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March 1, 2021

Berkeley linguists speak at ICLDC

A number of Berkeley affiliates and alumni are presenting at the International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation taking place from March 4 to 7, 2021 at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (online):

  • Emotion and Motivation in Language Reclamation (Ruth Rouvier)
  • Emergent multilingual identities among children learning Zapotec (Julia Nee, Rosita Jiménez Lorenzo)
  • Documenting child language in an Indigenous Amazonian community (Amalia Skilton)
  • Talk Story on Collaboration, communities, and relationship-building: Pushing the conversation forward (Badiba Olivier Agodio, Kayla Begay, Tinah Dobola, Octavio León Vázquez, Kate Lindsey, Iara Mantenuto, Jerry William Rain, Katerina Rain, Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada, Hannah Sande, Cheryl Tuttle)
  • pglex: A 'pretty good' lexical service (Ronald Sprouse, Edwin Ko, Andrew Garrett)
  • Zooming through the Pandemic with the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival (Leanne Hinton, Carly Tex)
  • Relating the past, present & future: archiving language collections (Raina Heaton, Zachary O'Hagan, Mandana Seyfeddinipur, Susan Smythe Kung, Nick Thieberger, Paul Trilsbeek)
  • Closing plenary: Language Reclamation Through Relational Language Work (Wesley Y. Leonard)

February 28, 2021

Memorial for John Ohala

A Zoom memorial event for John Ohala will be held at 8am (Pacific time) on Saturday, March 13. All are welcome to attend. Please contact Keith Johnson for the link.

In addition, if you would like to add to the remembrances page, which is now a part of John’s departmental web page, please visit this Google form. When you submit your entry on the form the text you entered will automatically appear on the remembrances page.

February 26, 2021

Linguistics events this week (Feb 26-Mar 5, 2021)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

  • Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday Mar 3 - Zoom - 3:10-4pm
    Kristina Balykova (UT Austin): Working with the last Guató speakers.
  • Language Revitalization Working Group - Wednesday Mar 3 - Zoom - 4:10-5pm
    Víctor Cata and Rosemary Beam de Azcona: Challenging the reader: la traducción de lenguas minoritarias a lenguas coloniales.
    The talk will be held bilingually in English & Spanish / Se presenta de manera bilingüe español-inglés. RSVP here.

    A collection of short stories with themes of religion and gender, Nácasinu Diidxa, first published in a bilingual Isthmus Zapotec - Spanish edition, has been translated into English. In this conversation author Víctor Cata and translator Rosemary Beam de Azcona will discuss the significance of translating from Zapotec into colonial languages.
    Una colección de relatos que exploran temas de la religión y la diversidad sexual, Nácasinu Diidxa, que primero fue publicada en una edición bilingüe diidxazá (zapoteco del Istmo) - español, ahora se ha traducido al inglés. En esta conversación el autor, Víctor Cata, y la traductora, Rosemary Beam de Azcona, hablarán sobre el significado de traducir de lenguas como el zapoteco, cuyos hablantes experimentan la discriminación, a lenguas coloniales como el español y el inglés.
  • Phorum - Friday Feb 26 - Zoom - 3-4pm
    Susannah Levi (NYU): Talker familiarity helps speech perception. Does the benefit stop there?
  • Phorum - Friday Mar 5 - Zoom - 3-4pm
    Katie Russell (UC Berkeley): TBA.
  • Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Feb 26 - Zoom - 3-4:30pm
    Hadas Kotek (MIT): Top-down derivations: Flipping syntax on its head. Joint work with Bob Frank (Yale).
  • Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Mar 5 - Zoom - 3-4:30pm
    Michael Diercks (Pomona): Bukusu object marking: At the interface of pragmatics and syntax. Joint work with Justine Sikuku (Moi University).
  • Zoom Phonology - Wednesday Mar 3 - Zoom - 11am-12pm
    Hossep Dolatian (Stony Brook): Orthography to Phonology: Constraints on the Armenian schwa.
    For the Zoom link or to be added to the Zoom Phonology mailing list, contact Karee Garvin.

