announcements

Dr. Jonathan Dunn - Language as a Complex System: Syntactic Variation from Individuals to Populations

reku3206 — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 15:25:44 +0000

Dr. Jonathan Dunn - Language as a Complex System: Syntactic Variation from Individuals to Populations reku3206 Fri, 02/28/2025 - 08:25

CU Linguistics is pleased to present in a lecture by UIUC professor and computational linguist, Dr. Jonathan Dunn, in partnership with the Institute of Cognitive Science.

Language as a Complex System: Syntactic Variation from Individuals to Populations

Thursday, March 14

3:30 - 5:00pm

MUEN E113

This talk presents a computational approach to syntactic variation that brings together models of (i) individual differences across speakers, (ii) dialectal differences across populations, and (iii) register differences across contexts. This work is based in Construction Grammar because its usage-based representations allow us to capture differences in productivity across multiple levels of abstraction. Rather than focus on discrete variables in isolation, we view the grammar as a complex system in which interactions between constructions can be widely distributed.

Dr. Jonathan Dunn is a computational linguist and professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research models both (i) the emergence of grammatical structure within individuals and (ii) variation in grammatical structure across populations and registers.

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Dr. Raichle Farrelly speaks at a Webinar hosted by the English Education Study Program at Universitas Pattimura in Maluku, Indonesia

Zachary Frisch — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:39:30 +0000

Dr. Raichle Farrelly speaks at a Webinar hosted by the English Education Study Program at Universitas Pattimura in Maluku, Indonesia Zachary Frisch Tue, 02/18/2025 - 14:39

Dr. Rai Farrelly was invited to deliver a talk to students in the English Education Study Program at Universitas Pattimura in Maluku, Indonesia. Her talk focused on how English language teachers can build learners' confidence in speaking English with a focus on the constraints of Indonesian academic culture.

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Talking Politics with Leah Sprain: Making Non-Answers Hearable

reku3206 — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 16:58:33 +0000

Talking Politics with Leah Sprain: Making Non-Answers Hearable reku3206 Fri, 01/31/2025 - 09:58

Tuesday, February 4, 2025 | 7 pm EST

A common view of politicians is that, when they are asked questions, they rarely answer them. Question evasion is deeply bothersome to publics, but experiments

show that audiences are not good at identifying dodging techniques. In this talk, Leah Sprain (��Vlog�ƽ��) explores

what debate moderators can do to make politicians’ evasion easier to notice—in other words, how moderators can make a non-answer hearable as a non-answer. This webinar offers practical theory that can moderators can use to make candidate forums and debates

more accountable to their publics through ground rules, formats, and goals.

Now <https://engage.squarespace-mail.com/r?m=67990d4e0912934390d6ab5e&u=https%3A%2F%2Fuchicagogroup.zoom.us%2Fwebinar%2Fregister%2FWN_IiqYw1ChR6iUqzOA8-eT_Q&w=66cd1841acc5c0073cf0925e&c=b_67990ae90912934390d68a60&l=en-US&s=Ui_w6FB1xKG5I6Lm-QXd4X42BP0%3D>

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Coming to CU ��Vlog�ƽ��: "South Asian Forum on the Acquisition and Processing of Languages (SAFAL) 2025"

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 14:57:54 +0000

Coming to CU ��Vlog�ƽ��: "South Asian Forum on the Acquisition and Processing of Languages (SAFAL) 2025" Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/03/2024 - 08:57

With support from the National Science Foundation, SAFAL 2025 will be co-organized by Bhuvana Narasimhan (Linguistics), Al Kim (Psychology & Neuroscience/Institute of Cognitive Science), and Sudha Arunachalam (Communicative Sciences and Disorders, NYU).

South Asia constitutes an ideal natural laboratory for psycholinguistic investigation. The region is home to over 600 languages representing the Indo-European, Dravidian, Sino-Tibetan, and Austroasiatic language families as well as isolates, small families, and several pidgins and creoles (Borin, Saxena, Comrie, & Virk, 2021). The populations speaking SA languages are typically multilingual (Annamalai, 2008) and over two dozen writing systems are represented throughout the region (Asher, 2008). The conference will bring together researchers investigating South Asian languages to exchange ideas on different domains of psycholinguistic inquiry including language acquisition, language processing, multilingualism, and literacy development.

