foNETiks
A
network newsletter
for
the International Phonetic Association
and
for the Phonetic Sciences
December
2004
************************************************
Editors:
Linda
Shockey, University of Reading, UK <[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]>
Gerry
Docherty, University of Newcastle, UK <[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]>
Paul
Foulkes, University of York, UK <[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]>
Lisa
Lim, Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands <[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]>
E-mail
address:
[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]
The
foNETiks archive can be found on the WWW at:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/fonetiks.html
Visit
the IPA web page at: http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html
**************************************
ANNOUNCEMENTS
[new ones marked
++]
[date of first appearance
follows]
**************************************
8
- 10 December 2004. 10th Australian International Conference on Speech Science
& Technology (SST2004), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. http://www.assta.org/sst/2004
(05/04)
16
- 18 December 2004. 4th International Symposium on Chinese Spoken Language
Processing (ISCSLP'04). Hong Kong, China. http://www.iscslp2004.com/ (12/03)
20
- 22 January 2005. 2nd Old World Conference in Phonology (OCP2). Tromso, Norway.
http://castl.uit.no
(08/04)
++
17 February 2005. Tips and tricks for teaching Linguistics with technology.
CILT, London, UK. (12/04) (Further details below.)
23
- 25 February 2005. Speech perception within or outside phonology? Workshop as
part of the 27th annual meeting of the German Society for Linguistics (DGfS).
Cologne, Germany. http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/events/percphon/
(08/04)
++
24 – 25 February 2005. A Century of Experimental
Phonetics: Its History and Development. Grenoble, France. [log in to unmask]
(12/04) (Further details below.)
25
- 27 February 2005. Penn
Linguistics Colloquium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. http:
www.ling.upenn.edu/Events/PLC; [log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]
(10/04)
++
19 - 23 March 2005. International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal
Processing. Philadelphia, PA, USA. http://www.icassp2005.org; [log in to unmask].
(12/04)
30
March 2005. Synchrony Meets Diachrony in Phonology. A pre-Glow phonology
workshop. Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.unige.ch/glow05 (08/04)
19
- 22 April 2005. NOLISP'05: Non-Linear Speech Processing. Barcelona, Spain. http://www.nolisp2005.org/;
[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]
(12/03)
++
25 – 27 April 2005. 5th Annual Conference on
Teaching Foreign Language Phonetics. Soczewka, near Płock, Poland. [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
(12/04) (Further details below.)
2
- 4 June 2005. 7th Annual Meeting of the French Network of Phonology (REP2005).
Mediterranean Centre for Social Sciences, Aix-en-Provence, France. http://www.lpl.univ-aix.fr/~rfp2005/;
[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask] (08/04)
15
- 17 June 2005. Plasticity in Speech Perception (PSP2005). ISCA Tutorial and
Research Workshop. Senate House, London, UK. http://www.psp2005.org.uk/
(08/04)
16
- 18 June 2005. Between Stress and Tone (BeST). Leiden, The Netherlands. http://www.iias.nl/iias/agenda/best/
(04/04)
20
- 21 June 2005. Phonetics and
Phonology in Iberia (PaPI 2005), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona,
Spain. http://seneca.uab.es/papi;
[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]
(06/04)
23
- 25 June 2005. The International Conference on Language Variation in Europe
(ICLaVE), Meertens Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. http://www.iclave.org/
(05/04)
23
- 25 June 2005. TENNET XVI
(Theoretical and Experimental Neuropsychology). Université de Quebec, Montreal,
Canada. http://www.tennet.ca (10/04)
23
- 25 June 2005.
Conference on Manner Alternations in Phonology.
Berlin, Germany. [log in to unmask]"
target=_blank>http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de; [log in to unmask]
(11/04).
23
- 26 June 2005. First International Conference on the Linguistics of
Contemporary English. University of Edinburgh, Scotland. http://www.englang.ed.ac.uk/iclce/iclce2005.html
(09/04)
++
17 – 22 July 2005. Phonology in the Cognitive Grammar Worldview. A session of
the 9th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. Yonsei University,
Seoul, Korea. http://www.iclc2005.org/; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask] (12/04) (Further details
below.)
