertinent information for all linguistics students 1.6 LinguistList Resources for all individuals working in the field of linguistics or studying linguistics Information on jobs, conferences, dissertations, publications, languages, text, computer tools and fonts http://linguistlist.org

11. 2. Phonology & Phonetics 2.1 Wayne State University Courses offered in the field of phonology & phonetics Linguistics 5290: Phonology Linguistics 5080: Phonetics Linguistics 7010: Acoustics of Speech Praat and Audacity /fonɑlɪʣɪændfonɛtɪks/

12. 2. Phonology & Phonetics 2.2 Comprehension and use of non-standard symbols: IPA and Unicode font IPA = International Phonetic Alphabet Students learn the IPA in the undergraduate phonetics class (LIN 5080) Most computers come with an IPA Standard font Insert Character/symbol On the drop-down menu, choose “IPA Extensions”

13. 2. Phonology & Phonetics 2.2 Comprehension and use of non-standard symbols: IPA and Unicode font (continued) IPA characters can also be found at http://people.w3.org/rishida/scripts/pickers/ipa/ Select character you want to use (it will show up in the box on the bottom of the page) Highlight the characters in the box Edit → copy, edit → paste (into word document)

14. 2. Phonology & Phonetics 2.3 Unicode Font Unicode is a stable, universal, international font that is compatible with all computer platforms, programs and languages Unicode fonts establish a number for each character. This standard has been adopted by all industry leaders including Apple, Microsoft, HP, IBM, JustSystems, Oracle, Unisys and many others See slides 1.1 → 1.3

15. 2. Phonology & Phonetics 2.4 Formulas in Excel to explore data The Undergraduate Library offers seminars on word and excel that are free A free version of Microsoft excel is available at www.sourceforge.net “Open Office” is Microsoft Office's equivalent

16. 2. Phonology & Phonetics 2.5 Use of Audacity and Praat to record, measure and manipulate speech Praat Free software available at www.praat.org Useful for manipulation and measurement of speech Waveforms, FFTs, spectrograms, formant, intensity, pitch and voice analyses LIN 7010 teaches students how to use this program Audacity Free software available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net Useful in recording speech Mostly used in lab, not in class Taught in LIN 7010

17. 2. Phonology & Phonetics 2.5 Use of Audacity and Praat to record, measure and manipulate speech (continued) Microphones and Sound Cards Different types of Microphones Dynamic Microphones: act like speakers in reverse by generating a small amount of electricity when the diaphragm of the microphones moves back and forth under the pressure of the sound waves hitting it Condenser Microphones: powered by electricity and are more sensitive than dynamic microphones. Their lightweight diaphragm is better at picking up nuances of sound Microphone suggestion “Professional Quality” microphone is the Shure M58 www.shure.com $70-$100 Sound cards Interface enabling the user to connect various audio devices to the computer Extra details Acoustica is a free mp3 → wav converter Available on http://sourceforge.net

18. 2. Phonology & Phonetics 2.6 Represent phonological rule formats with a word processor What are phonological rule formats? A notation that describes the relationship between phonemes and allophones Phonological rule formats are taught to students studying phonology and phonetics in undergraduate and graduate courses A website with resources for creating phonological rules feature matrices: www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/hayes/120a/Brackets.htm

19. 3. Syntax & Semantics 3.1 British National Corpus and American National Corpus Tools for linguistic researchers that provide a resource pool of qualitative, representative data Both corpora are called 'parsed corpora' Sentences within databases are tagged according to sentence type, adjectives in the sentence, types of speech used, forms of syntax, etc. Essentially, students can search for very specific sentences (e.g., “big + noun”) then formulate questions to research about Students should learn how to tag sentences and search by linguistic register This concept is not specifically taught in class, but rather, learned through experience over time as a student completes their research project Very useful for people who are conducting original research Accessibility Accessible through the internet American National Corpus http://www.americannationalcorpus.com Free to download British National Corpus Dr. Fleisher is overseeing the program's acquisition of this corpus Once acquired and installed, it will be available to all students and faculty affiliated with the Linguistics Program

20. 3. Syntax & Semantics 3.2 Storage best practices Currently, saving and editing through XML is best practice This allows one to mark information with tags so that one can have it, manipulate it and interact it with more complex programs Sufficient software available “Open format” = not owned by anyone Many computers can read XML documents Lasts over time Can be easily converted into a webpage to share the information

21. 3. Syntax & Semantics 3.3 Use of information obtained through the British National Corpus and American National Corpus in a student's research project The compilation of information the student tags, stores and draws conclusions about will contribute to their research project Specific research projects are determined through a collaborative relationship between the student and professor he/she is working alongside

22. 3. Syntax & Semantics 3.4 Knowledge of Latex Word processing program that many linguists use Beneficial for future work in linguistics Availability PC First, download MikTeX (version 2.7) http://miktex.org Next, download WinEdit (text editor) http://winedt.com/ Free! Mac Download MacTeX.mpkg.zip http://www.tug.org/mactex Open the folder and double click on the icon. A full distribution will be installed

