Bonus 72: Singapore, New Zealand, and a favourite linguistics paper - 2023 Year Ahead Chat (Patreon)

In this bonus episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about what we've been up to in 2022 (much travel for Gretchen, with linguistic impressions of Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand!) and what's coming up for 2023 (a second tiny human, er, longitudinal language acquisition project for Lauren, which means you'll get a few more interview episodes from Gretchen's travels). 

We also talk about our favourite linguistics paper that we read in 2022 slash possibly ever: okay, yes, academic papers don't typically do this, but this paper has spoilers, so we STRONGLY recommend reading it yourself before listening to this episode. It's only three pages long, you don't need any technical background, and we promise it's worth it. Here's the first section, do at least glance at it even if you're not going to click the link: 

The orthography of English has a very simple basis for establishing where words in written texts begin and end: both before and also after every word are empty spaces and this demarcation surely helps the reader comprehend. In a spoken text, however, as presented to a hearer, such explicit segmentation cues are rarely to be found; little pauses after every single word might make things clearer, but the input is continuous - a running stream of sound. This implies that part of listening involves an operation whereby input is segmented, to be processed word by word, for we cannot hold in memory each total collocation, as most sentences we come across are previously unheard. 

Yet we listeners experience no sense of some dramatic act of separating input into pieces that are known; as we listen to an utterance it seems unproblematic-words in sentences seem just as clear as words that stand alone. Just how listeners accomplish such an effortless division is a question that psychologists have now begun to solve, and this paper will describe (although with minimal precision) some experimental studies showing what it might involve. The findings, as this summary explains, at once can vindicate the order of the problem and the hearer’s sense of ease, for though speech must be segmented, yet the data plainly indicate that rhythm in the input makes segmenting speech a breeze. (Here's a pdf of the whole Anne Cutler paper.)

Announcements:
We’re doing another Lingthusiasm liveshow! February 18th at 4pm (Montreal time) slash 19th at 8am (Melbourne time)! (What time is that for me?) We'll be returning to one of our fan-favourite topics and answering your questions about language and gender with returning special guest Dr. Kirby Conrod! We’ll be hosting this session for patrons on the Lingthusiasm Discord server. It will also be available as an edited-for-legibility recording in your usual Patreon live feed if you prefer to listen at a later date. In the meantime: ask us questions or tell us about your favourite examples of gender in various languages in the comments on this post and we might include them in the show! If you have access to this bonus episode on Patreon, you already have access to the liveshow, just make sure you have your Patreon and Discord accounts connected (you can make a free Discord account if need be).

We always post updates about the podcast here on Patreon, but if you're looking to keep up with the show in other places, we're on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and now Mastadon! You can also sign up to our newsletter to get the latest news to your inbox. 

Here are the links mentioned in this episode:

• We're doing another liveshow! All about gender and language
• Our liveshow is part of Lingfest 2023! and comes just after LingComm23, a conference for people doing linguistics communication 
• Superlinguo linguistic job interview list 
• Language Log post about Anne Cutler
• 'The perception of rhythm in language' by Anne Cutler (read this before you listen to the episode to avoid spoilers! It's only 3 pages long)
• A pdf download option for 'The perception of rhythm in language'
• Gretchen's tweet about Anne Cutler's Christmas letter
• Anne Cutler's 1989 Christmas letter (spoilers for the episode)
• Taskmaster New Zealand 
• Official languages of Singapore (Wikipedia) 
• Lingthusiasm episode 'Pop culture in Cook Islands Māori - Interview with Ake Nicholas' 

You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript of this episode is available as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and Mastodon. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page. Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

To chat about this episode and other lingthusiastic topics with your fellow linguistics fans, join us on the Lingthusiasm Discord server.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, and our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.