In order to allow for the broad participation of international scholars, the meeting will be hosted on Zoom as well as in person at the ��Vlog�ƽ�� in Fall 2025. To allow time for international scholars to obtain a visa to attend the conference, abstracts will begin to be reviewed on a rolling basis a year in advance,starting in October 2024.Further details can be found at the SAFAL conference website.

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Indigenous Peoples, Ethics, and Linguistic Data: Approaches to Decolonizing Linguistics

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 20:34:00 +0000

Indigenous Peoples, Ethics, and Linguistic Data: Approaches to Decolonizing Linguistics Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/30/2024 - 14:34

LING Circle ProSeminar

Dr. Wesley Y. Leonard

Miami Tribe of Oklahoma; Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

4:00 - 6:00 pm.

ECCS 1B12

or join via Zoom: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/91206948315

Despite the increasing focus on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) in the discipline of Linguistics, members of Native American and other Indigenous communities remain underrepresented––and often report feeling unwelcome. A recurring concern is that Linguistics is not accountable to Indigenous histories, protocols, and ways of engaging with language communities and linguistic data. A wider issue is that colonization is endemic, and academic norms have developed accordingly.

What changes when Native American and other Indigenous intellectual approaches serve as the baseline from which linguistic research and pedagogy are approached? Drawing from my professional experiences as a linguist, Miami tribal member engaged in community language efforts, and co-founder of the Natives4Linguistics project, which aims to reimagine Linguistics through Native American ways of knowing, I engage with this question and offer several interventions.

Wesley Y. Leonard is a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma and an associate professor of Native American Studies in the Ethnic Studies department at the University of California, Riverside. Drawing from his PhD in Linguistics (University of California, Berkeley, 2007) and experience as an additional language learner and practitioner in myaamia and other community-based language programs, his research aims to build language reclamation capacity in Native American and other Indigenous communities by cultivating language reclamation praxis, which centers community needs, values, and definitions of language, while also changing the norms of language sciences to facilitate such work. As part of this, he co-developed the Natives4Linguistics project, which promotes Native American needs, research and ethical protocols, and intellectual tools as a basis for doing linguistics. His scholarship appears in a variety of outlets such as Gender and Language, Language Documentation and Description, Dædalus, Language, Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, and Language Learning.

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Roundtable with Sonja Lang: "Toki Pona: From Personal Art Project to Small World Language”

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 14:42:18 +0000

Roundtable with Sonja Lang: "Toki Pona: From Personal Art Project to Small World Language” Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 03/13/2024 - 08:42

Date and time: Monday, April 8, 4:00 to 6:00 pm

Place: The Center for British and Irish Studies Room (5th floor, Norlin Library)

Sponsors: Department of Linguistics and the Center for Humanities and the Arts

Toki Pona: From Personal Art Project to Small World Language

In this roundtable discussion, after an introduction by jan Lakuse, Sonja Lang will share her experiences and knowledge of the Toki Pona language by answering questions from a roundtable of students and members of the audience. Toki Pona is a minimalist constructed language with only about 120 to 139 words. One of the fastest growing constructed languages in the world, it was designed by Sonja Lang to simplify her way of thinking. One of Toki Pona's main principles is joy. It features silly words, room for creative expression, and ambiguity. Even its writing system is made up of cute pictograms. Since its initial creation, Toki Pona has evolved into a living language, adopting several new words, grammar features, and a growing community of speakers. Today, there are thousands of Toki Pona speakers around the world.

The speakers:
Sonja Lang (jan Sonja) is the inventor of the Toki Pona language. She is the author and publisher of Toki Pona: The Language of Good, Toki Pona Dictionary, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Toki Pona edition). She is a self-taught polyglot. Website: www.tokipona.org

Chelsea Raacz (jan Lakuse) is a community organizer and proficient speaker of both Toki Pona and Luka Pona Sign Language. They teach, organize the annual Toki Pona writing competition and help to moderate the largest Toki Pona Discord server, which has over 13,000 members.