27
- 30 July 2005. PTLC2005 Phonetics Teaching and Learning Conference. University
College London, UK. http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/johnm/ptlc2005/ptlc2005.htm;
[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]
(11/04)
31
August - 3 September 2005. The 6th Pan-European Voice Conference (PEVoC-6):
Mirroring the Voice. The Royal Academy of Music, London, UK.
http://www.pevoc6.com; info@ pevoc6.com (04/04)
4
- 8 September 2005. INTERSPEECH'2005: 9th Eurospeech Conference. Centro Cultural
de Belem, Lisbon, Portugal. http://www.interspeech2005.org/;
[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]
(08/04)
++
10 – 12 September 2005. Disfluency in Spontaneous Speech (DiSS). An ISCA
Tutorial and Research Workshop. Aix-en-Provence, France. http://www.up.univ-mrs.fr/delic/Diss05; [log in to unmask] (12/04) (Further
details below.)
25
- 27 October 2005. III Congresso de Fonetica Experimental/ 3rd Conference on
Experimental Phonetics. Santiago de Compostela, Spain. http://www.usc.es/iiicfe/index.htm;
[log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]
(11/04)
11
- 14 May 2006. International Conference on Conversation Analysis (ICCA).
University of Helsinki, Finland. [log in to unmask]&YY=53285&order=down&sort=date&pos=0">[log in to unmask]
(12/03)
++
17 – 22 September 2006. INTERSPEECH'2006 -- ICSLP. 7th INTERSPEECH event.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. http://www.interspeech2006.org/ (12/04)
(Further
details below.)
****************************************
CONFERENCES
& WORKSHOPS
****************************************
Tips and tricks for teaching
Linguistics with technology
A
free event for tutors in Higher Education
Date: 17 February
2005
Location: CILT,
London
CALL FOR
PRESENTATIONS
The
Subject Centre, in conjunction with CILT, the National Centre for Languages, is
hosting a free-of-charge, one-day workshop to explore the ways in which new
technologies can enhance the teaching of Linguistics.
We
therefore would like to invite any speakers from the HE sector who may wish to
present examples of good practice in the use of technology for teaching
Linguistics (rather than specific tools which are used for Linguistics),
e.g.
*
common tools such as the Microsoft Office suite, e.g. Word,
Powerpoint;
*
software designed specifically for supporting learning, e.g. Blackboard, WebCT
and Moodle
*
tools for creating electronic materials, e.g. concordancers, exercise generators
and web authoring software.
*
discussion lists, both email-based and online fora
Participants on the day will
be invited to bring along and present examples of materials and techniques they
have developed, but we are currently seeking items for the main core
programme.
If
you would like to present an item at this event, please contact David E Newton
at CILT ([log in to unmask] or 020 7395 0841).
David E
Newton
Higher Education Development
Officer
CILT, the National Centre
for Languages
20
Bedfordbury
London WC2N
4LB
Tel: 020 7395 0841 (Direct)
or 020 7379 5101 x266
Fax: 020 7379
5082
********************
A
Century of Experimental Phonetics: Its History and
Development
24
– 25 February 2005
Grenoble, France
On
the occasion of the centenary of the creation of the Institut de Phonétique de
Grenoble with Théodore Rosset, the Institut de la Communication Parlée (ICP)
organises in Grenoble, February 24-25, 2005, a colloquium on the history of
experimental phonetics and its most recent developments, not only in France, but
in the world at large. This conference will permit us to pay homage to John
Ohala, who, from historical and comparative phonetics to the history of
phonetics, from experimental phonetics to laboratory phonology, is an example to
us all in contemporary speech research.
********************
5th
Annual Conference on Teaching Foreign Language Phonetics
25-27 April 2005 in Soczewka
near Płock, Poland
The
conference is organized by two colleges of higher education, situated in the
centre of Poland. Its main aim is to discuss and share the experience of
phonetics teaching in relation to the development of second and foreign language
phonetic and phonology studies in Poland and abroad. We invite participants
specializing in different foreign languages; although the main conference
language is Polish, presentations in English are also invited.
For
further information please contact us:
mgr
Aneta Dłutek, [log in to unmask];
Dr
Ewa Waniek-Klimczak [log in to unmask]
PWSZ w
Płocku
ul.
