The Second North American Conference in Iranian Linguistics (NACIL 2) is being held at the University of Arizona from April 19th through 21st. As we are developing a specialty for Iranian linguistics, we are well-represented on the program. (Note: since the United States currently does not permit those with only Iranian citizenship to enter the country, several of our departmental members will be presenting their work via Skype.)
Arsalan Kahnemuyipour (faculty) is giving one of the keynote speeches:
"The CP-vP parallelism: Evidence from (some) Iranian languages."
Sahar Taghipour (Ph.D.):
"Laki definiteness and demonstratives: Anaphoric versus deictic."
Koorosh Ariyaee (Ph.D.):
"Exceptions of pre-nasal vowel raising in spoken Persian: An indexed constraint approach."
Breanna Pratley (BA):
"The importance of methodological choices in the typology of uncommon phenomena: A Gilaki case study."
Jila Ghomeshi (Ph.D. 1996, now at the University of Manitoba):
"Relative temporal clauses."
Also worth noting is that Andrew Carnie (BA 1991, now at the University of Arizona), as a local Dean of the Graduate College, will be assisting with the welcome.
University of Toronto Department of Linguistics Blog
April 13, 2019
April 12, 2019
Exhibit at OISE on the linguistic landscapes of Toronto
The Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE, in conjunction with the U of T School of Cities, is hosting an exhibit: 'Linguascaping Toronto', about the linguistic landscapes of the city. This will be taking place on Monday, April 15, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM, in the Nexus Lounge on the 12th floor of the OISE building.
April 11, 2019
GLEEFUL 2019
Two of our students are presenting talks at this year's Great Lakes Expo for Experimental and Formal Undergraduate Linguistics (GLEEFUL), held annually at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Way to go, both of you!
Gregory Antono (BA): "Más allá del supermercado: Language attitudes of Chinese-Argentine youth."
Lena Donald (BA): "Attitudes on multilingualism in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)."
Gregory Antono (BA): "Más allá del supermercado: Language attitudes of Chinese-Argentine youth."
Lena Donald (BA): "Attitudes on multilingualism in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)."
April 10, 2019
Research Groups: Friday, April 12
Note that there is no meeting of the Syntax Group this week.
10:00 AM-11:30 AM, SS 4043
Psycholinguistics Research Group
Guest speaker: Lindsay Hracs (visiting scholar, Department of Computer Science) "The acquisition of 'only' from the perspective of naturalistic and laboratory stimuli."
Acquiring focus sensitive particles such as only is a learning problem that spans multiple linguistic interfaces. In order to fully interpret sentences such as 'Only Patrick eats sushi', children must draw on aspects of phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Laboratory studies (Crain et al. 1994, Paterson et al. 2003, Paterson et al. 2006, Notley et al. 2009, Kim 2011, among others) show that children have difficulty with such sentences until rather late in development, i.e. 8 years. However, explanatory factors vary considerably from study to study. I argue that modelling methodologies are appropriate for studying this learning problem because they allow for manipulation of cues from different linguistic interfaces in a way that laboratory studies do not. Finally, I present data from a corpus study of child-directed and child-produced speech that show children and caregivers both exhibit similar behavioural changes across development, and that co-occurrences in the corpus suggest children are not exposed to the sentences used as stimuli in the laboratory studies as frequently as previously thought.
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SS 560A
Semantics Research Group
Michela Ippolito (faculty) on joint work with Donka Farkas (University of California, Santa Cruz): "Epistemic stance without epistemic modals: The case of the presumptive future."
I will discuss sentences with occurrences of the future tense that are not interpreted temporally but signal a weakened commitment to the prejacent proposition. The talk will focus on Italian but the presumptive future is present in most Romance languages, as well as many languages outside this language family (e.g. Dutch, Greek, etc.). The particular goal of this work is to provide an appropriate semantics for sentences containing this kind of future. To do so, we will compare the presumptive/epistemic future to standard epistemic modals in the language and we will discuss the presumptive future in declarative as well as in interrogative sentences. The more general goal is to contribute to our understanding of the many ways in which natural language can express ‘modulated’ commitment, and the different kinds of ‘epistemic softeners’ a language can employ.
10:00 AM-11:30 AM, SS 4043
Psycholinguistics Research Group
Guest speaker: Lindsay Hracs (visiting scholar, Department of Computer Science) "The acquisition of 'only' from the perspective of naturalistic and laboratory stimuli."
