CompLang is adding something new this semester: in addition to our regular invited talks, we'll be hosting discussions on foundational topics in the language sciences. Each of these new meetings is centered around a reading, selected as a springboard for fruitful interdisciplinary discussion and debate.

You can find the talk and reading schedule for this semester online on the CompLang website.

We'll kick off this week to read and discuss "Structures, not strings: linguistics as part of the cognitive sciences". Details follow below. 

Paper to read: Structures, not strings: linguistics as part of the cognitive sciences by Everaert et al. (2015)

Presenter: Peng Qian (MIT BCS)

Details: 

This review paper views human language as a computational system in the mind, primarily for the expression of thoughts. With several examples from semantics, syntax, morphology, and phonology, this paper illustrates the central role of hierarchial structures, not linear properties of strings, in formulating an explanatory and theoretical characterization of linguistic knowledge. 
We would like to invite you to join us in thinking and discussing the insights and critical aspects of the arguments outlined in this review paper, and how different perspectives, alternative approaches, and interdisciplinary methodologies could enrich our inquiry and understanding of human language.