23. 3. Syntax & Semantics 3.5 Syntax Trees Syntacticians use tree diagrams to represent the structure of sentences. Though it is not the only system for representing syntactic structure, tree notation is particularly useful for the simple graphical way in which it depicts complex hierarchical relationships among the various parts of a sentence (i.e., syntactic constituency). It is used everywhere from introductory linguistics to advanced syntax and semantics. Trees can also be used to represent certain aspects of phonological and morphological structure. The greatest advantage of tree notation---its graphical nature---can also be its greatest difficulty for those wishing to use trees in electronic documents. Microsoft Word's graphical tool palette is cumbersome and not designed for integrating diagonal lines with text in the way required for syntactic trees. A better option is the Arboreal font, which allows one to type in tree parts with the keyboard; the font is available for $20 from Cascadilla Press (http://www.cascadilla.com/arboreal.html). For those who use LaTeX for word processing, several packages exist for typesetting trees. A particularly powerful and easy-to-use package is qtree; for more information, see the trees section of the LaTeX for Linguists site (http://www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics/external/clmt/latex4ling/). As with the LaTeX system itself, qtree is available free of charge.

24. 4. Psycholinguistics 4.1 Knowledge and use of PsychInfo Database Used for research purposes Accessible through the Wayne State University Library website http://www.lib.wayne.edu/resources/databases Search “P” and click on “PsychInfo” Enter login name and password

25. 4. Psycholinguistics 4.2 Write formulas for data exploration and create graphs in data analysis programs Data analysis programs Excel Free version through Open Office R Free program Not required for Linguistics majors, but useful Useful if student will use statistical analysis in their field More skill needed versus Excel or SPSS Need to type out statistical commands SPSS Popular statistical analysis program, also not required but useful Expensive Student version available for a cheaper price Used for research purposes and class assignments

26. 4. Psycholinguistics 4.3 Use data analysis programs to conduct simple statistical comparisons such as a t-test T-test Tests if the null hypothesis is true Usually applied when there is a normal distribution

27. 4. Psycholinguistics 4.4 Courses that teach students to use data analysis programs and perform simple statistical analyses Psychology/Linguistics 6710 Majors specializing in psycholinguistic topics can take PSY 3090 as one of the ways to satisfy the Computer Proficiency Level II Requirement. PSY 3090 is a laboratory class that is taken by psychology students along with or after the Cognitive Psychology class (PSY 3080), which is crosslisted as LIN 3080.

28. 5. Discourse Analysis 5.1 Discourse analysis: A definition Discourse analysis is the study of language as it is organized above the sentence level. The organization of communicative events.

29. 5. Discourse Analysis 5.2 Courses that teach discourse analysis No specific undergraduate courses teach discourse analysis Specifically for students who are interested

30. 5. Discourse Analysis 5.3 Computer programs used for discourse analysis NVivo is software that is used for qualitative research (not solely linguistics) Allows the user to import, sort and analyze audio files, videos, digital photos, Word, PDF and rich and plain text documents Creation of transcripts Work in a variety of languages Query your data with search engine Graphically display research information Share files with people who may or may not have NVivo Merge separate projects

31. 5. Discourse Analysis 5.4 How students obtain NVivo http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo.aspx

32. 5. Discourse Analysis 5.5 More information on discourse analysis and Corpus Linguistics Cameron, Deborah.  2001. Working with Spoken Language.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage. Biber, Douglas. 2006. University language:  A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers.  Amsterdam:  John Benjamins. Biber, D., U. Connor, and T. A. Upton.  2007. Discourse on the move:  Using corpus analysis to describe discourse structure.  Amsterdam:  John Benjamins.  Connor, U., & Upton, T. A. (Eds.). 2004. Applied corpus linguistics: A multidimensional perspective. Amsterdam: Rodopi Publishers. Connor, U., & Upton, T. A. (Eds.). 2004. Discourse in the professions: Perspectives from corpus linguistics. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

33. 5. Discourse Analysis 5.6 Corpus Linguistics Corpus linguistics is the study of language as it is found in real-world text (corpora) Sample Corpora Brown Corpus Developed by Brown University Widely used for computational linguistics http://khnt.aksis.uib.no/icame/manuals/brown/ British National Corpus Samples of written and spoken English form a variety of sources British English of the late 20th century from a variety of genres Soon available for WSU Linguistics students and faculty http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/ Corpus of Contemporary American English Largest corpus of American English available Publicly available Spoken, fictional, popular magazines, newspapers and academic journals http://www.americancorpus.org/ Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English Transcripts of academic speech events recorded at The University of Michigan http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/micase/

34. 6. Historical Linguistics 6.1 Word Atlas of Language Structure Current research on world languages http://wals.info

35. 6. Historical Linguistics 6.2 Language Trees Trees from world languages http://multitree.linguist.org