Kościuszki 20
09-402 Płock,
Poland
********************
Phonology in the Cognitive
Grammar Worldview
A
session of the 9th International Cognitive Linguistics
Conference
17
– 22 July 2005
Yonsei University, Seoul,
Korea
http://www.iclc2005.org/; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
A
Theme session within the 9th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference
exploring how fundamental principles of Cognitive Grammar (prototype theory,
experiential grounding--‘embodiment’, principles of categorization, including
the concept of the ‘basic level,’ and usage-based theories) can elucidate the
organization of phonology in Language (either spoken or
signed).
********************
Disfluency in Spontaneous
Speech 2005 (DiSS05)
An
ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop
10
– 12 September 2005
Aix-en-Provence,
France
Call for
papers
Call Deadline: 8 April
2005
DiSS 05 is the 4th meeting
of the successful series of interdisciplinary workshops on Disfluency in
Spontaneous Speech. It will be held in the beautiful city of Aix-en-Provence,
France, on September 10-12, 2005 and organised by the DELIC team of the
University of Provence. The meeting is timed to allow participants at
Interspeech (Lisbon, September 4-8) to attend.
Previous meetings (Berkeley,
1999; Edinburgh, 2001; Gothenburg, 2003) have seen papers addressing normal
disfluency from a wide range of disciplines, from automatic speech recognition
and computational linguistics to linguistic analysis, psycholinguistics
(production and comprehension), and beyond. Papers comparing normal disfluencies
to those occurring in communication disorders are also welcome.
We
hope to maintain this interdisciplinary approach in 2005 and would therefore
welcome submission of 4-page papers by April 8 2005, for review. Once accepted,
papers may be revised and extended to 6 pages in preparation for publication in
the workshop proceedings.
Papers should be submitted
by email to [log in to unmask]
Preferred format for
submission will be detailed on the workshop website, shortly:
http://www.up.univ-mrs.fr/delic/Diss05
For
further information about the workshop, please visit the website or contact the
organisers at [log in to unmask]
Kind Regards,
The
DiSS Planning Team
Jean Veronis
Robert Eklund
Robin Lickley
Liz
Shriberg
Åsa
Wengelin
********************
9th
International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (Interspeech 2006 —
ICSLP)
17
– 22 September 2006
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
USA
http://www.interspeech2006.org/
The
9th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (Interspeech 2006 —
ICSLP) will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, under the sponsorship of the
International Speech Communication Association (ISCA). Since its inception as
ICSLP1990 at Kobe, Japan, Interspeech 2006 — ICSLP, follows on from Interspeech
2004 — ICSLP, in Jeju, Korea, October 2004 and Interspeech 2005 — Eurospeech
Lisbon, Portugal, September 2005. Today INTERSPEECH, the continuation of the
ICSLP and Eurospeech conferences enjoys ever-increasing impact and influence as
the focal point for the exchange of ideas in a broad array of fields centered
around human-human and human-machine speech communication.
Topics of interest for paper
submissions include:
Linguistics, Phonology and
Phonetics
Prosody
Paralinguistic &
Nonlinguistic Information in Speech
Discourse & Dialogue
Speech Production
Speech Perception
Physiology & Pathology
Language Acquisition,
Development, & Learning
Signal Analysis &
Processing
Acoustic Signal Segmentation
& Classification
Single- & Multi-channel
Speech Enhancement
Speech Coding &
Transmission
Spoken Language Generation
& Synthesis
Language/Dialect
Identification
Speech Recognition &
Understanding
Speaker Characterization
& Recognition
Multi-modal Processing
Multi-lingual Processing
Spoken Language Information
Retrieval
Spoken Language Translation
Spoken Dialogue Systems
Resources & Annotation
Assessment & Standards
Education
Technologies for Language
Learning
Technologies for the (Aged
and) Challenged
Applications
Interdisciplinary Topics in
Speech and Language
Important
dates:
13th January 2006: Proposals
for Special Sessions and Tutorials
1st
February 2006: Notification for Special Sessions and
Tutorials
7th
April 2006: 4-page paper deadline
9th
June 2006: Notification for main papers
23rd June 2006: End of early
registration
17th September 2006:
Tutorial Day
18-21st September 2006: Main
Conference
Organising
committee:
INTERSPEECH-2006 is
organized by experts in the field of speech and language processing from the
Carnegie Mellon University Language Technologies Institute and Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, the University of Pittsburgh, and other
academic and industrial organizations. It is supported by ISCA and additional
Industry affiliates.
