Author: Hannah

Become a founding member of the Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution

There is a new society for the study of cultural evolution, who are currently recruiting a base of founding members. People interested in language evolution are encouraged to join here: https://evolution-institute.org/project/society-for-the-study-of-cultural-evolution/

They encourage the following people to become founding members:

  • Academic professionals, graduate students, and undergraduate students from any discipline relevant to cultural evolution. They especially encourage the next generation of scientists to become involved.
  • Anyone (professional or nonprofessional) who is trying to accomplish positive cultural change in the real world and who would like to base their efforts on cultural evolutionary theory.
  • Anyone (professional or nonprofessional) with an intellectual interest in cultural evolutionary theory who would like to get involved and support the newly emerging field.
  • They are especially eager for our members to come from all cultures around the world—an appropriate ideal for a Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution!

ICPhS Phonetic Evolution Meeting. Proceedings and Registration closing.

At this year’s International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Glasgow, there is a special interest satellite meeting on the evolution of phonetic capabilities. I posted a list about the program here: http://www.replicatedtypo.com/icphs-phonetic…015-in-glasgow/10675.html

This is just an update to let people know that:

A) The proceedings booklet is now available online here:

https://ai.vub.ac.be/sites/default/files/proceedingsfinal.pdf

B) The deadline for registration to the meeting is 24th June.

Registration is £10, and can be completed through the ICPhS registration page under “Registration only with no accommodation”.

If you would like to register only for this meeting, without registering for the main ICPhS conference, you can do so by emailing contact@icphs2015.info

More info can be found here: https://ai.vub.ac.be/ICPhS

For any other queries, contact hannah@ai.vub.ac.be

What the Songbird Said Radio Programme

BBC radio 4 have a new radio programme about songbirds and human language including contributions from Simon Fisher, Katie Slocombe and Johan Bolhuis, among others.

You can listen here:

http://bbc.in/1KAO2Cq

And here’s the synopsis:

Could birdsong tell us something about the evolution of human language? Language is arguably the single thing that most defines what it is to be human and unique as a species. But its origins – and its apparent sudden emergence around a hundred thousand years ago – remains mysterious and perplexing to researchers. But could something called vocal learning provide a vital clue as to how language might have evolved? The ability to learn and imitate sounds – vocal learning – is something that humans share with only a few other species, most notably, songbirds. Charles Darwin noticed this similarity as far back as 1871 in the Descent of Man and in the last couple of decades, research has uncovered a whole host of similarities in the way humans and songbirds perceive and process speech and song. But just how useful are animal models of vocal communication in understanding how human language might have evolved? Why is it that there seem to be parallels with songbirds but little evidence that our closest primate relatives, chimps and bonobos, share at least some of our linguistic abilities?

Computational Construction Grammar and Constructional Change

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Call For Participation
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Computational Construction Grammar and Constructional Change
Annual Conference of the Linguistic Society of Belgium
8 June 2015, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

http://ai.vub.ac.be/bkl-2015

After several decades in scientific purgatory, language evolution has reclaimed its place as one of the most important branches in linguistics, and it is increasingly recognised as one of the most crucial sources of evidence for understanding human cognition. This renewed interest is accompanied by exciting breakthroughs in the science of language. Historical linguists can now couple their expertise to powerful methods for retrieving and documenting which changes have taken place. At the same time, construction grammar is increasingly being embraced in all areas of linguistics as a fruitful way of making sense of all these empirical observations. Construction grammar has also enthused formal and computational linguists, who have developed sophisticated tools for exploring issues in language processing and learning, and how new forms of grammar may emerge in speech populations.

Separately, linguists and computational linguists can therefore explain which changes take place in language and how these changes are possible. When working together, however, they can also address the question of why language evolves over time and how it emerged in the first place. This year, the BKL-CBL conference therefore brings together top researchers from both fields to put evidence and methods from both perspectives on the table, and to take up the challenge of uniting these efforts.

