News

Linguistic Evidence (LE 2024) read more
Eighth Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics and Psychology read more
Application for Short-Term Fellowships available in 2024 read more
openHPI-Course about “Introduction to Bayesian Data Analysis” read more

News

2024

DateNews or Event
9. – 13. September8. Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics and Psychology (SMLP)
22. – 23. FebruaryLinguistic Evidence 2024

2023

DateNews or Event
12. – 13. OctoberSFB Retreat at the Stadthotel Oranienburg
11. – 15. September7. Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics (SMLP)
25. August5th CRC-Networking Workshop (Potsdam SFB 1287, Berlin SFB 1412, Cologne SFB 1252, Saarbrücken SFB 1102)
21. – 25. AugustUMLV Summer School 2023
14. AugustSFB Short-Term Fellow Talk with Alice Karbanova (University of Berno) on the topic “Investigating the integration of lyrics and musical tune in song comprehension” [Abstract]
12. JulySFB Guest Lecture with Gabriel Martínez Vera (Newcastle University) on the topic “Evidentiality in the Spanish of the Americas: a comparative approach to dizque and como que” [Abstract]
11. JulySFB Guest-Lecture with Prof. Barbara Citko (University of Washington) on the topic “On the Interaction between Multidominance and Ellipsis”. [Abstract]
04. JulySFB Short-Term Fellow Talk with Hailin Hao (University of Southern California) on the topic “Similarity-Based Interference in the Processing of Classifier-Noun Dependencies in Mandarin Chinese”
22. JuneSFB Guest Talk with Tal Linzen (NYC) on the topic: “Surprisal does not explain syntactic disambiguation difficulty”. [Abstract]
07. – 09. June10th TripleA-Workshop at Potsdam University
16. MayWorkshop – „Developing apps for speech language therapy“
06. MayPotsdamer Tag der Wissenschaften – This year the following projects will represent our SFB at this event: B01, B02, B04, C06, C08, and T01.
30. – 31. MarchSFB-Retreat
13. MarchMGK-Workshop on “Migrating from Linguistics into Data Science and Tech” with Joseph P. De Veaugh-Geiss, Valerie Hekkel, Vera Scholvin
25. January – 13. MarchopenHPI-Course about “Introduction to Bayesian Data Analysis”

– Speaker: Prof. Dr. Shravan Vasishth, Dr. Anna Laurinavichyute
– Language: English
– Context: Advanced, Beginner, Big Data and AI
– Link: https://open.hpi.de/courses/bayesian-statistics2023
19. JanuarySFB Guest Talk with Jiro Inaba (Tokyo University) gives a lecture on “Verbal ellipsis and directionality”.

2022

DateNews or Event
13. DecemberSFB Guest Talk with Prof. Michael Walsh Dickey (University of Pittsburgh) on the topic “Event knowledge and adaptive languageprocessing in aphasia”.
07. DecemberSFB Guest Talk with Chundra Cathcart (University of Zurichy, Switzerland) on the topic “The evolution of similar place avoidance: phylogenetic approaches to phonotactic change”. [Abstract]
09. NovemberSFB Guest Talk with J.R. Hayashishita (Otago University, New Zealand) on the topic “Plans for experimental investigations into the interpretation of quantifiers”.
08. NovemberSFB Guest Talk with J.R. Hayashishita (Otago University, New Zealand) on the topic “Discourse anaphora and the computational system”. [Abstract]
01. – 10 NovemberThe BabyLab is participating in the Berlin Science Week, in collaboration with the Humboldt University and the Leibniz-ZAS. Alan Langus (C03) and Mireia Marimon (UP) will be representing our department. More infomation [here].
12. – 16. September6. Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics and Psychology (SMLP)
SeptemberThree- to four-month Short-Term Fellowships at the SFB 1287 to PhD candidates from non-German universities. More information [here]
23. – 24. AugustWorkshop: Basics of Artificial Neural Networks / Deep Learning
19. JulySFB Guest Talk with Dr. Sergey Say (SFB 1287 Fellow) on “Cross-linguuisic variability of valency class systems”.
04. – 05. July4th CRC-Networking Workshop – Berlin | ZAS Berlin – Workshop of the linguistic CRCs (Ling SFB Meetup 2022)
30. JuneSFB Guest Lecture with Prof. Megha Sundara (UCLA) on “The acquisition of phonotactics” [Abstract]
29. JuneSFB Guest Lecture with Prof. Dubi Nanda Dhakal (Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu) on “Complexities of verb agreement in Majhi” [Abstract]
24. JuneSFB Guest Talk with Prof. Elaine Francis (Purdue University) on “Understanding variation in acceptability judgments from different theoretical perspectives”. [Abstract]
22. JuneSFB Guest Talk with Prof. Ad Neeleman (University College London) on “What Divides, and What Unites, Right-Node Raising” (Authors: Zoë Belk, Ad Neeleman, and Joy Philip (UCL)). [Abstract]
17. JuneSFB Guest Talk with Prof. Amir Zeldes (Georgetown U) on “So ignore my hair right now” – why genre variation in discourse structure, relations and signals matters”. [Abstract]

