Biological and Artificial Language

3 credits · Graduate

An introduction to a novel approach to language. Linguistics has predominantly focused onhuman language. Recent developments in machine learning and animal communication, however, require us to look beyond the humans. We'll extend the definition of language and model it as 'informative imitation'. This perspective enables us to examine biological and artificial communication systems in a novel way. The class will introduce a multifaceted approach with human, non-human, and artificial language acting as mutually informative systems. By learning about non-human language, we will better understand human language and its uniqueness.