2024
Prof. Piñango presents at FoundationsFest in Vienna, Austria, in honor of Ray Jackendoff.
Prof. Piñango (with Tom McCoy, Bob Frank, Claire Bowern, Natalie Weber and Raffaella Zanuttini) gives mini course as part of “A Scholar’s Guide to AI: The Promise and Pitfalls of Large Language Models (LLMs)”, part of Scholars as Leaders; Scholars as Learners (SAL2) Program.
Prof. Piñango and collaborators publish paper in Topics in Cognitive Science.
Clara joins the lab.
Mike, María, and Jason Shaw participated in a Symposium at the Cognitive Science Society Conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands: How does the sensory-motor brain integrate and give rise to cognition and learning? Organized by Gregor Schöner.
Teresa and María presented at the Cognitive Science Society Conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and publish Proceedings paper.
Josephine, Kirin, Toni, Lydia, and Sam graduated.
Mike and María presented at the 2024 LSA Annual Conference: Dynamic neural field model of lexical meaning predicts contextual modulation during real-time comprehension.
2023
Teresa presented at the SYNC Conference: The interaction of grammar and conceptualization during gender agreement in Spanish: The processing of Epicene Nouns.
Alessandra joined the lab.
Martín and María co-taught a course at the LSA Summer Linguistic Institute titled: Cognitive Underpinnings of Meaning Variation and Change.
Teresa presented at the XVI International Symposium of Psycholinguistics: On the gender agreement of Spanish epicene nouns: when grammar and conceptualization compete.
María featured in the Council of Latin American and Iberian Studies (CLAIS) profiles and interviews.
María presented at the CLAIS Spring Colloquia series. Understanding the many uses of ser and estar across the dialects of Spanish.
2022
June
- Karina, Catalina, and María presented their poster “Heritage Speakers innovate along an established path of diachronic change: the case of Spanish estar” at the biennial IMPRS conference series on Interdisciplinary Approaches in the Language Sciences in Nijmegen, NL on 6/3.
January
- Andy and María presented their poster “Determining the boundaries of Agent-hood: The role of Control-asymmetry” (abstract) at the Agency and Intentions Language 2 Conference (Second Annual Interdisciplinary Workshop) on 1/14.
2021
May
- Andy defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled “Linguistic variation from cognitive variability: the case of English have” to the Linguistics Department at Yale University.
2020
September
- María was profiled as a part of “Firsts and Founders in the FAS: A Series in Celebration of 50WomenAtYale150” as the first woman and the first person of color to receive tenure in the Linguistics Department. Her profile can be found here.
- Martín and María presented their paper titled ‘Meaning change from an experimental perspective: two self paced reading studies on the Spanish Imperfective domain’ at ELM (Experiments in Linguistic Meaning) 2020 on 9/18.
August
- A new article collection, co-edited by María (along with Anastasia Smirnova, Petra Schumacher, and Ray Jackendoff) launched in Frontiers. This article collection is for high-level, data-grounded work in linguistics seeking to bridge linguistic, cognitive and computational approaches to linguistic structure and the architecture that supports it.
May
- Martín published a chapter “Negation and the Brain: Experiments in health and in focal brain disease, and their theoretical implications” in The Oxford Handbook of Negation (link to online version). This was in collaboration with researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Buenos Aires, the Université Laval, and the INM-1 at the Forschungszentrum Jülich. Their chapter investigates the possible brain bases for negation by reporting an experiment on individuals with Broca’s aphasia.
March
- Andy, Catalina, Martín, Jisu, Nanyan, Garima, and María presented their poster “Individuals’ “autistic” traits predict variability in sentence comprehension performance: Linguistic
components of the Autism Quotient questionnaire” (link) at the 33rd Annual CUNY
Human Sentence Processing Conference, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Amherst,
MA.
January
- Several of our lab members presented at the Annual Meeting of the LSA in New Orleans, LA
- Martín and María: “Semantic variation and change through real-time methods: the Progressive-to-Imperfective shift in three Spanish dialects“
- Martín and Josh Phillips: Formal Approaches to Grammaticalization (session organizers)
- Andy, María, and Jisu: “The development of metonymic comprehension as the growth of context-construal ability”
2019
December
- Martín defended his Ph.D. dissertation titled “On the synchrony and diachrony of the Spanish Imperfective domain: contextual modulation and semantic change” to the Linguistics Department at Yale University.
- Martín gave an invited talk “The communicative underpinnings of synchronic dialectal variation: experimental studies in the Spanish Imperfective domain” at Utrecht University, as part of the Leiden Utrecht Semantics Happenings (LUSH) Series.
