Concentrations

The Computational Linguistics concentration area educates the student in the theory, technologies and applications of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Computational Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field addressing human languages by applying methods of both Linguistics and Computer Science. One can distinguish two major subdisciplines:

1. Research in Computational Linguistics addresses the computational properties of linguistic models of natural language and develops algorithms and computational implementations of such linguistic models;
2. Research in NLP emphasizes the goal of developing systems that can deal effectively with natural language data in an application context.

Courses

The Computational Linguistics concentration area at the UT Linguistics department is structured as follows. In their first year, graduate students interested in computational linguistics usually take the required courses related to syntax and semantics.

Research in Computational Linguistics is taken in both semesters of the first year, and all subsequent years.

Beginning in their second year, students interested in continuing in computational linguistics choose advanced courses and seminars in computational linguistics, as well as courses from other departments.

Advanced courses and seminars in computational linguistics are offered. Past topics have included:

• Computational semantics
• Grounded models of meaning
• Applied text analysis
• Data-Intensive Computing for Text Analysis
• Semisupervised Learning for Computational Linguistics
• Natural language learning
• Social Applications and Impact of NLP
• Discourse Processing and Natural Language Generation
• Computational Linguistics with Minimal Supervision

• Large Language Models

Relevant courses in other departments include:

• Natural language processing (computer science)
• Courses offered by Ray Mooney, Greg Durrett, Eunsol Choi, David Harvath and Alex Huth in computer science
• Courses offered by Matt Lease in the ISchool
• Courses offered by the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences

Students in computational linguistics are also expected to participate in the cross-departmental biweekly reading group “NLL” (Natural Language Learning). Students are asked to contact computational linguistics faculty to get on the mailing list.

Depending on the student's focus, advanced courses from other concentration areas in Linguistics will tie in very well with the Computational Linguistics concentration area. For example, a student focusing on computational syntax and semantics will benefit greatly from advanced syntax courses.

In general, students in computational linguistics are greatly encouraged to take courses in the UT Computer Science department, the iSchool, the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, and the Department of Statistics and Data Sciences.

Faculty

The documentary and descriptive linguistics concentration prepares students to collect and analyze new data on previously under-studied languages and speech communities, and to prepare grammars, dictionaries, text collections and other descriptive materials that contribute to their documentation. Many students who choose this concentration write a reference grammar of some language for their doctoral dissertations.

Coursework in documentary and descriptive linguistics builds on the core MA and PhD course requirements. It is structured around three "core courses" for the concentration: LIN 385 Field Methods in Linguistic Description; LIN 392 Linguistic Typology; and LIN 382 Historical Linguistics.  Other courses that cover various aspects of linguistic analysis, the structure and typology of different languages, and grammar writing or the preparation of other documentary and descriptive materials are offered on a regular basis by faculty who specialize in descriptive linguistics. LIN 389D, offered every semester, covers current issues in documentary and descriptive linguistics and is tailored to each student’s particular research situation. All students are encouraged to take advanced courses in phonology, syntax, or semantics.

UT has a number of facilities that enhance documentary and descriptive linguistics. The Documentary Linguistics, Phonetics, Child Language, Signed Languages, and Computational Linguistics Labs in the Department of Linguistics have a variety of tools, equipment, activities, and projects that are useful for language documentation and analysis. The Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) is collecting and making available digital audio, video, and text material on as many Latin American indigenous languages as possible. The Center for Indigenous Languages of Latin America (CILLA) encourages linguistic work done in conjunction with communities of speakers of Latin American indigenous languages and sponsors conferences and symposia on those languages, as well as hosting indigenous students and visiting professors from Latin America.

Courses

All Ph.D. students interested in descriptive/documentary linguistics should take the following courses (in addition to required courses):

• LIN 392 Linguistic Typology
• LIN 382 Historical Linguistics
• At least one advanced course in phonology, syntax, or semantics

In addition, LIN 389D Linguistic Research in Documentary-Descriptive Linguistics is offered every semester and provides students with the opportunity to discuss current issues in documentary and descriptive linguistics and to pursue their individual research projects. Students are expected to enroll in this course each semester during their first three years.

Some documentary/descriptive linguistics courses offered on an occasional basis are:

• LIN 384 Structure of a Language (Recent offerings have included Chatino, Mayan languages)
• LIN 392 Current Developments in Linguistic Research (Topics in descriptive linguistics such as: Reading and Writing Grammars, Morphology, and Linguistic Diversification and Death)
• LIN 393 Seminar in Linguistic Topics (Topics in descriptive linguistics such as: Language Contact, Speech Play and Verbal Art, Linguistic Diversity, Complexity in Language, and Iconicity in Speech, Sign, and Text)

Research

Students in documentary and descriptive linguistics typically work on a language that has been under-studied and under-described. Although many such languages are also endangered, others have very large numbers of speakers. UT has special strength in Latin American indigenous languages, but students have worked all over the world and are encouraged to work wherever their primary interests take them.

