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Linguistically Aware
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Hosted by PhD student, Brooklyn Sheppard, Linguistically Aware brings in linguists - experts who study language - to talk about the ways in which language and linguistics interact with our daily lives. From how children and adults learn their first or second languages to how linguistics plays a role in rap music, Linguistically Aware makes the scientific study of language a fun and accessible journey for everyone!
26 Episodes
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More Than Words: Inferences Beyond Language with Dr. Lyn Tieu
In this episode, guest host Jesse Weir sits down with Dr. Lyn Tieu (University of Toronto) to talk about how we make meaning from more than just words. From gestures to emojis, Dr. Tieu’s research explores the surprising ways people draw inferences from non-linguistic cues. Tune in to rethink what counts as "language" in communication!
The Secrets of Sarcasm: Exploring Voice Pitch and Perception
Want to learn the secrets behind sarcasm? In this episode, Brooklyn talks about her ongoing research on the perception of sarcasm. Specifically, she talks about a study where she had speakers vary the pitch of their voice in a very systematic way, and then asked listeners to rate how sarcastic it sounded to better understand what it is in someone’s voice that makes them sound sarcastic or not!
From Bengali to English: The Sounds That Challenge Our Ears with Sazzad
In this episode, Brooklyn sits down with Syed Sazzad Alam, a PhD student at the University of Calgary that studies phonetics - the study of speech sounds. In this interview, Sazzad talks about some of his research on how native English speakers perceive unfamiliar sounds from his own native language, Bengali!
Let’s Talk Time: Francisco Ongay on Language and the Expression of Time
In this episode, Brooklyn sits down with Francisco Ongay, a current PhD student studying syntax at the University of Calgary. Francisco studies how we use language to express time, whether it be past versus present (e.g., “I slept” versus “I will sleep”) or the duration of an event (e.g., “I slept for 8 hours”). In this interview Francisco talks about how we express time in several languages of the world!
The Gender Factor: How Bias Shapes Linguistics Research with Jesse Weir
In this episode, Brooklyn sits down with Jesse Weir, a current PhD student studying syntax at the University of Calgary. Jesse shares some brand new research on how gender bias in linguistics experiments might actually change the results of the experiment!
Decoding Ambiguity: Cheryl Iwanchuk on Inferences and Interdisciplinary Linguistics (Part 2)
In these second part of our interview with Cheryl, Brooklyn asks her why she thinks she got the results she did in her recent study on how adults and children differ in their ability to infer the meaning of a sentence when it might be ambiguous.
Additionally, Brooklyn and Cheryl discuss the inherent interdisciplinary nature of linguistics and how it’s related to so many fields including psychology, philosophy, math, physics, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence!
Little Minds, Big Inferences: Cheryl Iwanchuk on Children's Understanding of Ambiguity (Part 1)
In this episode, Brooklyn sits down with Cheryl Iwanchuk, a current Master’s student in linguistics to talk about her research on how children acquire the ability to make inferences from ambiguous language. We talk about what “contrastive inferences” are and the differences between kids and adults in the way they understand these types of inferences!
Linguistic Legends: Myths, Gender, and the Rise of AI with Dr. Jila Ghomeshi & Dr. Ivona Kucerova
In this very special episode, we have a double feature - that means not one but TWO interviews with well-known linguists here in Canada.
Our first guest is Dr. Jila Ghomeshi - a professor of linguistics at the University of Manitoba. She sits down with Brooklyn to talk about her career journey, her research, and to debunk her favourite myths about linguistics.
Our second guest is Dr. Ivona Kucerova from McMaster University. Dr. Kucerova sits down with a guest host, Francisco Ongay, to discuss her research on how gender is represented in language and her applied work on language revitalization.
Interestingly, both our guests today had something to say about ChatGPT and why these new large language models are so intriguing!
Stress Test: Unpacking Perception and Production in Arabic with Summer Abdalla
In this episode, Brooklyn sits down with Summer Abdalla - a recent graduate from the MA program in Linguistics. In this interview, Summer breaks down her research for her Master's thesis where she found that the way speakers of Arabic perceive word stress in their language might not match up with the way they actually produce it!
Pitch Perfect: The Art of Speech, Rap, and Rhyme with Charys Russel
Join our new host, Brooklyn, as she sits down with Charys Russel - a current MA student in Linguistics at UofC. Charys uses both her expertise in linguistics and musical theory to tell us about how pitch is used in speech versus music, and how rap artists may change the pitch of their voice enhance or even create rhymes in their verses!
In this episode, Dusan talks about the Speech Language Therapy and its connection to the knowledge of Linguistics, more specifically Phonetics, a study that explores how speech sounds are produced and perceived.
In this episode, I talk to Stephen Winters, an expert on Phonetics - the subfield of Linguistics exploring the ways speech sounds are produced and perceived. We talk about voice qualities and certain stereotypes that go along with voice qualities and their perception. We also touch upon Adele, our love for Phonetics, a bit of baseball and more.
How do we perceive voices?
This episode is about the ways we perceive different types of voices. In this episode, Dusan speaks with a U of Calgary assistant professor, Stephen Winters, about distinct voice qualities and how they are perceived in society.
This month's episode is about the use of gender-specific pronouns in language and research, and how they influence the way we think about gender roles in society.
Dusan Nikolic speaks with Dr. Dennis Storoshenko from the University of Calgary about gender stereotyping issues and the perception of pronouns.
In this episode, I talk about linguistic variation and sociolinguistics, the field of Linguistics that explores how language and society are intertwined.
30-minute long podcast about languageThis episode is about a language property we call 'stress', and how it plays out as a plot trigger in the movie The Conversation.
In this episode, I talk about human vs. non-human communication and how language is similar but still different from animal forms of communication. I also play good old Serbian punk rock music.
This episode features common misconceptions about Linguistics and language use in general.
In this episode, Dusan speaks with Lyndon Rey about the ways speech recognition models work and how speech recognition is being used in industry. They touch upon the systems for analyzing speech and talk briefly about artificial intelligence systems.
This is the seventh episode of Linguistically Aware in which Dusan talks to Dr. Mary O'Brien about accents, language learning and teaching. They debunk several myths such as why it is wrong to have accent reduction courses, whether children are better learners of a language than adults, whether one can learn a language in six months, and many more. Just sit back, listen and enjoy.
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