{"id":15413,"date":"2023-03-13T06:01:10","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T10:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whamit.mit.edu\/?p=15413"},"modified":"2023-03-12T19:05:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-12T23:05:47","slug":"breakstone-speaker-series-on-language-mind-and-computation-shane-steinert-threlkeld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/2023\/03\/13\/breakstone-speaker-series-on-language-mind-and-computation-shane-steinert-threlkeld\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakstone Speaker Series: Shane Steinert-Threlkeld"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, Shane Steinert-Threlkeld (University of Washington)<\/a><\/strong> will give a colloquium talk and two-part minicourse as the first invited speaker of the Breakstone Speaker Series on Language, Mind, and Computation. This brand new speaker series is an interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty from MIT Linguistics, MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and MIT CSAIL. The funding for the series comes in the form of a donation by Micha Breakstone (PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abstracts and details about Shane’s visit can be found below.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colloquium: Unnatural Language Semantics<\/strong><\/p>\n

When:<\/strong> March 17, 3.30-5pm<\/div>\n
Where:<\/strong> 32-141<\/div>\n
Abstract:<\/strong> Unnatural\u00a0language\u00a0semantics\u00a0is the study of the meaning of words and expressions in languages that are very unlike natural languages. In this talk, I will present several case studies about how\u00a0unnatural language\u00a0semantics\u00a0can inform us about the structure of natural languages. In particular, I will explain and present several case studies of two methods for explaining semantic universals (shared properties of meaning across the languages of the world).\u00a0 One method argues that, at the individual word level, such universals arise due to learnability.\u00a0 The other method suggests that, at the language level, they arise due to optimally trading-off the competing pressures of simplicity and informativeness. The talk will conclude with some discussion about the connections between the two approaches as well as other applications where\u00a0unnatural language\u00a0semantics\u00a0can be helpful.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
Talk Zoom link:\u00a0<\/i><\/span>https:\/\/mit.zoom.us\/j\/96054033565<\/a><\/i><\/div>\n
Reception immediately following talk.\u00a0<\/i>RSVP\u00a0<\/i><\/span>here<\/a>.<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mini-course: The Artificial Language Toolkit<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
When:<\/strong> March 15, 3-5pm; March 16, 12.30-2pm<\/div>\n
Where:<\/strong> 32-D461<\/div>\n

Abstract:<\/strong> This session will introduce the technique of analyzing semantic typology from the perspective of efficient communication, capturing the idea that natural languages optimally balance competing pressures to be simple and to be informative.\u00a0 After introducing the general framework, we will look at one application in detail: indefinite pronouns.\u00a0 In particular, we will walk through reproducing this paper in a new software library that we are developing called the Artificial Language Toolkit, which enables linguists and other researchers to provide typological data in easy-to-produce formats and then conducts various efficient communication analyses more-or-less automatically.<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n
Paper on indefinite pronouns:\u00a0http:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/cogs.13142<\/a><\/div>\n
Artificial Language Toolkit (ALTK; still in active development):\u00a0https:\/\/clmbr.shane.st\/altk\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, Shane Steinert-Threlkeld (University of Washington) will give a colloquium talk and two-part minicourse as the first invited speaker of the Breakstone Speaker Series on Language, Mind, and Computation. This brand new speaker series is an interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty from MIT Linguistics, MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and MIT CSAIL. The funding for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announcements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15413"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15421,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15413\/revisions\/15421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ling-phil.mit.edu\/whamit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}