Andrea Sims, professor in the Department of Linguistics, will give a lecture titled "Modeling trees, theorizing forests: From local to system-level linguistic organization."
Linguistic typologists theorize about the nature of language by comparing properties of languages and building explanatory models of identified patterns. Broadly speaking, explanation comes from the interaction of two types of factors: the cognitive principles that determine how speakers make generalizations about their language, and the linguistic data over which they make those generalizations. While the field has focused primarily on the first of these, in this talk I argue for more attention to the latter. The generalizations speakers make about morphology are local in scale, reflecting the influence of similar words (‘neighbors’). I show that the relationship between this local organization and system-level properties of the sort that interest typologists is not straightforward but can be quantitatively modeled using tools from network science. I consider how this approach can aid in theorizing about system-level morphological organization in the world’s languages.
Inaugural lectures celebrate Arts and Humanities faculty who have been promoted to the rank of professor. All lectures are held in the Faculty Club Grand Lounge from 4-6 p.m. and are preceded by a reception and followed by Q&A and discussion. All lectures are free and open to the public.
The Arts and Humanities Inaugural Lecture Series is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences.