Acquiring focus sensitive particles such as only is a learning problem that spans multiple linguistic interfaces. In order to fully interpret sentences such as 'Only Patrick eats sushi', children must draw on aspects of phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Laboratory studies (Crain et al. 1994, Paterson et al. 2003, Paterson et al. 2006, Notley et al. 2009, Kim 2011, among others) show that children have difficulty with such sentences until rather late in development, i.e. 8 years. However, explanatory factors vary considerably from study to study. I argue that modelling methodologies are appropriate for studying this learning problem because they allow for manipulation of cues from different linguistic interfaces in a way that laboratory studies do not. Finally, I present data from a corpus study of child-directed and child-produced speech that show children and caregivers both exhibit similar behavioural changes across development, and that co-occurrences in the corpus suggest children are not exposed to the sentences used as stimuli in the laboratory studies as frequently as previously thought.
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM, SS 560A
Semantics Research Group
Michela Ippolito (faculty) on joint work with Donka Farkas (University of California, Santa Cruz): "Epistemic stance without epistemic modals: The case of the presumptive future."
I will discuss sentences with occurrences of the future tense that are not interpreted temporally but signal a weakened commitment to the prejacent proposition. The talk will focus on Italian but the presumptive future is present in most Romance languages, as well as many languages outside this language family (e.g. Dutch, Greek, etc.). The particular goal of this work is to provide an appropriate semantics for sentences containing this kind of future. To do so, we will compare the presumptive/epistemic future to standard epistemic modals in the language and we will discuss the presumptive future in declarative as well as in interrogative sentences. The more general goal is to contribute to our understanding of the many ways in which natural language can express ‘modulated’ commitment, and the different kinds of ‘epistemic softeners’ a language can employ.
April 9, 2019
Jack's final linguistics lecture
His final lecture for our department took place on Thursday, April 4. Surprise guests were fellow faculty members Sali A. Tagliamonte, Suzi Lima, Yoonjung Kang, Naomi Nagy (with partner Craig), and Keren Rice (Ph.D. 1976, supervised by Jack himself).
At the end of class, to a standing ovation, undergraduate Huberta Chan and the other students gave Jack a beautiful bouquet (though they had to wait until Carlo had finished asking a critical question!).
Jack has hinted, tantalizingly, that he may well do some additional teaching at the U of T in the future, albeit not in our department. Stay tuned to find out what he's up to next!
April 8, 2019
Lunch for graduating seniors
On Wednesday, April 3, we held a catered lunch in the lounge to celebrate our undergraduate students completing either a specialist or a major in our department. This semester, we are about to proudly launch 114 new alumni out into the world: 15 specializing, 65 majoring, and 34 minoring in linguistics. (Photos by Naomi Nagy and Deem Waham.) Thanks to Deem, to the faculty who helped celebrate, and to everyone who joined us!
Undergraduate Coordinator Naomi Nagy (faculty) congratulates the attendees.
Cake(s)!
Faculty, very ready to celebrate the students!
Intense discussion with the Department Chair.
Linguistics is funny!
One of the cakes even came with a tiny diploma...just for you.
All our best to all our graduates!
April 7, 2019
Ngarinyman to English Dictionary
The Ngarinyman to English Dictionary is to be released in July 2019 by Aboriginal Studies Press. This project has been a major collaborative endeavour; it has involved Ngarinyman people from several different communities, linguists, an anthropologist, and an ethnobiologist.
Ngarinyman is an Aboriginal language of the northern Victoria River District in the Northern Territory (Australia). Many Ngarinyman people live in Yarralin, Bulla Camp, Amanbidji (Kildurk) and around Timber Creek. The Ngarinyman to English Dictionary contains Ngarinyman words with English translations, illustrations and detailed encyclopaedic information about plants, animals and cultural practices. Also included is a guide to Ngarinyman grammar and an English index. This volume is ideal for both beginners and advanced speakers of Ngarinyman, for translators and interpreters, and for anyone interested in learning more about Ngarinyman language and culture. The Ngarinyman to English Dictionary is a part of the AIATSIS Indigenous Language Preservation: Dictionaries Project. This project is a response to the alarming rates of language loss in Australia, and aims to support the publication of Indigenous languages dictionaries. A dictionary contributes to language maintenance, supporting written texts of all genres including important literacy development resources. Dictionaries are a valuable addition to the tool kit of language learners, educators, interpreters and translators. The Dictionaries Project will produce a number of much-needed, high-quality dictionaries of Indigenous languages, which will contribute to community efforts to revitalise and strengthen their languages.
Among the four compilers was our own Jessica Denniss (Ph.D.). In conjunction with the work, Jessica also recently gave the keynote lecture at TULCON: "The mutual value of linguistic work with Indigenous communities: A perspective from Ngarinyman (Australia)." Congratulations to Jessica and to everyone else involved with this milestone!
