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The following people are some of those involved in the UWA
Language Science group. They are listed in alphabetical order.
If you would like to have your information included here please
e-mail john.henderson@uwa.edu.au
for details.
Greg Acciaioli
Lecturer
Anthropology
acciaiol@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/AnthropWWW/da/staff.htm
Research interests in language
science:
Although trained in linguistic anthropology at both the
undergraduate and graduate levels, my own research has tended
more to emphasise topics from the cultural anthropological
perspective. However, it has also included attention to
linguistic strategies of identity maintenance in inter-ethnic
contexts.
Teaching:
None of the units in anthropology focus solely on linguistic
issues, but many contain modules, many of which I teach,
dealing with linguistic anthropology, including Development of
Social Thought (Boas, Sapir and others on linguistic and
cultural relativism), Psychological Anthropology (models of
cognition, including schemata), etc.
Anthropology course details are available at:
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/AnthropWWW/da/undergrad.htm
Supervision:
I have supervised several dissertations and theses focussing on
language use (e.g. attitudes toward the use of Javanese in
contemporary East Java, conversational strategies of taxi cab
drivers, etc.) employing a number of sociolinguistic
perspectives, including ethnomethodology.
Michael Arbib
Adjunct Professor
Computer Science
arbib@pollux.usc.edu
http://www-hbp.usc.edu/people/arbib.htm
Research interests in language
science:
Michael A. Arbib is the Fletcher Jones Professor and Chairman
of Computer Science, as well as Professor of Neuroscience,
Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Psychology
at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, but he
endeavours to spend a month each year at UWA. His current
research focuses on mechanisms underlying the coordination of
perception and action, working closely with the experimental
findings of neuroscientists on mechanisms for eye-hand
coordination in humans and monkeys. He is now using his
insights into the computations of monkey brain's mirror system
for grasping to develop a new theory of the evolution of human
language. It is this last project that he hopes to develop in
cooperation with the UWA initiative in Language Science.
Alan Dench
Associate Professor
Linguistics
adench@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/LingWWW/alan/
Research interests in language
science:
Grammatical description, typological comparison and historical
reconstruction of Australian Aboriginal languages, especially
those of the Pilbara region of north west Western Australia.
Syntactic reconstruction, subgrouping methodology and the
nature of language contact. Reconstitution of language systems
from fragmentary sources. Language and culture, particularly
the semantics and grammar of kinship systems.
Teaching:
- 151.204/304 Comparative Historical Linguistics
(2000)
- 151.101 Knowledge of Language (2001)
- 151.103 Language, Culture and Society (2001)
- 151.203/303 Sociolinguistics (2001)
- 151.312 Fieldmethods (1998)
- 151.314 Language Typology and Linguistic Universals
(2000)
Shelly Harrison
Senior Lecturer
Linguistics
shelly@cyllene.uwa.edu.au
http://www.general.uwa.edu.au/~shelly/
Research interests in language
science:
I began life as an undergraduate majoring in Spanish and
Portuguese, and became one of the first two undergraduate
Linguistics majors at the University of Toronto. Abandoning
both my native Canada and Romance language studies, I undertook
research on Oceanic (particularly Micronesian) languages, from
both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. The study of
Micronesian languages and of language change have been my
principal interests over the past twenty-five years. For a
change of pace, I have recently begun working on North-west
Semitic languages. I also have a minor, residual interest in
computational linguistics.
Teaching:
Over the years, I have taught just about every course in our
Linguistics curriculum, from Introduction to Linguistics to
Computational Linguistics. In recent years, I find myself
teaching mostly first year Linguistics, higher year syntax
courses, and Semitic linguistics.
John Henderson
Lecturer
Linguistics
john.henderson@uwa.edu.au
Research interests in language
science:
I have interests in descriptive and theoretical linguistics
(and the relationship between them) and in applications of
linguistics. My main descriptive interests are in Australian
Aboriginal languages, especially the Arandic languages of
Central Australia and Ngatju/Mirning from the south-east of
Western Australia. My theoretical interests include phonetics
(esp. articulatory and acoustic), phonology and morphology. In
the applied area, I am particularly interested in lexicography
and language in education.