February 24, 2021

Elias gives plenary talk at APLL13

Congratulations to Alexander Elias, who has been invited to give an hour-long "Early Career Researcher Plenary Talk" at the 13th International Austronesian and Papuan Languages and Linguistics Conference (APLL13) hosted remotely by the University of Edinburgh on June 10-12, 2021. The title of his talk is "Phonemic Initial Glottal Stops in the Lesser Sundas: The Emergence and Spread of an Areal Sound Pattern."

February 23, 2021

Beguš speaks at ICBS

Gašper Beguš will be giving a seminar talk at UC Berkeley's Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences on Friday, March 5, from 11:10am to 12pm. The title of his talk is "Modeling Language with Generative Adversarial Networks" and the abstract is below. Click here for more details. Congrats, Gašper!

Can we build models of language acquisition from raw acoustic data in an unsupervised manner? Can deep convolutional neural networks learn to generate speech using linguistically meaningful representations? In this talk, I will argue that language acquisition can be modeled with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and that such modeling has implications both for the understanding of language acquisition and for the understanding of how neural networks learn internal representations. I propose a technique that allows us to wug-test neural networks trained on raw speech. I further propose an extension of the GAN architecture in which learning of meaningful linguistic units emerges from a requirement that the networks output informative data. With this model, we can test what the networks can and cannot learn, how their biases match human learning biases (by comparing behavioral data with networks’ outputs), how they represent linguistic structure internally, and what GAN's innovative outputs can teach us about productivity in human language. This talk also makes a more general case for probing deep neural networks with raw speech data, as dependencies in speech are often better understood than those in the visual domain and because behavioral data on speech acquisition are relatively easily accessible.

Hyman speaks on tone in Japan

Congrats to Larry Hyman, who (virtually) gave an invited talk on "Grammatical functions of tone" to open the conference Prosody & Grammar Festa 5 held last week in Japan!

McLaughlin publishes book on the French press

Mairi McLaughlin's book La Presse française historique: Histoire d’un genre et histoire de la langue has just been published by Classiques Garnier. The book presents the results of the first major study into the history of language in the French press. It has a dual aim: to shed light on the history of the genre of journalism and to explore what the study of historical periodicals can bring to our understanding of the history of language.

Congratulations, Mairi!

February 22, 2021

Survey updates

Here's the latest from the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages:

  • Chris Beier and Lev Michael archived a new collection of materials on Andoa (also known as Katsakáti; Zaparoan, Peru). In 2009 the Berkeley team, including Ramón Escamilla (PhD 2012) and Marta Piqueras-Brunet (MA 2008), collaborated for an intensive few days primarily with speakers Juan Mucushua and María Sandi, in addition to Dionisia Arahuanaza and Lidia Arahuanaza. The collection includes sound recordings, fieldnotes, a booklet "Katsakáti: El idioma antiguo del pueblo de Andoas," photographs, and documents deriving from previous documentation of the language in the 1950s by Catherine Peeke and Mary Sargent of SIL International. These are the only known surviving sound recordings of the language.

February 19, 2021

Linguistics events this week (Feb 19-26, 2021)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

February 16, 2021

Dąbkowski speaks at CUNY 2021

Congrats to Maksymilian Dąbkowski, who will be presenting at the 34th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing (Thursday, March 4, at 3:45pm ET). The title of his talk is "Evidence of accurate logical reasoning in online sentence comprehension" and it is a collaboration with Roman Feiman.

February 15, 2021

Survey updates

Here's the latest from the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages:

  • We released a new collection of materials on Tswefap (Grassfields Bantu; Cameroon), from the 2015-2016 graduate field methods course. The consultant was Guy Tchatchouang, the instructors were Larry Hyman and Steven Bird, and students were Geoff Bacon, Andrew Cheng, Emily Clem, Ginny Dawson, Anna Jurgensen, Erik Maier, and Alice Shen.