****************************************
POSITIONS
VACANT
****************************************
PROFESSOR (FULL, ASSOCIATE
OR ASSISTANT) IN HEARING SCIENCES/AUDIOLOGY
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
GRADUATE CENTER PH.D. PROGRAM IN SPEECH AND HEARING
SCIENCES
Professor (Assistant,
Associate or Full) in Hearing Sciences/Audiology to start September 1, 2005.
Specialty may be in any area of basic or applied hearing research.
Responsibilities include establishing a state-of-the-art laboratory at The
Graduate Center, teaching doctoral courses, and supervising doctoral research.
Qualifications: earned
Ph.D., strong record of publications and extramural funding, experience
teaching/mentoring doctoral students. Salary Range: $47,331-$87,757, depending
upon experience and qualifications. A candidate of substantial merit or
accomplishment in the field who has an international reputation as a scholar may
be nominated as a Distinguished Professor, with an annual supplement of over
$20,000. Ability to help mentor students in speech science and/or language
science a plus.
Review of completed
applications will begin Dec 15, 2004.
Applicants should forward
letter, curriculum vitae, sample of recent publications, and names and addresses
of at least three references to:
Prof. Glenis Long, Chair –
Search Committee
Ph.D. Program in Speech and
Hearing Sciences
CUNY Graduate Center
365
Fifth Avenue
New
York, NY 10016-4309
USA
For
further information contact Glenis Long ([log in to unmask]).
The
City University of New York is an EO/AA/IRCA/ADA employer.
********************
OPEN RANK TENURE-TRACK
POSITION
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS,
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
The
University of New Mexico's Department of Linguistics will be hiring for a
tenure-track position, open rank. Minimum qualifications include Ph.D. in
Linguistics by the time of application and evidence of usage-based functionalist
research and teaching interest in at least two of the following three areas:
phonology, language change, morphosyntax. For complete information regarding
salary and position qualifications, you may access Faculty Postings at
http://www.unm.edu/~oeounm/facpost.html, or the department's website, http://www.unm.edu/~linguist
Application Deadline:
15-Dec-2004
The
University of New Mexico is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and
educator.
Application Address:
Nancy Montoya
MSC03 2130, LINGUISTICS
1
UNIV OF NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque NM
87131
United States of America
Contact Information:
Melissa Axelrod
, Associate Professor
Phone: (505) 277-6353
Fax: (505) 277-6355
********************
VISITING ASSISTANT
PROFESSOR/LECTURER IN PHONETICS
UNIVERSITY OF
MICHIGAN
The
Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan invites applications for
a one-year Visiting Assistant Professor/Lecturer position in phonetics beginning
in September 2005. There is a possibility that this appointment may be extended
for an additional year. We encourage applications from outstanding specialists
in any area of phonetics. A secondary specialization that combines phonetics
with another area of the discipline (e.g., laboratory phonology, sociophonetics,
or psycholinguistics) is desirable, but not required. Applicants should have
completed the Ph.D. by the time of the appointment.
A
letter of application providing details of research interests and teaching
experience, a CV, one representative publication, and three letters of
recommendation should be sent to
Dr.
Patrice Beddor, Chair,
Department of Linguistics,
The
University of Michigan,
105
S. State Street
4080 Frieze Building,
Ann
Arbor, MI 48109-1285
USA
The
search committee will begin to examine dossiers January 5th, 2005 and will
continue until the position is filled. Please email queries to [log in to unmask]
The
University of Michigan is a non-discriminatory, affirmative action employer.
********************
ONE-YEAR VISITING RENEWABLE
APPOINTMENT IN LINGUISTICS
UNIVERSITY OF
OKLAHOMA
The
University of Oklahoma announces a one-year visiting renewable appointment in
Linguistics. PhD in Linguistics, or ABD with excellent teaching experience.
