StudyTakes Serious Look At How Jokes Work
An academic at the University of Edinburgh is attempting to solve the riddle of how jokes work - and to set up a way of analyzing the language used in jokes - as part of wider research into humour. Dr Graeme Ritchie is not investigating how funny particular jokes are, as opinions about that vary widely. Instead, he is looking at whether something... view more... (2002-05-16)
... ideas. Existing concepts from theoretical linguistics would be used as basic notions to construct an account ... employed in the study of linguistics, to look at the way jokes are constructed. He will ... theory of humour." "Modern linguistics builds upon centuries of detailed descriptive work, but humour research ... take a similar step to linguistics, and we need to produce precise ...
Media invitation: Launch of UCL's Centre for Human Communication
A new centre opening on the 4th June will bring together language, communication, psychology and neuroscience experts to foster new areas of research on human communication. Researchers at University College London's new centre will be studying a host of areas including grammar, perception, hearing and the genetics and patterns of language... view more... (2004-05-12)
... by the British Academy, the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, Oxford University Press, and The Laryngograph Trust. ... ...
Swedish Philosopher Martin-Löf to receive honorary doctorate
On Monday, 9 February 2004, the Swedish philosopher Per Martin-Löf will receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. Per Martin-Löf is Professor of Logic at the University of Stockholm, and is considered one of the most viable scholars continuing the fundamental work of the Dutch mathematician L.E.J.... view more... (2004-02-06)
... specialities not his own, like linguistics and information science. Professor Martin-Löf is considered one of the most important logicians and philosophers of our age by his peers. He created a fully elaborated fundamental programme for mathematics, the Constructive Type Theory, which puts him squarely in the tradition of the great systematists of his professional field. They are on the one ...
Size matters in language research
How do you measure your knowledge of a language? Understanding grammar was seen in the past as the vital factor. Now, whether it is your mother tongue or a second language, the words you use are seen as the most important aspect in making a language come alive. But how easy is it to measure the vocabulary an aspiring linguist knows? To answer... view more... (2004-01-27)
... UWE's School of Languages and Linguistics, in the Faculty of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, to reveal the results of research undertaken in the last few months. The conference looked at various ways of measuring language acquisition, such as asking students to describe the events in cartoon strips, both in their mother tongue and in a foreign language. Discovering further ...
Language skills develop at 6, say researchers
Psychologists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that children as young as six are as adept at recognising possible verbs and their past tenses as adults. view more (2008-04-29)
... identical pattern to those of linguistics students who took part in a similar study at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the US.
University of Liverpool psychologist, Ben Ambridge, said: "Previous studies have concentrated on getting children to produce past tense forms for made-up words. This study is unique in that the children were asked to judge the acceptability of ...
Speech melody controls alternation of speakers
Dr Johanneke Caspers, an NWO-funded linguistics researcher, has observed how speakers of Dutch use speech melody to indicate that they wish to continue speaking during a conversation. Melodic cues prove especially important when the sentence structure suggests that they have in fact finished speaking. In a normal conversation between two people,... view more... (2001-10-08)
Dr Johanneke Caspers, an NWO-funded linguistics researcher, has observed how speakers of Dutch use speech melody to indicate that they wish to continue speaking during a conversation. Melodic cues prove especially important when the sentence structure suggests that they have in fact finished speaking. In a normal conversation between two people, the speakers take over from one another very ...
Training primary teachers to give Spanish lessons
Primary school children in around ten Bristol schools will get a 'flying start' in learning Spanish thanks to an initiative by the University of the West of England. This novel idea recognises that Spanish is actually one of the most widely spoken European languages, with up to one-quarter of the world's population speaking it as their mother... view more... (2002-10-25)
... Associate Head of Languages and Linguistics in UWE's Faculty of Humanities, Languages and Social Studies, has been awarded £7690 by the Nuffield Language Programme to carry out the scheme. According to Irene, introducing children to foreign languages from the age of seven has already been shown to be a success. "With the right approach, children find the lessons fun, enjoyable, ...