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Peak Potential 2023

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 16:51:53 +0000

Peak Potential 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/10/2023 - 10:51

Peak Potential '23: A Virtual Preview of CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� Linguistics

Day 01: Introduction to CU Linguistics – 4:30-6:00 pm MDT, Monday, 23 October

Day 02: Meet the Faculty – 4:30-6:00 pm MDT, Tuesday, 24 October

Day 03: Graduate Student Panel and Social Hour - 4:30-5:30 pm MDT, Wednesday, 25 October

The Linguistics Department at the ��Vlog�ƽ�� would like to introduce our department, and its diverse community of learners, to excellent potential graduate applicants from all backgrounds and experiences. To that end, we are offering a virtual preview event consisting of 3 sessions between 23-25 October to provide information and support for these applicants. You are invited to join us!

CU’s Linguistics Department is a major center of interdisciplinary research in sociocultural and interactional linguistics, computational linguistics, cognitive-functional linguistics, language documentation, and psycholinguistics and experimental linguistics. The Department's orientation is empirical: we use analysis of conversational data, acoustic measurements of speech, computational modeling and statistical analysis, psycholinguistic experimentation, and fieldwork in local communities and abroad to gain insights about structural properties of language, test theories about language, and explain patterns of language use.

The Department strives to provide a supportive environment for research and learning by fostering diversity and inclusion across the areas of curriculum, student body demographics, and faculty demographics. We recognize that students and faculty from backgrounds not historically well represented in graduate programs enrich our field and enhance the educational experience of all students. We encourage students to use the tools of our field to address critical problems in our world.

At the CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� Peak Potential event, participants will have the opportunity to hear from faculty about the different academic programs in Linguistics at CU, the admissions process, research in the department and opportunities for student involvement. Students can also talk with current graduate students about the Linguistics program, the university, and the community of ��Vlog�ƽ��.

SCHEDULE

All times shown in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)

Session 01: Introduction to CU Linguistics – 4:30-6:00 pm, Monday, 23 October

• Learn about the Linguistics department and CU ��Vlog�ƽ��; obtain information about our initiatives to support diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Learn about our graduate programs (the MA, MS CLASIC, PhD degrees & graduate certificates), how to apply to our program, and how to fund your graduate studies.

Session 02: Meet the Faculty – 4:30-6:00 pm, Tuesday, 24 October

• Hear from representative faculty about their own research and areas of study in the department, especially highlighting opportunities for student involvement.

Session 03: Graduate Student Panel and Social Hour - 4:30-5:30 pm, Wednesday, 25 October

• Meet current graduate students and hear about the program, the university, and the community of ��Vlog�ƽ�� from their perspectives.

Registration is free but required for all participants. Registration by Friday, 20 October is preferred.

Registration can be completed here: https://tinyurl.com/2p5xyp58

Once you have registered, a Zoom link will be sent to you.

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Announcing the 2023-2024 officers of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 16:54:11 +0000

Announcing the 2023-2024 officers of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/06/2023 - 10:54

Congratulations to the new officers for the CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� Undergraduate Linguistics Association (ULA)! Our ULA Officers for the 2023-2024 year are (from left) Livvy Bahr, Turner Land, Jaimie Jettmar, and Morgan Jones, who will all share the Co-President position.

About ULA:

Majors and minors in CU ��Vlog�ƽ��’s Department of Linguistics are automatically members of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association (ULA). Each year, ULA brings in a new slate of officers who serve as liaisons between undergraduate students and the department, sharing student needs, concerns, and interests with the faculty while working to create excitement for the undergraduate major. In addition to organizing special events on topics such as careers in linguistics and/or applying to graduate school, ULA officers work with the Ling Club and other undergraduates to select a speaker for the annual Undergraduate Distinguished Lecture series. The ULA faculty advisor for the 2023-2024 year is Prof. Kira Hall, Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies

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Talking Politics 2023 Kick-off Event with Dr. Nicholas Mararac

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 16:38:20 +0000

Talking Politics 2023 Kick-off Event with Dr. Nicholas Mararac Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/20/2023 - 10:38

Join Talking Politics this Friday, April 21 at 4:00pm Central (3:00pm MST) via Zoom for its 2023 series kick-off event with Dr. Nicholas Mararac: “Queering the Military: How Ideologies about Gender and Sexuality Shape(d) the U.S. Armed Forces.” Kate Arnold-Murray, PhD student in Linguistics at CU, will serve as the discussant.

