Syllabus
Lesson
Date
Note
Topic 1 18.2.
Class is cancelled 2 25.2.
Prag
Introduction to network science 3 4.3.
Online
Mental Lexicon, semantic networks 4 11.3.
Online
Semantic networks, Gephi 5 18.3.
Prag
Phonological networks 6 25.3.
Prag
Make phonological networks, R 7 1.4.
Online
Evolution of (lexical) networks 8 8.4.
Project
- Conceptualize lexical network project
- Formulate hypothesis
- Gather data (corpus, record yourself)
- Construct network
- write up project report 9 15.4.
Project 10 22.4.
Project 11 29.4.
Prag
Project presentations 12 6.5.
Prag
Project presentations 13 13.5.
Dean’s Day
Annotation
In recent years, interest in modeling and analyzing psychological phenomena, such as language and lexical memory, with the tools of network science has been on the rise and a considerable body of research in this area has been accumulated. Network science was developed to measure and represent statistical dependencies between connected entities and provides a powerful computational approach to quantify dyadic relationships. A network is made up of nodes, which represent the basic unit of the system and links, or edges, which signify the relations between them. Linguistic networks can be based on various concepts, for instance phonological word forms, semantics, or social partners involved in communication. This class examines the relevance of network science for the study of language on various levels of analysis. We will review efforts to construct different types of language networks, characterize properties of those networks, and apply statistical analyses to elucidate the structure and complex relationships of entities within the networks.
In the summer semester of 2025, this course will be offered as a project-based course. This means that it will be a mix of regular classes, online classes, and empirical projects conducted by the participants.
