Extra Colloquium: Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
Wednesday, May 8, 2019, 2:45-4pm
365 Fifth Ave. Room 7102

Loan-word adaptation in Palestinian Arabic and Hebrew

Lior Laks/Bar-Ilan University

This talk will examine language contact in Palestinian Arabic (PA) and Hebrew.  I will examine cases in which the two languages borrow English words and apply different types of strategies of morphological adaptation.

Focus is on two main case studies:

(i) the formation of denominative verbs and the competition between verbal patterns (e.g. PA fannaš ‘finished’, tnarfaz ‘became nervous’ and Hebrew fikses ‘faxed’);

(ii)  pluralization of loan nouns in PA and the competition  between sound plural (e.g.  faks-faksa:t ‘fax’),  broken plural  (folder-fala:dir ‘folder’)  and cases where both plural forms exists (ballo:n-ballo:na:t/balali:n ‘balloon’).

In the talk I consider the different criteria that are taken into account in selection of one formation strategy over another and will shed light on the degree of integration of loanwords. Focus will be on non-concatenative word formation and the status of the consonantal root.

Interested students and faculty are welcome to join us in the 8^th-floor cafeteria at 1pm to buy lunch and converse with Profs. Laks and Obler.

Andrew Rosenberg  (Google)
Prosody of Vocal Attractiveness

Abstract:
A speaker’s voice impacts listeners’ perceptions of its owner, leading to inference of gender, age, personality, and even height and weight. In this chapter we describe research into the qualities of speech that are deemed “attractive” by a listener. There are a number of ways that a person can be found attractive. This talk will review research into what makes speakers attractive in the political and business domains, and what vocal properties lead to perceptions of trust. I will then describe research into “likeability” and romantic attraction. While the lexical content of a speaker’s speech is important to their attractiveness, I’ll focus this survey on prosodic qualities, those acoustic properties that describe “how” the words are said rather than “what” the words are. I will also summarize work that has investigated attraction dynamics in two-party conversations.

Thursday, March 7th, 2019, 4:15pm – 6pm, room 6417
Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave
All are welcome!
Refreshments to follow in room 7400

Love phonology? Come attend these free workshops at Princeton!

Princeton Phonology Forum

NYU Communicative Sciences and Disorders
Colloquium Announcement
February 12, 2019
665 Broadway, 9th floor Conference Room
1:45-3:15

Adeen Flinker [med.nyu.edu], PhD

NYU Langone, Department of Neurology
Intracranial electrophysiology of speech perception and production

For many decades, the neurobiological basis of language has been dominated by a conceptually dichotomous model in which speech perception is supported by Wernicke’s area in the temporal lobe and speech production is supported by Broca’s area in the frontal lobe. This model has been challenged by lesion and neuroimaging studies suggesting a more complex network of cortical structures supporting language. Many of the questions remaining in the field require a fine-grained temporal resolution together with spatial specificity in order to assay the dynamics of speech. Here I will introduce a series of studies employing direct electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings in humans, illuminating the dynamics and cascade of neural events from perception to production of speech.

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Mark your calendars for our next talks:

February 19, 1:45pm: Scott Schroeder [scottrschroeder.org], Hofstra University
Do bilingual children develop Theory of Mind faster?

March 12, 1:45pm: Suzanne van der Feest [liberalarts.utexas.edu], CUNY Grad Center
Effects of Speaking Style and Context On Young Listener’s Word Recognition

April 2, 1:45pm: Eric Jackson [wp.nyu.edu], NYU
Stuttering and the Social Brain

April 16, 1:45pm: Susan Duncan [sites01.lsu.edu], Louisiana State University
Resting state fMRI in aphasia: Relationship to task and recovery
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GC CUNY Linguistics Colloquium

Charles Yang  University of Pennsylvania

The Linguistic Basis of Natural Number

Abstract: Only humans learn language and only humans develop the concept of natural number: How are these two abilities related? I propose that the Successor Function, which provides the infinity of natural numbers, becomes available to children through learning the productive rules of numeral formation in their native language. We tested the development of counting and the knowledge of the Successor Function by Cantonese-learning children. The simplicity of the Cantonese numeral system provides a full year of developmental advantage over English-learning children, which can be precisely characterized by a well-established principle of language learning and generalization. I will also address the inevitable Whorpfian implications of our results on the relationship between language and thought.

[This talk reports joint work with Margaret Lei and Thomas Lee at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.]

Thursday, February 7th, 2019, 4:15pm – 6pm Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Ave, room 6417

All are welcome!

Refreshments to follow in room 7400