All posts by Caitlin April Ellen Halfacre

Journal of Phonetics VOT special edition

Proceedings, ,

Off the back of their success in winning the Peter Ladefoged Prize at BAAP 2018, Jalal and Ghada have now had their work on VOT of Arabic stops published in the Journal of Phonetics special edition ‘Marking 50 Years of Research on Voice Onset Time’. Check it out here – “Acoustic correlates of the voicing contrast in Lebanese Arabic singleton and geminate stops”

Highlights:

  • The voicing contrast in Lebanese Arabic interacts with gemination in complex ways.
  • Closure duration is key for the voicing and gemination contrasts in medial position.
  • Voicing patterns point to [voice] as primary and [tense] as secondary feature.
  • More devoicing is seen in voiced geminates than singletons.
  • Release properties of voiced geminates align more with lenis than fortis languages.

Postdoc Position at University of Lisbon

Job Vacancies, ,

Postdoc position in experimental research on language development

Applications are invited for a full-time postdoctoral position in the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon.

The postdoctoral fellow will work in the Phonetics and Phonology lab and the Lisbon Baby Lab (http://labfon.letras.ulisboa.pt/babylab/ ) with Prof. Sonia Frota and her team on projects relating to early language development in typical, at-risk, and impaired populations. Primary duties include active engagement in the projects and the lab’s research, including knowledge transfer and training and knowledge dissemination, designing and conducting experiments, preparing findings for publication and oral presentation, laboratory management, and working with graduate and undergraduate students. Salary will be in accordance with the Portuguese Science Foundation salary scale, specifically €1495 per month (net) (http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/apoios/bolsas/valores), plus supplemental insurances. Financial support for travelling/settling is provided for researchers from outside Portugal (in the amount of €1000). The post is available for 10 months, eventually renewed until the end of the project should it be extended. The successful candidate is expected to start January 1, 2019.

The Phonetics and Phonology lab and the Lisbon Baby Lab are part of the Center of Linguistics of the University of Lisbon. The lab’s facilities include SMI RED500 and SR Research EyeLink 1000 eye trackers and a Neuroscan 64 channel EEG with the Quik cap system. The lab works with a network of collaborating partners within and outside academia (e.g., Psychology School, Medical School, hospitals, private associations, nurseries). The postdoctoral fellow will also benefit from and participate in the Annual Summer Training in Experimental Methods organised by the lab (http://labfon.letras.ulisboa.pt/summerschool/2018/en/ ).

Qualifications:

Applicants must have a Ph.D. in a relevant field, such as neurolinguistics, language acquisition, psychology, or cognitive neuroscience, and previous experience in experimental research in language perception and language processing. Good knowledge of at least some of the experimental paradigms used with EEG/ERP and/or Eye-tracking and their implementation, as well as of data extraction routines and analysis, is required. Previous experience in infant speech perception research or research with clinical populations is desirable. A background in statistics, applied mathematics, or programming skills will be a plus. Proficiency in English is required. Knowledge of Portuguese or of other Romance language (e.g., Catalan, Spanish, Italian, French) is an advantage.

To Apply:

Please e-mail your CV, a motivation letter (max. 2 pages), a copy of your personal identity document, of your PhD certificate and of your PhD thesis, together with one representative publication and names and contact details of two referees, to labfon@letras.ulisboa.pt and sfrota@campus.ul.pt

Closing date: November 23, 2018

Contact Name: Prof. Sonia Frota

More details available at http://www.eracareers.pt/opportunities/index.aspx?task=global&jobId=105433

Phonetics and Phonology on tour… #BAAP2018

Conferences, , , ,

On 12-14th April 2018 a number of us from the Phonetics and Phonology Research Group went to the BAAP 2018 Colloquium at the University of Kent. We had 5 posters (Dan, Wael, Hajar, Hana, Nief) and 3 talks (Jalal & Ghada, Jalal, Ourooba) over the 3 days, and also learnt a lot and met some fascinating people, all in the beautiful setting of the historic cathedral city of Canterbury (I’m completely biased, it’s my hometown).

Twitter was very active in the 3 days and I’ve created a ‘Moment’ which documents some highlights. Take a look at the link below.

Particular congratulations should go to Ghada and Jalal, who won the Peter Ladefoged Prize, for the work that best captures the spirit of the work of the late Peter Ladefoged.