LINGUIST List 3.116

Wed 05 Feb 1992

Qs: Cognitive science courses, Keyboard entry

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1. Gregory Ward, teaching linguistics in introductory cognitive science courses
2. Henry Rogers, keyboard entry

I need help. Next quarter I will be co-teaching a new course entitled
"Introduction to Cognitive Science: Vision, Language, and Memory".
This course is part of NU's new interdisciplinary major in Cognitive
Science, and can be used to satisfy, in part, the College's natural
science distribution requirement. It is a "B" level course (designed
primarily for freshmen and sophomores) and has essentially no
prerequisites. We expect between 80 and 100 students.

I'll be covering (i.e. skimming) various topics on language (as well
as some on, gulp, memory). The language topics currently include:
phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics (language
processing), computational linguistics, language acquisition, and
neurolinguistics. Each topic will be covered in a one-hour (!)
lecture. (I know this verges on the absurd, but such is my mission.)

I'd very much (and very soon) like to hear from others who have taught
similar cognitive science courses (or parts thereof) in the past. What
text(s) and/or supplement readings have you used and with what
success? (A straight linguistics text won't work.) Also, we have
access to an IBM 386 that can be set up in the classroom if anyone
knows of cute computational demos or models that would be appropriate
(and available for classroom use). Any ideas or suggestions would be
deeply appreciated. (Even an old syllabus would be great!)

Please respond directly to me at the address below, and I will post a
summary of the responses.

Thanks,
Gregory Ward
wardpico.ling.nwu.edu

An annoying problem for linguists using Macintoshes is that, although
there are a number of phonetic fonts around, we are at the mercy of
the font designer as to how the symbols are laid out on the keyboard.
One design that I have seen had 'crossed two' (an old IPA symbol for
[dz]; I have never seen it used) in a handy place, but relegated the
raised h for aspiration to a code requiring a two-stroke entry.

I am considering working on a keyboard resource editor which would
allow users to rearrange their keyboard to their heart's content
without changing the ascii codes. However, I don't want to reinvent
the wheel.

Is there something already available which would do this? ResEdit is
too powerful (dangerous) for most of us. I had a version of
MacKeymeleon some years ago, which I found fragile then, never mind
with system 7.0.

I would appreciate replies sent directly to me at
	rogersepas.utoronto.ca

Henry Rogers
Dept. of Linguistics
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ont.
M5S 1A1
Canada