April 6, 2019
New paper: Rupp and Tagliamonte (2019)
Sali A. Tagliamonte (faculty) and recent visiting scholar Laura Rupp (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) have a paper out in English Language & Linguistics, 23(1): "This here town: evidence for the development of the English determiner system from a vernacular demonstrative construction in York English."
The English variety spoken in York provides a unique opportunity to study the evolution of the English determiner system as proposed in the Definiteness Cycle (Lyons 1999). York English has three vernacular determiners that appear to represent different stages in the cycle: the zero article, reduced determiners and complex demonstratives of the type this here NP (Rupp 2007; Tagliamonte & Roeder 2009). Here, we probe the emergence and function of demonstratives in the cycle from the joint perspective of language variation and change, historical linguistics and discourse-pragmatics. We will argue that initially, the demonstrative reduced in meaning (Millar 2000) and also in form, resulting in Demonstrative Reduction (DR) (previously known as Definite Article Reduction (DAR)). This caused it to become reinforced. Data from the York English Corpus (Tagliamonte 1996–8) and historical corpora suggest that the use of complex demonstratives was subsequently extended from conveying ‘regular’ deictic meanings to a new meaning of ‘psychological deixis’ (Johannessen 2006). We conclude that survival of transitory stages in the cycle by several historical demonstrative forms, each in a range of functions, has given rise to a particular sense of ‘layering’ (Hopper 1991). Our analysis corroborates the idea that grammaticalization trajectories can be influenced by discourse-pragmatic factors (Epstein 1995; Traugott's 1995subjectification).
The English variety spoken in York provides a unique opportunity to study the evolution of the English determiner system as proposed in the Definiteness Cycle (Lyons 1999). York English has three vernacular determiners that appear to represent different stages in the cycle: the zero article, reduced determiners and complex demonstratives of the type this here NP (Rupp 2007; Tagliamonte & Roeder 2009). Here, we probe the emergence and function of demonstratives in the cycle from the joint perspective of language variation and change, historical linguistics and discourse-pragmatics. We will argue that initially, the demonstrative reduced in meaning (Millar 2000) and also in form, resulting in Demonstrative Reduction (DR) (previously known as Definite Article Reduction (DAR)). This caused it to become reinforced. Data from the York English Corpus (Tagliamonte 1996–8) and historical corpora suggest that the use of complex demonstratives was subsequently extended from conveying ‘regular’ deictic meanings to a new meaning of ‘psychological deixis’ (Johannessen 2006). We conclude that survival of transitory stages in the cycle by several historical demonstrative forms, each in a range of functions, has given rise to a particular sense of ‘layering’ (Hopper 1991). Our analysis corroborates the idea that grammaticalization trajectories can be influenced by discourse-pragmatic factors (Epstein 1995; Traugott's 1995subjectification).
April 5, 2019
New paper: Nodari, Celata, and Nagy (2019)
Naomi Nagy (faculty) and colleagues Rosalba Nodari (Schuola Normale Superiore) and Chiara Celata (Schuola Normale Superiore) have a paper out in the Journal of Phonetics, 73: "Socio-indexical phonetic features in the heritage language context: Voiceless stop aspiration in the Calabrian community in Toronto."
This study examines cross-generational transmission of a sociophonetic variable in a heritage language context. Voiceless stop aspiration is a sociophonetic variable in Calabrian Italian, indexing socio-cultural values about the speaker’s social and geographical origin. We investigate the production of voiceless stops by three generations of Calabrian Italians (immigrants and the next two generations) in Toronto, via acoustic and auditory analysis of nearly 5000 tokens from conversational speech in Calabrian Italian. Both Italian and English use long-lag VOT, but they differ in its phonological distribution: long-lag VOT is preferentially associated with pre-tonic, word-initial stops in English and with post-tonic, post-sonorant or geminate stops in Calabrian Italian. We show that, in heritage Calabrian Italian in Toronto, both phonetic implementation (cued by VOT duration) and phonological distribution of aspiration (as cued by perceived aspiration rate across phonological contexts) change cross-generationally, but some changes are non-linear, as third generation speakers appear to reproduce some patterns attested in the speech of first generation speakers. External variables such as the sex of the speakers modulate the cross-generational effects, with males producing more aspirated stops and exhibiting a more conservative behavior in certain phonetic contexts.
