BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Department of Linguistics, HKU - ECPv6.17.5//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Department of Linguistics, HKU
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://linguistics.hku.hk
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Department of Linguistics, HKU
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Asia/Shanghai
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0800
TZOFFSETTO:+0800
TZNAME:CST
DTSTART:20170101T000000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Shanghai:20180201T163000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Shanghai:20180201T163000
DTSTAMP:20180214T094602Z
CREATED:20180126T045118Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180214T094602Z
UID:3210-1517502600-1517502600@linguistics.hku.hk
SUMMARY:Approaching linguistic issues with the tools of data science - Christophe Coupé
DESCRIPTION:At the intersection of computational modelling\, data analysis and statistics\, data science is gradually developing across all scientific domains\, and the humanities and social sciences are no exception. Especially in these latter fields\, data science rests on an epistemology and a range of techniques which strengths and weaknesses differ from those of longer-established approaches (Kitchin\, 2014; Leonelli\, 2010). This opens the way to fruitful collaborations between scholars of complementary expertise\, and can offer fresh perspectives on old and complex issues. \nAs an illustration of what precedes\, linguistics has seen a steady increase in quantitative approaches in recent years\, and large datasets are being built to support data-driven approaches (e.g. Dryer and Haspelmath\, 2013; Kirby et al.\, 2016). Some have emphasized the potential impact of environmental factors on linguistic diversity (Axelsen & Manrubia\, 2014; Everett\, 2013; Everett\, Blasi\, & Roberts\, 2015). Others have studied how social structures underlie situations of language change\, language contact and multilingualism (Ke\, Gong\, & Wang\, 2008; Loureiro-Porto & Miguel\, 2017; Lupyan & Dale\, 2010). Others yet have shed light on a trade-off between information density and speech rate across languages (Coupé\, Oh\, Pellegrino\, & Marsico\, 2014; Pellegrino\, Coupé\, & Marsico\, 2011). \nAlong these lines\, I will report two case studies. First\, I will depict an ongoing investigation in child language acquisition\, which aims at modelling the age of acquisition of words on the basis of longitudinal data. I will illustrate how the use of so-called censored distributions\, to account for incomplete information\, and of advanced statistical models\, can lead to robust predictions. Second\, I will introduce attempts to highlight the role of vegetation\, humidity and temperature in the composition of phonemic inventories\, relying on a large dataset of languages\, satellite imagery and geographic information systems (Coupé\, Hombert\, Marsico\, & Pellegrino\, 2013; Maddieson & Coupé\, 2015). More precisely\, I will give acoustic arguments in favor of a relationship between the number of obstruent consonants and the previous environmental factors. I will assess this proposal while accounting for a range of potentially confounding factors\, such as the number of speakers or the genealogical relationships between languages.
URL:https://linguistics.hku.hk/event/approaching-linguistic-issues-with-the-tools-of-data-science-christophe-coupe/
LOCATION:Room 7.58\, Run Run Shaw Tower\, Centennial Campus\, HKU\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Shanghai:20180208T163000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Shanghai:20180208T163000
DTSTAMP:20180214T094425Z
CREATED:20180202T064557Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180214T094425Z
UID:3265-1518107400-1518107400@linguistics.hku.hk
SUMMARY:Visual Speech Cues in Language Variation and Change - Jon Havenhill\, Georgetown University
DESCRIPTION:What are the factors that shape linguistic sound systems? Perceptibility of the acoustic signal has long been argued to play a role in phonological organization.  Some theories of historical change (such as Ohala 1993\, 2012; Blevins 2004) argue that sound change results from misperception of the acoustic signal\, while teleological models of phonology (Lindblom 1990; Hayes et al. 2004) posit that speech is optimized  (in part) for auditory perceptibility. Nevertheless\, it is well known that speech perception is influenced by a range of non-auditory cues (McGurk & MacDonald 1976; Gick & Derrick 2009; Mayer et al. 2013). Here I discuss the role of visual cues in language  variation and change. A cross-linguistic survey of sound changes involving labial segments\, including development of the rare labio-coronals in Setswana\, suggests that segments tend to retain their labiality in order to maximize perceptibility in both the  auditory and visual domains. That hypothesis is further tested in an articulatory and perceptual investigation of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. Using ultrasound tongue imaging\, I find that speakers exhibiting the NCVS vary in how they produce the contrast  between the vowels /ɑ/ and /ɔ/. An audiovisual perception experiment demonstrates that variants of fronted /ɔ/ that retain their lip rounding are less likely to be misperceived as /ɑ/ than variants that are produced with unround lips. Together\, these results  show that consideration of visual speech perception can improve our understanding of cross-linguistic patterns of variation and change. Theories of sound change and of phonological typology must therefore take into account visual as well as auditory perceptibility.
