Meaning in Flux 2019 Conference: Connecting development, variation and change; Oct 2019 - New Haven, CT

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

The connections between meanings and the speech signals through which they are linguistically conveyed vary systematically and change systematically over time, not only across speech communities but crucially, within the same speech community. Meaning in Flux 2019 is a conference, unique in the world, that showcases cutting-edge empirical and experimental research at the intersection of language variation and change dynamics and how these dynamics are driven by and/or constrained by the human cognitive architecture and by the processes of language growth that take place during human early development (early childhood through adolescence). The specific questions of the conference are: (a) to what extent are linguistic meaning and linguistic sound dynamics construable as dynamics that emerge from and are guided by real-time implementation processes? (b) how are the actuation and propagation of these dynamics driven by discourse context and other communicative constraints? By societal pressures? (c) are there causal relations between the arcs of meaning-sound acquisition/development and change? Answers to these questions have ramifications throughout society, such as the study of language impairments and developmental disabilities, and the understanding of individual differences as they impact language use in educational settings. It also has direct implications for our understanding of lesser understood speech communities, such as those connected to developmental disabilities (i.e. Autism), societally marginalized peoples (i.e. Black, LGBTQ+), and the Deaf Signing population. Such understanding will help demonstrate that these communities are all expected manifestations of the linguistic, cognitive, and social properties of humankind, which should inform the creation of fair economic, educational, and social policy. The conference also incorporates disciplines that are guiding the creation of new tools for speech technology and improved human-machine interaction. The inclusion for this iteration of sound and speech will only amplify the potential impact that the stimulus that the conference represents can have on these applied areas of knowledge and potentially of industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.