Kingston on the road

John Kingston will give a talk on Wednesday, April 13, at the Workshop on (Morpho)-phonological Processing at Oxford University. His talk presents work with Amanda Rysling, Adrian Staub, Andrew Cohen and Jeffrey Starn; the title is “When do words influence perception? Converging evidence that Ganong effect is early and variable”

And on Friday, April 15th, he will be presenting the paper “Misperception, coarticulation, and sound change,” work with Amanda Rysling, Alexandra Jesse, and Robert Moura, at the Worshop on Articulatory Control at the Laboratories de Phonetique et Phonologie, Paris 3.

UMass at phoNE

NYU is hosting phoNE this Saturday, April 9. UMass is represented by Deniz Ozyildiz and Alexei Nazarov who are giving talks. A complete schedule follows.

Saturday, April 9

11:30-12      Luca Iacaponi (Rutgers): Non-stringent markednessrelations: evidence from Consonant Harmony

12-12:30      Chris Geissler (Yale): Explaining Vowel Harmony in Lhasa Tibetan

12:30-1:30   lunch

1:30-2           Deniz Ozyildiz (UMass)

2-2:30           James Whang (NYU)

2:30-2:50      break

2:50-3:20       Juliet Stanton (MIT): Trigger deletion in Gurindji

3:20-3:50       Gašper Beguš (Harvard) Unnatural phenomena and gradient phonotactics

3:50-4:10       break

4:10-4:40       Shu-hao Shih (Rutgers)

4:40-5:10       Alexei Nazarov (UMass)

5:10-5:30       break

5:30-6            Erin Olsen (MIT)

6                business meeting

The conference takes place on the first floor of the Linguistics Department, which is at 10 Washington Place in Manhattan.

Kingston at Yale

John Kingston is presenting joint work with Amanda Rysling, Alexandra Jesse and Robert Moura at the Yale Linguistics Colloquium tomorrow, Monday March 28. The title of his talk is “Order matters in parsing coarticulation."

SpectroLunch

Leland Kusmer writes:

We're going to start SpectroLunch for the semester, and you should come!

For those who don't know: Once a week, a bunch of us get together and eat snacks while practicing our spectrogram reading. It's a lot of fun, and a good way to practice this important skill and to learn weird things about English phonetics. (Did I mention there are snacks?) It's totally informal and you don't need any prior knowledge of spectrogram reading — just come and join in! We meet at 10AM on Fridays.

Call for papers: Sub-Saharan African Languages

Special Session at Interspeech 2016:
Sub-Saharan African languages : from speech fundamentals to applications

Call for papers

This special session aims at gathering researchers in speech technology and researchers in linguistics (working in language documentation and fundamentals of speech science). Such a partnership is particularly important for Sub-Saharan African languages which tend to remain under-resourced, under-documented and often also unwritten. Prospective authors are invited to submit original papers in the following areas:

ASR and TTS for Sub-Saharan African languages and dialects

Cross-lingual and multi-lingual acoustic and lexical modeling

Applications of spoken language technologies for the African continent

Phonetic and linguistic studies in Sub-Saharan African languages

Zero resource speech technologies: unsupervised discovery of linguistic units

Language documentation for endangered languages of Africa

Machine-assisted annotation of speech and laboratory phonology

Resource / Corpora production in African languages

Submission deadline

Same as regular Interspeech 2016 papers: March 23, 2016

Special session web site

For more details on this special session: http://alffa.imag.fr/interspeech-2016-special-session-proposal/

Interspeech 2016 conference website: http://www.interspeech2016.org/

Organizers

Martine Adda-Decker (madda@limsi.fr) – CNRS – LPP and LIMSI, France.

Laurent Besacier (laurent.besacier@imag.fr) - Univ. Grenoble-Alpes, France - LIG laboratory.

Marelie Davel (marelie.davel@nwu.ac.za) – North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa.

Larry Hyman (hyman@berkeley.edu) - Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley.

Martin Jansche (mjansche@google.com) – Google, London, UK.

Francois Pellegrino (francois.pellegrino@univ-lyon2.fr) – CNRS – DDL Lyon, France.

Olivier Rosec (olivier.rosec@voxygen.fr) – Voxygen SAS,- Pleumeur-Bodou, France.

Sebastian Stüker (sebastian.stueker@kit.edu) - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany.

Martha Tachbelie Yifiru (martha.yifiru@aau.edu.et) – School of Information Science, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

Phonetics job at UC, Santa Barbara

The Linguistics Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara seeks to hire a linguist specializing in phonetics. The appointment will be a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level, effective July 1, 2016. The ideal candidate will use primary data collected through one or more methodological paradigms to explore the importance of phonetics for our understanding of phonology, and more generally, linguistic theory. We especially seek candidates with expertise in speech perception and/or articulation. Important criteria for this position include research on multiple languages and thorough training in linguistics. The candidate should also have the potential to link the theoretical implications of his or her research to other subdisciplines in linguistics, and to interact with colleagues and students across disciplinary boundaries at UCSB. Candidates must have demonstrated excellence in teaching and will be expected to teach a range of graduate and undergraduate courses in phonetics, phonology, and general linguistics and to contribute to the department’s undergraduate minor in Language and Speech Technologies. For more information on the department, see www.linguistics.ucsb.edu.

