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CMSC 35100 - Natural Language Processing
Spring 2003
Course Description

Description

An introduction to the theory and practice of natural language processing, with applications to both text and speech. Topics to be covered include: regular expressions, finite state automata, morphology, part of speech tagging, context free grammars, parsing, semantics, discourse, and dialogue. Symbolic and probabilitistic models will be presented. Techniques for automatic acquisition of linguistic knowledge will be emphasized.

Goals

Instructional Staff

Instructor Teaching Assistant
Name Gina Levow Irina Matveeva
Email levow@cs.uchicago.edu matveeva@cs.uchicago.edu
Office Ry 166 TBA
Office Hours Thursday 2:30-4:30 PM TBA
Office Phone x2-5680 TBD

Course Mechanics

A syllabus that summarizes what we will cover each week and gives a preview of the homework assignments and a reading list showing the reading for each week can be found on the class web page.

The instructors' office hours are for discussing material from class. Students wishing to discuss accommodations for unusual circumstances should also come see me, and should do so at the earliest possible time. Because many homework questions come up over and over, it is usually best to check with the TA before coming by during office hours with a homework question, but we will be happy to discuss the homework with you as well if office hours are the most convenient time to get your question resolved. Homework grades should always be discussed with the TA first, but your instructor will be happy to discuss them with you after you have done that if your concern is not resolved. We will hold scheduled office hours as noted above, but I will also be happy to meet with students that don't find that time convenient either after class or by appointment. Electronic mail is the best way to reach us to set up an appointment, and it is also a good way to get a quick answer to a simple question.

Course Materials

The class web site at http://classes.cs.uchicago.edu/classes/archive/2003/spring/cs35100-1/ contains the most recent copies of all material produced for this course. This course description (which contains a number of useful links), the syllabus, lecture notes and homework solutions can be found there.

The required text is Jurafsky and Martin's Speech and Language Processing: An Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics, and Speech Recognition, available from the Seminary Co-op Bookstore.

Grading

Course grades will be assigned based on in-class participation, homework, and a final project. Scores on each component will be combined to produce a single overall score for each student as follows:
Component Percentage
Class Participation 10%
Homework 50%
Final Project 40%
Scores for each course requirement (homework assignment, project ) will be assigned on a 100 point scale.

Homework is due before the start of class. Credit for partial work will be given.

In general, the TA will grade the homeworks under the supervision of the faculty. If you have a question about a homework grade, you should contact the TA first, but you may appeal to the faculty. Final projects will be graded jointly by the faculty.

Students may work together on the assignments, but all of the material which is turned in for grading must be produced individually. For example, students may form study groups and work out solutions together on a chalkboard, but it would not be permissible for one student to create a computer file containing the answers and then for other students to copy that file and submit it as their own work. The goal of this policy is to encourage the use of homework as a learning aid. Credit should be given for help on the homework by identifying one's collaborators on the first page of the submitted homework assignment.