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Past Events

Conferences

Canadian Variation and Change Conference May 5-6, 2007

International Conference on East Asian Linguistics: November 10-12, 2006

Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics - 15 May 12-14, 2006
Call for Papers deadline Jan 15, 2006

Canadian English in the Global Context January 28-30, 2005

African Linguistics Day March 20, 2009 University of Toronto

FLAUT

The 2007-2008 Academic Year schedule of talks

Open to Linguistics Students, Alumni and all other interested individuals for the purpose of presentation, informal discussion and reception

Wednesday March 12, 2008, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

Friends of Linguistics At the University of Toronto [flLut] and The Society of Linguistics Undergraduate Students (SLUGS) present a lecture by

Kevin Heffernan
PHD, University of Toronto

Macho Men Mumble: Sex Differences in Articulation

A number of phonetics studies have concluded that women tend to articulate their speech more clearly than men. Surprisingly, this sex-based difference in articulation seems to be universal. Some researchers argue that the factors behind the sex difference are primarily biological. However, Dr. Heffernan's research, based on the voices of radio DJs, has led him to conclude that clarity of speech reflects social, not biological, gender. Dr. Heffernan will discuss his research and propose a way to reconcile the universal aspects and social aspects of sex differences in articulation.

Thursday May 29, 2008, 7:30 p.m.

Topic: 'One Morpheme at a Time'

Speaker: Prof. Elizabeth Cowper

Guest Speakers

The Language Variation and Change Reading Group is pleased to announce the following talk

The Unbearable Whiteness of Fleeing: Identity, demographics, & sound change in North America

Speaker: Gerard Van Herk (Memorial University of Newfoundland)

Abstract:
Across America, large regional sound changes have taken place in the past century. These changes are well-described and somewhat explained linguistically, but not socially. How can we account for the timing and distribution of changes like the vowel shifts of the inland South or the Great Lakes region, or the decrease in R-lessness in the coastal South and New York City? Why are there so many social exceptions to participation? This talk expands earlier claims that all these changes are triggered by increased contact with, or awareness of, African American English speakers, resulting from migration, desegregation, and the civil rights movement. I investigate the implications for sociolinguistic method and theory of this "white flight" argument (and vice versa) with respect to concepts of accommodation, social identity, agency, whiteness, oppositional identity, markedness, overshoot, and conflict. I then suggest that the demographic (migration and segregation) evidence supporting a white flight view in the US might mean something very different in a Toronto context. The talk is deliberately speculative and exploratory, and invites input from audience members from across social sciences disciplines.

 

Friday, November 14 2008, 3p.m


Speaker: Andrew Nevins, Harvard University

Title: Reslicing the Clitic/Affix Distinction

Place: Woodsworth College, Room 126
(Woodworth is located at 119 St. George)

A reception will follow in the department lounge.

 

Friday, November 21 2008, 3p.m.


Speaker: Peter Siemund, Universität Hamburg

Title: Grammaticalization, Lexicalization and Intensification

Place: Woodsworth College, Room 126
(Woodsworth is located at 119 St. George)

A reception will follow in the department lounge.

Abstract:

English itself as a marker of middle situation types

The study discusses the grammaticalization of reflexive pronouns into
markers of middle situation types and explores if and to what extent
the English reflexive itself participates in such processes. Based on
an analysis of approximately 2000 examples drawn from the British
National Corpus, it provides a typology of the middle situation types
in which the form itself occurs and analyzes the processes that give
rise to the use of itself in such contexts. While some incipient
grammaticalization processes can be found, the study argues that
self-intensification as well as various lexicalization processes need
to be considered, too. It also provides an extensive quantitative
analysis of the contexts in which itself occurs. The study tentatively
concludes that the traditional grammaticalization account given for
the occurrence of reflexive pronouns as markers of middle situation
types may be too simplistic, possibly also for languages other than
English.


Workshops