This study examines cross-generational transmission of a sociophonetic variable in a heritage language context. Voiceless stop aspiration is a sociophonetic variable in Calabrian Italian, indexing socio-cultural values about the speaker’s social and geographical origin. We investigate the production of voiceless stops by three generations of Calabrian Italians (immigrants and the next two generations) in Toronto, via acoustic and auditory analysis of nearly 5000 tokens from conversational speech in Calabrian Italian. Both Italian and English use long-lag VOT, but they differ in its phonological distribution: long-lag VOT is preferentially associated with pre-tonic, word-initial stops in English and with post-tonic, post-sonorant or geminate stops in Calabrian Italian. We show that, in heritage Calabrian Italian in Toronto, both phonetic implementation (cued by VOT duration) and phonological distribution of aspiration (as cued by perceived aspiration rate across phonological contexts) change cross-generationally, but some changes are non-linear, as third generation speakers appear to reproduce some patterns attested in the speech of first generation speakers. External variables such as the sex of the speakers modulate the cross-generational effects, with males producing more aspirated stops and exhibiting a more conservative behavior in certain phonetic contexts.
April 4, 2019
Yiddish Spring at the Canadian Language Museum
The Canadian Language Museum is opening its latest exhibit, 'Yiddish Spring', on Thursday, April 4, from 7 PM to 9 PM, at its headquarters (the Glendon Gallery). There will be live music, refreshments, and special guests. Berlin-based composer Paul Brody has created a sound installation for the CLM based on the voice-melodies of eight Toronto Yiddish speakers. Well-known European and Canadian klezmer musicians are contributing responses to the piece. On the walls will be the exhibit 'Komets-Alef-O! Back to School at the Yiddish Kheyder' (the Yiddish classroom): an introduction to the Yiddish language, created by Toronto Yiddishist Miriam Borden. The exhibit will be on display from April 5 through June 27, and there will be a number of special events held in conjunction with it.
April 3, 2019
Congratulations, Michelle!
We are delighted to have learned that Michelle Yuan (BA 2012, MA 2013) has accepted a tenure-track position in syntax at the University of California, San Diego. Michelle has been producing top-notch work on the syntax of Inuktitut since she was an undergraduate here. After finishing her MA, she went on to do a Ph.D. in syntax at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2018), followed by one year as a postdoc at the University of Chicago. We are so thrilled for you, Michelle – and for UCSD!
April 2, 2019
Research Groups: April 1-5
Tuesday, April 2, 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM, PT266
Computational Linguistics Group, Department of Computer Science
Jenny Xie (BA): "Text-based inference of moral sentiment change."
Friday, April 5, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM, SS4043
Psycholinguistics Group
Cassandra Jacobs (postdoc, Department of Psychology): "A unifying account of holistic and compositional phrase representations."
Comprehenders and speakers find producing familiar combinations of words easier than producing similar, less familiar combinations (Arnon and Snider 2010; Arnon and Cohen Priva 2014; Bannard and Matthews 2008; Siyanova-Chanturia, Conklin, and Van Heuven 2011), which has led to the proposal that phrases are retrieved as chunks from memory (Janssen and Barber 2012), running counter to many words-and-rules accounts of phrases (Halle and Marantz, 1994). I present evidence from free recall experiments (Jacobs, Dell, and Bannard 2017) that the production of literal phrases (e.g. 'alcoholic beverages') is in fact quite incremental (Ferreira and Swets 2002), suggesting that retrieval of phrases is not all-or-none. Then I present a simple connectionist model that shows that phrase frequency effects can arise without needing to posit the existence of phrase categories in memory.
Friday, April 5, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM, SS560A
Language Variation and Change Research Group
Guest speaker: Ai Taniguchi (Carleton University): "Non-redundancy, social meaning, and role language."
Friday, April 5, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM, SS560A
Phonology Research Group
Presentation by Koorosh Ariyaee (Ph.D.).
Friday, April 5, 1:00 PM-2:30 PM, SS560A
Semantics Research Group
Angelika Kiss (Ph.D.): "The prosodic realisation of affective and epistemic stance in Hungarian rise-fall interrogatives."
Rising declaratives are realized in Hungarian as rise-fall interrogatives (RFIs) exhibiting a rise-fall pitch contour on each Accentual Phrase of the utterance. RFIs can be used in contexts where the speaker is somewhat uncertain about the truth of p, the proposition conveyed by the utterance, this is called a confirmative use (Poschmann 2008). However they are also felicitous in contexts where the speaker is certain about (i.e. fully committed to) p but uses the RFI to convey affective stance, i.e. a positive or negative attitude towards p. This is called the echoic use, following Poschmann (2008). The goal of the present paper is to investigate the prosodic realisation of RFIs to test for the effects of epistemic and affective stance. To achieve this, string-identical RFIs were examined in different contexts. The contexts favoured either a confirmative question reading or an echoic reading, the latter being embedded in contexts that made the speakers convey positive or negative affect. Our results show that both epistemic and affective stance has an effect on the prosody of RFIs. For epistemic stance, the position of the maximum f0 on verbs is realised later in neutral contexts than in non-neutral (positive or negative) ones. Affective stance correlates with the scaling of the APs: While there is a downward drift of mean f0 values of the accents of post-verbal constituents under all three conditions, positive affect is distinguished by a significantly greater downstep of the accented syllables of the post-verbal APs in relation to the accented syllable of the verb, while negative affect is not significantly different in this respect from neutral affect.
