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UID:19378-52711bd480a25b42eee932062dad6df2@events.la.psu.edu
DTSTAMP:20261007T040629Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261106T090000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261106T103000
SUMMARY:Center for Language Science Speaker Series: Elsi Kaiser
DESCRIPTION:\nMany aspects of language are highly context-dependent. Use
	 of pronouns\, for example\, relies heavily on prior discourse: ‘it’ cou
	ld refer to a coffee cup or the sunrise\, and whether a speaker uses ‘it
	’ or ‘my coffee’ also depends on context. In addition to referential exp
	ressions\, use of different sentence forms is also influenced by context
	 (e.g. active vs passive\, or clefted vs non-clefted forms\, such as ‘I 
	saw a cat’ vs ‘It was a cat that I saw.’) Language provides us with diff
	erent ways to package the same basic propositional content\, and underst
	anding how the context modulates these choices is a key aspect of pragma
	tics. In this talk\, Elsi Kaiser presents a series of psycholinguistic e
	xperiments investigating the power of information packaging. The results
	 show that\, even when the basic content is kept constant\, the way it i
	s packaged has far-reaching effects: First\, our ability to recognize so
	mething as being an opinion (vs. a fact) is significantly impacted by li
	nguistic form\, even when the basic content is kept constant. Second\, t
	he interpretation of pronouns is impacted in nuanced ways by information
	-structural notions that may at first appear to be at odds (topic and fo
	cus). Third\, language also allows us to detect how\, when the same even
	t is presented differently in the visual domain (whether agent and patie
	nt are presented together or segmented into two images)\, visual informa
	tion packaging affects our expectations about upcoming linguistic discou
	rse. As a whole\, all of these studies show that -- even when basic trut
	h-conditional meaning is kept constant -- pragmatic\, context-dependent 
	aspects of language have deep effects on language comprehension.\n\nFor 
	more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/cls-speaker-series-kaiser/
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:<html><head></head><body><p>Many aspects of
	 language are highly context-dependent. Use of pronouns, for example, re
	lies heavily on prior discourse: ‘it’ could refer to a coffee cup or the
	 sunrise, and whether a speaker uses ‘it’ or ‘my coffee’ also depends on
	 context. In addition to referential expressions, use of different sente
	nce forms is also influenced by context (e.g. active vs passive, or clef
	ted vs non-clefted forms, such as ‘I saw a cat’ vs ‘It was a cat that I 
	saw.’) Language provides us with different ways to package the same basi
	c propositional content, and understanding how the context modulates the
	se choices is a key aspect of pragmatics. In this talk, Elsi Kaiser pres
	ents a series of psycholinguistic experiments investigating the power of
	 information packaging. The results show that, even when the basic conte
	nt is kept constant, the way it is packaged has far-reaching effects: Fi
	rst, our ability to recognize something as being an opinion (vs. a fact)
	 is significantly impacted by linguistic form, even when the basic conte
	nt is kept constant. Second, the interpretation of pronouns is impacted 
	in nuanced ways by information-structural notions that may at first appe
	ar to be at odds (topic and focus). Third, language also allows us to de
	tect how, when the same event is presented differently in the visual dom
	ain (whether agent and patient are presented together or segmented into 
	two images), visual information packaging affects our expectations about
	 upcoming linguistic discourse. As a whole, all of these studies show th
	at -- even when basic truth-conditional meaning is kept constant -- prag
	matic, context-dependent aspects of language have deep effects on langua
	ge comprehension.</p><p>For more details: <a href='https://events.la.psu
	.edu/event/cls-speaker-series-kaiser/'>https://events.la.psu.edu/event/c
	ls-speaker-series-kaiser/</a></p></body></html>
LOCATION:Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library
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