Author Archives: Kenny

LEC meeting 14th June: talk by Andrea Ravignani

By Kenny | June 10, 2013

Andrea will be giving a talk about his ongoing modelling and experimental workwork: “Who’s got Rhythm?: Understanding the Roots of Musical Timing Abilities”. Friday 14th, 4pm, DSB 3.10. Abstract below. —– “Who’s got Rhythm?: Understanding the Roots of Musical Timing Abilities” Rhythm and synchronization are important concepts in musicology, linguistics, biology and physics. In this [...]

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LEC meeting 11th June: talk by Niki Ritt

By Kenny | June 7, 2013

Niki will be giving a talk on “Accommodation & Grammaticalization: or how syntactic structures become obligatory”, Tuesday 11th, 11am, DSB 1.17, abstract below. —– “Accommodation & Grammaticalization: or how synatic structures become obligatory” This talk tries to relate the insight that grammaticalisation processes often come to embed lexical items into rigid syntactic structures with accomodation theory. Accomodation [...]

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ELC Masterclass 6th-7th June: “Primate communication: links to human language”

By Kenny | May 30, 2013

Dr. Katie Slocombe (York) is in town on the 6th and 7th June, and will give a masterclass on “Primate communication: links to human language”. These lectures are aimed at students on the Masters in the Evolution of Language and Cognition, but everyone is welcome to attend – places are limited by the size of the [...]

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LEC meeting 4th June: talk by Matt Spike

By Kenny | May 30, 2013

Matt Spike (1st year PhD student) will be giving this week’s LEC talk, on “What can linguistic convention tell us about the cultural evolution of language?”. Tuesday 4th June 11am, DSB 1.17. Abstract below. “What can linguistic convention tell us about the cultural evolution of language?” While every human language is highly systematic, no two [...]

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LEC meeting 31st May: talk by Christian Rutz

By Kenny | May 30, 2013

In a bonus LEC talk, Christian Rutz (St Andrews) will talk about his work with New Caledonian Crows. Friday 31st, 11am, DSB 1.17.

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ELC Masterclass 23rd-24th May: “Language change as cultural evolution”

By Kenny | May 30, 2013

Prof. Nikolaus Ritt (Vienna), who is visiting us for 6 months, will give a masterclass on “Language change as cultural evolution”. These lectures are aimed at students on the Masters in the Evolution of Language and Cognition, but everyone is welcome to attend – places are limited by the size of the room though, so [...]

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LEC meeting 14th May: talk by James Winters

By Kenny | May 10, 2013

James Winters, who is in the first year of his PhD with us, will be giving a talk: “It’s all just noise: Redundancy as a lower-bound on the emergence of systematicity”, Tuesday 14th May, 11am, DSB 1.17. Abstract below. For this talk I will discuss the concept of redundancy and how it relates to the [...]

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LEC meeting 7th May: talk by Kevin Stadler

By Kenny | May 2, 2013

This week’s talk will be given by Kevin Stadler, who is in the 1st year of his PhD with us. “Everything you always wanted to know about modelling language change”, Tuesday 7th May, 11am, DSB 1.17. Abstract below. “Everything you always wanted to know about modelling language change” In this talk I will give an [...]

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LEC meeting 30th April: talk by Catriona Silvey

By Kenny | April 25, 2013

Cat will be giving a talk on her latest experiments: “The effects of communication on category structure”, Tuesday 30th April, 11am, DSB 1.17. Abstract below. “The effects of communication on category structure” Words divide the world into labeled categories. Languages vary in the categories they label, sometimes to the point of making cross-cutting divisions of [...]

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LEC meeting 26th April: talk by Nikolaus Ritt

By Kenny | April 22, 2013

A bonus Friday talk by Prof. Nikolaus Ritt, who is visiting us from Vienna. “Modeling English word stress in terms of evolutionary game theory”, Friday 26th April, 4pm, DSB 1.17. Abstract below. “Modeling English word stress in terms of evolutionary game theory” The paper is assumes that a theory of cultural evolution, involving the iterated [...]

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