University of Toronto Department of Linguistics Blog
UofT Linguistics had a wonderful time at Fall Campus Day on Saturday, Nov 18, 2023. Here are photos from the event showing our SLUGS representatives busy discussing linguistics and promoting our undergraduate program to high school students and first year students. Our trivia questions and attractive prizes of samosas, tote bags, buttons, chips and candy drew an impressive crowd!
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
A new paper on the cross-linguistic variation of word meanings has been published in the journal of Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory by Prof. Barend Beekhuizen, Maya Blumenthal (MA Alumni), Lee Jiang (PhD Student), and colleagues! The paper is entitled 'Truth be told: a corpus-based study of the cross-linguistic colexification of representational and (inter)subjective meanings'.
We've included the abstract below:
The study of crosslinguistic variation in word meaning often focuses on representational and concrete meanings. We argue other kinds of word meanings (e.g., abstract and (inter)subjective meanings) can be fruitfully studied in translation corpora, and present a quantitative procedure for doing so. We focus on the cross-linguistic patterns for lemmas pertaining to truth and reality (English true and real), as these abstract meanings been found to frequently colexify with particular (inter)subjective meanings. Applying our method to a corpus of translated subtitles of TED talks, we show that (1) the abstract-representational meanings are colexified in patterned ways, that, however, are more complex than previously observed (some languages not splitting a ‘true’-like from ‘real’-like terms; many languages displaying further splits of representational meanings); (2) some non-representational meanings strongly colexify with representational meanings of ‘truth’ and ‘reality’, while others also often colexify with other fields.
Beekhuizen, B., Blumenthal, M., Jiang, L., Pyrtchenkov, A. & Savevska, J. (2023). Truth be told: a corpus-based study of the cross-linguistic colexification of representational and (inter)subjective meanings. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory. https://doi.org/10.1515/cllt-2021-0058
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/cllt-2021-0058/html
Jack Chew celebrated his 100th birthday on Friday, November 18, 2023, at a steakhouse on King St. He was a founding member of the Centre for Linguistic Studies, precursor of the Linguistics department, and the first professor at the University of Toronto to teach the introductory course, LIN 100.
A member of the Linguistics section of the Anthropology Department and a proud polyglot, he taught a course on Languages of the World, among others. His Columbia Ph.D thesis, published by Mouton, on Japanese honorifics, was one of the first studies that used the term “generative.”
Thanks to J.K. (Jack) Chambers for this nice photo and report.
We are pleased to announce the winners of 5 Undergraduate Awards in Linguistics for 2022-23:
 |  |  |
| Thanks to Kelly (right), Camille, Kai and Mary for making our lounge beautiful and welcoming! | ||
Newly minted PhDs - Congrats to these Doctors!
|
 |
 | New MAs - Congratulations!
|
 Guillaume, Naomi & Derek bask in reflected glory. |  Cake and more cake |  MAs and friends |
 Jess hooded by Elizabeth |  Radu hooded by Nathan |  Pocholo hooded by Naomi |
 Pocholo hooded! |  Pocholo celebrates in front of (Con Hall and) the CN Tower |  Myrto sports a matching purse |
For a Globe & Mail article about changing language (and Gen Z trends), Asst. Prof Barend Beekhuizen weighed in with his linguistic expertise. Check out a fun story and find his quote here:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-amplify-the-practical-magic-of-the-girl-prefix/
