Lunchtime Colloquium with Dr. John Alderete on Wednesday 24 October

We are pleased to announce that Dr. John Alderete will be visiting the School on Wednesday 24 October to give a talk about his research.

John Alderete is Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Simon Fraser University. His research combines computational modeling, insights from linguistic and psycholinguistic theory, and Big Data from the world’s languages to probe the nature of language production processes.

We look forward to hearing all about it!

WHEN: Wednesday 24 October, 12:35-13:20

WHERE: Friedman Room 355

TITLE: Speech errors and phonological patterns: Integrating insights from psycholinguistic and linguistic theory

ABSTRACT: When examining speech errors in large collections, phonological patterns emerge. Speech errors are shaped by phonotactic constraints, cross-linguistic markedness, the frequencies of sounds and words, and other patterns stemming from concrete phonological representations. While insights from both linguistic theory and psycholinguistic models have been brought to bear on these patterns, research on phonological patterning in speech errors rarely attempts to compare and contrast analyses from these different perspectives, much less integrate them as a coherent whole. This talk investigates the phonological patterns in the SFU Speech Error Database (SFUSED) with the goal of combining processing and linguistic assumptions in an integrated model of speech production. In particular, it examines the impact of language particular phonotactics on speech errors, competing explanations from markedness and frequency, and the role of linguistic representations for syllables and tone. The empirical findings support a model that includes both production processing impacted by frequency and explicit representations of tone and syllables from phonological theory.

We look forward to seeing you there!

UPDATE: For anyone who missed John’s talk, you can now watch it online