Mits Ota

Another attempt at summarizing this study with @vkempe and @TweetSchaeffler: Outside phonetics & phonology, there hasn't been enough work done to support the conclusion that child-directed speech has specific features that facilitate language development. doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2…

New paper with @inbalarnon! Using methods from statistical learning we show how two key properties of language - statistically coherent recombinable units, and Zipfian distributions - arise from cultural evolution experiments with non-linguistic sequences. rdcu.be/dAgBz

@vkempe @STVNews I prefer Vera! But they just made it up, didn't they? It has no resemblance to your real name 😆

We are hiring a lecturer (= U.S. tenure-track assistant professor) in theoretical syntax. Please apply (Deadline: 20 March)! elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candidat…

@cogscidude The original C/V hypothesis attributed the effect to intrinsic differences between consonants and vowels (e.g., perceptibility), but recent findings suggest the possibility that it may be due to inventory asymmetries, as you say.

@mits_ota I haven't read much of the literature on this, but do consonants play a larger role in lexical identification for information theoretic reasons? I.e. generally languages have many more consonants than vowels, so any given consonant is more informative than any given vowel

Which of these made-up words is the easiest to learn: 'lali', 'lapa', or 'lapi'? And why? Read our new paper to find out. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00…

@kennysmithed and I are looking for a postdoc for our ESRC project titled "Language learning, communication and the emergence of phonotactic constraints" (32 months; see link for details). Come work with us! elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candidat…

The reconstructed piece itself is beautiful music. theguardian.com/science/2023/a…

Developmentalists: have you been wondering if online experiments with young children are comparable to in-lab studies? Here's our new meta-analysis suggesting that overall they are! psyarxiv.com/qc6fw - work by Aaron Chuey, @veroboyce and @anjie_cao

Wheee it's OUT - this girl's first (open access too!) article w/ her wondyful supervisors Marilyn Vihman and Tamar Keren-Portnoy (and @mits_ota and Shanshan Lou)! Clearly, they know my life motto, always saving the best for the last 😏. (I jest, obvs.) doi.org/10.1017/S03050…

Or just plain disturbing.

Interesting and somewhat disturbing. doi.org/10.1098/rsos.2…

I am excited to announce we’re hiring a permanent lecturer in Sign Language Linguistics! Research in development, acquisition, bimodal bilingualism or BSL, desirable. Applicants with a lived experience of deafness particularly encouraged. Please RT widely! elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candidat…

They were accused of assisting the anti-Nazi resistance movement. This was only 20 days before Germany’s surrender. I think about the senselessness of war.

Today I visited Ploština, a village in the Czech Rep, where 4 of my wife’s grandfather’s family members (the Zicha/Zichovas) were among those burnt alive by an SS unit on April 19, 1945.

Our response to Kidd & Garcia.

What a way to celebrate Marilyn's career! It was totally worth waiting for two years.

She was such an inspirational person. This is a big loss.

I know that businesses are struggling to deal with rising cost, but ...