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Invited Speakers
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The conference contains presentations by 5 different keynote speakers.
* Graeme Trousdale (University of Edinburgh)
* Luc Steels (VUB/ IBE Barcelona)
* Kristin Davidse (University of Leuven)
* Peter Petré (University of Lille)
* Arie Verhagen (University of Leiden)

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Poster Presentations
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We still accept 500-word abstracts for poster presentations. All presentations must represent original, unpublished work not currently under review elsewhere. Work presented at the conference can be selected as a contribution for a special issue of the Belgian Journal of Linguistics (Summer 2016).

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Important dates
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* Abstract Submission: 29 May 2015
* Notification of acceptance: 1 June 2015
* Conference: 8 June 2015

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Introductory tutorial on Fluid Construction Grammar
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Learn how to write your own operational grammars in Fluid Construction Grammar in our tutorial on 7 and 9 June. The tutorial is practically oriented and mainly consists of hands-on exercises. Participation is free but registration is required.

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Organising Committee
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* Katrien Beuls, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
* Remi van Trijp, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Paris, France

ICPhS Phonetic Evolution Meeting. 12/8/2015 in Glasgow

At this year’s International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Glasgow, there is a special interest satellite meeting on the evolution of phonetic capabilities.

Title: The Evolution of Phonetic Capabilities: Causes, Constraints and Consequences

Date: Wednesday 12th August 2015

Time: 13.30 – 18.30

Place: Glasgow SECC, Boisdale 1

Registration is £10, and can be completed through the ICPhS registration page under “Registration only with no accommodation”.

If you would like to register only for this meeting, without registering for the main ICPhS conference, you can do so by emailing contact@icphs2015.info

For any other queries, contact hannah@ai.vub.ac.be

About:

In recent years, there has been a resurgence in research in the evolution of language and speech. New techniques in computational and mathematical modelling, experimental paradigms, brain and vocal tract imaging, corpus analysis and animal studies, as well as new archeological evidence, have allowed us to address questions relevant to the evolution of our phonetic capabilities. The workshop will focus on recent work addressing the emergence of our phonetic capabilities, with a special focus on the interaction between biological and cultural evolution.

Program:

The Evolution of Phonetic Capabilities: Causes, Constraints and Consequences

Wednesday 12th August – Glasgow SECC, Boisdale 1
13.50 – 14.00 Welcome
14.00-14.20 Introduction Hannah Little
14.20 – 14.50 Laryngeal Articulatory Function and Speech Origins John H. Esling,

Allison Benner &

Scott R. Moisik
14.50 – 15.20 Anatomical biasing and clicks: Preliminary biomechanical modeling Scott R. Moisik &

Dan Dediu
15.20 – 15.50 Exploring potential climate effects on the evolution of human sound systems Seán G. Roberts,

Caleb Everett &

Damián Blasi
15.50 – 16.20 Coffee Break
16.20 – 16.50 General purpose cognitive processing constraints and phonotactic properties of the vocabulary Padraic Monaghan & Willem H. Zuidema
16.50 – 17.20 Simulating the interaction of functional pressure, redundancy and category variation in phonetic systems Bodo Winter &

Andy Wedel
17.20 – 17.50 Universality in Cultural Transmission Bill Thompson
17.50 – 18.30 Discussion Panel Chaired by

Bart de Boer

 

ICPhS phonetic capabilities satellite meeting – deadline extension

Re. The ICPhS phonetic capabilities satellite meeting, which has been previously advertised on this blog.
We have received a number of requests for late submissions, which we have granted, and as a result, feel it fair to have the same extension for everyone. Thus, if you would like to either submit something, or would like to redraft and resubmit your submission before the new deadline, you are advised that this is now:
 
1st March.
Thank you very much if you have already submitted a paper. What we’ve seen so far looks very exciting, and if you are happy with your paper, you obviously don’t need to do anything. We have previously advised some contributors that notifications of acceptance would appear before the end of February. This is of course now not possible, but we hope to keep the delay to as little as possible, hoping to deliver valuable feedback from the review process by mid-March.
Do no hesitate to contact hannah@ai.vub.ac.be with any further questions.
Here is the call for papers again, in case you missed it:
Call for papers
 
