This is a four-course (12 hour) graduate certificate program in Computational Linguistics. Computational Linguistics (CL) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) – often viewed as one and the same thing – are rapidly growing fields in the high-tech sector, critical for development of such technologies such as voice-enabled smart phones (e.g. Siri, Cortana) and home assistants (e.g. Alexa). IBM’s Jeopardy-winning Watson system is another example of what CL can do. Yet another application area is text analytics for market analysis. This certificate is specifically intended to address a growing need for language processing skills, particularly those associated with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence/cognitive technologies. Systems like Siri or Alexa are built on a pipeline of language processing technologies, ranging from voice and speech recognition to language understanding and automatic question answering. Developing such technologies is a complex process that requires knowledge from both Linguistics and Computer Science.
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Degree Requirements*
The MA in Linguistics degree is a 36-hour program.
* Requirements below will first appear in the 2021-22 catalog
Course requirements include:
12 hours of core courses
24 hours of foundation courses
Students who elect to write a thesis will take 6 hours of thesis LING 5950 in lieu of 6 elective hours.
Core Courses – 12 hours
*LING 5040 - Principles in Linguistics - Needed prerequisite if your degree does not have a background in Linguistics
LING 5070 - Research Design in Linguistics
LING 5300 - Phonology I
LING 5310 - Syntax I
LING 5530 - Semantics and Pragmatics I
Foundation Courses – 24 hours
The eight foundation courses should be decided in consultation with the graduate advisor.