Candidates should be able to teach core courses at the undergraduate level but
particularly the sound-based courses of phonetics, phonology, and if possible
historical linguistics. Teaching load is 3 courses per semester. Any research
specialty is acceptable; there is ample opportunity for research in Native
American languages. Interviews will be conducted by telephone. Women and
minorities are encouraged to apply. The University of Oklahoma is an Affirmative
Action/Equal Opportunity employer.
Application Deadline:
15-Jan-2005
Application Address:
Dr.
Marcia Haag
Dept. of Modern Languages,
Literature and Linguistics
University of
Oklahoma
780
Van Vleet Oval, Room 222
Norman OK 73019
United States of America
Contact Information:
Dr.
Marcia Haag
Phone: 405 325-1548
Fax: 405 325-0103
********************
ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE
PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF
SPEECH-LANGUAGE-HEARING SCIENCES,
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS,
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Duties &
Responsibilities:
We
are seeking a scholar to complement our research expertise. The successful
applicant also will teach undergraduate/graduate coursework and provide service
to the department, college, and university.
Required Qualifications:
Ph.D. in
Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, Speech-Language Pathology, or related
discipline by start-date of appointment. Expertise in any aspect of speech
sciences, speech disorders, experimental phonetics, neural mechanisms of speech,
or motor control. For a tenured position at the rank of associate professor
position, a scholarly publication record, evidence of ability to secure external
funding, and evidence of teaching effectiveness are required.
Appointment Conditions:
Nine-month, tenured or
tenure-track, full-time appointment.
Starting Salary:
Commensurate with
qualifications and experience.
Starting Date:
Fall Semester 2005
(08/29/05)
Application Deadline:
Review of applications will
begin on Tuesday, January 18, 2005.
Applications considered
until position is filled.
Application Instructions:
Send a cover letter that
includes clear statements of research and teaching interests, curriculum vitae,
three letters of recommendation, graduate transcript(s), copies of published and
unpublished works, and, if available, evidence of effectiveness in teaching to:
Peter Watson, Ph.D., CCC
Search Committee Chair
Department of
Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
115
Shevlin Hall
164
Pillsbury Drive SE
Minneapolis MN 55455
The
University of Minnesota is committed to the policy that all persons have equal
access to its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race,
color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, disability,
public assistance status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.
Contact Information:
Dr.
Peter Watson
Phone: 612 624-1010
Fax: 612 624-7586
********************
LECTURER,
SOCIOLINGUISTICS; LANGUAGE VARIATION AND CHANGE
DEPARTMENT: LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC SCIENCE,
UNIVERSITY OF YORK
We seek to make a tenured appointment to a Lectureship in
Sociolinguistics/Language Variation and Change. You should have a strong
commitment to research and preference will be given to candidates working with
quantitative variationist methodology, including sociophonetics, although
applications from any area of sociolinguistics are welcome. You will have a PhD
or be close to submitting a PhD dissertation in sociolinguistics and be able to
teach across a range of our undergraduate and postgraduate courses in
linguistics. You must also be able to publish in leading international journals,
raise external research funds and supervise research students.
Salary in the range £24,820- £35,883 per annum within the Lecturer scale.
Further information about the Department can be found at
http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/lang/.
For further information and application pack see the Personnel and Staff
Development Office's web pages at
http://www.york.ac.uk/univ/mis/cfm/vacancies/vac_result.cfm
Address for Applications:
Mr Ged Murray
Director of Personnel
University of York
York YO10 5DD
United Kingdom
Application Deadline: 21-Jan-2005
Contact Information:
Stephen Harlow
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +44 1904 432654
Fax: +44 1904 432673
Website: http://www.york.ac.uk/linguistics/
********************
LECTURER/SENIOR
LECTURER
DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS,
UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY, NEW ZEALAND
Applications are invited for
a tenured position at the level of Lecturer/Senior Lecturer (Lecturer is
equivalent to US Assistant Professor) in the Department of Linguistics at the
University of Canterbury. The minimum qualification on appointment is a Ph.D. in
linguistics and a strong research record or strong potential in research
publication. Candidates should be excellent teachers at both the undergraduate
and graduate levels, and be comfortable and effective with large as well as
small classes. Preference may be given to applicants with teaching and research
experience in sociolinguistics and/or phonology. Expertise in other areas of
linguistics will also be welcome.
