Rene’ Kager, Joe Pater and Andries Coetzee guest edited a volume of “Phonology” (Volume 26(1), 2009). The theme for the volume is “Phonological Models and Experimental Data”.  I had two contributions in the volume: (i) The introduction with Pater and Kager. (ii) And a single-authored research paper with the title “Learning lexical indexation”.

Here is a link to the TOC of the volume:

Abstract of Andries’ paper: Learning lexical indexation.
Morphological concatenation often triggers phonological processes. For instance, addition of the plural suffix /-en/ to Dutch nouns causes
vowel lengthening in some nouns due to the stress-to-weight principle ([xat] vs. [xa:ten] ‘hole’). These kinds of processes often apply only
to a subset of words – not all Dutch nouns undergo this process ([kat] vs. [katen] ‘cat’). Nouns need to be lexically indexed as either undergoing this process or not. I investigate how phonological grammar and lexical indexation are learned when learners are confronted with data like these. Based on learnability considerations, I hypothesise that learners acquire a grammar with default non-alternation, so that novel items are treated as non-alternating. I report the results of artificial language learning experiments compatible with this hypothesis, and model these results in a version of the Biased Constraint Demotion algorithm (Prince & Tesar 2004).

Andries Coetzee delivered the keynote address, entitled “An integrated grammatical/non-grammatical model of phonological variation,” in June at the “2009 Seoul International Conference in Linguistic Interfaces“.

Andries also gave an invited talk at the “2009 International Phonology and Phonetics Forum” in Kobe, Japan in August. The title of
his talk was “Gradient well-formedness in Harmonic Grammar: on the interaction of grammar and frequency.”

Pictured below: Andries, Mirjam Broersma, Maki Aoyagi, Shin-ichi Tanaka.

Alan Mishler has received the highly competitive Marshall Sahlins Social Science award from the Honors College. The Marshall Sahlins award is part of the Goldstein Honors prizes, a set of prizes estalished to recognize scholarly excellence and outstanding achievement.

Alan received the prize based on his many academic strengths as well as his service and leadership on campus.

Alan’s thesis, Voice Onset Time in Japanese Voiceless Stops: Domain-initial Strengthening and Perceptual Salience,  is an acoustic and perceptual investigation of domain-initial strengthening in Japanese. The goal of the acoustic study was to determine whether a set of Japanese consonants exhibited domain-initial—in particular, word-initial—strengthening. It did, which led to the perceptual study, whose goal was to assess whether native Japanese speaking listeners could use the acoustic consequences of strengthening to identify word onset. The perceptual study addresses whether strengthening is perceptually useful.

Congratulations, Alan!

Michael Marlo (Ph.D.  2007) has been offered a position as research scientist in African languages and Pashto at the Center for the Advanced Study of Language at the University of Maryland.

Shortly before he received the offer, Michael and his wife welcomed Jayden Marlo to the world.

Many congrats Mike and Jacinta

Andries Coetzee  taught a course on “Variation in gradience in phonology” at the 19th Linguistics Institute of the Associação Brasileira de Lingüística (abbreviated as ABRALIN, “Brazilian Association of Linguistics”) at the UFPB ( Universidade Federal da Paraíba, “Federal University of Paraiba”) in João Pessoa,  March 2-4.

From Andries

The class was attended by about 30 people, both graduate students and professors. There was a good mix in the class of phonologists and sociolinguists of the variationist ilk, which made for very interesting and productive in class discussions. I was pleasantly surprised to see how active the phonology research community is in Brazil, and I have learned a lot from my interactions
with both faculty and students in the class.

Andries Coetzee  presented a keynote address at the VI Congresso Internacional da ABRALIN (6th International Congress of ABRALIN) entitled”Grammar and non-grammar: an integrated model of phonological variation”.

In the talk, he develops an Harmonic Grammar model of phonological variation that simultaneously allows for grammatical and non-grammatical factors to impact variation. Over 3000 people from all over Brazil attended the conference, and it therefore felt like attending the LSA Annual Meeting.

San Duanmu presented “Syllabification and the Weight-Stress Principle” at the CUNY Conference on the Foot, City University of New York, New York

Abstract available in .pdf

View the slides or  Listen to the presentation

San Duanmu has published The “spotty-data problem” and boundaries of grammar. In Interfaces in Chinese Phonology: Festschrift in Honor of Matthew Y. Chen on his 70th Birthday, ed. Yuchau E. Hsiao, Hui-Chuan Hsu, Lian-Hee Wee, and Dah-an Ho, 261-278. Taipei: Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica.

Miyeon Ahn’s Qualifying Research Paper, Experimental Investigation of Consonant Cluster Simplification, has been approved by its readers and Miyeon is now advanced to Doctoral Candidacy.

Congratulations, Miyeon!

Abstract: In linguistic phenomena that allow phonological variation,
one variant is often preferred to the others. Traditionally, it has
been argued that the preference depends, amongst other things, on
perceptual knowledge and this argument has led to theories that
incorporate perceptibility in the grammar. The purpose of this study
is to investigate the factors that are involved in phonological
variation. Based on experimental evidence involving consonant cluster
simplification in Korean, I argue that language users consider
information about morphology, frequency and the OCP as well as about
perceptibility and that they apply the integrated information to
consonant cluster resolution.

Three UM linguists will present papers at the 14th Annual Mid-Continental Workshop on Phonology being held Oct. 17-19 at the University of Minnesota.

Kevin McGowan is presenting “Gradient lexical frequency reflexes of the Syllable Contact Law.”

San Duanmu and Xinting Zhang are presenting “The phonetics and phonology of vowel duration in Hungarian”