Weekly Digest, 2/3/23

We made it through January! See below for the many things happening in our department this month.

If you have news to share, please submit your news for future issues of SCling Wrap, cause we need your help keeping up with what’s ✨fresh✨ at USC Linguistics.

Colloquium Feb. 6 Robin Karlin

Please join us on Monday, Feb. 6 at 3:30pm for a colloquium talk by Robin Karlin (UW Madison).

Title: Interactions between general motor functions and linguistic knowledge in speech timing

Abstract:The accurate timing of speech movements is a crucial component of natural-sounding and intelligible speech. However, speech timing remains relatively understudied, leading to gaps in our understanding of how temporal symptoms arise in motor speech disorders. In this talk, I will present ongoing work from the SMAC Lab that examines how speech timing is the result of the relationship between general motor functions and language-specific knowledge. In the first study, we use altered auditory feedback to probe speech motor adaptation in the duration of consonants. Speakers show more speech motor adaptation when perceived errors cross phonological category boundaries, indicating that linguistic structures impose priorities on the motor control system. In the second study, we investigate the use of feedforward and feedback mechanisms in the timing of gestural initiation. Preliminary results indicate that speakers use feedback to guide gestural initiation regardless of syllable structure. In the last study, we investigate the relationship between speech timing and non-speech timing in both production and perception. Preliminary data suggests that the same neurological mechanisms are used in speech and non-speech timing, but speech production is affected by mechanisms of motor control that are not specifically temporal.

Look Who’s Talking 🗣

• Several USC Linguists gave talks at the 5th California Annual Meeting on Psycholinguistics (CAMP), held Jan. 28 & 29 at UCLA:

  • Jun Lyu and Jiwon Yun (Stony Brook) on “Processing resumptive pronouns in complex NP island: An eye-tracking study”

  • Muxuan He and Elsi Kaiser on “Not too surprising, not too boring? Effects of likelihood on the real-time processing of English”

  • Jina Song and Elsi Kaiser on “Interpreting multiple pronouns in English: Evidence from webcam-based eye-tracking”

  • Linh Pham, Thuy Bui (VinU), Alexander Göbel (Princeton), and Elsi Kaiser on “Anaphora resolution in Vietnamese: On the effects of person feature constraints on the interpretation of reflexive ‘mình’”

  • Esra Eldem on “Morphological Decomposition in Heritage Turkish Speakers in the U.S.: Evidence from a Masked Priming Experiment”

USC Psycholinguists are happy CAMPers

Graduate students and faculty had a wonderful time this weekend at the 5th California Annual Meeting on Psycholinguistics (CAMP). Thank you to UCLA for hosting a great conference, complete with nostalgic camp-themed snacks and poster sessions re-branded as “CAMPfires”.

Upcoming Events

Upcoming departmental colloquia

There are several colloquia coming up in the department this month. Please mark your calendars for the following dates, and be on the lookout for details via email:

• Thursday, Feb. 9 at 3:30pm

• Thursday, Feb. 16 at 3:30pm

• Thursday, Feb. 23 at 3:30pm

• Monday, Feb. 27 at 3:30pm

• Thursday, Mar. 2 at 3:30pm

Department Events

• PhonLunch: no meeting next week

• Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 9:30am @ Psycholing Lab: Hailin Hao on “Effects of Plausibility on Agreement Attraction”

• Friday, Feb. 10 at 1:30pm @ S-Side Story: paper discussion, details sent via email

• MeaningLab: no meeting next week