Computational Linguistics Group, Department of Computer Science
Jenny Xie (BA): "Text-based inference of moral sentiment change."
Friday, April 5, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM, SS4043
Psycholinguistics Group
Cassandra Jacobs (postdoc, Department of Psychology): "A unifying account of holistic and compositional phrase representations."
Comprehenders and speakers find producing familiar combinations of words easier than producing similar, less familiar combinations (Arnon and Snider 2010; Arnon and Cohen Priva 2014; Bannard and Matthews 2008; Siyanova-Chanturia, Conklin, and Van Heuven 2011), which has led to the proposal that phrases are retrieved as chunks from memory (Janssen and Barber 2012), running counter to many words-and-rules accounts of phrases (Halle and Marantz, 1994). I present evidence from free recall experiments (Jacobs, Dell, and Bannard 2017) that the production of literal phrases (e.g. 'alcoholic beverages') is in fact quite incremental (Ferreira and Swets 2002), suggesting that retrieval of phrases is not all-or-none. Then I present a simple connectionist model that shows that phrase frequency effects can arise without needing to posit the existence of phrase categories in memory.
Friday, April 5, 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM, SS560A
Language Variation and Change Research Group
Guest speaker: Ai Taniguchi (Carleton University): "Non-redundancy, social meaning, and role language."
Friday, April 5, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM, SS560A
Phonology Research Group
Presentation by Koorosh Ariyaee (Ph.D.).
Friday, April 5, 1:00 PM-2:30 PM, SS560A
Semantics Research Group
Angelika Kiss (Ph.D.): "The prosodic realisation of affective and epistemic stance in Hungarian rise-fall interrogatives."
Rising declaratives are realized in Hungarian as rise-fall interrogatives (RFIs) exhibiting a rise-fall pitch contour on each Accentual Phrase of the utterance. RFIs can be used in contexts where the speaker is somewhat uncertain about the truth of p, the proposition conveyed by the utterance, this is called a confirmative use (Poschmann 2008). However they are also felicitous in contexts where the speaker is certain about (i.e. fully committed to) p but uses the RFI to convey affective stance, i.e. a positive or negative attitude towards p. This is called the echoic use, following Poschmann (2008). The goal of the present paper is to investigate the prosodic realisation of RFIs to test for the effects of epistemic and affective stance. To achieve this, string-identical RFIs were examined in different contexts. The contexts favoured either a confirmative question reading or an echoic reading, the latter being embedded in contexts that made the speakers convey positive or negative affect. Our results show that both epistemic and affective stance has an effect on the prosody of RFIs. For epistemic stance, the position of the maximum f0 on verbs is realised later in neutral contexts than in non-neutral (positive or negative) ones. Affective stance correlates with the scaling of the APs: While there is a downward drift of mean f0 values of the accents of post-verbal constituents under all three conditions, positive affect is distinguished by a significantly greater downstep of the accented syllables of the post-verbal APs in relation to the accented syllable of the verb, while negative affect is not significantly different in this respect from neutral affect.
April 1, 2019
Guest speakers: Enam Al-Wer (University of Essex) and Maria Fanis (Ohio University)
Enam Al-Wer (University of Essex) and Maria Fanis (Ohio University) are giving a talk co-hosted by the Language, Mobility and Social Justice Working Group at the Scarborough campus and the Interactions Seminar Series of the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies. This will be taking place on Thursday, April 4, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, in HW 525 at UTSC: "The commercialisation of linguistic expertise in the asylum vetting process."
One procedure that has been followed in several countries around the world since the 1990s is that of vetting origins of, mostly, undocumented asylum seekers by commissioning a linguistic analysis of the applicant’s speech. The linguistic analysis, which may be commissioned directly through a state agency or through a private entity franchised by the state, is usually based on empirical data obtained through an interview in the language of the asylum seeker. The purpose of the interview is twofold: to obtain a sample of the applicant’s speech, which is akin to the procedures followed in sociolinguistic research, and to vet the applicant’s general knowledge of the locality in which they were socialised. The recorded interview is then analysed by a linguist who is normally an expert in the dialects of the region or country that the applicant alleges to be their origin. This expert linguist is asked to write a linguistic report and to assess, on the basis of the analysis of the recorded interview, how likely it is that the applicant was socialised in the country they claim as their origin. The linguistic report is usually used by the border agencies as part of the evidence for the vetting of the application. In this talk, we examine the effects of commercialisation on the process of asylum vetting in general. With a focus on a specific asylum appeals case in the UK, we illustrate how the privatisation of the linguistic forensic services in this process has a negative effect on the use of language for the determination of the asylum seekers’ place of origin. Using the epistemic communities as a theoretical framework, it is argued that the commercialisation of the expert knowledge of the linguists involved in asylum vetting has detrimental consequences on the use of expert knowledge for the public good.