The
Department offers courses in the core areas of linguistics for the three-year
Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees. Postgraduate teaching includes
courses for the Bachelor of Arts Honours degree by coursework, and the Master of
Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees by thesis.
Further information about
the Department is available at
http://www.ling.canterbury.ac.nz.
For
academic enquiries please contact the Department Administrator, Mrs Emma
Parnell, at [log in to unmask] Mrs Parnell will forward your
enquiry.
Further information for
prospective staff (salary scales, information about Christchurch and the
University of Canterbury, etc.) is at
http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/hr/for/prospective.shtml
Application details are
available from: www.canterbury.ac.nz/hr/vacancies.
Applications, including the
Application Form quoting LG12618/0205 must be sent to:
The
Human Resources Administrator,
College of Arts,
University of Canterbury,
Private Bag 4800,
Christchurch,
New
Zealand.
Ph:
+64 3 364 2426, Fax: +64 3 364 2683
or
by email to [log in to unmask]
The
University of Canterbury has a policy of equal opportunity in employment.
Closing Date: 1 February
2005
********************
TEST DEVELOPER
ORDINATE CORPORATION
Ordinate Corporation is
seeking bright, self-motivated candidates to develop language performance
assessments. Candidates should have a graduate degree in linguistics,
computational linguistics, or experimental psychology (an emphasis on
Phonetics/Phonology or speech production/perception is a plus), and at least two
years of experience working in industry. Ideal candidates will be able to manage
projects independently – especially the design, execution, and description of
human experimental investigations. The position requires excellent interpersonal
skills and written communication skills. Fluency in more than one language is
preferred. Exposure to educational assessment, test development, and/or speech
recognition technology is also a plus.
Ordinate Corporation
develops spoken language tests that are automatically administered and scored
using speech recognition technology. The test development group is responsible
for designing reliable and valid language tests based on theories in linguistics
and psychology, and informed by an understanding of automatic speech
recognition. Duties include writing test specifications, creating test items,
designing validation experiments, recruiting participants, analyzing data,
writing technical reports, managing consultants, presenting research results,
and working closely with other groups in the company.
For
more information about Ordinate Corporation, please visit us at
www.ordinate.com. Send a cover letter and CV or resume to jobs (at ordinate.com)
noting the name of the position.
Application Address:
Isabella Barbier
1040 Noel Drive
Menlo Park CA
94025
United States of America
Application Deadline:
15-Feb-2005
********************
LEAD COMPUTATIONAL LINGUIST
ELIZA
CORP.
You
will be responsible for the design and implementation of functionally complete
libraries of linguistic resources (including grammars and lexicons). You will
develop grammars and dictionaries for use with our state-of-the art speech
recognition engine, and will lead the efforts of other computational linguists.
Project management skills, such as the ability to create schedules and judge
schedule impacts, are required. Experience in version control and configuration
management for rolling releases into production is also required.
Candidates must be native
speakers of American English. Candidates should also possess skills in a second
language, and be sensitive to the requirements for linguistic analysis in other
languages (e.g., Spanish). He/She must be able to program in commonly used
scripting languages for research and statistical analysis.
Description:
This position is part of the
ongoing expansion at Eliza. You will maintain the Eliza recognition engines in
multiple languages, beginning with English and Spanish. Eliza provides a
dynamic, fast-paced, and results-oriented environment.
Responsibilities:
Tracking and analyzing
linguistic data from application deployments.
Training, testing, and
releasing new acoustic models.
Developing word models and
dictionaries.
Testing new tools for word
model development, tuning, and simulation.
Versioning
control/compatibility across multiple releases. Interfacing with Application
Development, Marketing and customers.
Opportunity for
language-specific R&D work (e.g., Spanish).
Documentation and reporting
of progress to the CTO and the head of production team.
