Talk by Alina Gregori (GU) in the Phonology colloquium

We are happy to announce a talk by Alina Gregori in the Phonology Colloquium. Room: IG 4.301 Date: Wednesday November 12th Time: 16-18 ct. Title: Individual strategies in multimodal hyperarticulation Abstract: Hyperarticulation refers to speakers adapting their articulation to the communicative needs of their interlocutor. Speakers enhance specific features to highlight certain elements or reduce others if the context allows (hypoarticulation). This has been found for acoustic features, and recently also for prosody-gesture interaction (Gregori & Kügler, under revision), licensed by focus and background contexts. These findings led to the conclusion that hyperarticulation is not a unimodal phenomenon but can be applied in multiple modalities. Following that finding, this study addresses whether individual speakers use hyperarticulation strategies similarly, if they prefer a strategy and if they combine them to highlight information in focus. Drawing on data from Gregori & Kügler (under revision), individual hyperarticulation is examined from a German conversational corpus. Results reveal that multimodal hyperarticulation is more stable than prosodic hyperarticulation is, as the...
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Talk by Janika Kunzmann (Mainz University) in the Phonology Colloquium

We are happy to announce a talk by Janika Kunzmann in the Phonology Colloquium. Room: IG 4.301 Date: Wednesday November 5th Time: 17-18 st. Title: On the tonal system of Mbum - Insights from fieldwork in Cameroon Abstract:  This talk presents preliminary insights from an ongoing study of the tonal system of Mbum, a Cameroon- Ubangian language spoken in Cameroon. Drawing on data collected through both on-site and remote fieldwork conducted as part of a doctoral project in descriptive linguistics, the presentation examines key features of Mbum’s tonal system, including a two-level tonal contrast, the presence of various toneless elements, polarity rules, and instances of grammatical tone, as well as how these phenomena are approached in this study. The talk further discusses the challenges and strategies involved in preparing and organizing fieldwork data from scratch for tonal analysis. Overall, it aims to offer a window into the methods, approaches, and preliminary findings that shape a fieldwork-based tonal study of a little-documented and hardly accessible...
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Talk by Jonas Grünke (Regensburg University) in the Phonology Colloquium

We are happy to announce a talk by Jonas Grünke in the Phonology Colloquium. Room: IG 4.301 Date: Wednesday July 16th Time: 16-18 ct Title: When intonation meets intonation: Evidence from Catalan-Spanish bilingualism and other contact settings Abstract:  Language contact often leads to mutual influence, with prosody frequently said to be particularly susceptible to such effects. However, detailed studies on prosodic transfer remain relatively scarce. In this talk, I examine intonational influence between Catalan and Spanish, showing how both languages shape each other prosodically in bilingual speakers. I argue that current patterns of variation can only be understood when taking into account language dominance in these speakers’ repertoires. In addition to this case study, I will discuss further examples of prosodic contact effects in minority and heritage languages (e.g., Judeo-Spanish) as well as in third language acquisition (L3 French), aiming to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of prosody in multilingual settings....
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Talk by Aleksandra Ćwiek (ZAS Berlin)

We are happy to announce a talk by Aleksandra Ćwiek in the Phonology Colloquium. Room: IG 4.301 Date: Wednesday May 21st 2025 Time: 16-18 ct Title: Vocal iconicity and... what beats the bouba-kiki effect? Abstract:  Iconicity is a fundamental phenomenon where a form resembles its meaning, bridging perception and communication across modalities. While iconicity has been widely accepted in gesture and sign language research, the iconic potential of vocal communication has often been questioned. This talk delves into vocal iconicity, showcasing that sounds can convey meaning far beyond traditional language boundaries. Drawing on cross-linguistic research on novel vocalizations, I demonstrate the expressive power of vocal iconicity. The second part of the talk explores cross-modal correspondences, where sensory modalities interact to form iconic mappings, such as associating shapes with sounds. I begin by presenting the classic bouba-kiki paradigm, which demonstrates a cross-modal correspondence between vision and sound bridged across cultures by iconicity. I then move on to a recent study revealing that trilled [r] is associated...
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