"Between a Bull and a Figure: Figurative Language and the Nation According to Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth."

Amit Yahav, Haifa University, Israel, presenting.
Monday, September 17, 2007 @ 4:30pm
Location: Cox Hall, 3rd Floor -- Room 1
Reception following the talk

This event is co-sponsored by
The Department of English

Abstract: That linguistic developments have been key to the rise of nationalism is a commonplace. But while many accounts emphasize the importance of the consolidation of dialects into standardized language (e.g. Benedict Anderson and Ernest Gellner), this talk focuses on the significance of figurative language in the demarcation of communities.

More specifically, Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth's Essay on Irish Bulls (1802) will be discussed, arguing that it conceptualizes the nation as a group of speakers distinguished from other groups such as itself by common agreement regarding the metaphoric components of its language. The Edgeworths begin the Essay by asking: What makes a bull-defined in the introduction as "a laughable confusion of ideas" -specifically Irish? And what makes Irish figures of speech especially bullish? Their answer to both questions is nothing at all, really. No bull, they claim, is specifically Irish, for blunders commonly attributed to Irish speakers have precedents in other nations. And Irish speech is not especially bullish, for phrases that might seem confused or confusing can make perfect sense if only we insist on making sense of them.

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Linguistics Majors Info Session and Social Hour

Information. Conversation. Food & Fun!
Monday, October, 29, 2007 @ 4:00pm
Location: Psychology Bldg., Rm 201



The information session will Information on the difference between Linguistics and the Joint PsycLing Majors will be provided as well as, what can be done with these majors, which major is best for the student, what combinations with other majors create "synergy", to what extent can you "design" your own major, what courses to take, study abroad possibilities and the Linguistics Honors program.

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"Why the sonority hierarchy is wrong for explaining universal patterns of phonotactics"

John Ohala, University of California - Berkeley, presenting.
Monday, November 5, 2007 @ 5:00pm
Place: Candler Library, Rm 101

Abstract: Mainstream phonology makes use of the "sonority hierarchy" to explain preferred sequences of sounds making up syllables. Although usually attributed to Jespersen (1904) or Saussure (1916), the concept in one form or another is much older than that (e.g., de Brosses 1765, Whitney 1874, Sievers 1893). According the sonority hierarchy the preferred sequence of sounds at the onset of syllables is: stop, fricative, nasal, liquid or glide, vowel and in syllable codas, the reverse sequence. But besides being circular and a reification of a subset of the observations, it is a defective concept for the following reasons: 1) sonority has no empirical content, 2) it ignores or has to make a "special" case for such common counterexamples as #sp-, #st- etc., 3) it ignores other common disfavored sequences such as #ji, #wu, as opposed to the more frequently encountered #ju, #wi, and 4) it is silent as to how pairs such as lightning and lightening can have 2 vs. 3 syllables and yet the same sonority contours. I propose an alternative which 1) is not circular since it is based on principles distinct from the observations, viz., the acoustic manifestation of speech sound sequences, 2) has been successfully tested, 3) can account for the commonality of clusters like #sp- etc. without having to make them special cases, 4) can account for the greater frequency of sequences like #ju and #wi as opposed to the infrequency of sequences like #ji and #wu, and 5) provides a rationale for differentiating between lightning and lightening.

"The Ethological Basis of the Expression of Emotion and Affect"

John Ohala, University of California - Berkeley, presenting.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 @ 4:30pm
Place: White Hall, Rm 111
Reception to follow the lecture in White Hall Lower Lobby

This event is co-sponsored by:
The Department of Anthropology
The Department of Psychology

Abstract: Morton (1977) documented the existence of a common cross-species pattern among 56 species of bird and mammals for the vocal expression of threat and submission: within the range of fundamental frequency (F0) that the animal is capable of, threat is conveyed by low F0 vocalizations and submission by high F0. The ethological rationale: other things being equal, F0 is inversely correlated with the body size and body size usually predicts the outcome of actual combat (the larger one wins). Therefore in an effort to avert actual combat where both parties lose something, the threatening individual tries to convey the impression of being as large as possible by using as low a F0 as possible. Conversely, the submissive individual uses a high F0 to appear as small and non-threatening as possible. I have proposed that the same pattern, which I call the "frequency code", underlies human's expression of threat vs. submission and in addition:

1. the characteristic intonation of questions vs. statements,
2. the predominance of high resonance vowels in sound-symbolic vocabulary for "small" or "cute" things (e.g., "itsy-bitsy", "teeny") vs. low resonance vowels for "large" or "awesome" things (e.g., "humongous")
3. the characteristic mouth shape of threat vs. non-threat (i.e., the smile, where the mouth corners are drawn back thus effectively shortening the vocal tract and raising the resonant frequencies, thus conveying the impression of a smaller vocalizer), and
4. sexual dimorphism in the vocal anatomy.

Are there other ways that the signaler can convey impressions of relative size? I propose that there are and this leads into a novel theory of how the appearance of the eyes can be varied in the expression of threat and non-threat. This may also explain certain practices in the cosmetic alteration or adornment of the eyes.

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Careers in Speech and Hearing Information Session

November 13, 2007 @ 4:00pm
Location: Psychology Bldg., Rm 219



Mary Rambow, SLP, Clinical Supervisor, Communications Disorders Program, GSU will present an information session on careers in Speech-Language Pathology and Communications Disorders.