The Linguistics Program Computer Proficiency Requirements A guide for students.

The Linguistics Program

Computer Proficiency

RequirementsA guide for students

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.)

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

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


students1.2 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/



http://blugs.com/IPA/

http://www.davidmontero.net/Linguistics.php




students1.3 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


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


students1.4 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

http://www.lsadc.org/info/pubs-lang-style.cfm


students1.5 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

http://www.lib.wayne.edu/


students1.6 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

http://linguistlist.org/

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

/fonɑlɪʣɪ ænd fonɛtɪks//fonɑlɪʣɪ ænd fonɛtɪks/

2. Phonology & Phonetics2.2 Comprehension and use of non-

standard symbols: IPA and Unicode

font

IPA = International Phonetic AlphabetStudents 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”

2. Phonology & Phonetics2.2 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 boxEdit → copy, edit → paste (into word document)

http://people.w3.org/rishida/scripts/pickers/ipa/

2. Phonology & Phonetics2.3 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


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

http://www.sourceforge.net/

2. Phonology & Phonetics2.5 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

http://www.praat.org/

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/


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

http://www.shure.com/


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

3. Syntax & Semantics3.1 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

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


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


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

3. Syntax & Semantics3.5 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.

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

4. Psycholinguistics4.2 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

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

4. Psycholinguistics4.4 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.

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.


5.2 Courses that teach discourse analysis

• No specific undergraduate courses teach discourse analysis

• Specifically for students who are interested

5. Discourse Analysis5.3 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


5.4 How students obtain NVivo

• http://www.qsrinternational.com/products_nvivo.aspx

5. Discourse Analysis5.5 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.

5. Discourse Analysis5.6 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/

6. Historical Linguistics

6.1 Word Atlas of Language Structure

• Current research on world languages– http://wals.info

6. Historical Linguistics

6.2 Language Trees

• Trees from world languages– http://multitree.linguist.org

The Linguistics Program Computer Proficiency Requirements A guide for students.

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