Dr. Allyson Ettinger's research is focused on language processing in humans and in artificial intelligence systems, motivated by a combination of scientific and engineering goals. For studying humans, her research uses computational methods to model and test hypotheses about mechanisms underlying the brain's processing of language in real time. In the engineering domain, her research uses insights and methods from cognitive science, linguistics, and neuroscience in order to analyze, evaluate, and improve natural language understanding capacities in artificial intelligence systems. In both of these threads of research, the primary focus is on the processing and representation of linguistic meaning.
Recent Publications
Selected Articles/Chapters:
- Ettinger, A., Elgohary, A., Phillips, C., Resnik, P. (2018). "Assessing Composition in Sentence Vector Representations." Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Computational Linguistics.
- Ettinger, A., Rao, S., Daumé III, H., Bender, E. M. (2017). "Towards Linguistically Generalizable NLP Systems: A Workshop and Shared Task." Proceedings of the First Workshop on Building Linguistically Generalizable NLP Systems.
- Ettinger, A., Elgohary, A., Resnik, P. (2016). "Probing for semantic evidence of composition by means of simple classification tasks." Proceedings of the First Workshop on Evaluating Vector Space Representations for NLP, ACL 2016.
- Ettinger, A., Feldman, N.H., Resnik, P., Phillips, C. (2016). "Modeling N400 amplitude using vector space models of word representation." Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
- Ettinger, A., Linzen, T. (2016). "Evaluating vector space models using human semantic priming results." Proceedings of the First Workshop on Evaluating Vector Space Representations for NLP, ACL 2016.
- Ettinger, A., Resnik, P., Carpuat, M. (2016). "Retrofitting sense-specific word vectors using parallel text." Proceedings of NAACL HLT 2016.
2019-2020 Course Offerings
Computational Linguistics I (LING 28610/LING 38610, CMSC 25610/35610) - Autumn 2019
This course is an introduction to topics at the intersection of computation and language, oriented toward linguists and cognitive scientists. We will study computational linguistics from both scientific and engineering angles -- the use of computational modeling to address scientific questions in linguistics and cognitive science, as well as the design of computational systems to solve engineering problems in natural language processing (NLP). The course will combine analysis and discussion of these approaches with training in the programming and mathematical foundations necessary to put these methods into practice. Our goal in this quarter is for students to leave the course able to engage with and evaluate research in cognitive/linguistic modeling and NLP, and to be able to implement intermediate-level computational models.
Computational Linguistics II (LING 28620/LING 38620) - Winter 2020
This is the second in a two-course sequence providing an introduction to topics at the intersection of computation and language, oriented toward linguists and cognitive scientists. In this quarter we will cover more advanced topics in cognitive/linguistic modeling and natural language processing (NLP), applying more complex programming and mathematical foundations. Our goal in this quarter is for students to leave the course able to implement advanced models and conduct novel research in cognitive/linguistic modeling and NLP.
Seminar in Computational Linguistics (LING 58600) - Spring 2020
Topic TBD - a graduate course exploring current research in a particular topic in computational linguistics.
2020-2021 Course Offerings
Computational Linguistics I (LING 28610/LING 38610, CMSC 25610/35610) - Autumn 2020
This course is an introduction to topics at the intersection of computation and language, oriented toward linguists and cognitive scientists. We will study computational linguistics from both scientific and engineering angles -- the use of computational modeling to address scientific questions in linguistics and cognitive science, as well as the design of computational systems to solve engineering problems in natural language processing (NLP). The course will combine analysis and discussion of these approaches with training in the programming and mathematical foundations necessary to put these methods into practice. Our goal in this quarter is for students to leave the course able to engage with and evaluate research in cognitive/linguistic modeling and NLP, and to be able to implement intermediate-level computational models.
Computational Linguistics II (LING 28620/LING 38620) - Winter 2021
This is the second in a two-course sequence providing an introduction to topics at the intersection of computation and language, oriented toward linguists and cognitive scientists. In this quarter we will cover more advanced topics in cognitive/linguistic modeling and natural language processing (NLP), applying more complex programming and mathematical foundations. Our goal in this quarter is for students to leave the course able to implement advanced models and conduct novel research in cognitive/linguistic modeling and NLP.
Seminar in Computational Linguistics (LING 58600) - Spring 2021
Topic TBD - a graduate course exploring current research in a particular topic in computational linguistics.