October
- We hosted the “Meaning in Flux 2019: Connecting development, variation, and change” workshop at Yale University. The booklet with the schedule of events and further information can be found here.
May
- Martín Fuchs won a student award for his presentations at the 32nd CUNY Human Sentence Processing Conference, held at Boulder, Colorado this past March 29-31, 2019.
- Martín and María presented their work at the 49th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), at the University of Georgia, in Athens, GA. Their talk, titled “Grounding grammaticalization paths in contextual constraints: The categoricalization-to-generalization process in three varieties of Spanish”, analyzes the contextual conditions that play a role in the extension of the Present Progressive marker to the habitual reading of the Imperfective in Castilian, Rioplatense, and Mexican Altiplano Spanish. Click here to read the talk’s abstract.
March
- Martín and María’s paper “Explaining the forces underpinning grammaticalization paths: The Progressive-to-Imperfective shift in three varieties of Spanish” was published in the Proceedings of the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America.
- Martín and María presented two posters at the 32nd CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. 1) “Theory of Mind and Common Ground underpin mechanisms of language variation that lead to change: the Imperfective domain across three Spanish varieties” and 2) “Contrastive informativity strength drives real-time language variation and change: an online study of the Spanish habitual in three dialectal varieties”.
January
- Martín and María presented a poster titled “Explaining the forces underpinning grammaticalization paths: The Progressive-to-Imperfective shift in three varieties of Spanish” at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society (LSA), in New York City.
2018
November
- Martín gave an invited talk titled “El dominio del Imperfectivo en español: Un paradigma experimental para la variación y el cambio semántico. Departamento de Lengua Española y Lingüística General, UNED. Madrid, Spain.
- Martín gave an invited talk titled “An experimental approach to semantic variation and change: The Imperfective domain in three dialectal varieties of Spanish. Department of Linguistics and Basque Studies, University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU). Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
- Martín gave an invited talk titled “Some communicative and cognitive pressures at play in grammaticalization paths: The case of the Progressive-to-Imperfective shift in Spanish. Department of Linguistics, KU Leuven, Belgium.
October
- Maria gave an invited talk and mentorship session titled “Cognitive ‘Drivers’ of Linguistic Meaning Variation” at “The Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1287 “Limits of Variability in Language: Cognitive, Grammatical, and Social Aspects”, at the University of Potsdam, in Germany.
- Maria gave a plenary talk titled “Cognitive Underpinnings of Linguistic Meaning Variation: the paths of the Spanish Copula System” at the “MISM4TCHES 2018: Functional Categories and Semantic Mismatches” conference, in Madrid, Spain.
- Andy, María and Ashwini Deo’s (The Ohio State University) paper “Real-time roots of meaning change: Electrophysiology reveals the contextual-modulation processing basis of synchronic variation in the location-possession domain” was published in the Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.
- Andy Zhang, Christopher Geissler, and Jason Shaw gave a talk titled “Gestural representations of tone in mandarin: Evidence from timing and alternations” at the 6th Annual Meeting of Phonology, at the University of California, in San Diego.
September
- Martín gave an invited talk titled “Variación sincrónica y cambio semántico en el aspecto imperfecto del español: de la categoricalización a la generalización, at El Colegio de México in Mexico City, Mexico.
July
- Andy, María and Ashwini Deo (The Ohio State University) presented a poster titled “Real-Time Roots of Meaning Change: Electrophysiology Reveals the Contextual-Modulation Processing Basis of Synchronic Variation in the Location-Possession Domain” at the “Psycholinguistic, Sociolinguistic and Formal Perspectives on Meaning” workshop at The University of Chicago Center in Paris.
June
- Andy, María and Sara attended the one-week course “Exploring the Human Connectome” organized by The Human Connectome Project at Oxford University.
April
- Yao-ying started a Postdoctoral Research Position in the Neuropsychology Department at the National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities in Tokyo. Kudos for this achievement, Yao-ying!
- Martín, María and Ashwini Deo (The Ohio State University) gave a talk titled “Communicative and Cognitive Principles at Work: Semantic Variation and Change in the Spanish Progressive” for the “TALV: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Language Variation” workshop at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
- Andy, María and Ashwini Deo (The Ohio State University) gave a talk titled “Real-Time Roots of Meaning Change: Electrophysiology Reveals the Contextual-Modulation Processing Basis of Synchronic variation in the Location-Possession Domain” for the “TALV: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Language Variation” workshop at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
- María, Sara and Fraibet Aveledo (University of Reading) gave a talk titled “Children’s Acquisition of Copula Use: Production/Comprehension Differences in a Developmental Path” for the “TALV: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Language Variation” workshop at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
- Sara and María gave a talk titled “Variation in Spanish Copula Use Across Dialects” for the “Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (WSS)” at Queens College, CUNY.