Before pursuing his PhD in sociolinguistics at Georgetown, Dr. Mararac attended the US Naval Academy and was a gay servicemember in the US Navy during Don't Ask Don't Tell.

To access the Zoom meeting for this event (and future events in the series), go to bit.ly/TP2023webinar (passcode: 494955).

Talking Politics is an event series co-organized by students at CU ��Vlog�ƽ�� and the University of Chicago.

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Dr. Kate Lindsey gives LingCircle talk on April 26

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 20:22:33 +0000

Dr. Kate Lindsey gives LingCircle talk on April 26 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/13/2023 - 14:22

The Department of Linguistics presented a LingCircle talk by Dr. Kate L. Lindsey (Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Boston University). Her talk, titled Ghost elements in Ende phonology, took place on Wednesday, April 26 at 4:00pm in CASE E351.

This is a hybrid presentation with the option to join in person or via Zoom. Click here to access the Zoom meeting for the lecture.

Included below is an abstract for Dr. Lindsey's lecture. We hope to see you there!

Ghost elements in Ende phonology
Kate L. Lindsey (Boston University)

Ende phonology exhibits several phenomena where partially underspecified segments seem to appear and disappear at the service of phonotactics, much like yers in Slavic. Following Zoll (1996) and Kiparsky (2003), I call such elements ghosts. I will present two types of ghosts in Ende and show how the interaction of these two patterns informs formal theories on the representation of underspecification in the input.

Ende floating nasals demonstrate alignment of an underspecified nasal segment to the leftmost non-initial obstruent in the word, much like how stress and affixes may be aligned to left or right edges of stems or feet (McCarthy & Prince 1993) or how tone patterns may spread to adjacent tone-bearing units. A phonotactic analysis of the Ende dictionary and corpus reveals that prenasalization is a contrastive feature of morphemes, much like nasalization in Máíhɨ̃ki (Sylak-Glassman 2013). Ende phonotactic reduplication displays semantically vacuous copying of segmental structure to repair verb roots that violate a phonotactic constraint on word minimality. Monosyllabic verb roots reduplicate in isolated forms, but multisyllabic verb roots do not. Curiously, morphological structure also seems to play a role.

Representing both ghost elements as subsegments in the input allows for straightforward constraint-based analyses of the phenomena independently. However, when the two ghost patterns co-occur in the same word, a ranking paradox arises. This puzzle is solved if the two types of ghost elements are represented distinctly in the input.

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announcements

Dr. Jonathan Dunn - Language as a Complex System: Syntactic Variation from Individuals to Populations

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Dr. Raichle Farrelly speaks at a Webinar hosted by the English Education Study Program at Universitas Pattimura in Maluku, Indonesia

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Talking Politics with Leah Sprain: Making Non-Answers Hearable

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Coming to CU ����Vlog�ƽ��: "South Asian Forum on the Acquisition and Processing of Languages (SAFAL) 2025"

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Indigenous Peoples, Ethics, and Linguistic Data: Approaches to Decolonizing Linguistics

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Roundtable with Sonja Lang: "Toki Pona: From Personal Art Project to Small World Language”

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Peak Potential 2023

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Announcing the 2023-2024 officers of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association

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Talking Politics 2023 Kick-off Event with Dr. Nicholas Mararac

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Dr. Kate Lindsey gives LingCircle talk on April 26

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Coming to CU ��Vlog�ƽ��: "South Asian Forum on the Acquisition and Processing of Languages (SAFAL) 2025"