Proceedings Published by the LSA (Linguistic Society of America)
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The fact that these are opinions: Processing and acceptability patterns of subjective vs. objective information embedded under the fact that
Get PDFLanguage can convey both objective, fact-based information and subjective, opinion-based information. Previous research has focused on linguistic contexts that are associated with subjective information, such as information embedded under find. We aim to complement this existing work by exploring whether particular linguistic contexts are specifically associated with objective information. We report two psycholinguistic experiments testing the acceptability and processing of subjective and objective predicates embedded under the fact that. As a whole, the results suggest that subjective predicates embedded under the fact that are as acceptable and as easy-to-process as objective predicates, suggesting that this construction does not create a context that requires objective, fact-based information
History of linguistics as a path to dissertation progress and contextualization of research
Get PDFIn our doctoral program (one which largely trains students in sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and L2 acquisition, rather than phonological, syntactic, and semantic theory), history of linguistics leads students to a deeper understanding of linguistics than is possible without it. Through this course, our students gain, in one semester rather than several, a broad perspective on the evolution of linguistic theories and methodologies. The course also serves as an opportunity for students to delve into the history of their own subfield and for them to frame the literature review portion of their own dissertation. The outcome of having this course is that our graduates have a broader perspective on general linguistics than they would have if they remained entirely focused on their own specialization, and that they come to understand where their own doctoral research program fits in the wider discipline of linguistics.
Note: A video of the session in which this was presented and the associated slide deck are available in the foreword to this issue.
Social media in the linguistic classroom: Discussing appreciation vs. appropriation
Get PDFIn our paper, we focus on integrating topics directly relevant to students’ lives, a principle we consistently strive to embody in our pedagogical approach. Specifically, we explore the dynamics of appreciation and appropriation within the music industry, inspired by Garza’s (2021) work, as a leading topic for a module of a linguistic course. Through the implementation of in-class discussion activities, we utilized platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Twitter (currently X), to center the modality and the topics that are of high importance for students and their lived experiences. Our paper highlights the benefits of effectively engaging students with topics that are related to their experiences and through the use of technology. By adapting and refining the curriculum based on student interests, we aim to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion within linguistics classrooms
AI hype in the classroom
Get PDFArtificial intelligence (AI) tools, especially generative tools based on large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, raise critical concerns for academic integrity, for ensuring genuine assessment of student learning, and for equity. Public understanding of these tools is clouded by hype about their capabilities, as they are often treated as knowledgeable and even sentient, and thus suitable for any human task. Of particular concern for instructors is how, and how much, students rely on these tools to complete their coursework. We address some of these issues in our classrooms by reporting on a recent pedagogical initiative within the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto during Summer 2023. As part of the initiative, we highlight the crucial role that linguistics can play in these discussions, by shifting the focus to LLMs as objects of study that are directly relevant to the linguistics classroom and to educate students on what linguistic tasks they are and are not good at. We offer strategies and sample assignment questions to help instructors deflate AI hype and facilitate greater AI literacy by demystifying the technology
L2 interpretation of negative polar questions: Evidence from online experiments
Get PDFThis paper studies Korean L2 English learners’ responses to negative polar questions (NPQs – i.e., negative yes-no questions), focusing on the differences between EFL learners (those learning English as a foreign language in Korea) and ESL learners (those learning English as US residents). The paper first considers differences in the syntax and semantics of Korean and English NPQs, differences that may lead to misinterpretations when questions are translated from one language to the other. The paper then describes a series of experiments comparing Korean EFL and ESL learners’ responses to English polar questions, focusing on measuring participants’ response times (RTs) and unexpected responses (UERs) to distinct classes of these
Sociolinguistic perception of lexical and syntactic variation among Persian-English bilinguals