SFB Guest Talk with Prof. Ad Neeleman (University College London) on “Compactness is Linear”. [Abstract]
25. MayDefense: Paula Lissón. The topic of the dissertation is: „Computational Models of Sentence Comprehension in Aphasia“.
23. MaySFB Guest Talk with Prof. Dr. Joana Cholin (Bielefeld University). She gave a talk on “The mental syllabary theory — evidence and open questions”.
23. MayAdditional guest lecture by Prof. Niels O. Schiller. Title: “Crosstalk of codes: phonological and orthographic contributions to speech production”.
18. – 20. MayThis year’s MGK project week will take place from May 18th to 20th on the Golm campus. Among other things, there will be three workshops (on “reproducible workflow”, “data visualization” and “science communication”), as well as a panel on career planning with various SFB 1287’s PIs.
07. MaySeveral SFB”s projects will also present their research at this year’s Potsdam Science Day (PTDW) on May 7th from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (https://www.atb-potsdam.de/de/). Admission is free. Many presentations are also very suitable for children. [Flyer]
06. MayThe Potsdam chapter of the ReproducibiliTea Journal Clubs will have its first 2022 meeting and will be discussing the following paper: Grimes, D. R., Bauch, C. T., & Ioannidis, J. P. (2018). Modelling science trustworthiness under publish or perish pressure. Royal Society Open Science, 5(1), 171511.

The Potsdam ReproducibiliTea Journal Club is supported by the MGK project of the CRC 1287 “Limits of Variability in Language”.
05. MayDaniela Mertzen (Project B03) successfully defended her dissertation on “A cross-linguistic investigation of similarity-based interference in sentence comprehension”. Congratulations!
03. MaySFB-Associated Dr. Nicole Gotzner receives Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis [Article]
29. AprilSFB Colloquium with Prof. Ira Noveck (CNRS). Title: “The various ways in which conventional meanings recruit pragmatic information”. [Abstract]
26. AprilSFB Colloquium with Prof. Dr. Niels Schiller (Leiden University). Title: “The processing of morphosyntactic features during language production”.
26. AprilWorkshop: Introduction to ERP

This introductory workshop to ERP will be conducted by Yana Arkhipova (SFB1287’s B04 Project). The workshop will cover a range of topics, from what ERPs are, to ERP components, data preprocessing, and different analysis apporaches.
20. AprilWorkshop by Emily P. Ahn (University of Washington). Title: “Phonetic Forced Alignment with the Montreal Forced Aligner”.
08. MarchSFB Guest Lecture with Maria Varkanitsa (Aphasia Research Laboratory at Boston University). She gave a talk on “Syntactic predictions and asyntactic comprehension in aphasia”. [Abstract]
17. FebruarySFB Guest Talk with M. Florencia Assaneo (Head of the Lab de Percepción y Producción de Habla at the UNAM Campus Juriquilla in México). She gave a talk on “Neural and cognitive correlates of the speech auditory-motor synchronization”. [Abstract]
11. FebruarySFB Colloquium with Dr. Evan Kidd. Title “The development of online parsing in crosslinguistic context”. [Abstract]
01. FebruarySFB Guest Talk with Dr. Evan Kidd. Title “Individual differences in infants’ lexical processing”.
17. JanuarySFB Guest Lecture with Sophia Voigtmann (SFB 1102, Universität des Saarlandes). She gave a talk on “Information Density and the Extraposition of Relative Clauses”.

