EALC-E600: Sentence Processing

Chien-Jer Charles Lin

Indiana University, Spring 2012

Time: Tuesdays 2:30-5:00 pm

Location: Woodburn Hall (WH) 204

Class Number: 29964

 

Sentence processing has emerged as an important field that serves as the interface between core linguistic components and various processing factors. This seminar is intended to provide students with up-to-date knowledge about the current advancements in human sentence processing. We will read recent publications in addition to landmark studies in sentence processing. Topics may include, but are not limited to, syntactic parsing, ambiguity resolution, garden path and reanalysis, syntactic and discourse effects, structural priming, working memory, prosody, syntax-semantics interface, relative clause processing, bilingual sentence processing, and methodological issues in (experimental) syntax. Selections of readings will be based on the interests of the students. The methodologies covered in the readings will include reading tasks, production tasks, eye tracking, event-related potentials, and fMRI.

 

EALC-E600: (East Asian) Psycholinguistics

Chien-Jer Charles Lin

Indiana University, Fall 2010

Time: Tuesdays 2:30-5:00 pm

Location: SPEA (PV) 270

Class Number: 22886

This seminar explores topics in East Asian language processing while providing foundation for psycholinguistic theories and practices. We start each topic by reading chapters from an introductory textbook (Harley, 2008), followed by presentations and discussions on recent publications in East Asian psycholinguistics. Using East Asian languages as windows, our goal is to understand the nature of language processing and its relation to general cognitive processes and linguistic theorization. Topics will include the architecture of grammar and its interfaces, the evolutionary foundation of language, linguistic competence and performance, speech processing, perception of vowels and tones, word recognition, syntactic and semantic ambiguity, sentence processing, mass/count distinctions, linguistic relativity, language production and the relation between language and other modalities (e.g., spatial cognition, mathematics & music). Knowledge of an East Asian language is not required. Course requirements include in-class article presentations, written comments on selected articles, and a final psycholinguistic research proposal (not necessarily on an East Asian language).

The objective of this course is to stimulate creative research. Critical feedbacks, innovative ideas, and proposals to advance research in psycholinguistics are highly valued. This class is especially useful for students who are interested in getting working knowledge in the psychology of language and being engaged in psycholinguistic research.

Textbook: Harley, Trevor A. (2008). The Psychology of Language. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Psychology Press. Selected journal articles will be posted at the course website.

If you are interested in taking this seminar and have specific psycholinguistics topics in mind, send an email to Prof. Lin. It is possible to incorporate your research interests into the design of the course.