Monthly Archives: December 2015

MOLT 2016: call for papers

E-mail from Lev Blumenfeld, Dec. 17, 2015

Dear phonologists,

The School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University is pleased to announce a call for papers for the Montreal-Ottawa-Laval-Toronto Phonology Workshop (MOLT). The workshop will take place on March 18th-20th. Depending on the number of submitted abstracts, we may run the workshop only on the 19th and the 20th.

Abstracts are invited on any topic relevant to phonology, phonetics, or their interfaces. Please submit anonymous abstracts in pdf format with the words “MOLT 2016” in the subject line, to lev.blumenfeld@carleton.ca. Abstracts are not to exceed 1 page, including data and references, with 1-inch margins and font no smaller than 11 points. Please submit abstracts by Friday, January 22nd, 2016, 5pm. Abstracts will be reviewed internally at Carleton, with results expected within a week of submission.

Logistical details about the workshop will follow in due course. Please address any questions to Lev Blumenfeld (lev.blumenfeld@carleton.ca).

Hope to see you at MOLT!

Best,
Lev

C’est avec plaisir que l’école de linguistique et d’études langagières (SLaLS) lance un appel de propositions pour l’atelier de phonologie MOLT (Montréal-Ottawa-Laval-Toronto). L’atelier est prévu du 18 au 20 mars 2016. Toutefois, selon le nombre de résumés soumis, il est possible que l’atelier ait lieu seulement les 19 et 20 mars.

Nous invitons les participants potentiels à soumettre des résumés portant sur tout sujet en phonologie, en phonétique ou concernant leurs interfaces. Les résumés doivent être soumis par courriel en format pdf, avec les mots “MOLT 2016” dans le titre du message, à lev.blumenfeld@carleton.ca. Les résumés ne doivent pas dépasser 1 page, y compris les références et les exemples, avec des marges de 1 pouce et une taille de caractère d’au moins 11pt. La date limite pour soumettre un résumé est le vendredi 22 janvier 2016, 17h00. Les résumés seront évalués à Carleton. L’annonce des résultats sera faite une semaine après la date limite.

Les détails logistiques sur MOLT vous parviendront plus tard. Veuillez vous adresser à Lev Blumenfeld (lev.blumenfeld@carleton.ca) si vous avez des questions.

Au plaisir de vous voir,

Lev

Shih and Zuraw 2015: Phonological conditions on variable adjective-noun word order in Tagalog

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From Stephanie Shih, public discussion in comments below welcome

Shih, Stephanie and Kie Zuraw. 2015. Phonological conditions on variable adjective-noun word order in Tagalog. Ms, UC Merced and UCLA. (Submitted/Under review).

Abstract. Tagalog adjectives and nouns variably occur in two word orders, separated by an intermediary linker: adjective-linker-noun versus noun-linker-adjective. The linker has two phonologically-conditioned surface forms (–ng and na). This paper presents a large-scale, web-based corpus study of adjective/noun order variation in Tagalog, focusing in particular on phonological conditions. Results show that word order variation in adjective-noun pairs optimizes for phonological structure, abiding by phonotactic, syllabic, and morphophonological well-formedness preferences that are also found elsewhere in Tagalog grammar. The results indicate that surface phonological information is accessible for word order choice.

Moreton, Pater, Pertsova 2015: Phonological concept learning

The authors welcome public discussion in comments below.

Moreton, Elliott, Joe Pater and Katya Pertsova. 2015. Phonological concept learning. Cognitive Science. 1-66. DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12319

Abstract. Linguistic and non-linguistic pattern learning have been studied separately, but we argue for a comparative approach. Analogous inductive problems arise in phonological and visual pattern learning. Evidence from three experiments shows that human learners can solve them in analogous ways, and that human performance in both cases can be captured by the same models. We test GMECCS (Gradual Maximum Entropy with a Conjunctive Constraint Schema), an implementation of the Configural Cue Model (Gluck & Bower, 1988a) in a Maximum Entropy phonotactic-learning framework (Goldwater & Johnson, 2003; Hayes & Wilson, 2008) with a single free parameter, against the alternative hypothesis that learners seek featurally simple algebraic rules (“rule-seeking”). We study the full typology of patterns introduced by Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (1961) (“SHJ”), instantiated as both phonotactic patterns and visual analogs, using unsupervised training. Unlike SHJ, Experiments 1 and 2 found that both phonotactic and visual patterns that depended on fewer features could be more difficult than those that depended on more features, as predicted by GMECCS but not by rule-seeking. GMECCS also correctly predicted performance differences between stimulus subclasses within each pattern. A third experiment tried supervised training (which can facilitate rule-seeking in visual learning) to elicit simple rule-seeking phonotactic learning, but cue-based behavior persisted. We conclude that similar cue-based cognitive processes are available for phonological and visual concept learning, and hence that studying either kind of learning can lead to significant insights about the other.

