<OT> Reminder: Workshop on Variation, Gradience and Frequency in Phonology

[Rutgers Optimality Archive]

REMINDER!
Call Deadline: 30-Apr-2007

Workshop on Variation, Gradience and Frequency in Phonology

CALL FOR POSTERS:

The workshop will focus on three main topics:

- Phonological variation
- Gradient phonotactics
- Lexical frequency effects

Phonology studies the sound patterns of human languages. Sound
patterns sometimes emerge as quantitative tendencies and preferences.
This can be illustrated by the following three examples. First, in
American English, word-final /t/ is variably deleted, more often
before consonants (''west side'') than before vowels (''west end'').
Second, some sound combinations make better words than others. This
can be seen in the dictionary where some combinations are
statistically overrepresented, others underrepresented, as well as in
experiments where subjects judge some nonsense words to sound more
natural than others (''stin'' > ''smy'' > ''bzharsk''). Third, word
frequency influences phonological patterns. The low-frequency word
''exploit'' has initial stress as a noun, final stress as a verb,
whereas the high-frequency word ''express'' has final stress under
both readings.

Phonological theory has traditionally focused on qualitative patterns.
 Quantitative phenomena, such as variation, gradient phonotactics and
lexical frequency effects, have not figured prominently in theoretical
discussion. This is changing. Quantitative studies are becoming
common, partly because of new methodological developments (annotated
corpora, sociolinguistic databases, searchable dialect archives,
on-line dictionaries, experimental psycholinguistic data, new
computational tools), and partly because of new theoretical
developments. This has broadened the empirical base of phonology and
is likely to lead to new discoveries and connections to neighboring
fields of inquiry.

Speakers:

Adam Albright (MIT)
Arto Anttila (Stanford University)
Paul Boersma (University of Amsterdam)
Andries Coetzee (University of Michigan)
Gregory Guy (New York University)
Michael Hammond (University of Arizona)
Bruce Hayes (UCLA)
Dan Jurafsky (Stanford University)
Yoonjung Kang (University of Toronto)
Paul Kiparsky (Stanford University)
James Myers (National Chung Cheng University)
Marc van Oostendorp (Meertens Institute)
Joe Pater (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Betty Phillips (Indiana State University)
Kie Zuraw (UCLA)

ABSTRACT GUIDELINES:

We are soliciting abstracts for posters relevant to any of the topics
mentioned above. Abstracts should be at most one page long on a letter
size or A4 sheet with one-inch margins and typed in at least 12 point
font. An optional second page may be used for data, charts, and
references. Abstracts should be submitted electronically in Adobe
Acrobat (.pdf) format to gmail.com>. The author(s) of the abstract
should not be identified in the abstract itself. The body of the
submission message should include the title of the abstract, the
names(s) of the author(s), the(ir) affiliation(s), and e-mail
address(es). Submissions are limited to one individual and one joint
abstract per author, or two joint abstracts per author.

This workshop is funded by NSF Grant #0647250.  Funding will be
available to help offset the travel costs of student presenters.

Deadline for submission: April 30, 2007. The workshop program will be
announced in early May.

IMPORTANT DATES:

April 30: Poster abstracts due (send to: variation07gmail.com)
Early May: Notification of acceptance
July 6-8: Workshop

More information about the workshop, including the final program, will
be posted on the workshop's website in due course:

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/linguistics/linginst/nsf-workshop/workshop-july-2007.html

For any questions about the workshop, please email your queries to
either of the
organizers:

Arto Anttila or Lauren Hall-Lew
variation07gmail.com

This workshop is supported by the National Science Foundation under
Grant No. 0647250.