Hands on technical leader,
with both development skills/responsibilities and team mentoring/leadership
roles
Required Skills:
Experience in Linguistics
(5+ years)
Background in speech
recognition
Fluent in C# or C++
Scripting languages
(JavaScript, PERL, other)
Expert user in Windows
platforms
Program/Project Management
(3+ years industry experience)
Bilingual in Spanish a plus
Excellent trouble-shooting
skills
High comfort level
interacting with sales, systems integrators, end-users, and software engineers
Ability to work effectively
both independently and as part of a larger team
Excellent organization,
communication, and interpersonal skills
Education:
-
M.S. in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science
-
M.A. or higher in Linguistics with specialization in phonetics or computational
linguistics
Application Address:
Korinne Forgione
100
Cummings Center
Beverly MA
01915
United States of America
****************
PUBLICATIONS
****************
Number 36 of the Working
Papers AIPUK of the Institute for Phonetics and digital Speech Processing at
Kiel, Germany (Arbeitsberichte des Instituts für Phonetik und digitale
Sprachverarbeitung der Christian- Albrechts- Universität zu Kiel),- edited by
Jonathan Harrington and Christine Mooshammer - is now available as a .pdf at
http//www.ipds.uni-kiel.de/
********************
Call for Papers in
Phonetica
The
Editors, Advisory Editors and Editorial Board of Phonetica recognise the need to
continue asking new questions in speech analysis and having renewed discussions
of its theoretical underpinnings. We believe that a special issue of the Journal
is an ideal platform to initiate a scientific exchange that touches on the very
essence of speech research, and we have therefore decided to edit such a volume.
The theme we propose for it is
Progress in Experimental
Phonology
From communicative function
to phonetic substance and vice versa.
This theme refers to
research into speech communication, investigating the bi-directional function –
exponency relation with experimental procedures. That seems to us to capture
fundamental issues for future investigation and will most likely attract great
interest in the field generally and among the readership of Phonetica in
particular. The following paragraphs set out the motivation and the aim for the
thematic issue and provide guidelines for contributions.
Theoretical and
methodological background
Speech research has been
working with many conceptual dichotomies. The most pervasive and at the same
time the most persistent is the fundamental partition into two disciplines,
phonetics and phonology, with their time-honoured links to the natural sciences
and the humanities/social sciences, respectively. This methodology-induced split
led to the postulates of phonetic substance vs linguistic form and of the
theoretical priority of the latter.
Another dichotomy is the one
between (linguistic) form and (communicative) function, again giving priority to
the former. Thus linguistic form assumes a pivotal role mediating between
substance and function, which entails that the substance – function link can
only be indirect. But this linguistic perspective excludes a large number of
phenomena which arguably show a direct link between phonetic substance and
communicative function, for example the 'Frequency Code', or phonation types
indexing speaker-hearer relationships.
The
prime rank attributed to linguistic form engenders another dichotomy, especially
in discussions on speech prosody, viz. the distinction between linguistic and
paralinguistic functions. For the phonetic manifestations of the former,
discrete and categorical oppositions are postulated, in accordance with the
concept of linguistic form, which gives them theoretical priority over the
continuous and gradual scaling of the latter. The central role of linguistic
function in speech has its origin in the phonology of words, where it serves the
purpose of representing lexical differentiation. But at the level of the
utterance, paralinguistic functions need to be put in focus because they are
central to communication and of great interest to the social sciences.
Then there is a traditional
dichotomy that cuts across the ones of substance, form and function, i.e. the
partition of speech into segmentals (vocal tract and excitation mode) and
suprasegmentals (fundamental frequency, intensity, duration), more particularly
into phonemes and prosodies, where the former have gained theoretical priority
and have determined the way the latter are investigated. This division plays
down the facts (1) that the separation of segmentals and suprasegmentals may be
drawn differently, giving prosodic status to articulatory properties, and (2)
that the two domains interact, with prosodies determining the manifestation of
segments, and segmental manifestations signalling prosodic categories and
boundaries. In addition, the theoretical significance of phonemic segments as
autonomous speech recognition units has been questioned.