March
- Martín, María and Ashwini Deo (The Ohio State University) gave a talk titled “Cognitive grounding of variation and change in the Spanish Imperfective Domain” for the “21st Annual Ohio State University Congress on Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics (OSUCHiLL)” symposium at The Ohio State University.
- Sara, María and Ashwini Deo (The Ohio State University) gave a talk titled “Mechanisms of Change in Spanish Copula Use” for the “21st Annual Ohio State University Congress on Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics (OSUCHiLL)” symposium at The Ohio State University.
- Sara, María and Ashwini Deo (The Ohio State University) presented a poster titled “Contextual Search in Presupposition Satisfaction: Integrating Self-Paced Reading and ERP Data“ at the 31st CUNY Conference of Human Sentence Processing at UC Davis.
January
- Yao-ying started a Visiting Assistant Research Position at Waseda University in Tokyo. She will also be working as a Research Technician in the Neuropsychology Department at the National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities. Congratulations, Yao-ying!
2017
October
- Sara, María and Fraibet Aveledo (University of Reading, UK) gave a talk titled “Acquisition of Copula Distinction in Venezuelan Spanish” for the “Meaning in Flux: connecting development, variation and change” workshop at Yale University.
September
- Martín presented a poster titled “On Syllable Weight and Antepenultimate Stress in Spanish” at the 5th Annual Meeting on Phonology (AMP 2017) at New York University.
August
- Martín and María gave a talk titled “On the role of situational context in language variation and change: experimental evidence from Iberian, Mexican Altiplano, and Rioplatense Spanish” for the “Atomizing Linguistic Change and the Nuclear Step: From Individual Realization to Emergence” workshop at the 23rd International Conference of Historical Linguistics (ICHL 23) in San Antonio, Texas.
July
- Yao-ying gave a talk titled “Comprehending underspecified meaning: Resolving ambiguity by contextual and conceptual search” at the Japanese Society for Language Sciences 19th Annual International Conference (JSLS2017) in Kyoto, Japan.
- Yao-ying gave a talk, “Context and semantic composition of multiple dimension representations in real-time comprehension” and present a poster, “A model of semantic linguistic composition under conditions of morphosyntactic underspecification: the case of eventive iteration construal” at the IEICE Workshop of the Technical Committee on Thought and Language (IEICE-TL) in Tokyo, Japan.
March
- María, Sara, Martín, Andy, and Yao-ying presented at the CUNY 2017 conference (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts).
- Martín’s poster is titled: “Experimental evidence on the role of situational context in language change: the case of the Spanish Progressive to Imperfective shift“.
- Sara’s poster is titled: “Diachronic development through synchronic variation in copular use“.
- The title of Andy’s poster is: “A unified conceptualization for the locative & possessive comprehension of English have“.
- The title of María and Yao-ying’s poster is: “Eventive iteration construal during comprehension: one process, differing sources“.
- Maria gave a talk titled “Conceptual Underpinnings of Context Modulation in Sentence Meaning Composition: the case of English have” at the Michigan State University Linguistics Colloquium (East Lansing, Michigan).
- Andy gave a talk titled “A unified conceptual grounding for the locative and possessive meanings of English have” at the 41st Annual Penn Linguistics Conference (PLC41) at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA).
February
- María gave a talk titled “Eventive iteration construal during real-time comprehension, its neurological underpinnings and the grammar-meaning connection” at LingLangLunch at Brown University (Providence, RI).
- Sara, María, and Ashwini presented a poster titled “Copular Variation as a Gateway into their Lexico-Semantic Differences” at the “CSLI Workshop: Bridging Computational and Psycholinguistic Approaches to the Study of Meaning” at Stanford University (Stanford, CA).
2016
October
- Yao-ying and Andy gave individual presentations at the Tenth International Conference on the Mental Lexicon at the University at Ottawa (Ottawa, ON, Canada).
- Yao-ying’s talk was titled “Neurocognitive Properties of for-adverb and the Lexicon-Context Interface”.
- Andy’s talk was titled “A Unified Conceptual Grounding of the Locative and Possessive Meanings of English Have: An Offline and a Real-time Contextual Priming Study”.
- Sara, María, and Ashwini presented a poster titled “Understanding the Variation of ser/estar Across Spanish Dialects” at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium at Georgetown University (Washington D.C.).
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Martín and Sara presented at 2016 Hispanic Linguistic Symposium at Georgetown University (Washington D.C.). The program for the conference can be found here.