@article{MoretonEtAl2015,
Author = {Elliott Moreton and Joe Pater and Katya Pertsova},
Journal = {Cognitive Science},
Pages = {1-66},
Title = {Phonological concept learning},
Year = {2015}}

Glossa is the new Lingua

E-mail from Guido Vanden Wyngaerd, Dec. 16, 2015

Dear colleagues,

With this message we want to inform you of the transition of the journal
formerly known as Lingua to the new journal Glossa, which will be published
under conditions of Fair Open Access with no charges for authors or readers.

As you may have heard, the Lingua editorial team (Executive editor Johan
Rooryck; Associate Editors Chung-hye Han, Anikó Lipták, Anne-Michelle
Tessier, Ianthi Tsimpli; and Advisory Editor Neil Smith) have resigned from
Lingua in October, with the entire 31-strong editorial board following suit.
This was the result of Elsevier’s refusal to renegotiate its collaboration
with the editors along the lines of Fair Open Access.

Today we are proud to announce the birth of Glossa: a journal of General
Linguistics. Glossa is a journal run for and by linguists. Its scientific
content will be freely available for readers worldwide. The costs charged by
the publisher (Ubiquity Press) to the authors are low, and will be paid for
by the Linguistics in Open Access (LingOA) foundation (see www.lingoa.eu for
details, and for links to press coverage of the Lingua -> Glossa move).

Glossa is now open and accepting submissions: please consult the journal’s
website (glossa-journal.org) for more details. As of January 1, 2016, Glossa
will be run by the same editorial board and editorial team that made Lingua
into one of the leading journals in the field. This will ensure that Glossa
will have the same high quality standards that Lingua had.

We look forward to hearing from you at Glossa!

Best wishes,

Waltraud Paul and Guido Vanden Wyngaerd
Interim editors of Glossa until 31 December 2015
________________________________________________________________________
Glossa: a Journal of General Linguistics
http://www.glossa-journal.org

Preliminary call: Twenty-Fourth Manchester Phonology Meeting

E-mail from Patrick Honeybone to the mfm list

PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PAPERS

Twenty-Fourth Manchester Phonology Meeting

26-28 MAY 2016

Deadline for abstracts: February 2016 [Precise date to be confirmed]

Special session: ‘Evidence in phonology’, featuring speakers to be confirmed

To be held at Hulme Hall, Manchester, England. Organised through a collaboration of phonologists at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Manchester, and elsewhere.

Conference website: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/mfm/24mfm.html

You might also be interested in the mfm FRINGE workshop entitled ‘Computation and learnability in phonological theory’ (organised by Jeffrey Heinz and Giorgio Magri), which is not part of the mfm, but is timed to fit around it, on Wednesday 25th May: https://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-5133.html

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BACKGROUND

We are pleased to announce the preliminary plans for the Twenty-Fourth Manchester Phonology Meeting (24mfm). The mfm is the UK’s annual phonology conference, with an international set of organisers. It is held in late May every year in Manchester (central in the UK, and with excellent international transport connections). The meeting has become a key conference for phonologists from all over the world, where anyone who declares themselves to be interested in phonology can submit an abstract on anything phonological in any phonological framework. In an informal atmosphere, we discuss a broad range of topics, including the phonological description of languages, issues in phonological theory, aspects of phonological acquisition and implications of phonological change.

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SPECIAL SESSION

There is no conference theme – abstracts can be submitted on anything, but a special themed session is being organised for Friday afternoon, with the title ‘Evidence in phonology’. This will feature invited speakers and will conclude in an open discussion session when contributions from the audience will be very welcome. We aim to provide an opportunity for our invited speakers and audience to reflect on the status of the various types of data that have been used in phonological argumentation, in the light of both recent developments and classic concerns. [More details to follow soon.]

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ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Details to follow: a full call for papers, with information about the invited speakers and about how to submit abstracts, will be issued soon.

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ORGANISERS

Organising Committee:

The first named is the convenor and main organiser, If you have any queries about the conference, feel free to get in touch (patrick.honeybone@ed.ac.uk).
* Patrick Honeybone (Edinburgh)
* Ricardo Bermudez-Otero (Manchester)
* Yuni Kim (Manchester)

Advisory Board:
* Adam Albright (MIT)
* Jill Beckman (Iowa)
* Paul Boersma (Amsterdam)
* Bert Botma (Leiden)
* Mike Davenport (Durham)
* Stuart Davis (Indiana)
* Laura J. Downing (Gothenburg)
* Silke Hamann (Amsterdam)
* S.J. Hannahs (Newcastle upon Tyne)
* Kristine A. Hildebrandt (Southern Illinois)
* Martin Kramer (Tromso)
* Nancy Kula (Essex)
* Aditi Lahiri (Oxford)
* Nabila Louriz (Hassan II, Casablanca)
* Joan Mascaro (UAB)
* Kuniya Nasukawa (Tohoku Gakuin)
* Marc van Oostendorp (Meertens & Leiden)
* Tobias Scheer (Nice)
* James M. Scobbie (QMU)
* Jennifer L. Smith (UNC)
* Patrycja Strycharczuk (QMU)
* Nina Topintzi (Thessaloniki)
* Jochen Trommer (Leipzig)
* Christian Uffmann (Duesseldorf)
* Sophie Wauquier (Paris 8)

Treasurer
* Michael Ramsammy (Edinburgh)