This is our wonderfully ambitious schedule. We'll attempt to keep with it, but it is subject to change.

Date Material Readings
(to be read by this class)
Notices &
Assignments Due
1/8/08 Introduction to
Language Acquisition

Nothing - unless you already peeked at the web page

1/10/08 Introduction to
Language Acquisition Continued

Jackendoff, 1994: 101-111
* Marr, 1982: Chapter 1
Recommended
Jackendoff, 1994: 3-34 [Chapters 1, 2, 3], 171-183
Baker, 2001: 1-18

Discussion questions
1/15/08 The Language Learning Mechanism

Seidenberg, MacDonald, & Saffran, 2002
Marcus & Berent vs. Seidenberg, MacDonald, & Saffran, 2003
Saffran, Aslin, & Newport, 1996
Note: The above three articles are all very short

Bonus (not required, but good reference)
Pena et al. (2002)
Marcus et al. (1999)

Discussion questions

1/17/08 Rules & Statistics

* Gambell & Yang, 2006

Bonus (Not required, but interesting computationally)
* Swingley, 2005, Cognitive Psychology

Discussion questions

1/22/08 Statistics & Word Segmentation

Bonus (Not required, but interesting computationally)
* Goldwater et al. 2007

1/24/08 Word Categorization & Computational Modeling

* Gomez & Lakusta, 2004

Discussion questions

1/29/08 Word Categories

* Mintz, 2003

Discussion questions

1/31/08 Word Category Models & Speech Perception

Gerken & Aslin, 2005

Discussion questions

2/5/08 Speech Perception Continued

* Werker, 1995

Discussion questions

2/7/08 Speech Perception Continued

* Werker & Tees, 2002
* Dietrich, Swingley & Werker, 2007

1 reaction paper should be in by the end of this week

2/12/08 Speech Perception Models

* Vallabha et al, 2007

Discussion questions
Topic for final paper should be chosen & meeting with instructor completed

2/14/08 Word Forms

* Werker & Yeung, 2005
Stager & Werker, 1997
Swingley & Aslin, 2002
Don't have to read, but we will cover the material in lecture notes
* Swingley, 2005, Developmental Science

Discussion questions

2/19/08 Morphology

Pinker, 1995: Chapter 5
Note: The following articles are short and form a debate with each other
Pinker & Ullman, 2002: 456-463
McClelland & Patterson, 2002: 464-465
McClelland & Patterson, 2002: 465-472
Pinker & Ullman, 2002: 472-474

Bonus: Not required, but interesting
* Yang, 2002: 59-97

Discussion questions

2/21/08 Morphology & Connectionism

* Marcus, 2003: 1-35 [Chapters 1 and 2]

Bonus (Not required, but interesting computationally)
* Marcus, 2003: Chapter 3

Discussion questions

2/26/08 Morphology: Models

* Yang, 2005

Discussion questions

2/28/08 Morphology & Productivity: Models


Refresh your memory on Yang (2005)

3/4/08 Poverty of the Stimulus

Pinker, 2004
* Gerken, 2006

Bonus: Background reading (not required)
Lightfoot, 1999: 60-66
MacWhinney, 2004 (target article for Pinker (2004))

Discussion questions

3/6/08 Poverty of the Stimulus

Seidenberg, 1997
* Legate & Yang, 2002

Bonus (target article for Legate & Yang (2002)):
* Pullum & Scholz, 2002

Discussion questions
Outline for final paper due by 11:59pm 3/7/08

3/11/08 Poverty of the Stimulus &
Complex Systems

Baker, 2001: 1-18
* Yang, 2004

Bonus: more on syntactic variability
Baker, 2001: 19-50

Discussion questions

3/13/08 Syntax Learning (lecture notes include material on Thompson & Newport, 2007)


Bonus: Not required, but about probabilistic learning of syntactic phrases
* Thompson & Newport, 2007
Bonus: Not required, but interesting
* Legate & Yang, 2007, * Yang, 2002: 1-13, *24-34, * 35-58, * 101-124, * Gerken, 2004, * Dresher, 1999, * Pearl, 2008

Refresh your memory on Yang (2004)
3 reaction papers total should be in by the end of this week (11:59pm 3/14/08)

3/20/08 Final paper due Final paper submitted by 4pm 3/20/08