One procedure that has been followed in several countries around the world since the 1990s is that of vetting origins of, mostly, undocumented asylum seekers by commissioning a linguistic analysis of the applicant’s speech. The linguistic analysis, which may be commissioned directly through a state agency or through a private entity franchised by the state, is usually based on empirical data obtained through an interview in the language of the asylum seeker. The purpose of the interview is twofold: to obtain a sample of the applicant’s speech, which is akin to the procedures followed in sociolinguistic research, and to vet the applicant’s general knowledge of the locality in which they were socialised. The recorded interview is then analysed by a linguist who is normally an expert in the dialects of the region or country that the applicant alleges to be their origin. This expert linguist is asked to write a linguistic report and to assess, on the basis of the analysis of the recorded interview, how likely it is that the applicant was socialised in the country they claim as their origin. The linguistic report is usually used by the border agencies as part of the evidence for the vetting of the application. In this talk, we examine the effects of commercialisation on the process of asylum vetting in general. With a focus on a specific asylum appeals case in the UK, we illustrate how the privatisation of the linguistic forensic services in this process has a negative effect on the use of language for the determination of the asylum seekers’ place of origin. Using the epistemic communities as a theoretical framework, it is argued that the commercialisation of the expert knowledge of the linguists involved in asylum vetting has detrimental consequences on the use of expert knowledge for the public good.
March 31, 2019
ASAL 33
March 30, 2019
New paper: Kahnemuyipour (2019)
Arsalan Kahnemuyipour (faculty) has a squib out in the Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 64(1): "Word-internal modification: The case of the Persian comparative marker."
March 29, 2019
TOM 12
The twelfth Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal Semantics Workshop is taking place in Montreal on Saturday, March 30, co-hosted by Concordia University and McGill University. Several department members are in attendance, and we have two Ph.D. students who are presenting their work.
Heather Stephens (Ph.D.) is giving a talk:
"English polarity particles yep and nope."
Andrew Peters (Ph.D.) has a poster:
"Macro-events and Mongolian converbs."
Heather Stephens (Ph.D.) is giving a talk:
"English polarity particles yep and nope."
Andrew Peters (Ph.D.) has a poster:
"Macro-events and Mongolian converbs."
March 28, 2019
Congratulations, Becky!
Congratulations to Becky Tollan (Ph.D.), who has accepted a tenure-track position in syntax at the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at the University of Delaware that will begin this autumn! We'll miss you, Becky, but we're absolutely thrilled for you on this thoroughly well-deserved opportunity!
March 27, 2019
CUNY 32
The 32nd Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing is being hosted by the University of Colorado, Boulder, from March 29 through 31. Several faculty members, current students, and alumni are represented on the program.
Raheleh Saryazdi (Ph.D., Department of Psychology) and Craig Chambers (faculty) are presenting a talk:
"Reference and perspective taking across the adult lifespan."
Several current departmental members and alumni are presenting posters:
Kelly-Ann Blake (Ph.D.), Frederick Gietz (Ph.D.), and Meg Grant (former faculty, now at Humboldt University of Berlin):
"Syntactic prediction without lexical activation: Evidence from both (of the)…and."
Becky Tollan (Ph.D.) and Daphna Heller (faculty):
"Pronoun resolution in an ergative language: Effects of case and transitivity."
Raheleh Saryazdi (Ph.D., Department of Psychology), Tamara Mostarac (BA), and Craig Chambers (faculty):
"Speech rate and language processing in older adults: Is slow speech better?"
Daphna Heller (faculty) and Suzanne Stevenson (faculty, Department of Computer Science), along with Xiaobei Zheng (Shenzhen University) and Richard Breheny (University College London):
"How interaction affects (un)certainty about the partners' perspectives."
Megan Parker (MA 2018) and Daphna Heller (faculty):
"Overspecifying state information in the production of referring expressions."
Naomi Francis (MA 2014, now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) with coauthors Leo Rosenstein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Martin Hackl (Massachusetts Institute of Technology):
"L1 acquisition of polarity sensitivity: The case of either and too."
Raheleh Saryazdi (Ph.D., Department of Psychology) and Craig Chambers (faculty) are presenting a talk:
"Reference and perspective taking across the adult lifespan."