A Ph.D. in linguistics or a related field is expected by the time of appointment. To ensure full consideration, all application materials, including letters of reference, should be received by November 6, 2015. The position will remain open until filled. Applicants must complete the online form at https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/apply/JPF00566and must submit online the following in PDF format: letter of application, statement of research interests, curriculum vitae, and 2 writing samples. Applicants should request at least 3 academic letters of reference to be sent directly to https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/apply/JPF00566 by the November 6 deadline. Materials submitted via fax or hard copy will not be accepted. Inquiries may be addressed to the Search Committee at Phoneticssearch@linguistics.ucsb.edu.

Applicants selected for an interview will have the option of either a Skype video interview with the search committee or an in-person interview at the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting in Washington, D.C. (January 7-10, 2016); interviews in either format will be considered equivalent. Our department has a genuine commitment to diversity, and is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching and service. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

LEARN MORE

More information about this recruitment: http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu

SpectroLunch this Friday

The second meeting of the weekly SpectroLunch meets this Friday at 11am in N400. SpectroLunch is a venue in which participants practice spectrogram reading and WHISC has learned that this week’s meeting will feature “Peggy’s Animals pt. 2.” 

Sound Workshop on Mondays

John Kingston writes:

Sound Workshop will meet Mondays 11:15-12:05 in N451, starting this Monday, September 14.

Call for papers: LabPhon 15

Cornell University is hosting the fifteenth meeting of LabPhon July 13-16, 2016. The call for abstracts for 20 minute talks, as well as posters, can be found here. This year’s themes are: Perceptual dynamics, Prosodic organization, Lexical dynamics and memory, Phonological acquisition and changes over the lifespan, and social network dynamics.

Two page abstracts are due on December 1.  You can learn more about the conference here.

Sang-Im Lee-Kim at Haskins

Sang-Im Lee-Kim will be giving a talk on May 28th at the Haskins Lunch Talk Series, entitled “The role of static vs dynamic cues in vowel transitions: the case of sibilant place contrast."

LabPhon 15

Abby Cohn and Sam Tilsen write:

We are pleased to announce that the 15th Conference on LaboratoryPhonology (LabPhon 15) will be held at Cornell University in Ithaca,NY, in 2016. The overall theme of LabPhon 15 is "Speech Dynamics andPhonological Representation”.

Title: LabPhon 15 - The 15th Conference on Laboratory Phonology

Date: July 13-16, 2016

Place: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY USA

Save the Date

Phonological representations are dynamic, shaped by forces on diverse time scales.  On the timescale of utterances, interactions between perceptual, motoric, and memory-related processes provide constraints on phonological representations. These same processes, embedded in learning systems and dynamic social networks, shape representations on developmental and life-span timescales, and in turn influence sound systems on historical timescales. Laboratory phonology, through its rich quantitative and experimental methodologies, contributes to our understanding of phonological systems by providing insight into the mechanisms from which representations emerge.

Conference themes:

Production dynamics: How are representations constructed andimplemented in speech, and what does articulation reveal about thedynamics of production mechanisms? How do these mechanisms shape representations on longer timescales?

Perceptual dynamics: What forms of perceptual representation dospeaker-hearers use and what are the temporal dynamics of perception? How does the interaction between perception and production constrain phonological systems on life-span and diachronic timescales?

Prosodic organization: What are the mechanisms of prosodicorganization and how do they give rise to cross-linguistic differences? What are the connections between perception and production of prosodic structure?

Lexical dynamics and memory: How do experience and lexical memoryinfluence phonological representations? What are the relations between lexical representation, production, and perception across diverse time scales?

Phonological acquisition and changes over the life-span: What is the nature of early representations and how do they change? How does learning a second-language interact with existing representations?

Social network dynamics: How does the structure of social networks influence phonological representations on diverse timescales? What are the roles of perception and production in relation to social network dynamics?

Contributions to any of these themes or to any other aspects oflaboratory phonology will be welcome. A call for papers will be circulated in the fall of 2015.

Questions can be addressed to LabPhon15@cornell.eduUpdates will appear on http://labphon.org/labphon15

Sang-Im at Yale

Sang-Im Lee-Kim gave a talk at the Yale Phonology group last Friday, March 6. The title of her talk was “Neutralization vs. enhancement in sibilant place contrasts: Evidence from phonetic cues and formal bias.” 

Spectrolunch

Deniz Ozyildiz writes:

Our Spectrogram reading lunch last week was a success, and we have decided to meet every week - so that's Wednesdays at 1:35. We will also be meeting in N400 starting next week (LARC having been moved somewhere else).

We have a bunch of recordings and we apparently work very slowly, so there is actually no "need" for more. But of course, if you would like to share something fun, interesting etc. please feel free to do so.

Gillian Gallagher at Sound Workshop

Gillian Gallagher will be present at the Sound Workshop this Friday, February 20. The Workshop will focus on her two papers "An identity bias in phonotactics: Evidence from Cochabamba Quechua,” and "Asymmetries in the representation of categorical phonotactics."

