Visiting Speaker: Alex Chabot

The Department of Linguistics is delighted to announce a colloquium talk by Dr. Alex Chabot from University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Chabot's research interests are in phonology, cognitive science, neurolinguistics, and philosophy of science. He will be speaking on Scientific Realisim in Phonology. Details below.

Friday, September 20

1:00-2:00

SN2036

Scientific Realism in Phonology: What You Get Is Not What You Hear

Contemporary phonology presents an array of various theories, with some common assumptions as well as many points of incommensurate divergence. Our ultimate goal is to explain why human language is the way it is, instead of being some other way. While most theories are adequate in that they can recapitulate the data collected by linguists in the field and described in grammars, if we believe that phonological theories are explanatory models of something in human brains, then we must be able to select from among them in order to develop a theory which models actual human knowledge. This enterprise is made difficult when theories do not agree on the basal components needed for descriptive and explanatory adequacy. This talk is a discussion of what kinds of properties characterize the three basic parts of a phonological theory: representations, computational operations, and interfaces between phonology and other components of the grammar.

Phonology Workshop

In conjunction with the colloquium talk by Dr. Alex Chabot, the Linguistics Department will be holding a workshop. The schedule is below. 

Linguistics Seminar Room (SN3038)

14:20 – 14:45  Shanti Ulfsbjorninn

                           Schwa, Lenition and Metathesis in Hawu: a virtual length account

14:45 – 15:15   Faris Rababa

                           Tongue Root Harmony in Urban Jordanian Arabic

15:15 – 15:45    Yvan Rose                             

                            Toward a better understanding of the nature and content of UG:                                  If it’s demonstrably learnable, let's assume it’s not innate 

15:45 – 16:15     Alex Chabot

                             Long vowels and reduced vowels at the phonetics/phonology                                       interface