February 12, 2021

Linguistics events this week (Feb 12-19, 2021)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

  • Language Revitalization Working Group and Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday Feb 17 - Zoom - 3:40-5pm (note special time and link)
    Presentations from some of the students in Language Revitalization in fall 2020: Ash Cornejo, Alex Chang, Irene Yi, Ellis Miller, and Sharon Marcos, who will each present about their language revitalization work, along with some time for questions and conversation.
  • Phorum - Friday Feb 12 - Zoom - 3-4pm
    Florian Lionnet (Princeton): Downstep in Paicî: between accent and tone.
  • Phorum - Thursday Feb 18 - Zoom - 6-8pm (note special date, time, and link)
    Myriam Lapierre (UC Berkeley): Practice job talk.
  • Phorum - Friday Feb 19 - Zoom - 3-4pm
    Check-in meeting facilitated by Hannah Sande: come share current and upcoming projects and get to know our newest faculty member!
  • Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Feb 12 - Zoom - 3-4:30pm
    Suzana Fong (MIT): A dependent case analysis of pseudo noun incorporation in Wolof.
  • Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Feb 19 - Zoom - 3-4:30pm
    Andrew McKenzie (Kansas): TBA.
  • Zoom Phonology - Wednesday Feb 17 - Zoom - 11am-12pm
    Gašper Beguš (UC Berkeley): Tonal wugs in Žiri Slovenian: Floating tones, vowel quality, quantity, and stress.
    For the Zoom link or to be added to the Zoom Phonology mailing list, contact Karee Garvin.

February 10, 2021

Survey updates

Here's the latest from the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages:

February 5, 2021

Nee speaks at Found in Translation working group

Julia Nee will be giving a talk at the Berkeley Language Center's Found in Translation (FIT) working group on Wednesday, February 10, 2021, from 2 to 3pm:

Using Long-Format Speech Environment Recordings to Understand the Full Range of Zapotec Learners' Language Abilities

Zoom link (Meeting ID: 961 6335 9441, Passcode: 555992)

In addition to requiring exposure to the language, one common barrier to language revitalization is the presence of an “ideology of contempt” towards a language (Dorian, 1998), and language revitalization projects will not be successful in the long run if negative language attitudes are not addressed (Dauenhauer & Dauenhauer, 1998). In Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico, ~35 children participate in Zapotec language revitalization camps for children 6-12 promoting positive Zapotec language ideologies and encouraging Zapotec use at home. This study addresses the gap in our understanding of naturalistic language use and development of language attitudes in such an endangered language context by addressing three key questions: (1) What do long-format speech environment (LFSE) recordings suggest about children's language use and attitudes in Teotitlán?; (2) How do patterns in LFSE data compare to other measures of language use?; and (3) What methodological challenges are presented in collecting LFSE data from children ages 6-12? I show that LFSE recordings provide evidence that Zapotec learners’ exposure to and abilities in Zapotec are greater than suggested by other measures, including reported language use and observations of classroom language use. Furthermore, participants’ recordings suggest that learners have acquired significant abilities in Zapotec, and that providing supportive contexts for language use can increase learner investment and result in greater Zapotec use (cf. Riestenberg & Sherris, 2018).

Linguistics events this week (Feb 5-12, 2021)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

February 2, 2021

Survey updates

Here's the latest from the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages:

  • Emily Drummond has added the first Zoom-based documentary materials in our holdings to her growing collection on Nukuoro (Polynesian-Outlier, Micronesia; see items 2019-14.129 and higher), video recordings of elicitation on grammatical topics and of work editing a phrasebook, and typed field notes.
  • Kenny Baclawski, Jr. (PhD 2019) has added some 70 new file bundles to his collection on Eastern Cham (Chamic, Vietnam; see items 2014-20.069 and higher), audio recordings and notes of grammatical and sociolinguistic elicitation conducted during fieldwork in Vietnam in 2016 and 2018.
  • We archived a new collection of sound recordings of Lulamogi (Bantu, Uganda), which derive from the fall 2013 undergraduate field methods course (Linguistics 140) taught by Larry Hyman, with language consultant Andrew Mukacha.