Get PDFThis study examines the relationship between sociolinguistic perception and Persian language variation. Prior work has shown that preconceived notions about how speakers use language and what kind of language they produce can affect listeners’ perceptions (D’Onofrio 2016; Hansen Edwards et al. 2019; Mack & Munson 2012; Niedzielski 1999). However, many questions remain unanswered regarding how social meaning is applied in contact situations, especially among self-identified native and heritage speakers. Within Persian language studies, some work has observed linguistic practices among both native and non-native speakers, finding that both vary significantly in their production patterns of certain syntactic and lexical features (Megerdoomian 2020). I ask whether Persian-English bilinguals associate non-standard forms with certain social personae categorized by linguistic background. Sixteen bilingual Persian-English speakers participated in an online survey with the task of matching standard and non-standard written productions to a pre-defined linguistic persona. Results so far suggest that Persian-English bilinguals actively construct associations between language use and speaker personae, with specific grammatical categories appearing more likely to index a non-native speaking identity. This brings up further questions about how bilinguals navigate sociolinguistic ideologies tied to speaker identity, and how heritage speakers and learners approach these notions. This study adds to the growing literature on bilingualism and sociolinguistic perception, with implications for critical discussions surrounding the various ideologies that place communities of multilingual speakers into strict social categories
Interference effects on the processing of Korean double relative clauses
Get PDFThe current investigates the parsing process and its utilization of various linguistic information to resolve dependencies in Korean double relative clauses. While previous research has revealed evidence of interference effects of a distractor during dependency formations, a distractor involving dependency formations by itself has not been thoroughly explored. In light of this, we aimed to explore how the grammatical-role parallelism of a distractor modulates multiple filler-gap dependencies and examine the role of case marking in the resolution of these dependencies. In a self-paced reading experiment, we discovered that the parallelism effects of both head nouns were instrumental in the resolution of longer dependencies of a higher head noun and its gap. The non-parallel role of a distractor (i.e., low head noun) was reanalyzed before the integration of higher head noun and its gap. This finding suggests that parallelism effects play a critical role in the resolution of complex dependency structures. Additionally, our experiments investigated the role of case marking as a morphosyntactic cue in predicting the syntactic encoding of upcoming noun phrases. Our results demonstrated the immediate processing difficulty of conditions with double nominative markers, suggesting that parsers are selectively sensitive to case marking. Overall, our study contributes to our understanding of the parsing process and the selective use of linguistic cues in the resolution of complex dependency structures
“We can’t go to them, but now they are here”: Ideologies of religion and culture in evangelical ESL classrooms
Get PDFThe history of colonialism, missionary work, and White supremacy is omnipresent in ESL. This study observed ESL instructors at two evangelical Christian ESL programs in South Carolina and investigated locally circulating ideologies of language, race, religion, and gender. The programs, Omega and Pinewood, aimed to share Christianity but used opposing strategies. Omega obfuscated evangelism by conflating Christianity with American culture and focused on assimilating students into English-centric, White evangelical culture. Pinewood accommodated students’ cultural norms, sharing both Christianity and students’ religion. Results of this study are important for understanding how institutional practices correlate with negative outcomes students may experience
Exploring the effect of stress on gestural coordination
Get PDFIn this study, I examined stress in speech production within the framework of Articulatory Phonology. Specifically, I tested the hypothesis that stress could be analyzed as a prosodic gesture. Using articulatory data from an English corpus, I found that the CV lag–the gestural lag between a consonant and a vowel–of stressed syllables is significantly larger in terms of both duration and proportion than that of unstressed syllables. I also found that stressed consonant and vowel gestures are longer than unstressed ones. These findings seem to suggest that stress could be analyzed as a prosodic gesture. Moreover, my study reveals a source of variation in CV coordination, which can inform other kinematic studies.
Introducing linguistics to high schoolers as a healing practice
Get PDFIn this paper, we offer a curriculum and two lesson plans to teach linguistics to high school students in a TRIO program. We propose that teaching linguistics to high schoolers can be done by centering their identities and their communities. We offer some examples of the content that we used in our own teaching, and we discuss how linguistics can give the tools needed to the students to talk about their experiences, and to understand the needs of their community. Finally, we demonstrate the use of social justice as a way for the student to engage more deeply with the subject of linguistics, process lived experiences and work towards healing