Finally the scientific
community has become accustomed to attributing investigations either to the
field of production or of perception. This dichotomy loses sight of the central
role of the listener in speech communication. On the one hand, the speaker
produces and adjusts speech in varying contexts of situation for the listener,
and, on the other hand, not everything that is in the acoustic signal, due to
articulatory constraints, is relevant in the decoding by the listener, nor, as a
result of auditory transformation, is every acoustic property of the signal
perceived unaltered by the listener. So analyses of speech production, in corpus
as well as in experimental data, need to consider the perceptual relevance of
articulatory and acoustic patterns.
All
these dichotomies have had a great heuristic value in speech analysis, but there
comes a point where further insight seems likely to be limited if we maintain
them, i.e. the divisions need to be broken down and replaced by new
conceptualizations. Laboratory Phonology, as represented by the biennial
conference and proceedings series, has been working quite extensively at
bridging the gap between phonetics and phonology. While we believe that this
approach has substantially advanced our understanding of a large variety of
phenomena, we also believe that important aspects of speech, though not
overlooked by laboratory phonologists, need far more attention than they have
received. Especially, when the focus shifts from words of scripted speech to
unscripted, spontaneous utterances, the whole spectrum of communicative
functions, over and above linguistic form, becomes relevant, and requires new
methods, for example further development of what has already been initiated in
conversation analysis. Moreover, the dichotomies of linguistic vs paralinguistic
phenomena and functions, and of suprasegmental vs segmental properties of
speech, as well as the central role of the listener need renewed attention.
Aim
of the thematic issue
The
last two decades have seen a growing interest in collecting and annotating large
speech databases, in many languages and of various speaking styles, including
different forms of unscripted communication in a variety of scenarios.
Annotations have been orthographic, phonemically or phonetically segmental, and
prosodic, with reference to the existing dichotomies. These symbolizations are
heuristic devices to systematize large corpora for speech analysis, which now
needs to transcend the established paradigms and focus on communicative
functions in spontaneous interaction. This is the point of departure for the
scheduled thematic issue of Phonetica. The specifications for contributions,
listed below, are not an ad hoc collection of understudied phenomena but aim
instead at setting a frame for function-oriented experimental phonology,
deriving phonological structures through experimental procedures applied to
phonetic substance.
Contributions are sought
that combine the following features:
*
they look at the relationship between communicative functions and their phonetic
manifestations in production and perception, paying attention to various aspects
of:
-
prosody
-
phonation types/voice quality
-
articulation beyond the segmental phoneme
*
they are based on contextualized speech data:
-
either unscripted speech corpora from various interaction
scenarios
-
or scripted utterances embedded in contexts of situation, constructed for
systematic production and perception experiments
*
they transcend case studies and aim at deriving general communicative
patterns:
-
for a specific language
-
for culturally bound language groups
-
for human language, with reference to biological codes
*
they go beyond simple measurement in pre-established phonological
categories
*
and their aims are any of the following:
-
descriptive: presentations of data from a variety of languages
-
theoretical: contributions to a theory of speech
communication
-
methodological: new paradigms, appropriate for the analysis of speech
interaction.
Editorial guidelines and
schedule
The
total space available for the volume will be around 180 pages. So we expect
contributions of 10 to 12 printed pages each on average. Submissions need to
follow the Phonetica style sheet (cf. Instructions to Authors in any recent
issue and www.karger.com/electronic_submission) and should include Word or Latex
as well as pdf files. The dates of the editing schedule are as
follows:
by 14 February, 2005:
submission by email attachment to [log in to unmask] of an 800 word abstract, in addition to
giving title, author(s), affiliation(s), email address of main
author
28 February, 2005:
notification of authors whether the editorial team consider the proposed
papers suitable contributions to the theme, and, if so, invitation to submit
full versions for review
by 17 June, 2005:
electronic submission of Word/Latex and pdf files as attachments to [log in to unmask], to be sent out for
review
29 July, 2005:
intimation of final decision about acceptance for publication in the
special issue, including reviewers’ comments and suggestions for
revision
by 4 October, 2005:
submission of final versions – two paper copies, and disk containing
Word/Latex and pdf files
end
of 2005:
publication.
We
are looking forward very much to receiving plenty of interesting papers and to
compiling an exciting issue of Phonetica on a forward-looking
theme.
The
Editorial Team
****************************************************************
Items
for January's issue of foNETiks should reach us by 27 December
2004.
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