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<p>Cornell will host the Conference in Laboratory Phonology (<a href="http://www.labphon.org/labphon15/node/2">LabPhon 15</a>), an international meeting for researchers taking experimental approaches to the study of human speech sounds, July 13-17.</p><p>The conference theme, “Speech Dynamics and Phonological Representation,” will address sounds in human language as part of a linguistic, cognitive and communicative system.</p>
<p><span style="line-height: 20.8px;">Of the approximately 7,000 languages in the world, many are endangered. An endangered language is one that is at risk of losing all of its native speakers.</span></p>
<p><em>James Wells Gair, left, and longtime collaborator, linguist W.S. Karunatillake/Photo provided</em></p><p>James Wells Gair, Ph.D. ’63, professor emeritus of linguistics who throughout a long and distinguished career produced groundbreaking work on South Asian languages and their relation to other languages, died Dec. 10 in Ithaca. He was 88.</p>
<p>Linguistics professor Herbert L. Kufner, Ph.D. ’56, died on Oct. 20, 2016, in Unterhaching, Germany. He was 88.</p>
<p>The world is full of languages and dialects—more than 7,000. Across these languages, many possible sounds can be combined into words. While there may be similarities in words between closely related languages, for years linguists have believed that the relationship between the sound of a word and its meaning is completely arbitrary. Recently Morten H. Christiansen, Psychology, collaborated with fellow researchers to investigate whether that belief might need to be reappraised.</p>
Nigel van der Woude ’17 was inspired to study Italian after finding some old letters in his grandfather's attic.
When we learn to read, we say one word at a time. But how does the brain actually put words together when we read full sentences?
<p>A celebration of National Poetry Month and language learning on April 21 at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art featured multilingual poetry, song, dance and an international dessert reception. The goal, said <a href="http://www.lrc.cornell.edu/lrc_info">Dick Feldman</a>, director of the Language Resource Center (LRC), was “to experience the beauty of poetry in many languages and to celebrate success in learning those languages.”</p>
<p>Cornell hosted students from five other universities for the annual Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference April 21-22 on campus.</p><p>During the conference, students presented formal papers about their research, offered feedback to fellow students and heard from a keynote speaker. This year’s speaker was Krista Thompson, the Weinberg College Board of Visitors Professor in the Department of Art History at Northwestern University.</p>
<p>Vernacular language scholar John Rickford and Indian architect and educator Brinda Somaya have been named Andrew Dickson White Professors-at-Large for six-year terms effective July 1.</p><p>The appointments were approved by President Martha E. Pollack and the Cornell University Board of Trustees at their May meeting. Faculty members nominate candidates, and a faculty selection committee reviews and recommends the appointments.</p>
As the number of bilingual speakers in the United States grows, so will language variation.
In a new opinion piece in a major publication, Morten Christiansen, professor of psychology, describes how the study of language has fragmented into many highly-specialized areas of study that tend not to talk to each other. He calls for a new era of integration in the paper, published July 31 in Nature Human Behaviour.
Fourteen Cornell students and recent alumni are setting out this fall for destinations around the world, thanks to grants from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
Faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences are exploring questions about recent events in their research and scholarship, and students have the opportunity to engage with their expertise through numerous courses this Fall relevant to our current national climate.
On the eve of fall semester classes starting, Cornellians spied the sky – with special safety glasses – to view the partial solar eclipse Aug. 21 over Ithaca.
Instructors of the six major national languages of Southeast Asia – Burmese, Indonesian, Khmer, Filipino (Tagalog), Thai and Vietnamese – from across the U.S. will gather at Cornell Sept. 8-10 for the Southeast Asian Language Teaching: New Directions Conference.
<p>Martha E. Pollack plumbed the depths of Cornell history and spoke to current times in her inaugural address Aug. 25, following her installation as the university’s 14th president.</p><p>Quoting a speech written during the dark days of World War II by Cornell historian Carl Becker, Pollack said there is just as much need today for universities to “maintain and promote the humane and rational values” that preserve democratic society.</p>
<p>“How do we reconcile stable truth with multiple understandings of truth?” <a href="http://sts.cornell.edu/bruce-v-lewenstein">Bruce Lewenstein</a>, professor of science communication, posed that question during an academic symposium, “Universities and the Search for Truth,” held Aug. 24 in Bailey Hall. The event was part of the celebration of Martha E. Pollack’s inauguration as Cornell’s 14th president.</p>
Cornell seniors are planning for a variety of different journeys after graduation.
Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) and Cornell Institute for European Studies (CIES) welcomed new faculty leadership this fall.
<p>An Oct. 20 lecture will kick off a new series on language and inequality co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Inequality and the departments of linguistics and sociology.</p>
Faculty in the College of Arts & Sciences are exploring questions about recent events in their research and scholarship, and students have the opportunity to engage with their expertise through numerous courses this Spring relevant to our current national climate.
<div><div><p>Connecting researchers to federal and state policymakers. Supporting children affected by the opioid epidemic. Sending students to the United Nations climate conference. Offering disaster workshops to regional animal shelters. Collaborating with cooperative businesses for experiential learning.</p><p>These are among the 22 projects that received fall 2017 Engaged Opportunity Grants.</p></div></div>
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