We encourage students to work in teams on documentation projects. These teams may include speakers of the language of study as linguists, leaders, and teachers. Four recent or on-going projects of this kind are: 

Mayan Languages Documentation Project

Two faculty members and ten graduate students (four of whom have received their PhDs) have worked on Mayan languages recently in several different projects. Two of the students and one of the faculty members worked on a documentation project in four Mayan languages that was administered by a Guatemalan linguistic research institute. The project was carried out in conjunction with speakers of the languages, was directed by speakers of Mayan languages, and provided training in linguistics for community members and supervisors as well as documentation of the languages. Others have worked in other community projects, in other linguistic projects, or have worked on their own languages in conjunction with their communities.

Chatino Language Documentation Project
Two graduate students from a Chatino community in Oaxaca, Mexico, one faculty member, and four other graduate students undertook a project to document and describe this small group of Otomanguean languages and to work with local authorities, language activists, and school teachers in the Chatino area to support the continued use of the language and to help establish Chatino language literacy. Through these efforts, they hope to preserve local environmental and cultural knowledge, call attention to local oratory and verbal art, and bring wider recognition to Chatino traditions, identity, and human rights. Three of the students have graduated. Two additional students are working on emergent deaf signed language in a Chatino community.

The Dynamics of Hunter-Gatherer Language Change
This project brings language documentation/description together with historical-comparative research. It has involved one faculty member, three graduate students, and several undergraduates in a comparative study of Amazonian languages. The project investigated language contact and language change among hunting/gathering groups and their neighbors in the northwest Amazon, in comparison with other regions in the world. The work has drawn both on published sources and on data from project members’ own fieldwork.

The Iquito Language Documentation Project
First conceived of as a voluntary project by two graduate students in Anthropology and members of a local community for the documentation of their language, Iquito, a moribund language of the Peruvian Amazon, this project eventually involved a total of ten graduate students plus several Peruvian students over four years and received major funding. It provided initial fieldwork experience for students and material for their PhD qualifying papers and master's theses. The doctoral dissertations of two students were on Iquito. Alongside documenting the language, the project produced language teaching materials and project members were involved with training local community language specialists who worked year round during the project. Now concluded, the project became a model for graduate student and community cooperation in research, and stimulated our ideas about the fusion of community and academic agendas around linguistic documentation.

There are also individual student field documentation projects, many of which were initiated and carried out by graduate students who are themselves native speakers of the language being investigated. Recent or current projects include work on Darma (Tibeto-Burman; India), Yongning Na (Tibeto-Burman; China), Tepehuano (Uto-Aztecan; Mexico), Tepehua (Totonacan; Mexico), Soteapan (Mixe-Zoque; Mexico), Zapotec (Otomanguean; Mexico), Chol (Mayan; Mexico), Ixil (Mayan; Guatemala), Mocho’ (Mayan; Mexico), Q’anjob’al (Mayan; Guatemala), K’ichee’ (Mayan; Guatemala), Kuna (Chibchan; Panama), Naso (Chibchan; Panama), Buglere (Chibchan; Panama), Ngäbere (Chibchan; Panama), Quechua (Quechuan; Peru), Kakua (unclassified; Colombia), Paresi (Arawak; Brazil), Nomatsigenka (Kampan; Peru), Djeoromitxi (Jabuti/Macro-Jê; Brazil), Chácobo (Pano; Bolivia), and Kakataibo (Pano; Peru).

The Department of Linguistics at The University of Texas at Austin has a long tradition of supporting advanced research on the linguistics of signed languages. That research has concerned the experimental phonetics of signed languages, various aspects of the grammars of signed languages, the sociolinguistics of signing communities, the history of signed languages, multilingualism among signers, and the acquisition of signed languages as first and second languages. The research conducted here has examined not only ASL, but also many other sign languages and their communities, including sign languages of Brazil, Mexico, and Tajikistan, among others, as well as emergent sign languages in Peru and Mexico.

There is no particular sequence of courses that is required for all students who wish to study the linguistics of signed languages. Instead, if the student is interested in studying the psycholinguistics of signed languages, they would be expected to complete coursework that is appropriate to work in psycholinguistics generally. Likewise, if a student is interested in the syntax of signed languages, they would be advised to take the same program of courses as other students in syntax. On a regular basis, students enroll in a research seminar (LIN 389V) on the linguistics of signed languages.

