Data analysis

Exercise 1. Consider each of the following situations. Does the language user in each case have competence only, performance only, both, or neither? Explain your answer.

a. Sandy has just been to the dentist and now her mouth is numb. When she talks, it is difficult to understand her, but the numbness will wear off soon and Sandy will be able to talk clearly again.

b. Kai is 18 months old. He knows several words but doesn’t combine them into sentences.

c. Cherry the dog knows the word walk and gets very excited every time she hears the word walk. When Cherry’s owner twists his ankle, he tells his mom on the phone, “I can’t walk.” Cherry hears this, barks excitedly, and fetches her leash.

d. Nissa and Remi are chatting at a party. Nissa is telling Remi about her shopping trip, when Remi spills his drink. Nissa stops midsentence to help Remi clean up and forgets what she had been talking about.

e. A company has just released a new AI program called ASLBot and everyone is talking about it. The program is able to produce videos of a cartoon character signing in American Sign Language based on a Large Language Model. You can even turn on your webcam and have a relatively natural two-way conversation with ASLBot that seems fairly human-like. You research how ASLBot is programmed, and you discover it is programmed based on a probabilistic model of language, rather than a generative one.

Communication and study skillls

Exercise 2. Pick an argument from the textbook or from lecture to analyze.

a. Is it a theoretical argument or an empirical argument? Or does it have bits of both?

b. For the empirical arguments: What is the observable evidence? What is the claim? How was the claim backed up? Can you think of another way to analyze the same data?

c. For the theoretical arguments: What are the assumptions, the premises, and the conclusions? Do you agree with the premises and the assumptions?

Research and application

Exercise 3. Explore a freely-available LLM program and see if you can find some of its weaknesses. Explain what you find.

a. Can you find a tricky grammatical construction that it misunderstands?

b. Did it give you any false information?

c. Did its responses reveal any biases or stereotypes?

Language journal

Exercise 4. Are there any published grammars about your language available in your university library? Are they pedagogical, descriptive, or theoretical grammars?