Several current departmental members and alumni are presenting posters:
Kelly-Ann Blake (Ph.D.), Frederick Gietz (Ph.D.), and Meg Grant (former faculty, now at Humboldt University of Berlin):
"Syntactic prediction without lexical activation: Evidence from both (of the)…and."
Becky Tollan (Ph.D.) and Daphna Heller (faculty):
"Pronoun resolution in an ergative language: Effects of case and transitivity."
Raheleh Saryazdi (Ph.D., Department of Psychology), Tamara Mostarac (BA), and Craig Chambers (faculty):
"Speech rate and language processing in older adults: Is slow speech better?"
Daphna Heller (faculty) and Suzanne Stevenson (faculty, Department of Computer Science), along with Xiaobei Zheng (Shenzhen University) and Richard Breheny (University College London):
"How interaction affects (un)certainty about the partners' perspectives."
Megan Parker (MA 2018) and Daphna Heller (faculty):
"Overspecifying state information in the production of referring expressions."
Naomi Francis (MA 2014, now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) with coauthors Leo Rosenstein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Martin Hackl (Massachusetts Institute of Technology):
"L1 acquisition of polarity sensitivity: The case of either and too."
March 26, 2019
Research Groups: March 25-29
Please note that this week's meetings of the Psycholinguistics Group and the Fieldwork Group are cancelled.
Tuesday, March 26, 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM in PT 266
Computational Linguistics Group, Department of Computer Science
Julia Watson (BA 2018): "Identifying the evolutionary progression of colour from cross-linguistic data."
We present a novel statistical analysis of the semantics of colour using a standard method from semantic typology. Our analysis suggests that the semantic space of colour categories has latent dimensions whose order of relative importance matches the evolutionary ordering of emergence of those distinctions. Moreover, we show that the importance ordering of these dimensions holds even when languages are at an evolutionary stage that further partitions the colour space beyond the given distinction. Additionally, we find that the extreme points of the latent colour dimensions correspond well to a small set of 'universal' focal colours shown to occur across languages. Thus our method derives both a consistent match to the evolutionary stages and to the universal focal areas.
Tuesday, March 26, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM in Innis College 313
Morphology Reading Group
Alec Kienzle (Ph.D.): "Agents, paths, and states in the Hebrew middle templates."
Friday, March 29, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Syntax Group
Dan Milway (Ph.D.): "Towards a novel theory of adjuncts."
I review the two competing minimalist theories of adjuncts – Late Adjunction and Pair Merge – and discuss their theoretical flaws. Based on this discussion and the respective strengths of the theories, I sketch a hypothesis which states that host-adjunct structures are, in fact, the result of two parallel derivations which are collapsed at the syntax-phonology interface. I close by discussing the prospects of such a theory.
Tuesday, March 26, 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM in PT 266
Computational Linguistics Group, Department of Computer Science
Julia Watson (BA 2018): "Identifying the evolutionary progression of colour from cross-linguistic data."
We present a novel statistical analysis of the semantics of colour using a standard method from semantic typology. Our analysis suggests that the semantic space of colour categories has latent dimensions whose order of relative importance matches the evolutionary ordering of emergence of those distinctions. Moreover, we show that the importance ordering of these dimensions holds even when languages are at an evolutionary stage that further partitions the colour space beyond the given distinction. Additionally, we find that the extreme points of the latent colour dimensions correspond well to a small set of 'universal' focal colours shown to occur across languages. Thus our method derives both a consistent match to the evolutionary stages and to the universal focal areas.
Tuesday, March 26, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM in Innis College 313
Morphology Reading Group
Alec Kienzle (Ph.D.): "Agents, paths, and states in the Hebrew middle templates."
Friday, March 29, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Syntax Group
Dan Milway (Ph.D.): "Towards a novel theory of adjuncts."
I review the two competing minimalist theories of adjuncts – Late Adjunction and Pair Merge – and discuss their theoretical flaws. Based on this discussion and the respective strengths of the theories, I sketch a hypothesis which states that host-adjunct structures are, in fact, the result of two parallel derivations which are collapsed at the syntax-phonology interface. I close by discussing the prospects of such a theory.
March 25, 2019
MOT 2019
We are co-hosting this year's Montréal-Ottawa-Toronto Workshop in Phonology/Phonetics, taking place from March 29th through 31st, co-organized by York faculty member Emily Elfner and our faculty members Peter Jurgec, Yoonjung Kang, Keren Rice, and Jessamyn Schertz. The Friday sessions will be held at York University, with the Saturday and Sunday sessions at the U of T.
