Seminar in Psycholinguistics: Advanced Topics

Adaptation to speaker variability in language use has receivedincreasing attention in recent years from linguists and psychologistsalike, who have recognized that, though long ignored, it poses a problemfor static theories of language. The course will present a broad surveyof recent work in this area across levels of linguistic representation,including phonetic, lexical, syntactic, prosodic, and semanto-pragmaticadaptation. We will discuss the cognitive underpinnings of adaptationand its relation to priming and learning, compare adaptation in varyingdomains, and consider the implications for theories of language andcommunication. The course will be organized primarily around discussionof assigned readings. Students will develop a research proposal relevantto issues in adaptation. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: LINGUIST 145 or background in any subfield of linguistics