CRL Talks
Fall Quarter 2024
CRL Talks are Friday at 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (PST, GMT -08:00) in CSB 280 or via Zoom.
March 14
Tracking the emergence of American Sign Language lexicon
Tory Sampson
Postdoctoral Fellow at Boston University
Focusing on the near-universal verb-noun (or verb-nonverb) distinction in signed languages, I examine whether it is possible to track the development of American Sign Language's (ASL) lexicon. As a first step, I present synchronic and diachronic evidence from ASL noun-verb pairs—signs that are phonologically similar except for movement and carry related nominal and verbal meanings (Supalla & Newport 1987). Specifically, I analyze how many verbs have noun pairs and vice versa, and the lexical effects such as frequency, iconicity, and phonological complexity on their distribution. Using data from ASL-LEX 2.0, a lexicon of approximately 2700 signs (Caselli et al. 2019), I find that only half of verbs have a nominal counterpart, while nearly all of the listed nouns can be traced back to verbal origins. The presence or absence of a corresponding noun is also systematically influenced by lexical effects. This demonstrates that we may try to construct the development of the ASL lexicon with synchronic and diachronic evidence. Most importantly, the results reveal a striking trend: nearly all canonical nouns in ASL originate from verbs, a novel finding with significant implications for our understanding of modality differences, cognition, and language emergence.
CRL Talks Schedule
Jan 17 |
NO MEETING |
Jan 31 |
Baby Language Models Alex Warstadt Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute and the Department of Linguistics at University of California, San Diego |
Feb 14 |
Audiovisual Integration and Top-Down Influences in Speech Perception Laura Getz Department of Neuroscience, Cognition and Behavior, University of San Diego |
Feb 28 |
Whispers of knowledge: How ‘smart’ are neural network speech recognition systems? Sarah Creel Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego |
Mar 7 |
Applying Linguistics in Healthcare Contexts Helen Dominic Georgetown University |
Mar 14 |
Tracking the emergence of American Sign Language lexicon Tory Sampson Postdoctoral Fellow at Boston University |
About CRL Talks
We look forward to seeing you at Friday at 11 a.m. in CSB 280 or via Zoom. The Zoom link for each talk will be provided in the CRL Talks announcement email. If you are not subscribed to CRL Talks announcements, just sign up to our new Google Group!.
If you still do not want to subscribe to the CRL Talks mailing list, that's okay. Contact the CRL Talks organizer for the details.
Speakers have given everything from practice talks for conferences, job talks, or degree requirements to any new research they want feedback from the CRL community on! Talks are typically 45 min with ~10 min for questions. We love hearing from new grad students and faculty, but you are always welcome to present again! If you, anyone in your lab, or anyone visiting you is interested please let me know so I can arrange dates with them!
If you have someone you would like to hear from, we always enjoy suggestions of who to invite to speak as well!
We have been hoping to encourage more in-person participation/presentation, but there is a Zoom option available for those unable to join in person!
If you would like to send a message to the CRL community, please email it to crl@ucsd.edu (note all messages need to be approved by one of our managerial staff).
CRL ASL-Interpreter Request Form
Please fill out this form out prior to any talk you would like to attend but require ASL interpreters. We will do our best to provide them! If you are planning on coming to a CRL talk and are able to request interpreters for all those who need it, please let us know as well!
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
Would you (or someone you know) like to join our community? Please join here.
The CRL Talks is now using Google Groups for posting and distributing announcements. If you were on the old Mailman list, you were automatically moved to the new Google Group. NOTE: You must have a Google account to sign up for the CRL Talks mailing list, but you do not need to sign up with a Gmail address.
All UC San Diego academics, staff, and students:
All UC San Diego academics, staff, and students are automatically provisioned access to Google Groups. Sign into Google with your @ucsd.edu email address and AD password (Duo two-factor authentication required). Navigate to https://groups.google.com/a/ucsd.edu/g/crl-g. Click on the "Ask to join group button" to sign up for the email list.
Sign up for the email list with your personal, work, or school Gmail address:
Log into your personal, work, or school Google account and navigate to https://groups.google.com/a/ucsd.edu/g/crl-g. Click on the "Ask to join group button" to sign up for the email list.
Sign up for the email list without a Gmail address:
Create a Google Account with your non-Gmail address as your username by completing the following: https://accounts.google.com/signupwithoutgmail. Once the new account is confirmed, go to https://groups.google.com/a/ucsd.edu/g/crl-g and click on the "Ask to join group button" to sign up for the email list.
Mailing preferences:
If you want to temporarily disable messages from the CRL Talks list or unsubscribe from the list, access https://groups.google.com/a/ucsd.edu/g/crl-g/membership or see the Google Group help center.