Department members and alumni presenting are:
Andrei Munteanu (Ph.D.) and Kinza Mahoon (Ph.D.):
"Dialect accommodation in Canadian English."
Katharina Pabst (Ph.D.):
"The role of word frequency in sound change: [n(j)u] evidence from yod dropping Toronto English."
Pocholo Umbal (Ph.D.):
"/u/-fronting in second-generation Filipinos in Toronto: Evidence of cross-language influence."
Koorosh Ariyaee (Ph.D.):
"Loanword adaption in Persian: A Core-Periphery model approach."
Paulina Łyskawa (MA 2015, now at the University of Maryland) and Naomi Nagy (faculty):
"Language contact and convergence in Polish devoicing: Phonological versus phonetic perspectives."
Jessica Yeung (Ph.D.):
"The role of phonetic and typological naturalness in learning sound patterns."
Connie Ting (Ph.D.)and Yoonjung Kang (faculty):
"The effect of habitual speech rate on speaker-specific processing in English stop voicing perception."
Na-Young Ryu (Ph.D.):
"The role of web-based identification training in the perception of Korean vowels and codas by Mandarin learners of Korean."
Iryna Osadcha (Ph.D. 2019):
"Lexical stress patterns: Ukrainian vocative case."
Radu Craioveanu (Ph.D.):
"Asymmetries in aspiration."
Yoonjung Kang (faculty), Na-Young Ryu (Ph.D.), and colleague Suyeon Yun (Ewha Womans University):
"Contrastive hyperarticulation of vowels in two dialects of Korean."
Alessandro Jaker (postdoc):
"The full ~ reduced vowel contrast in Tetsǫ́t'ıné: Evidence for an eight-vowel system."
Heather Yawney (Ph.D.):
"Asymmetry of Kazakh velar and uvular consonants."
Photini Coutsougera (faculty):
"High front vowel deletion, palatalization, and fortition in Arcadian Greek."
Kristen Wong (BA) and Yoonjung Kang (faculty):
"Sound symbolism of gender in Cantonese names."
Kaz Bamba (Ph.D.):
"Consonant-vowel sequences and their gradient interactions."
Aleksei Nazarov (faculty):
"Formalizing the link between opacity and exceptionality."
Vincent DeCaen (former postdoc, now at DeCaen and Associates) and Elan Dresher (faculty):
"The vowel system of Tiberian Hebrew."
Department members and alumni presenting are:
Andrei Munteanu (Ph.D.) and Kinza Mahoon (Ph.D.):
"Dialect accommodation in Canadian English."
Katharina Pabst (Ph.D.):
"The role of word frequency in sound change: [n(j)u] evidence from yod dropping Toronto English."
Pocholo Umbal (Ph.D.):
"/u/-fronting in second-generation Filipinos in Toronto: Evidence of cross-language influence."
Koorosh Ariyaee (Ph.D.):
"Loanword adaption in Persian: A Core-Periphery model approach."
Paulina Łyskawa (MA 2015, now at the University of Maryland) and Naomi Nagy (faculty):
"Language contact and convergence in Polish devoicing: Phonological versus phonetic perspectives."
Jessica Yeung (Ph.D.):
"The role of phonetic and typological naturalness in learning sound patterns."
Connie Ting (Ph.D.)and Yoonjung Kang (faculty):
"The effect of habitual speech rate on speaker-specific processing in English stop voicing perception."
Na-Young Ryu (Ph.D.):
"The role of web-based identification training in the perception of Korean vowels and codas by Mandarin learners of Korean."
Iryna Osadcha (Ph.D. 2019):
"Lexical stress patterns: Ukrainian vocative case."
Radu Craioveanu (Ph.D.):
"Asymmetries in aspiration."
Yoonjung Kang (faculty), Na-Young Ryu (Ph.D.), and colleague Suyeon Yun (Ewha Womans University):
"Contrastive hyperarticulation of vowels in two dialects of Korean."
Alessandro Jaker (postdoc):
"The full ~ reduced vowel contrast in Tetsǫ́t'ıné: Evidence for an eight-vowel system."
Heather Yawney (Ph.D.):
"Asymmetry of Kazakh velar and uvular consonants."
Photini Coutsougera (faculty):
"High front vowel deletion, palatalization, and fortition in Arcadian Greek."
Kristen Wong (BA) and Yoonjung Kang (faculty):
"Sound symbolism of gender in Cantonese names."
Kaz Bamba (Ph.D.):
"Consonant-vowel sequences and their gradient interactions."
Aleksei Nazarov (faculty):
"Formalizing the link between opacity and exceptionality."
Vincent DeCaen (former postdoc, now at DeCaen and Associates) and Elan Dresher (faculty):
"The vowel system of Tiberian Hebrew."
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