URL:https://linguistics.hku.hk/event/visual-speech-cues-in-language-variation-and-change-jon-havenhill-georgetown-university/
LOCATION:Room 7.58\, Run Run Shaw Tower\, Centennial Campus\, HKU\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Shanghai:20180213T163000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Shanghai:20180213T163000
DTSTAMP:20180214T094450Z
CREATED:20180205T065116Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180214T094450Z
UID:3281-1518539400-1518539400@linguistics.hku.hk
SUMMARY:Understanding the role of phonology in auditory illusions​​ - Karthik Durvasula (Michigan State University)
DESCRIPTION:Native listeners perceive illusory sounds\, typically when presented with sound sequences that do not respect the word-internal phonotactic constraints of their language (Dehaene-Lambertz et al. 2000; Dupoux et al. 1999; Kabak and Idsardi\, 2007; inter alia). Such perceptual illusions have been claimed to be driven by surface phonotactics and phonetic characteristics of segments (Davidson and Shaw\, 2012; Dupoux et al.\, 2011). In this talk\, I will argue that phonological knowledge at large is a crucial modulatory factor in such illusions. \nInspired by Bayesian models of speech perception (Feldman and Griffiths\, 2007; Sonderegger and Yu\, 2010)\, I suggest that the task of the listener in speech perception is to reverse infer the best parse of the underlying representation given their native language phonology and the acoustics of the input stream. Since underlying representations are abstractions that depend on the phonology of the language\, the view predicts the recruitment of phonological knowledge\, beyond surface-phonotactics\, during speech perception. Consistent with this expectation\, I will present results from research on perceptual illusions that show that knowledge of both phonological alternations and higher-level prosodic structure is utilized during speech perception.​
URL:https://linguistics.hku.hk/event/understanding-the-role-of-phonology-in-auditory-illusions%e2%80%8b%e2%80%8b-karthik-durvasula-michigan-state-university/
LOCATION:Room 7.58\, Run Run Shaw Tower\, Centennial Campus\, HKU\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Shanghai:20180214T163000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Shanghai:20180214T173000
DTSTAMP:20180228T094308Z
CREATED:20180213T061302Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180228T094308Z
UID:3493-1518625800-1518629400@linguistics.hku.hk
SUMMARY:The role of cross-linguistic data in the science of language - Damián Blasi (University of Zürich)
DESCRIPTION:  \nData on the languages of the world are complex from a statistical point of view: sparse on many important dimensions\, noisy and fostering complex layers of (genealogical\, areal and other) dependencies. As a response to this situation\, the language sciences have embraced experimental methods\, computational modelling as golden standards for evaluating and discovering the processes and factors that shape human languages. This host of methods has provided new insights and opened new research venues\, yet I will argue in this presentation that the assumptions behind these approaches are by no means less problematic than the ones underlying the analyses of cross-linguistic distributions for the same purpose. While experimental techniques allow us to test online human behavior (which is the ultimate source of language structure) and computational methods provide a thorough control of the target variables and perfect replicability\, their ecological validity as models of language structure is limited in a number of ways cross-linguistic distributions are not. I will illustrate these points with a number of examples and case studies (taken from my own work and others.)​
URL:https://linguistics.hku.hk/event/the-role-of-cross-linguistic-data-in-the-science-of-language-damian-blasi-university-of-zurich/
LOCATION:Room 4.04\, Run Run Shaw Tower\, Centennial Campus\, HKU\, Hong Kong
CATEGORIES:Seminars
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR