Universität Wien

122250 AR MA+MEd Advanced Course in Linguistics - Focus: Historical (2024W)

5.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 12 - Anglistik
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle
We 08.01. 12:15-13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 10 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Wednesday 09.10. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 16.10. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 23.10. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 30.10. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 06.11. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 13.11. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 20.11. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 27.11. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 04.12. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 11.12. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 15.01. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 22.01. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05
  • Wednesday 29.01. 12:15 - 13:45 Raum 1 Anglistik UniCampus Hof 8 3E-EG-05

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

In this course we will discuss and try out different experimental approaches to studying language change. Research into language change can take many forms, including corpora-based studies, computational simulations, or experiments in the lab. The latter are usually meant to test what properties languages have (or are likely to gain or lose) because they have to be learned, cognitively processed, and shared with and passed on to other speakers. Typically, such experiments ask what is easy or difficult to acquire, what can be transmitted and communicated well to others, or what participants do intuitively when faced with a choice. They tend to go hand in hand with computer simulations, where more complicated setups can be implemented than in the lab. The outcomes (e.g., what participants learned, what changes they introduced, what got lost along the way, ...) are set in relation to diachronic and typological trends, and help us to understand why language is the way it is, or why it changes the way it does.

In the first part of the course, we will debate different experimental paradigms and related computational approaches that have been used to better our understanding of language change (artificial language learning, iterated learning, agent-based models, silent gesture, …). Many of them come in a wide variety of facets, such as in different modalities (written, drawn, gestured, spoken, …) or population structures (pairs, larger groups, groups with exchange of participants, child vs. adult learners, …). Our focus will be on how each of them informs discussions on language change, their respective strengths and weaknesses, and the finer points of designing such experiments or simulations. Students will each be a leading discussant in one debate.

In the second part, students will work in small groups to design their own experiments. This will involve (a) developing testable hypotheses; (b) choosing a paradigm and devising an experimental set-up that are appropriate for testing these hypotheses; as well as (c) trying out the experiment in a pilot and analysing preliminary results.

Overall, our course has two main goals: to become familiar with experimental methods in (historical) linguistics and to gain a better understanding of why languages change the way they do.

Assessment and permitted materials

This course involves a mixture of individual assignments and group work.

Course evaluation is based on:
20% Active classroom participation (individual assessment)
10 % Participation as discussant in debate of experimental paradigm (individual assessment)
10% Proposal including testable hypotheses & experimental set-up (group assignment)
20% Oral presentation of experiment (group assignment)
40% Pilot of experiment and interpretation of preliminary results in form of a short paper (group assessment)

While students are allowed and encouraged to use extant research literature, no additional aids are allowed.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

‒ Regular class attendance (max. 2 absences)
‒ Engaging actively in the course (esp. the debates of experimental approaches)
‒ Handing in all assignments (proposal, short paper) on time
‒ Holding a presentation on your experiment
‒ Obtaining a minimum of 60% (on average)

Grading scheme:
‒ 1 (Sehr gut): 100-90%
‒ 2 (Gut): 89.9-80%
‒ 3 (Befriedigend): 79.9-70%
‒ 4 (Genügend): 69.9-60%
‒ 5 (Nicht genügend): 59.9-0%

Any form of plagiarism (e.g., copying from other students or insufficient indication of sources) and cheating is prohibited. Please note that the short paper will be automatically checked for similarities using TurnItIn.

Examination topics

Please see the detailed information given above.

Reading list

All readings will be provided on Moodle. Papers marked with two stars (**) are obligatory and should (ideally) be read before the course starts.

Caldwell, C. A., & Smith, K. (2012). Cultural evolution and perpetuation of arbitrary communicative conventions in experimental microsocieties. PloS One, 7(8), e43807. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0043807
Christiansen, M. H., & Chater, N. (2008). Language as shaped by the brain. The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 31(5), 489-508.
Culbertson, J., Smolensky, P., & Legendre, G. (2012). Learning biases predict a word order universal. Cognition, 122(3), 306-329.
Garrod, S., Fay, N., Lee, J., Oberlander, J., & MacLeod, T. (2007). Foundations of representation: where might graphical symbol systems come from? Cognitive science, 31(6), 961-987.
Goldin-Meadow, S., So, W. C., Ozyürek, A., & Mylander, C. (2008). The natural order of events: How speakers of different languages represent events nonverbally. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(27), 9163–9168. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0710060105
Hudson Kam, C. L., & Newport, E. L. (2005). Regularizing unpredictable variation: The roles of adult and child learners in language formation and change. Language learning and development, 1(2), 151-195.
Kempe, V., Gauvrit, N., & Forsyth, D. (2015). Structure emerges faster during cultural transmission in children than in adults. Cognition, 136, 247–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2014.11.038
Kirby, J., & Sonderegger, M. (2013). A model of population dynamics applied to phonetic change. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 35(35), 776–781.
** Kirby, S., Cornish, H., & Smith, K. (2008). Cumulative cultural evolution in the laboratory: An experimental approach to the origins of structure in human language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(31), 10681–10686.
Kirby, S., Griffiths, T., & Smith, K. (2014). Iterated learning and the evolution of language. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 28, 108–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conb.2014.07.014
Kirton, F., Kirby, S., Smith, K., Culbertson, J., & Schouwstra, M. (2021). Constituent order in silent gesture reflects the perspective of the producer. Journal of Language Evolution, 6(1), 54-76.
** Tamariz, M. (2017). Experimental studies on the cultural evolution of language. Annual Review of Linguistics, 3(1), 389–407. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-linguistics-011516-033807
Verhoef, T., Kirby, S., & Boer, B. de (2014). Emergence of combinatorial structure and economy through iterated learning with continuous acoustic signals. Journal of Phonetics, 43(1), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2014.02.005
** Wedel, A. (2015). Simulation as an investigative tool in Historical Phonology. In P. Honeybone & J. Salmons (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of historical phonology. (pp. 150–167). Oxford University Press.
Weinstein Perelman, F. (2019). Modality effects in the cultural evolution of language: An experimental iterated learning approach. Onomázein Revista De Lingüística Filología Y Traducción(45), 103–125. https://doi.org/10.7764/onomazein.45.05

Association in the course directory

Studium: MA 812 [2]; UF MA 046/507
Code/Modul: MA M04, MA M05, UF MA 4B
Lehrinhalt: 12-0260

Last modified: Th 10.10.2024 10:46