Tokyo-Frankfurt Phonetics-Phonology Colloquium: 2nd edition

We are happy to announce the second edition of the Tokyo-Frankfurt Phonetics-Phonology Colloquium Room: Online (please contact Alina at gregori@lingua.uni-frankfurt.de for access) Date: February 6th Time: 9-12 The colloquium is a collaboration between the Phonology groups at International Christian University in Tokyo and Goethe University Frankfurt, lead by Seunghun Lee and Frank Kügler. It brings together Early Career Researchs to exchange and discuss about the Phonological topics. Program: 09.00 Seunghun J. Lee (ICU) & Frank Kügler (GU) Opening 09.05 Ren Hasegawa (ICU) Tonal Iconicity Study of Xitsonga: observing correlation of weight, speed and height 09.30 Manuel Lipstein (GU) Timing or privativity? New perception data on the representation of Urban East Norwegian tonal accents 10.00 Haruka Yatabe (ICU) Disyllabic words in Niigata Japanese follow a Prosodic Template 10.30 Sotaro Arakaki (ICU) The Phonetic Analysis of...
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A talk by Heidi Klockman (University of Agder)

We are happy to announce a talk by Heidi Klockman (University of Agder) in the Historical Linguistics Colloquium. The talk will take place online and in English. Date: February 5th, 2026 Time: 2pm - 4pm c.t. Place:  https://uni-frankfurt.zoom-x.de/j/68838298277?pwd=e8ONY8oIWw7ani8jprI3bkhdUD8FCy.1  Title:  "The noun-to-quantifier shift in English and Polish quantificational pseudopartitives" Abstract:  This talk will reflect on the process by which a noun becomes a quantifier, drawing empirically on ongoing corpus work into English and Polish quantificational pseudopartitives (QPsPs). The QPsP refers to a binominal construction in which one noun (N1) quantifies over another noun (N2), as in English an ocean of ideas and lots of money or Polish kupaNOM robotyGEN ‘a heap/lot of work’. The QPsP has been a source of interest for cognitive-functional and generative linguists alike: how does a quantificational meaning arise? What changes do the N1 and QPsP undergo as grammaticalization progresses? What is the underlying syntactic structure producing the morphosyntactic properties of QPsPs? Work on English has investigated such questions primarily through advanced N1s such...
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Talk by Marius Wecker (Bochum) in the Semantics Colloquium

We are happy to announce a talk by Marius Wecker (Bochum) in the Semantics Colloquium. The talk will take place on campus in IG 4.301. If you wish to participate virtually via Zoom, please contact Lennart Fritzsche for the link.  Date: January 29, 2025 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm c.t. The talk will be held in German.  Title: (Diskurse)-Commitments als Elemente politischer Positionierung. Ein theoretischer Ansatz zur Verknüpfung von formaler Pragmatik und Diskursanalyse  Abstract:  Pragmatik und Diskursanalyse repräsentieren zwei unterschiedliche Paradigmen innerhalb der Linguistik, was sich maßgeblich aus ihren jeweiligen ideengeschichtlichen Verortungen erklären lässt. Während die Pragmatik in der angloamerikanischen Tradition der analytischen Philosophie verankert ist, weist die Diskursanalyse – insbesondere in ihrem Rückgriff auf Foucault – deutliche Bezüge zu kontinentalphilosophischen Denkströmungen auf. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, beide Ansätze systematisch miteinander zu verbinden, da davon ausgegangen wird, dass sich ihre unterschiedlichen theoretischen Perspektiven und methodischen Zugänge wechselseitig fruchtbar ergänzen. Zu diesem Zweck greife ich mit dem Table-Model (Farkas & Bruce 2010) und dem Begriff des Commitments (Geurts 2019;...
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Talk by Caroline Féry

We are happy to announce a talk by Caroline Féry in the Phonology Colloquium. Room: IG 4.301 Date: Wednesday January 28th Time: 16-18 ct. Title: On Negative Verum Answers Abstract: Höhle (1988, 1992) introduced the notion of Verum Fokus, nowadays often called Polarity Focus, see also (Lohnstein 2012, Goodhue 2018 and many others). The focus is put on the affirmative or negative content of a sentence and is expressed by a nuclear accent on the finite part of the verb (or on Comp), see (1B). (1) A: I asked Hanna what Karl is doing these days and she made the silly claim that he is writing a screenplay. B: Das stimmt. Karl schreibt ein Drehbuch. ‘It is true. Karl is writing a screenplay.’ I am interested in cases such as (2B), also from Höhle (1988), in which the sentence is negated, but the nuclear accent is still on the finite verb. (2) A: I hope Anna finally writes a book. B: Aber Karl sagte mir, sie schreibt nicht an einem Buch. ‘But Karl told me she...
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Talk by Christoph Bracks (GU, Southeast Asia Studies)

We are happy to announce a talk by Christoph Bracks in the Phonology Colloquium. Room: IG 4.301 Date: Wednesday January 14th Time: 16-18 ct. Title: Phonetics, Segmental and Suprasegmental Phonology of Totoli Abstract: This talk presents key aspects of the phonetics, phonology, and prosody of Totoli, an Austronesian language, based on a forthcoming Illustration of the IPA paper to appear in the Journal of the International Phonetic Association (JIPA). As a novelty within the Illustration of the IPA genre, the paper places particular emphasis on prosody. Totoli exhibits several typologically unusual features for the region, including phonemic length contrasts in both vowels and consonants, as well as distinct allophonic realizations of /l/. These include, among other features, compensatory lengthening when in word-final position, which may give rise to potential triple-length contrasts. Furthermore, the prosodic systems of Austronesian languages remain comparatively understudied. Hence, the prosodic features observed in Totoli may offer a useful point of departure for further comparative research toward a more comprehensive understanding...
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