At this year’s International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Glasgow, there will be a special interest group on the Evolution of our phonetic capabilities. It will focus on the interaction between biological and cultural evolution and encourages work from different modalities too. The call for papers is here (satellite meeting 3) and pasted below:
The evolution of phonetic capabilities: causes, constraints and consequences
In recent years, there has been a resurgence in research in the evolution of language and speech. New techniques in computational and mathematical modelling, experimental paradigms, brain and vocal tract imaging, corpus analysis and animal studies, as well as new archeological evidence, have allowed us to address questions relevant to the evolution of our phonetic capabilities.
This workshop requests contributions from researchers which address the emergence of our phonetic capabilities. We are interested in empirical evidence from models and experiments which explore evolutionary pressures causing the emergence of our phonetic capabilities, both in biological and cultural evolution, and the consequences biological constraints will have on processes of cultural evolution and vice versa. Contributions are welcome to cover not only the evolution of our physical ability to produce structured signals in different modalities, but also cognitive or functional processes that have a bearing on the emergence of phonemic inventories. We are also interested in contributions which look at the interaction between the two areas mentioned above which are often dealt with separately in the field, that is the interaction between physical constraints imposed by a linguistic modality, and cognitive constraints born from learning biases and functional factors, and the consequences this interaction will have on emerging linguistic systems and inventories.
Contributions must fit the same submission requirements on the main ICPhS 2015 call for papers page.
Contributions can be sent as an attachment to hannah@ai.vub.ac.be by 1st March 2015 (**extended**). Queries should be sent to the same address.

How Language Evolves Webcast

CARTA (Center for Academic Research & Training in Anthropogeny) are webcasting their free symposium on “How Language Evolves” on Friday, February 20th (1:00 – 5:30 pm PST), co-chaired by Roger Levy (UC San Diego) and David Perlmutter (UC San Diego).

How Language Evolves

 

The symposium addresses the question of how human language came to have the kind of structure it has today, focusing on three sources of evidence:

1) ways languages get new structure not present in the language of the previous generation(s) of speakers or signers;

2) what contrasts between new and mature languages reveal about how language evolves;

3) neuroscientific investigations of functional specialization for language in the human brain and its dependence on the linguistic input the language learner gets during cognitive development.

You can access the live webcast here:

http://carta.anthropogeny.org/events/how-language-evolves

 

Reminder for upcoming conferences

The deadline is approaching for several relevant call for papers:

At this year’s International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Glasgow there will be a special interest group on the Evolution of our phonetic capabilities. It will focus on the interaction between biological and cultural evolution and encourages work from different modalities too. The deadline is 16th Feb. The call for papers is here.

There’s also a special discussant session on Sound change and speech evolution at ICPhS headed by Andy Wedel. The deadline for the actual conference is 1st Feb. Call for Papers here.

The next event in the ways to (proto)language conference is being held in Rome! The deadline is also 1st Feb. Call for Papers here.

This year’s CogSci is being organised by the guys at Cognitive and Information Sciences at the University of California in Merced, who do some great stuff related to language evolution. The deadline is 1st Feb as well, and the call for paper is here. 

Happy submitting!

Tokyo Lectures in Language Evolution

This will certainly be of interest to rep typo readers. Info below:

We are pleased to announce that the Tokyo Lectures in Language Evolution will be held from the 2nd – 5th of April 2015 at the Komaba II Campus of the University of Tokyo. The event will bring together researchers from around the world to give an intensive series of courses and lectures introducing modern approaches to research on the origins and evolution of language.

Invited Speakers:

Registration Fees:

  • Faculty:        20,000JPY
  • Students:     Free

Please note, there are limited seats available so please register here to ensure your place.

Poster Session:

The event will host a poster session for participants to present their own work. Submission instructions are available here.

Key Points:

Dates:                         2-5 April 2015
Poster Call Deadline:  4 March 2015
Location:                     Tokyo, Japan
Any enquiries regarding the event should be directed to darwin@langev.tokyo.

We hope to see you in Tokyo!