The social dynamics of language: a study of phonological variation and change in West Australian English. This project studies the role of pronunciation as a marker of individual and community identity. As the first systematic study of accent variability in Perth, it focusses on how, across different contexts, speakers from older and younger generations and different backgrounds deploy speech as a means of projecting social affiliation and difference.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100211
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$650,000.00
Summary
The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and developmen ....The Big Australian Speech Corpus: An audio-visual speech corpus of Australian English. Contemporary speech science and technology are driven by the availability of large speech corpora. While audio databases exist for languages spoken in America, Europe and Japan, there is currently no large auditory-visual database of spoken language, and certainly not one for Australian English. Here we will establish the Big Australian Speech Corpus, which will support a speech science research and development using Australian English and facilitate the development of Australian speech technology applications from automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech synthesis used in taxi and other ordering services, to hearing prostheses and talking head aids for learning-impaired children, and a range of security and forensic applications.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. Language is central to human existence and to the flow of information. The Centre will address the most critical questions about language: How do languages evolve? How different can languages be? How do our brains acquire and process them? How can technologies deal with the complexity and enormous variability of language in its central role in human information processing? What can Australia do to increase its linguistic abilities at a time ....ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. Language is central to human existence and to the flow of information. The Centre will address the most critical questions about language: How do languages evolve? How different can languages be? How do our brains acquire and process them? How can technologies deal with the complexity and enormous variability of language in its central role in human information processing? What can Australia do to increase its linguistic abilities at a time of increasingly multilingual demands in trade and information? The Centre will also secure language heritage, develop new language technologies, connect policy with indigenous and migrant communities, and build strategies to help 1st and 2nd language learning and those isolated by language difficulties.Read moreRead less
The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic view of evidentials and epistemological expressions. How does a speaker know that what they say is correct? Some languages have obligatory marking for stating 'information source' ('seen', 'inferred', or 'reported'). In others a source is optional - 'the (reported) theft'. This cross-linguistic investigation will advance our understanding of human interaction and the expression of knowledge.
Saibai Island language and cultural knowledge project. This project aims to record the Saibai Island Kalaw Kawaw Ya dialect, using the Australian Descriptive Framework. The diaspora of Saibai Islanders, the impact of climate change, and the ageing and passing away of knowledge custodians make it crucial to capture the language and cultural knowledge. Under the direction of elders and cultural knowledge custodians, this project will record and document the dialect, particularly ‘Big’ Sabai langua ....Saibai Island language and cultural knowledge project. This project aims to record the Saibai Island Kalaw Kawaw Ya dialect, using the Australian Descriptive Framework. The diaspora of Saibai Islanders, the impact of climate change, and the ageing and passing away of knowledge custodians make it crucial to capture the language and cultural knowledge. Under the direction of elders and cultural knowledge custodians, this project will record and document the dialect, particularly ‘Big’ Sabai language. It will use recording technology and digital analysis to document cultural knowledge and language for current and future generations of Saibailagal (Saibai people). A culturally appropriate endangered language community methodology that preserves language and cultural knowledge will benefit Indigenous communities and researchers.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101024
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$373,000.00
Summary
High-definition carbon-dating of linguistic pasts. This project aims to harness the insights of dissipating information, to discover language histories by bringing together two high-definition technologies: powerful, computational statistical engines pioneered in genetics; and fine-grained, statistically optimised observations of language structure. It seeks new insight into how languages reveal history, and how cultural groups speaking the Uralic languages of Eurasia and Australian Aboriginal l ....High-definition carbon-dating of linguistic pasts. This project aims to harness the insights of dissipating information, to discover language histories by bringing together two high-definition technologies: powerful, computational statistical engines pioneered in genetics; and fine-grained, statistically optimised observations of language structure. It seeks new insight into how languages reveal history, and how cultural groups speaking the Uralic languages of Eurasia and Australian Aboriginal languages diverged, spread and interacted, from a distant past to the recent present.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100026
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$312,000.00
Summary
A comparison of everyday and therapeutic talk. This project aims to equip therapists to support clients to overcome mental distress. Psychotherapy is an established approach for treating mental distress, but how therapy differs from supportive conversations with family or friends remains unclear. The project will use text analytic software and conversation analysis to identify therapeutic ways of discussing personal troubles and their association with therapeutic outcomes. Understanding this ass ....A comparison of everyday and therapeutic talk. This project aims to equip therapists to support clients to overcome mental distress. Psychotherapy is an established approach for treating mental distress, but how therapy differs from supportive conversations with family or friends remains unclear. The project will use text analytic software and conversation analysis to identify therapeutic ways of discussing personal troubles and their association with therapeutic outcomes. Understanding this association is expected to enable therapists to use communication practices that are most likely to benefit clients.Read moreRead less
Extraordinary yet mundane talk: children navigating palliative care. This project aims to provide foundational evidence of how clinicians and families communicate effectively with children with life-limiting conditions. Finding ways to sensitively communicate with children about matters that will profoundly affect them will support the everyday work of skilled healthcare professionals. In developing the first nation-wide repository of video-recordings of paediatric palliative care consultations, ....Extraordinary yet mundane talk: children navigating palliative care. This project aims to provide foundational evidence of how clinicians and families communicate effectively with children with life-limiting conditions. Finding ways to sensitively communicate with children about matters that will profoundly affect them will support the everyday work of skilled healthcare professionals. In developing the first nation-wide repository of video-recordings of paediatric palliative care consultations, the project will generate new knowledge by using conversation analysis to examine how these conversations occur in real-life clinical settings. The project expects to inform research, policy, and practice, by revealing more effective communication approaches, benefiting researchers, clinicians, healthcare users, and policy makers.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL120100116
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,416,141.00
Summary
How gender shapes the world: a linguistic perspective. This project will seek to understand and explain gender roles in Australian society, and in nearby nations. Emphasis is placed on training researchers with an immigrant or minority background, working towards the empowerment of women researchers. This will enhance our nation's capacity to interpret and manage gender roles in multicultural contexts.
The integration of language and society. This project aims to seek associations between social and life-style differences and language structure. All human societies show pervasive similarities and all languages share recurrent features. Viewing society and language as an integrated whole, the project will study related groups in contrasting physical and social environments in PNG, Africa, East Asia, Amazonia and Australia. Inductive generalisations about associations between societal and langua ....The integration of language and society. This project aims to seek associations between social and life-style differences and language structure. All human societies show pervasive similarities and all languages share recurrent features. Viewing society and language as an integrated whole, the project will study related groups in contrasting physical and social environments in PNG, Africa, East Asia, Amazonia and Australia. Inductive generalisations about associations between societal and language parameters (e.g. varying techniques of address relating to articulated kin systems and social hierarchy) aim to provide insight into the human dynamic. Findings should benefit programmes for cultural awareness, language teaching and revitalisation and understanding of multicultural situations.Read moreRead less