Richard P. Meier, Chair
CAL 501, Mailcode B5100, Austin, TX 78712 • 512-471-1701
Computational Linguistics
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 the subject matter of Linguistics--natural language--by applying methods of Computer Science. One can distinguish two major subdisciplines:
- Research in Computational Linguistics addresses the computational properties of linguistic models of natural language and develops algorithms and computational implementations of such linguistic models;
- Research in NLP emphasizes the goal of developing systems that can deal effectively with natural language data in an application context.
The Computational Linguistics concentration area at the UT Linguistics department is structured as follows: the core techniques of Computational Linguistics and NLP are introduced in a sequence of two 1-semester survey courses: Computational Linguistics I and II. The material presented in these courses is then further elaborated on in seminar courses on various more specific topics. A seminar course may focus on a particular NLP application type, on language technological methodology, on algorithmic techniques, or on a linguistic formalism applied in computational linguistics. Examples of seminar courses are: Machine Translation, Linguistic Engineering, Parsing and Generation, etc.
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 such as Lexical-Functional Grammar, or Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar.
Students in this area are also greatly encouraged to take courses in the UT Computer Science department. Courses which are especially useful are continually taught classes such as algorithms and design, artificial intelligence, machine learning, specific programming languages (e.g. Java). The CS department also offers special subject classes that can be interesting, such as information retrieval, expert systems, etc.
For more information on upcoming CS classes, visit the Course Information page.