Have a Spectrogram for Lunch

Deniz Ozylidz writes:

A bunch of us are organizing a roughly weekly spectrogram reading lunch. If you're interested, please join us this Wednesday, the 18th at 1:35PM. 

I will try to book the conference room as the projector and the whiteboard are in an ideal configuration. But this is subject to change.

We will go over organizational details, set up a schedule and Leland and/or I will bring recordings to work on. Feel free to come with something yourselves!

Call for papers: International Conference on Prominence in Language

Date: 15-Jun-2015 - 17-Jun-2015
Location: Cologne, Germany
Contact Person: Jakob Egetenmeyer
Meeting Email: prominence.conference@gmail.com
Web Site: http://prominence-conference.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/

Linguistic Field(s): Phonetics; Phonology; Pragmatics; Semantics; Syntax

Call Deadline: 01-Mar-2015

Meeting Description:

Prominence relations establish a ranking between linguistic units, such as prosodic units, arguments of a verb and discourse referents. Prominence is therefore one of the key notions in language and communication: it accounts for prosodic highlighting and the building of linguistic structure and discourse representations. Accordingly, the study of prominence requires an interdisciplinary linguistic approach, involving phonology and phonetics, syntax, semantics and discourse pragmatics. Our conference aims to foster the understanding of the notion of prominence.

The conference will feature plenary talks in the fields of phonetics-phonology, morphosyntax-semantics and discourse by three keynote speakers:

Sónia Frota (Universidade de Lisboa)
Manfred Krifka (ZAS/Humboldt Universität)
Hannah Rohde (University of Edinburgh)

Hosted by the Cologne Center of Language Sciences (CCLS), the conference will take place on the University of Cologne campus from 15 to 17 June 2015. The event is sponsored by the Emerging Group “Dynamic Structuring in Language and Communication” (DSLC), funded by the Institutional Strategy of the University of Cologne (ZUK 81/1).

Organizing Host:

Christiane Bongartz  (chair; CCLS, University of Cologne)

Organizing Committee:

Jakob Egetenmeyer (CCLS, Universität zu Köln)
Jacopo Torregrossa (DSLC, Universität zu Köln)

Convenors:

Martin Becker (Romanistik, Universität zu Köln)
Christiane Bongartz (Anglistik, Universität zu Köln)
Martine Grice (IfL-Phonetik, Universität zu Köln)
Klaus von Heusinger (IDSL, Universität zu Köln)
Nikolaus Himmelmann (IfL, Universität zu Köln)
Beatrice Primus (IDSL, Universität zu Köln)

Call for Papers:

We invite contributions employing quantitative and qualitative research methods, a synchronic or diachronic perspective, as well as psycho- and neuro-linguistic approaches.

A (non-exhaustive) list of topics to be addressed may include the following:

i) The encoding of prominence at the phonetics-phonology interface
ii) Language-specific and universal prominence scales (animacy scale, referentiality scale, thematic role hierarchy, topic scales, etc.)
iii) Factors determining the ranking of entities in discourse (e.g., accessibility, salience, activation, topicality)
iv) Psycho- and neuro-linguistic underpinnings of prominence relations

We ask for the submission of abstracts for oral presentations and posters on prominence-related phenomena by March 1, 2015. Submissions are limited to a maximum of one individual and one joint abstract per author or two joint abstracts per author. Abstracts should be written in English and not exceed 500 words. Figures, examples and references might be additionally included, but abstracts must not exceed two A4 pages. Please use Times New Roman, 12pt font, single line spacing, and 2.5cm margins. Abstracts should be submitted via EasyChair at the following address:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icpl2015

Important Dates:

March 1, 2015: Submission of abstracts
April 1, 2015: Notification of acceptance
April 30, 2015: Registration open
June 15-17, 2015: Conference

2015 P Events

Meghan Armstrong writes:

The link below provides a nice list of phonetics and phonology events  this year:

https://medium.com/@PhoneticsWeekly/top-phonetic-events-in-2015-da6624ef65d4

Kristine Yu in print

Congratulations to Kristine Yu, whose paper “The experimental state of mind in elicitation: illustrations from tonal fieldwork” has appeared in the volume, How To Study a Tone Language, edited by Steven Bird and Larry Hyman.

Sang-Im Lee-Kim appears in the Journal of the International Phonetic Association

Sang-Im Lee-Kim’s article "Revisiting Mandarin “apical vowels”: An articulatory and acoustic study" has appeared in the latest volume of the Journal of the International Phonetic Association. Go here for more information.

Spring courses by Caren Rotello

John Kingston writes:

Caren Rotello told me that she'll be offering an 891 (grad seminar) on signal detection theory in the spring semester.  It'll meet M and W 2:30-3:45.  (Her Bayesian class meets M and  W 4-5:15.)

She will likely  teach from Macmillan & Creelman Detection Theory: A User's Guide (2005, 2nd edition), supplemented with readings from the literature to  show applications, etc. This is a relatively rare opportunity that you shouldn't miss if detection theory is a tool/way of thinking you're likely to use/need  in your work (nor for that matter is her Bayesian statistics class!).