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Martin’s talk is titled “The progressive to imperfective shift: Empirical evidence of contextually determined variation“.
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Sara’s talk is titled “Synchronic variation of ser/estar across three Spanish varieties: An experimental investigation“.
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September
- María and collaborators’ paper “The Localization of Long-Distance Dependency Components: Integrating the Focal-lesion and Neuroimaging Record” was published at Frontiers in Psychology.
- Sara gave a talk titled “Copular variation in Spanish: Implications for the study of heritage speaker Spanish” at the Heritage Language Acquisition: Breaking New Ground in Methodology and Domains of Inquiry workshop at University of Tromsø (Tromsø, Norway).
- Sara, María and Martín gave individual talks at the conference of Cognitive Structures: Linguistic, Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives at Heinrich Heine University (Düsseldorf, Germany). The conference is convened by DFG Collaborative Research Centre 991: The Structure of Representations in Language, Cognition, and Science.
- Sara’s talk is titled “Language variation as a gateway into lexico-semantic structure: The case of copula processing across Spanish varieties”.
- Maria’s talk is titled “Towards a unified lexico-conceptual analysis for real-time metonymy composition”.
- Martín’s talk is titled “Operationalizing the role of context in language variation: The progressive to imperfective shift in Spanish”.
August
- Andy, Sara, María, and Ashwini presented posters at the “Emergent Meaning Workshop – Neural, Social, and Computational Perspectives” at Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA).
- Andy, María, and Ashwini’s poster was titled “Individual Differences Drive Word-Meaning Variation along Conceptual Structure Pathways: Contextual-Priming of the Location-Possession Continuum.”
- Sara, María, and Ashwini’s poster was titled “Spanish Speakers are Innovating: Constrained Synchronic Variation of Copula Use Across Dialects” at the “Emergent Meaning Workshop – Neural, Social, and Computational Perspectives.”
May
- Andy and María gave a talk titled “‘Are you the banana split?’: The development of metonymic processing” at the xPrag workshop “The role of pragmatic factors in child language processing” at Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany).
- Yao-Ying attended the Mayfest 2016: Context workshop at the University of Maryland (College Park, MD).
- Ashwini, Sara, and María presented a poster titled “Ser and estar as Presuppositional Variants: Formal Analysis and Experimental Evidence” at the 26th conference on Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT 26) at the University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX).
April
- Jun gave a talk titled ‘Meaning change from superlatives to definite descriptions: A semantic perspective’ at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS 52) at the University of Chicago (IL).
- Ashwini and Maria gave a talk titled ‘Varying circumstances of evaluation and the ser/estar distinction in Spanish’ at the 39th Generative Linguistics in the Old World colloquium (GLOW 2016) at Linguistics in Göttingen (Germany).
March
- Sara gave a talk titled ‘Variation in Spanish copula use: Spain, Mexico and Argentina‘ at the 40th Annual Penn Linguistics Conference (PLC 40) at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA).
- Sara and Maria presented a poster titled “Gender and discourse-based differences in processing Spanish copulas” and received a Student Travel Award at the 29th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing (CUNY 2016) at the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL).
February
- María, Andy, and collaborators’ paper ‘Metonymy as referential dependency: Psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic arguments for a unified linguistic treatment‘ was published in Cognitive Science.
- Yao-Ying gave a talk titled ‘The structured individual hypothesis for processing aspectual verbs’ at the 42nd Annual Conference of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (BLS42) at the University of California, Berkeley. The proceeding is now available here.
2015
November
- Yao-Ying gave a talk titled ‘The structured individual hypothesis for processing aspectual verbs’ at the Southern New England Workshop in Semantics (SNEWS 2015) at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA).
- Sara also gave a talk titled ‘Processing Spanish copulas: the influence of contextual modulation’ at the Southern New England Workshop in Semantics (SNEWS 2015) at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA).
- The lab attended the Hornucopia workshop at Yale University (New Haven, CT).
October
- Yao-Ying presented a poster titled ‘Complement coercion revisited, the Structured Individual Hypothesis for processing aspectual verbs’ at the Seventh Annual Society for the Neurobiology of Language Conference (SNL 2015) in Chicago, IL.
August
- Sara presented a poster titled ‘Changes in the distributional patterns of the Spanish copulas: the influence of contextual modulation’ and won the Springer Award for the Best Poster Presentation at the 27th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI 2015) at the Poblenou Campus of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, Spain).
- Sara’s paper ‘Changes in the distributional patterns of the Spanish copulas: the influence of contextual modulation’ was published in the Proceedings of the ESSLLI 2015 Student Session.