2021

DateNews or Event
6. – 10. September5. “Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics and Psychology” (SMLP)
30 – 31 August2. “South Asian Forum on the Acquisition and Processing of Language” (SAFAL)
15. – 16. July3rd CRC-Networking Workshop in Saarbrücken
25. MayWe are pleased to announce that the DFG’s Grants Committee evaluated our CRC positively and would like to thank all reviewers, the rapporteurs, and the DFG. We look forward to continuing our successful research on “The Limits of Variability in Language” in the next four years. Press Releases: [DFG] [UP]
13. – 15. AprilShravan Vasishth will give a tutorial about “Bayesian Statistics” at the EMLAR2021 (Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research) (website) in Utrecht. The workshop will be live streamed, because of the actual Covid-19 situation. (program)
23. – 26. FebruarySchubö, F., Zerbian, A., Hanne, S., Wartenburger, I. – Organization of the Workshop “Prosodic boundary phenomena” at the 43rd Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS) “Modell und Evidenz / Model and Evidence”, University of Freiburg, Germany (online). (program here)

2020

DateNews or Event
27. NovemberJoint Colloquium SFB 1287 and SFB 1294 by Nikolaus Kriegeskorte (Zuckerman Institute, Columbia University New York) [Abstract] [Slides]
27. NovemberAn introductory seminar for all PhD’s and Postdoc’s will be held online by Alma Lindborg from 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM.Zoom-Meeting
22. SeptemberAll AMLaP 2020 Talks are now online at mediaUP! Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
07. – 11. SeptemberThe fourth “Potsdam Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics and Psychology” (SMLP).
03. – 05. SeptemberArchitecture and Mechanisms of Language Processing” (AMLaP).
31. August – 02. SeptemberThe first “South Asian Forum on the Acquisition and Processing of Language” (SAFAL).
24. FebruaryDr. David Peeters (Tilburg University & MPI for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands) gave a talk on “Virtual Reality: A Promising Tool for the Study of Language Production”. [Abstract]
JanuaryContribution to climate protectionIn line with other research networks, the SFB1287 decided that from January 2020, SFB funds will not be used to finance flights to destinations that are less than 1000 km away (air miles) and that can be reached by other means of transport within 12 hours. Exceptions on compassionate or health grounds can be requested.

