"Signals and Symbols in Linguistic Variation and Change"
This afternoon I'm scheduled to give a talk at the CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Avenue, Room 9205), with the title "Signals and Symbols in Linguistic Variation and Change". The abstract:
Words are digital symbols transmitted as acoustic signals. The word sequence in an utterance is encoded by a phonological system whose symbol-facing side connects to morpho-syntax, while its signal-facing side controls articulation and perception. This "duality of patterning" (Hockett) or "double articulation" (Martinet) has crucial and little-recognized benefits for accurate transmission, lexical learning, and community convergence. It also raises serious and rarely recognized questions for phonological theory, including the nature of phonetic interpretation and the role of extra-phonological communication. This talk will explore these aspects of phonology, while also discussing the end-to-end nature of many contemporary AI systems.
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