Talk by Tom Fritzsche (University of Potsdam), Tuesday 12th, 2-4 pm

We are very happy to announce the next talk in the Recent Trends in Language Acquisition Colloquium, which will take place on Tuesday, February 12, 2 – 4 pm in IG 3.301. Tom Fritzsche will present "Data analysis with linear mixed models: A practical example from language acquisition". Abstract: Linear mixed-effects (LME) models have become the standard in analysing psycholinguistic and psychological data. Compared to t-tests and ANOVAs LME models offer numerous advantages but also require additional attention for specifying a model as each can (and needs to) be tailored to the structure (and the amount) of the data. Advantages and challenges will be discussed using a specific data set: Szendrői et al. (2017). The paper along with the code is available online (links below). The purpose of this presentation is to go through the analysis of this study in R and address questions regarding: - model specification - contrast coding - fixed & random components - factors & continuous predictors - model evaluation and selection - limits...
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Talk by Markus Bader, Yvonne Portele, and Alice Schäfer, Tuesday 29th, 2-4 pm

We are very happy to announce the next talk in the Recent Trends in Linguistic Research Colloquium, which will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2 – 4 pm in IG 0.251. Markus Bader, Yvonne Portele and Alice Schäfer will present "From word order to interpretation -- effects of referential form on language production and comprehension". Abstract: Our talk gives an overview of our recent research concerning the production and interpretation of different referential expressions. The main focus lies on the distinction between personal pronouns on the one hand and demonstrative and d-pronouns (dieser/der) on the other hand. With regard to sentence production, we show that the likelihood and acceptability of sentences with non-canonical word order does depend not only on the discourse status of the various referents (e.g., given versus new) but also on the referential form that is used to refer to them. In particular, under identical discourse conditions, objects are more easily preposed when they are realized as d-pronouns. With regard...
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Talk by Horst Lohnstein on January 24th, 4-6 pm

Horst Lohnstein will give a talk in the Semantics Colloqium on January 24th, 4-6 pm in IG 4.301. You are cordially invited! Title: (In-)Finitheit und die Konsequenzen Abstract: Finitheit ist eine grammatische Kategorie, die sich durch die Subkategorien Tempus, Modus und Agr konstituiert. Infinitheit weist diese Subkategorien nicht auf. Entsprechend werden infinite bzw. semi-finite (Imperative) Konstruktionen anders interpretiert als finite. In dem Vortrag geht es um die Charakterisierung selbstständiger Satztypen auf syntaktischer und semantischer Ebene und die entsprechenden flexionsmorphologischen Markierungen. Das Zusammenspiel der verschiedenen Komponenten führt zu einer Theorie der Verbzweit-Stellung und der linken Satzperipherie. Unter evolutionärer Perspektive deuten sich verschiedene Konsequenzen für die Entwicklung der Menschheit an....
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