2019

DateNews or Event
17. DecemberDaniela Sammler (Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig) gave a talk on “Setting the tone: Neural bases for prosody”
14. – 15. November2nd CRC-Networking Workshop (Cologne – Potsdam – Saarbrücken) – The topic of the meeting will be “Discourse”, including but not limited to such issues as:discourse structure (rhetorical relations, QUDs, and the like)discourse connectives, discourse particlesclause combining (subordination, coordination, etc.)influence of discourse context on the interpretation of linguistic expressions (e.g. pronouns, definites, ellipsis, etc.)
25. – 26. OctoberSFB Workshop on “Multimethodological approaches to synchronic and diachronic variation”.
20. September16th SFB Colloquium – Dr. Heike Pichler (Newcastle University, UK) talk about “The conspiracy of internal and external factors in a discourse-pragmatic change: innit in Multicultural London English”. [Flyer]
19. SeptemberPreTalk for 16th SFB Colloquium – A discussion around the topic “What is variability at the discourse level and how can we study it?”
09. –  13. SeptemberThe third “Potsdam Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics and Psychology” (SMLP).
26. AugustTalk by Ben Goodrich (Columbia University in the City of New York) about “Gaussian Processes with Stan”. [Abstract]
09. AugustTalk by Xiayimaierdan Abudushalamu (Michigan State University) about “Uyghur Speakers’ Knowledge of Vowel and Vowel-Consonant Harmony” [Abstract]
14. June15th SFB Colloquium: Talk by Whitney Tabor about “Modeling Ungrammaticality: A Self-Organizing Model of Islands” [Paper]
28. MaySFB-Shortterm-Fellow Talk – Astrid van Alem (SynSem-Colloquium) talked about “Anti-agreement on complementizers in non-standard West-Germanic”
24. MayWorkshop – Creating a data management plan (for SFB members) with Niklas Hartmann (from the university library)
17. May14th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Wolfram Hinzen (Universitat Pompeu Fabra; FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalaries Research Foundation, Benito Menni Hospital) talked about “Beyond the limits of neurotypical linguistic variation: uncharted territory” [Flyer]
10. May13th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Brian Dillon (University of Massachusetts Amherst) talked about “The real-time computation of agreement dependencies: The view from acceptability judgments” [Flyer]
29. AprilDr. Göz Kaufmann (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) talked about: “Das MEND-Korpus (Mennonitenplautdietsch in Nord- und Südamerika): Workshop zur Erhebung, Verwaltung und Analyse” [Flyer]
10. – 11. AprilSFB-Mercator Fellow – Prof. Evelina Fedorenko (Harvard University) talked about: “The human language system (as a part of SFB-Colloquium)” “Language processing in the brains of bilinguals and polyglots (as a part of PRIM-Colloquium)” “Can neuroimaging help aphasia researchers? (as a part of Neurolinguistics-Colloquium)” [Flyer]
22. March12th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Martin Hilpert (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland) talked about “Using token-based semantic vector spaces for corpus-linguistic analyses”.
21. MarchHands-on Workshop – Prof. Martin Hilpert (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland) talked about “Variability-based neighbour clustering (VNC), a bottom-up method to periodization in historical linguistics”.
19. MarchShort-term fellow talk – Luca Bevacqua (The University of Edinburgh) talked about “WHO TO TALK ABOUT, AND HOW: Effects of information structure and sentence boundary on antecedent remention and referring expressions in Italian”.
25. FebruarySFB – Guest Lectures: Kenan Hochuli (Universität Zürich) gave a talk on “Interaktive Konfigurationen der Marktstandkommunikation in Istanbul und Zürich” [Flyer] and Louise Eley (King’s College London) gave a talk on “A linguistic ethnography of Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel”. [Flyer]
14. – 15. February1st CRC-Networking Workshop (Cologne – Potsdam – Saarbrücken) – This series of network meetings brings together researchers from the CRCs in Cologne, Potsdam and Saarbrücken. The aim is to discuss shared themes and methodological approaches of the CRC 1252 „Prominence in Language“,CRC 1102 „Information Density and Linguistic Encoding“,CRC 1287 „Limits of Variability in Language“. [Flyer]
07. February11th SFB Colloquium – Guest speaker Prof. Dr. Stephen Lindsay (University of Victoria) gave a talk on “Psychology’s Renaissance: Progress toward Transparency and Replicability”. [Flyer]
23. JanuaryCarola de Beer (Project B01) is awarded the 2018 Dissertation Prize of the University of Bielefeld (Faculty of Linguistics and Literature) for her thesis on „Das kommunikative Zusammenwirken von Sprache und Gestik bei Personen mit Aphasie“.
08. JanuarySusanne Fuchs (ZAS – Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft) gave a talk about “Changes and challenges in explaining speech variation: A brief review”.

