BI 053 Jon Brennan: Linguistics in Minds and Machines

Jon and I discuss understanding the syntax and semantics of language in our brains. He uses linguistic knowledge at the level of sentence and words, neuro-computational models, and neural data like EEG and fMRI to figure out how we process and understand language while listening to the natural language found in everyday conversations and stories. I also get his take on the current state of natural language processing and other AI advances, and how linguistics, neurolinguistics, and AI can contribute to each other. 

• Jon's Computational Neurolinguistics Lab.
• His personal website.
• The papers we discuss or mention:
  • Hierarchical structure guides rapid linguistic predictions during naturalistic listening.
  • Finding syntax in human encephalography with beam search.