News

Hannah Sande published an article "Is grammatical tone item-based or process-based?" in Phonology: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675723000106.

Gašper Beguš gave a virtual invited hall titled Modeling language from raw speech with GANs” at the CHAI: Chat about AI colloquium at the School of Data Science and AI, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Guwahati) on September 13, 2023.

Two (former) Berkeley affiliates presented at the International Conference on Historical Linguistics at Heidelberg University. Johanna Nichols presented on "Reconstructing prehistoric sociolinguistics from modern grammatical evidence" and Anna Berge (PhD 1997, now a professor at the University of

The 2023-2024 colloquium series begins on Monday, September 18, with a talk by Wesley Y. Leonard (UC Riverside), rescheduled from last fall. The talk will take place in Dwinelle 370 and synchronously via Zoom (passcode: lxcolloq) from 3:10-5pm. The title of the talk is "Engaging Native American Protocols for Decolonizing Linguistics Pedagogy," and the abstract is as follows:

Although there is an increasing focus on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in the field of Linguistics, members of Native American and other Indigenous communities remain underrepresented—and often report feeling unwelcome. A recurring concern is that Linguistics, despite a strong disciplinary interest in Indigenous languages, is not accountable to Indigenous histories, protocols, and ways of experiencing language. A wider issue is that colonization is endemic, and academic norms (including whose worldviews guide curriculum) have developed accordingly. For both points, a question emerges about what linguists can or should do in response.

In this colloquium, I examine this question through the norms of how Linguistics is or could be taught, focusing in particular on introductory courses—those in which students are most likely to learn about the field for the first time—and how these courses can engage Native American worldviews and protocols, such as a focus on relationships (relationality) and protocols of honoring those relationships (relational accountability). I argue that doing so when framing core concepts, selecting and presenting examples, and discussing social issues such as language endangerment, naturally supports JEDI for members of Native American and other Indigenous communities, while also improving linguistics pedagogy in general.

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

• SSCircle - Friday, Sep 8 - Dwinelle 1303 - 3-4pm: Giovanni Roversi (MIT): "Binding and anti-cataphora in Äiwoo"
• Phorum - Friday, Sep 8 - Dwinelle 1303 - 4-5pm: Maksymilian Dąbkowski (UC Berkeley): Phasal strength in A'ingae classifying subordination
• SLaB - Tuesday, Sep 12 - Dwinelle 5125 - 3:30-4:30pm: SocioSkillShare: R and Qualitative Data Analysis
• Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday Sep 13 - Dwinelle 1303 and Zoom (password: fforum) - 3:10-4:30pm: Kate Lindsey (Boston University): A speaker-focused grammar of Ende, a language of Papua New Guinea
• SSCircle - Friday, Sep 15 - Dwinelle 1303 - 3-4pm: Anastasia Tsilia (MIT) "Effects of iconicity and monotonicity on licensing complement anaphora"
• Phorum - Friday, Sep 15 - Dwinelle 1303 - 4-5pm: Katherine Russell (UC Berkeley): Morpheme-specific nasalization in Atchan