2018

DateNews or Event
12. DecemberGarrett Smith (Connecticut) has recently won one of the open topic postdoc positions at Potsdam University. His work is of direct relevance to the SFB (e.g., B2, B3 projects). He gave a talk about his work.
11. DecemberJenny Yu (Western Sydney University, MARCS Institute) gave a talk on “Native and non-native stress perception in German listeners”. [Abstract]
30. November10th SFB Colloquium – Dr. Melanie Weirich (Friedrich Schiller University Jena) gave a talk on “Speaker identity, phonetic variability and social meaning”. [Announcement]
14. – 16. NovemberKhalil Iskarous (University of Southern California) gave a 2.5 day workshop on Dynamical Systems at the University of Potsdam. [Overview]
14. NovemberSimon Ritter & Doris Mücke (Köln) gave a talk about “Prosody in a dynamic systems account”. [Abstract]
01. August – 31. OctoberA new short-term fellow stayed at the SFB:Nantke Pecht (Maastricht University) worked and studied in project A01 – “Integration of linguistic resources in highly diverse urban settings: Stretching the limits of variability”
18. October9th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Ben Rampton (King’s College London) gave a talk about “Linguistic Ethnography”. [Announcement]
17. October8th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Ray Jackendoff (Tufts University/MIT) gave a talk about “Extending the Parallel Architecture”. [Announcement]
10. – 14. SeptemberThe second “Potsdam Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics and Psychology” (SMLP).
15. May – 14. AugustThe first two short-term fellows stayed at the SFB:Lara Schwarz (Pennsylvania State University) worked and studied in Project B04 “Variability in bilingual language processing”Xiayimaierdan Abudushalamu (Michigan State University) worked and studied in Project C03 “Effects of variable input on word learning and word recognition in infants”.
23. – 24. JulyPyGaze workshop: Creating experiments with OpenSesame and Python – A programming and eye tracking workshop hosted by the Vasishth lab and the SFB 1287
13. JulyLara Schwarz (SFB 1287 short-term fellow) gave a talk on “Uniting the theoretical and the empirical through modeling with Gradient Symbolic Computation”. [Abstract]
11. July7th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Matthew Goldrick (Northwestern University) gave a talk on “Gradient Symbolic Computation: Dynamics of Distributed Symbol Systems”. [Abstract]
15. June6th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Catherine Best (University of West Sydney) gave a talk on “The Australian English accent and its effects on Australians’ perception of vowels and words in other English accents”. [Abstract]
25. May5th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Daniel Swingley (University of Pennsylvania) gave a talk on “Phonetic variability and the poverty of the stimulus in constraining developmental hypotheses about language learning” [Abstract]
23. AprilProf. Daniel L. Everett (Trustee Professor of Sociology and Global Studies, Bentley University, Waltham, Mass) gave a talk “On the Role of Culture in Language and Cognition”. [Abstract] [Lecture]
22. February4th SFB Colloquium – Prof. Cécile Fougeron (Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie, CNRS/Sorbonne-Nouvelle, Paris) gave a talk on “Variation in the production of vowels: multi-factorial approaches, from contextual to aging effects”. [Abstract]
14. February3rd SFB Colloquium – Prof. Liesbeth Degand (University of Louvain) gave a talk on “A multi-dimensional, multi-functional and multilingual annotation model for discourse markers in spoken language”. [Abstract]
25. JanuaryProf. Sjef Barbiers gave a talk on “Adverbs in strange places”.
23. – 25. JanuaryThe Mercator Fellow – Prof. Sjef Barbiers visited the SFB.
24. January2nd SFB Colloquium – Prof. Holger Hopp (TU Braunschweig) gave a talk on “L1 effects in L2 sentence processing – Yeti or iceberg?”. [Abstract]
In 2018The SFB will host 4 Short- term Fellows (3 months each):Nantke Pecht (Maastricht University) worked and studied in Project A01 “Integration of linguistic resources in highly diverse urban settings: Stretching the limits of variability”.Jenny Yu (Western Sydney University) worked and studied in Project B01 “Prosodic cue variability: Effects on spoken language comprehension and production in different populations”.Lara Schwarz (Pennsylvania State University) worked and studied in Project B04 “Variability in bilingual language processing”.Xiayimaierdan Abudushalamu (Michigan State University) worked and studied in Project C03 “Effects of variable input on word learning and word recognition in infants”.

2017

DateNews or Event
18. DecemberMGK-Workshop “Project management in academia: Tools of the trade for challenges”.
27. NovemberMGK-Workshop “Academic writing: how to create good texts”.
24. November1st Internal SFB Colloquium.
17. November1st SFB Colloquium. Dr. Filip Smolík (Czech Academy of Sciences) gave a talk on “Experiments on gender, number, word order, and case marking in Czech toddlers”. [Abstract]
04. OctoberLaunch event of the SFB 1287. [Press release of the University of Potsdam]
01. OctoberThe SFB 1287 invited applications for short-term fellowship.
28. August – 01. SeptemberThe first “Potsdam Summer School on Statistical Methods for Linguistics and Psychology” (SMLP).
26. JulyPaul Mätzig (B02) won the Allen Newell Best Student-Led Paper Award. [Download]
16. MayPress release DFG.