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<DIV align=center><STRONG>The Colloquium Committee of the Linguistics Department
at USC proudly presents: </STRONG><BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><B><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Speaking versus signing:
</SPAN></FONT></B><BR><B><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">How the biology of linguistic expression
affects language</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">
processing</SPAN></FONT></B><BR><BR><FONT size=4><B
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153)">Karen
Emmorey</SPAN></B></FONT><BR style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)"><I><FONT
style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0); FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif" size=4><B>San Diego
State University</B></FONT></I><BR><BR><FONT size=4><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Monday, April 21st
2008</SPAN></B></FONT><BR><FONT size=4><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">3:00pm</SPAN></B></FONT><BR
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><I><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Followed by a departmental
dinner</SPAN></B></I><BR></DIV>
<DIV align=center><BR><BR><B><U>Abstract</U></B><BR>Sign languages provide a
powerful tool for investigating the neurobiology and<BR>cognitive architecture
of human language. The value of signed languages lies in<BR>their modality. For
perception, these languages depend upon shape-based object<BR>recognition,
biological motion analysis, and attention to spatial locations and<BR>positions.
For production, they require cognitive control of two large articulators<BR>(the
hands), coordination of facial articulations with manual output, and
the<BR>representation of a language-related body schema. Currently, very little
is known<BR>about the psycholinguistic mechanisms that translate thoughts into
linguistic<BR>expression for signers, and it is unclear whether models of speech
production can<BR>simply be appropriated for sign language. However, the
discovery that sign<BR>languages have a phonology (traditionally defined as the
sound patterns of<BR>language) indicates that there may be important parallels
between sign and speech<BR>production systems that can inform us about the
nature of human language<BR>processing. The studies I will present examine the
phonological and lexical<BR>processes involved in the production of American
Sign Language (ASL). My<BR>research program utilizes various psycholinguistic
techniques (e.g., "tip of the<BR>fingers" effects, slips of the hand, and
monitoring paradigms) to investigate unique<BR>aspects of the visual-manual
modality that lead to disparities between sign and<BR>speech, such as
differences in motoric timing, error detection, syllabification<BR>processes,
and the nature of auditory vs. visual feedback. The results inform<BR>theories
of speech production by identifying those properties that arise due to
the<BR>nature of speech and those properties that are universal to all human
languages.<BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>