Awesomeness | Big events | Newly published | Talks and events | Deadlines | Festivities
Please send information and news of departmental interest to Andrew Garrett.
Awesomeness
Recent graduate Melinda Fricke (PhD 2013) has accepted a position at the University of Pittsburgh as an Assistant Professor of Linguistics. Congratulations, Melinda!
Big events
The 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 47) is ongoing at Berkeley through tomorrow, March 26. The full program is here.
Next week, Prof. Dr. phil. Tom Güldemann (Berlin and Jena) will give three lectures on historical and areal linguistics and typology:
- M March 28, 3 pm: "How to become a Macro-Sudan belt language: The Gulf-of-Guinea creole (GGC) case" (colloquium)
- Tu March 29, 11 am: "Synthetic morphology in Niger Congo and Bantu: Addressing a historical-comparative problem" (Lx 230, all welcome)
- W March 30, 4 pm: "What gender systems? Agreement classes vs. noun form classes in Niger-Congo with particular reference to Ghana-Togo-Mountain languages" (*dhworom)
All are welcome!
Newly published
Connie Cheung, Liberty S. Hamiton, Keith Johnson, and Edward F Chang, "The auditory representation of speech sounds in human motor cortex", eLife 2016;5:e12577 (DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.12577)
- Abstract: "In humans, listening to speech evokes neural responses in the motor cortex. This has been controversially interpreted as evidence that speech sounds are processed as articulatory gestures. However, it is unclear what information is actually encoded by such neural activity. We used high-density direct human cortical recordings while participants spoke and listened to speech sounds. Motor cortex neural patterns during listening were substantially different than during articulation of the same sounds. During listening, we observed neural activity in the superior and inferior regions of ventral motor cortex. During speaking, responses were distributed throughout somatotopic representations of speech articulators in motor cortex. The structure of responses in motor cortex during listening was organized along acoustic features similar to auditory cortex, rather than along articulatory features as during speaking. Motor cortex does not contain articulatory representations of perceived actions in speech, but rather, represents auditory vocal information."
Talks and events
- Monday, March 28
- 12–1: Will Bennett (Rhodes University, South Africa), TBA (Phonetics and Phonology Forum, 1303 Dwinelle)
- 1–2:30: Vera Feinberg (Berkeley), "The Frame Semantics of 'Communication_Manner' in English and German" (CogNetwork, 1303 Dwinelle)
- 2–3: SPREAD (Sociophonetic Research Exchange and Discussion, 52 Dwinelle)
- 3–4:30: Tom Güldemann (Berlin and Jena), "How to become a Macro-Sudan belt language: The Gulf-of-Guinea creole (GGC) case" (Linguistics Colloquium, 370 Dwinelle)
- Tuesday, March 29
- 11–12:30: Tom Güldemann (Berlin and Jena), "Synthetic morphology in Niger Congo and Bantu: Addressing a historical-comparative problem" (Lx 230 talk, 1229 Dwinelle)
- 12:30–2: Kenneth Baclawski, Jr. (Berkeley), "Eastern Cham Presyllable Variation" (Fieldwork Forum, 1229 Dwinelle)
- Wednesday, March 30
- 4–5:30: Tom Güldemann (Berlin and Jena), "What gender systems? Agreement classes vs. noun form classes in Niger-Congo with particular reference to Ghana-Togo-Mountain languages" (*dhworom, 1229 Dwinelle)
- 5–6: Society of Linguistics UndergraduateS (Society of Linguistics UndergraduateS, 3401 Dwinelle)
- Friday, April 1
- 3–5: Hitomi Hirayama (UC Santa Cruz), "Apparent parasitic gaps in Japanese" (Syntax and Semantics Circle, 1303 Dwinelle)
- Monday, April 4
- 3–4:30: Alice Harris (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), TBA (Linguistics Colloquium, 370 Dwinelle)
Deadlines
- NoWPhon 2: Northwest Phonetics and Phonology Conference, University of Oregon, Eugene, May 13-15
- Abstract deadline: March 28
- ICCG9: 9th International Construction Grammar Conference, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil, October 5-7
- Abstract deadline: March 31
Festivities
Next month's Inkling (our social hour) will take place on Wednesday, April 27, 3:30–5 pm. Please mark your calendars! On this occasion we will enjoy a pleasing contest concerning reasons to join the Linguistic Society of America.