Academics Seek Bilingual Volunteers For Language Study
Psychologists and linguists at the University of Edinburgh are recruiting Spanish; Japanese and native English-speaking adults for a research project, which will help understand how non-native languages, are learned and stored in the memory. The research aims to identify certain pitfalls in spelling, both in native and non-native speakers, and... view more... (2002-09-03)
... Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, added: “ We will use this phenomenon to investigate the way very proficient bilinguals store words and speech sounds in memory. The Japanese and Spanish languages have a different system of speech sounds from English, and from each other. Our theory is that even if a Japanese or Spanish speaker is extremely fluent in ...
Great Ape Trust graduate student's paper sheds light on bonobo language
What happens when linguistic tools used to analyze human language are applied to a conversation between a language-competent bonobo and a human? view more (2008-08-29)
... Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who argue that only ... as the father of contemporary linguistics, was unable to do.
Pedersen expects to complete her dissertation in ... ape language research, the second to focus on data collected with the world-famous bonobos at Great Ape Trust. The first was Pictorial Primates - A Search for Iconic ...
Multilingualism brings communities closer together
Learning their community language outside the home enhances minority ethnic children's development, according to research led from the University of Birmingham. view more (2009-02-10)
... Angela Creese, Professor of Educational Linguistics, who led the research, there is a growing interest in complementary schools because they are unique, offering students the opportunity to develop their verbal and written language skills across a variety of languages 'It is rare to find an environment where two or more languages are used in teaching and learning,' she explains. 'Teachers ...
I'm listening -- conversations with computers
A computer system that can carry on a discussion with a human being by reacting to signals such as tone of voice and facial expression, is being developed by an international team including Queen's University Belfast. view more (2008-04-17)
... distinctive strength in bringing psychology, linguistics and ethics to bear on the process of developing the new systems."
SEMAINE follows on from another project, entitled HUMAINE, which was led by Professor Cowie. The HUMAINE Project (Human-Machine Interaction Network on Emotion) received €4.95 million to develop interfaces that let humans use computers in a more natural way. In 2006 it won the ...
Language change can be traced using gigantic text archives
Historical collections that include everything ever written in a dozen American and British newspapers since they started are now available electronically. view more (2009-06-29)
... In his dissertation in English linguistics, Donald MacQueen has examined the word million in English, especially how language usage shifted from the previously nearly totally dominant "five millions of inhabitants" to today's "five million inhabitants." With the help of these electronic collections of texts that only recently became available, he has succeeded in pinning down when and where the modern ...
British women swear back
Women, it is said, shy away from conflict - also in their use of language: unlike men, they try to de-escalate a heated verbal dispute. Rubbish, says Ruth-Maria Roth, a student of English language and literature at the University of Bonn. In a recent study she debunked the popular image of female behaviour, which is also shared by linguists,... view more... (2003-10-23)
... far been completely ignored in linguistics. On a closer at look motivations, the tendency among some female students to hit back really hard might even point in a quite different direction, namely to a feeling of inferiority. Perhaps they feel forced to overcoming a supposed weakness by going on the offensive and responding in no uncertain terms. As Ruth-Maria Roth ...
Philosophers Look To Bentham's Individualism To Promote Philosophy In The UK
The new British Philosophical Association (BPA), set to support learning, teaching and research in Philosophy, is embracing Jeremy Bentham's Individualism to ensure the subject is represented in the UK. Unlike the National Committee for Philosophy that it replaces, membership is open to individual philosophers, as well as Higher Education... view more... (2003-10-22)
... has helped give birth to linguistics and computing. As the Quality Assurance Agency Benchmark statement says: 'Philosophy ought to be at the heart of any University worthy of its name. In fact, a University without any philosophical work being done has devalued itself as a place of learning'." Key speakers include Baroness Onora O'Neill, Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge ...
Media Invitation - Mastering the Complexity of Biological Data
Workshop "Ontology for Biology" at Villa Bosch, Heidelberg (November 7-8, 2002) Advances in biotechnology and bioinformatics are generating a huge amount of information that can be used to better understand the secrets of life and the cause of diseases like cancer, AIDS, diabetes, etc. Scientists analyzing this information will have to face... view more... (2002-10-18)
... as diverse as Computer Science, Linguistics, Biology, Medicine and Philosophy will meet to discuss how ontologies can be created, validated and applied. An ontology is a description of concepts and their relationships. For example: A protein that catalyzes a biochemical reaction is defined as an enzyme. Using ontologies researchers can create computer-based tools that help them organize and understand the ... |
