Vår 2019

HIF-3082 Quantitative Methods in Linguistics - 10 stp

The course is administrated by

Institutt for språk og kultur

Type of course

This course may be taken as a single course by students who meet the admission requirements for the MA programme in Theoretical Linguistics and/or the MA programme in English Linguistics and/or the MA programme in English Acquisition and Multilingualism and/or master's programme in linguistics in general (Russian, Spanish etc.).

Course contents

This course introduces students to some of the major tools required in the organization and understanding of quantitative linguistic data. This will include: general analytic method, probabilistic logic, statistics, and the use of the programming language R. It is appropriate for students who are interested in data gathered either experimentally or from corpora.

Application deadline

Applicants from Nordic countries: 1 June for the spring semester and 1 December for the autumn semester.

Applicants from outside the Nordic countries: 1 October for the spring semester and 15 April for the autumn semester.

Admission requirements

Bachelor's Degree (180 ECTS), or equivalent qualification, in a language or linguistics, or a degree combining linguistics and literature, with a minimum of 80 ECTS of concentrated work in linguistics and/or language. Minimum average grade (in the Norwegian grading system) is C for applicants who hold a bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification issued in Europe, Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand and B for others.

Application code: 9371 (Nordic applicants).

Objective of the course

Knowledge

By the end of the course the student should have a basic knowledge and understanding of the following areas.

General Logic and Inference
Basic Probability Theory
Modelling and Statistical Tests
The Programming Language R for Statistical Analysis

Skills

In practical terms, the student will acquire the following connected skills:

How to gather and organize data either experimentally or from corpora.
How to model complex data with appropriate choice of statistical model.
How to test statistical models with the appropriate tests.
How to use R to organize and explore patterns in the data, and run the standard statistical tests required in reporting scientific research.

Language of instruction

Language of instruction and examination: English.

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars/exercises and discussions.

Quality assurance: All courses undergo a halfway evaluation once in a 2-year period at the master¿s level. The Programme Board determines which programme options will be evaluated per year, and which courses will be evaluated by the students and the teacher per year.

Assessment

Coursework requirements: Biweekly homeworks (assessed as Pass/Fail).

Assessment method: Two week take home examination. The obligatory coursework requirements must be approved in order to take the final exam.

Performance in the course will be assessed on an A-F grades scale. Grades are A-E for passed and F for failed. A re-sit examination is offered in the event of an F grade. The deadline to register (in the Studentweb) for a re-sit examination is January 15th for the autumn semester and August 15th for the spring semester. In the event of a re-sit examination, the student is allowed to submit a revised version of his/her term paper within a given deadline.

Date for examination

Take-home assignment hand out date 29.04.2019 hand in date 13.05.2019

The date for the exam can be changed. The final date will be announced at your faculty early in May and early in November.