News
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May 5, 2023Reduction of Vowel Space in Alzheimer's Disease - Q&A with Arian Shamei
Reduced vowel space area (VSA) is a known effect of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD). In the study, 'Reduction of Vowel Space in Alzheimer's Disease' by Arian Shamei, Yadong Liu and Dr. Bryan Gick, using large publicly available corpuses, two experiments were conducted…
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May 5, 2023A Review of Three Recent Dictionaries of Indigenous Languages Spoken in South America - Q&A with Ana Laura Arrieta-Zamudio
In the essay, 'A Review of Three Recent Dictionaries of Indigenous Languages Spoken in South America,' authors Dr. Mark Turin, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UBC, and Ana Laura Arrieta-Zamudio, PhD Student in Linguistics at UBC, compare three recent dictionaries of Indigenous…
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March 28, 2023Sign Language Phonetic Annotator and Analyzer: changing how sign languages are transcribed
A new software being developed is allowing researchers to give detailed, phonetic transcriptions of signs used in sign languages, such as American Sign Language (ASL), one of the sign languages used in Canada. The Sign Language Phonetic Annotator/Analyzer (SLP-AA) is a graphical user interface…
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March 28, 2023"You betcha I'm a 'Merican" The rise of 'YOU BET' as a pragmatic marker - Q&A with Dr. Laurel Brinton and Tomoharu Hirota
In the study titled, 'You betcha I'm a 'Merican" the rise of YOU BET as a pragmatic marker', researchers Dr. Laurel Brinton and PhD student, Tomoharu Hirota, both of whom are from UBC's Department of English Languages and Literatures, explore parenthetical and free-standing…
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March 5, 2023LSURC 2023: Connecting undergrads from all backgrounds through language research
Students have countless opportunities available to explore language and communication throughout their undergraduate careers, though gaining valuable research experience in those fields is an opportunity many undergraduate students feel isn’t readily available to them. Fortunately, the Language…
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March 2, 2023UBC scholar, Ife Adebara, helping AI overcome its language barrier
People around the world have been impressed with ChatGPT, a new chatbot developed by OpenAI that uses natural language processing (NLP) to seemingly answer any question. It works much better than similar technologies that came before it—as long as you prompt it in English. Ife…
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February 3, 2023Member Spotlight: Dr. Sonam Chusang
Dr. Sonam Chusang is an Adjunct Professor in the Asian Studies department at the University of British Columbia where he has been teaching Tibetan to students of heritage and non-heritage backgrounds for the past 15 years. He also taught Tibetan at the University of Virginia in 2007. What…
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February 3, 2023Language Creation in Hollywood with Dr. Christine Schreyer
Within the book titled, 'Communicating Linguistics, Language, Community and Public Engagement,' Dr. Christine Schreyer, Associate Professor of Athropology at UBC's Okanagan campus, describes her role as a language creator for two Hollywood films – Man of Steel (2013) and Alpha (2018) in…
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February 3, 2023A Sociological Lens on Linguistic Diversity: Implications for Writing Inclusive Multiple-Choice Assessments - Q&A with the research team
In the study titled, 'A Sociological Lens on Linguistic Diversity: Implications for Writing Inclusive Multiple-Choice Assessments', researchers Jennifer Lightfoot, Katherine Lyon, Daniel Riccardi, Nathan Roberson, Mark Lam and Simon Lolliot, explored how multiple-choice assessments can act as a…
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January 31, 2023Seeking Teaching Assistant for Living Language course, September 2023
Deadline: 12:00pm Tuesday, February 28th Are you looking for an exciting Teaching Assistantship and be part of an innovative, university-wide course? Team-taught by Dr. Mark Turin (Anthropology & First Nations and Endangered Languages, UBC-V) and Dr. Elena Nicoladis (Psychology,…