Graduate students who are interested in the linguistics of signed languages, but who do not have a strong background in ASL, should plan on completing the sequence of undergraduate language courses in ASL that are offered by the Department's ASL language program.

Graduate students who have a high degree of fluency in ASL may be offered the opportunity to be a teaching assistant in the department’s ASL language program.

The study of speech sounds in human languages includes both phonology (the definition and distribution of sound categories) and phonetics (the realization of those categories in terms of physiological, aerodynamic, acoustic and psychological events).

Our conviction is that one can't really understand one of these without a fairly advanced knowledge of the other. The recommended program of courses for students interested in speech sounds thus includes both.

Courses

In the first year, all graduate students take two required courses in phonetics and phonology:

• LIN 380K: Phonology I. A graduate introduction to phonology. This course is offered every Spring semester.
• LIN 381M: Phonetics. A graduate introduction to phonetics. This course is offered every Fall semester.

In addition to these required courses, students interested in phonetics and/or phonology should take more advanced seminar courses in both phonetics and phonology. The courses LIN 392: Current Developments in Linguistic Research and LIN 393P: Topics in Phonetics and Phonology are offered on a regular basis with different topics. Each 392 or 393P course continues on from the required courses LIN381M and LIN 380K, focusing on a particular sub-area. The student will be expected to do an original research project and will read from the professional literature in that sub-area. Other courses of interest are often offered through the departments of Psychology, Communication and Speech Disorders, as well as the various modern and classical language programs at UT.

Students who intend to specialize in phonetics and/or phonology will also take LIN 389P: Linguistic Research in Phonetics-Phonology. This course is offered every long semester, and provides opportunities for class members to present and discuss their research with colleagues.

The UT Sound Lab provides a recording facility and computing resources for work in phonetics and phonology.

Faculty

Phonetics and Phonology Faculty in the Department of Linguistics

• Megan Crowhurst: Teaches courses in phonology, with an emphasis on typology and formal representation.
• Scott Myers: Teaches courses in phonetics and phonology, with an emphasis on laboratory phonology.
• Rajka Smiljanic: Teaches courses in phonetics, variation, clear speech, intelligibility, prosody. 
• Fernando Llanos: Teaches course in neurolinguistics & psycholinguistics.

Phonetics and Phonology Faculty in Other Departments

• Catharine Echols, Department of Psychology.  First language development, speech perception.
• Barbara Bullock, Department of French and Italian.
• David Birdsong, Department of French and Italian.
• Charlie Nagle, Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
• Marc Pierce, Department of Germanic Studies.

In the first year, graduate students usually take two required courses related to syntax and semantics:

• LIN 380L: Syntax I. This is a graduate introduction to syntax. Students learn the transformational framework for grammatical analysis (Principles and Parameters theory).  This course is offered every Fall semester.
• LIN 380M: Semantics I. This is a graduate introduction to Semantics and Pragmatics.  It is normally offered every Spring semester.

Beginning in their second year, students interested in continuing in syntax and semantics can choose courses from among the following (some students may take these courses in their first year as well):

• LIN 381L: Syntax II. The continuation of Syntax I, this course provides students with a background in the lexicalist, non-transformational approach to syntax (Lexical Functional Grammar). It is normally offered in the Spring semester.
• LIN 381S: Semantics II is normally offered in the Fall semester.  This course deals in more depth in a series of special topics in formal semantics and/or pragmatics.
• LIN 393S: Topics in syntax and semantics is the general title for advanced seminars in syntax and semantics.   These seminars vary in topic from semester to semester.  A seminar is normally offered most semesters.   Recent topics have included The Syntax-Lexicon Interface, Agreement and Pronouns, Lexical Semantic Typology, and Information and Intonation.  Students normally undertake original research and write a term paper for these seminars.

Finally, all students in all years also take the following course:

LIN 389S: Linguistic Research in Syntax-Semantics. This is an area meeting course designed to give students a chance to present their research for feedback and hear what their peers are doing, and read papers and books of common interest. This course is offered every semester.

Still other courses of interest to syntax and semantics students include LIN 392: Minimalist Syntax (occasional) and LIN 394K • Philosophy of Language (offered most years, topics vary), as well as courses in Computational Linguistics (see Computational Linguistics concentration).

Students will also be expected to work closely with faculty advisors in developing their own research starting from year one, either through the above classes or through one-on-one conference courses.