Language and Data Science

The Oxford English Dictionary contains definitions for over half a million different words, but how many of these do we actually use? And how often do we use them? Linguists study our use of language by analyzing corpora, digital collections of text or speech. Corpus linguistics tools help us answer questions about language across many disciplines, including theoretical linguistics, literature, education, healthcare, and the law. The course will introduce the study of language and language data, coding in R, performing statistical tests, and creating graphical visualizations of data.No background in computer science or linguistics is required. For Linguistics majors, counts as a Topics course.