Teaching:
In the last few years I've taught a range of units in
Linguistics, including Phonetics and Phonology, Phonology and
Morphology, Field Methods, Australian Aboriginal Languages, and
the 1st year unit Language, Brain and Culture. In 2001 I'll be
teaching the Phonetics and Phonology unit and a new unit,
Language Learning and Applied Linguistics.
Kathryn Hird
Associate Professor
School of Human Communication Science
Curtin University of Technology
thirdkm@alpha2.curtin.edu.au
http://www.curtin.edu.au/curtin/dept/shs/staff/hird/index.html
My research and teaching focus is in the broad areas of
cognitive neuroscience, acquired and developmental human
communication disorders and speech science. Specific research
projects I have been involved in include:
- Disordered speaker's use of speech recognition
software.
- Acoustic analysis of resetting and declination in
spontaneous speech samples.
- Acoustic analysis of spontaneous speech elicited from
people with acquired right cerebral hemisphere damage
following stroke.
- Analysis of fluency as a measure of cognitive planning
in spontaneous speech elicited from preschool children.
- Analysis of fluency as a measure of cognitive planning
in spontaneous speech elicited from people diagnosed with
progressive aphasia, sudden onset aphasia and Alzheimer's
disease.
- Discourse and prosodic analysis of conversational speech
involving adults with William's disease.
Kim Kirsner
Professor
Psychology
kim@psy.uwa.edu.au
http://www.psy.uwa.edu.au/user/kim/kim.htm
Research, teaching and
supervision interests include:
- Cognitive analysis of speaking including the processes
involved in macro-planning, prosody, language selection in
bilinguals, and aphasia.
- Cognitive analysis of reading and listening processes
involved in lexical access, the bilingual lexicon, implicit
memory including repetition priming, and alternative
writing systems.
- Cognitive analysis of processes involved in skill
acquisition, expertise, transfer of training, the
relationship between evolution, adaptation and skill,
rehabilitation following stroke and other forms of brain
injury, and the acquisition of clinical expertise
- Cognitive analysis of the interface between history and
memory, with reference to the way in which information is
preserved or transformed as it is transmitted through
complex social systems.
Marie-Eve Ritz
Lecturer,
Graduate School of Education
mritz@ecel.uwa.edu.au
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/LingWWW/perfect/
Research interests in
language science:
My research is in the area of natural language semantics. My
PhD topic was on the semantics of vagueness; it involved a
study of vague terms in natural language and a discussion of
various logical frameworks designed to represent their uses. My
post-doctoral research led me to investigate the semantics of
tense and aspect in English and French and translation problems
that arise in this area. I am currently working on a project
studying the use of the present perfect in Australian English.
This involves comparison with other English dialects, and a
study of historical change.
Teaching:
Introduction to linguistics (bridging course for post-graduate
students); Masters courses: research methods in applied
linguistics; sociolinguistics; psycholinguistics.
Supervision:
Currently supervising masters and PhD students working on a
range of topics including second language acquisition, language
teaching, language attrition, pragmatics.
Dr. Roberto Togneri
Senior Lecturer
E&E Engineering
roberto@ee.uwa.edu.au
http://ciips.ee.uwa.edu.au/~roberto/research/speech.html
Research interests in language
science:
- Modelling the dynamics and "true nature" of speech using
advanced statistical, adaptive filtering, pattern
recognition and articifial neural network techniques to
develop alternatives and enhancements to the Hidden Markov
Model (HMM) paradigm.
- Incorporation of phonetic and linguistic knowledge
sources to improve large task domain, very large
vocabulary, continuous, spontaneous speech recognition,
language modelling and language understanding.
- Preliminary investigations of articulatory and auditory
physical modelling for improved synthesis, recognition and
contributions to speech and hearing biomedical research.
Supervision:
Prospective postgrad students should go to
http://ciips.ee.uwa.edu.au/~roberto/research/postgrad.html
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