Tags: linguistics

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NSF grant to explore philosophical perspectives of human and machine translation

A new interdisciplinary project at the interface of philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence seeks to explore the complicated relationship between human and machine translation. The project, led by professor of philosophy Yuri Balashov, is supported by an NSF Scholar's Award. "Translation from one language into another is a difficult and cognitively intense process requiring a broad set of linguistic and non-…

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PhD student investigates ancient languages, with a side of roller derby

Nashville native Nakita Barakadyn's journey into the world of linguistics began with her curiosity about the origins of Japanese. “I became a linguist in the first place because I heard the tantalizing statement ‘Nobody knows where Japanese came from,’” she says. “I was a kid at the time, but now I understand they just meant that Japanese is a language isolate—it has no known relatives.” Encountering this linguistic mystery imbued with her a…

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A long goodbye to the Southern accent

When we initially shared this new linguistics research late last year, it was tailor-made for media across the region, the nation and beyond. Since then UGA researchers Margaret Renwick and Jon Forrest have become a familiar presence in numerous reports of the demise of the Southern drawl. Georgia Magazine revisits the story in its new issue: Sometimes, linguistic studies start with a hunch. A good example is when a non-researcher notices that a…

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Noted and Quoted, February 2024

From lost aviators of World War II to category-6 hurricanes and the vanishing Southern accent, scholarship and expetise of Franklin faculty was courted, quoted, featured and relied upon widely in media across the world.  A few examples, plus some well-publicized profiles and awards, from the month of February: Jordan drone strike has many waiting and wondering on government response – Kevin Jones, associate professor of history, quoted and…

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Franklin faculty awarded both 2023-2024 University Professorships

University of Georgia faculty members Keith Langston and Paula Lemons have been named the 2023-2024 University Professors in recognition of their influential vision and leadership. Congratulations to our colleagues on this recognition for their dedicated service to the university: Langston is a professor and head of the department of linguistics and professor of Germanic and Slavic studies in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. Lemons is…

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Divisional Spotlight: Humanities

Much like the Earth has five oceans, teeming with life and mysteries in its great depths and powering the Earth's natural systems and cycles – it is the Blue Planet after all – the Franklin College has five divisions powering UGA's unprecedented march to excellence. We continue to welcome 2024 by highlighting this element of our organizational structure and the academic units contained in each division. Today, we highlight the HUMANITIES:…

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Noted and Quoted, September 2023

From storms to smart phones to... what happened to the Southern accent? Research from Franklin College faculty and graduate students was widely reported during September. A sample of the stories and media pick from across the globe: Scientists are asked if humans have broken the Earth’s climate – Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor od Geography, quoted by CleanTechnica, The Extinction Chronicles  Does…

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Professor studies endangered languages and their variations

Awareness about languages, the differences in how individuals speak, and how these create local identities may come as no great surprise to American Southerners. When speakers of certain linguistic varieties decline, though, their languages become endangered. Keith Langston’s scholarship addresses questions of linguistic structure and the relationship of language and identity, with a focus on the country of Croatia. “We always have this idea…

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Classic Georgia accent fading fast

A collaborative study between the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech has found the classic Southern accent is undergoing rapid change in Georgia. The instigator? Generation X. “We found that, here in Georgia, white English speakers’ accents have been shifting away from the traditional Southern pronunciation for the last few generations,” said Margaret Renwick, associate professor in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of…

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Kudos, September 2022

New rankings, art exhibitions, awards and grants highlight recent achievements of colleagues from across the Franklin College: The University of Georgia has been ranked 10th on the latest list of Top Public Universities in the U.S. by the rankings platform Niche UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography director Clark Alexander, professor in the department of marine sciences, was voted the 2022-23 president-elect of the Southern…

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Department of Linguistics faculty receive NSF grant to support research on endangered languages

Keith Langston, Professor of Linguistics, was recently awarded a three-year, $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study endangered languages on the Istrian peninsula of Croatia and the Kvarner Bay in the northern Adriatic Sea. The project, supported by the NSF Dynamic Language Infrastructure–NEH Documenting Endangered Languages program, seeks to document and analyze endangered language varieties in the Istria and Kvarner…

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Decoding Silence

Sometimes the meaning is in what you don’t say rather than in what you do say. For example, unlike English, many East Asian languages, as well as European languages including Spanish and Italian, don’t always use pronouns, such as I, he, she, it, him, or her. In English the answer to the question, “Did John see Mary?” is “He saw Mary.” But in Chinese the answer can simply be “Saw Mary.” A team led by University of Georgia researchers has been…

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Kudos, February 2022

Students lead our roundup of Franklin College awards, accolades, and achievements announced during February – though not to be outdone by our outstanding alumni!  Congratulations all: Shannon Rodriguez, Ph.D candidate in linguistics, studies a dialect of English spoken by Latinos born in Georgia, a particular blend of Southern drawl. She recently presented her dissertation on the topic “Latino English in Georgia: a sociophonetic…

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Studying the impact of language on identity

Shannon Rodriguez studies a dialect of English spoken by Latinos born in Georgia, a particular blend of Southern drawl, clipped Latino vowels and a more general mainstream American accent. Speakers pull features from each to emphasize different parts of their identity. In January, she presented her dissertation on the topic “Latino English in Georgia:  a sociophonetic analysis of ethnicity and identity” to the board of regents. The…

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Physical basis of language comprehension

With an assist from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, researchers are getting a better handle on where and how the brain assembles individual words into full sentences when a person listens to a story being read. In a new study, an international team of researchers, including a UGA cognitive scientist, report that a computational model based on the concept of "phrase structure” most closely matches functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)…

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Virtual German Exchange Program

A virtual exchange between an American and a German peer, the summer term of the UGA Linguistics / Germanic & Slavic Studies exchange program with the University of Hannover, Germany began May 20. As an additional opportunity to work on their German language skills, returning UGA exchange participants and other students who are interested can sign up for the Skype/Zoom Tandem program, which is offered twice a year, once toward…

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Franklin faculty members receive 2019 Russell Awards

Three faculty members in the Franklin College, all former Lilly Teaching Fellows, have been named recipients of the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the university’s highest early career teaching honor: Vera Lee-Schoenfeld, associate professor of linguistics: Lee-Schoenfeld uses an inductive approach to her introductory and advanced syntax courses that guides students to collaboratively explore and analyze…

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Kudos, August 2018

The summer break was glorious but Franklin College faculty, students and alumni never take time off from awards, honors, new books and fellowships. A sample from recent weeks: Professor of psychology and director of the Primate Behavior Laboratory Dorothy Fragaszy was presented with the Distinguished Primatologist Award by the American Society of Primatologists.  The award honors a primatologist who has had an…

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Shepherd in WAPO

Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and Geography J. Marshall Shepherd addressed the debate (and political gamesmanship) surrounding cuts to NASA's earth science budget in the Washington Post last week: NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, one of the few people that has actually seen our home planet from the vantage point of space, issued a statement noting that proposed cuts, “gut our Earth science program and…
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