January 29, 2021

Linguistics events this week (Jan 29-Feb 5, 2021)

In and around the linguistics department in the next week:

January 28, 2021

New DE-ILR cohort and welcome event

Beth Piatote writes to announce a new DE cohort in Indigenous Language Revitalization and a welcome event on February 19. Congrats, all!

We are delighted to welcome a new cohort of outstanding graduate students into the Designated Emphasis in Indigenous Language Revitalization. We are especially excited about the diversity of fields represented and the dynamic growth of the DE. We welcome Emily Drummond, Linguistics, working with Nukuoro, a Polynesian-Outlier language spoken in Micronesia; Cristina Mendez, Education, working with Mam-speaking diasporic Guatemalan communities in Oakland; Everardo Reyes, Music, interested in creating music- and arts-based materials for language revitalization, with background in Raramuri and Nahuatl; Tessa Scott, Linguistics, teaching Mam as a second language in Oakland; Gabriel Trujillo, Integrative Biology, focusing on STEM-related Indigenous knowledge, particularly related to plants and environment; Oliver Whitmore, Romance Languages—French, working with Occitan, an endangered minority language of regions in France, Spain, and Italy. This group joins Julia Nee, Linguistics; Edwin Ko, Linguistics; Esther Ramer, Classics; Nate Gong, Education; Ataya Cesspooch, Environmental Studies, Policy, and Management.

We invite all to join us in a celebratory gathering to share more about our Language Revitalization goals and joys at 4 p.m. on February 19. Come and be inspired! For a link to the party contact Line Mikkelsen.

Many thanks to Belén Flores for her valuable administrative support of the DE.

Stay tuned for future DE events this spring, co-sponsored with the Language Revitalization Working Group.

— Beth Piatote on behalf of the DE Core Faculty: Line Mikkelsen, Patricia Baquedano-Lopez, Christine Beier, Lev Michael, Andrew Garrett, Leanne Hinton

January 27, 2021

Michael publishes in Annual Review of Linguistics

A new article by Lev Michael, "The classification of South American languages," has just appeared in the Annual Review of Linguistics. Congrats, Lev!

January 26, 2021

Passing of Professor Tucker Childs (PhD 1988)

Calques is saddened to report the passing of colleague and Berkeley Linguistics PhD alumnus Tucker Childs. We are forwarding the announcement sent out to students in Applied Linguistics at Portland State:

With heavy hearts, we are writing to tell you that Professor Tucker Childs passed away yesterday, January 26, 2021. As many of you know, he was admitted to the hospital at the beginning of January. Unfortunately, Tucker was not able to overcome the complications of legionella. He passed away peacefully with his wife and daughter at his side.

If you would like to offer Tucker's family your condolences or help celebrate Tucker's life by sharing a fond memory of your time with him , please visit his memorial page: https://www.inmemori.com/tchilds-u42cg

We will be in touch about memorial events for the department community soon. Even before that, please don't hesitate to reach out to each other and to faculty as we all grieve the loss of our professor, mentor, and colleague. This sad time is even harder since we can't come together physically, but we can still be a community. [...]

In lieu of sending flowers, please consider donating to the Sherbro Foundation—a non-profit dear to Tucker, which empowers rural Sierra Leone through education and agriculture development. Tucker was also a great supporter of the Nattinger Scholarship in our department. You can make a donation in his memory through the PSU Foundation.

Our hearts go out to Tucker's family and to all who knew Tucker. He will be greatly missed.

The Faculty and Staff of Applied Linguistics

Tucker Childs