Speaker: Dr Simon Harrison, University of Hong Kong

Title: Negation’s co-speech and vocal-entangled gestures: Multiscalar perspectives on typologically widespread gestures

Abstract: Gestures associated with negation have attracted attention from diverse empirical and theoretical perspectives. In this presentation, I offer insights on these typologically widespread gestures by integrating empirical findings from a linguistic gesture study with discoveries in biomechanics research. Using visualisation software (ELAN/PRAAT) to analyse negative utterances comprising accented particle, lateral sweep gesture, and facial distortion, I show that as syllable-onset consonant is lengthening (voiced alveolar /n/ = 300ms on average) with pitch and intensity increasing (e.g., “NNNNNEVER”), the speaker’s upper arm is rotating with palm pronating/adducing while his or her face is disforming. This finding is my basis for bringing conceptions of gesture as ‘co-speech’ and ‘vocal-entangled’ into conversation. It also raises new questions for cross-linguistic research and perception studies involving gestures associated with negation.

Short bio

Simon Harrison is Assistant Professor in the Department of English at City University of Hong Kong, having previously held positions at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, RWTH Aachen, and Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle. His research explores embodied and relational understandings of language, communication, and culture across diverse settings and scales, with a focus on spoken language interactivity and gesture. Simon is author of The Impulse to Gesture: Where Language, Bodies, and Minds Intersect (2018) and Chinese Urban Shi-nema: Cinematicity, Society and Millennial China (with David H. Fleming, 2021). In 2019 he co-founded the Hong Kong hub of the International Society for Gesture Studies.

Homepage: https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/persons/simon-mark-harrison(40244672-8c87-4ceb-85a4-0a1b7ac7ac89).html

Email Kirsty Green for a Teams Link.

Speaker: Jana Hasenäcker, University of Erfurt

Title: More than one: Insights into polysyllabic and multimorphemic word reading

Abstract: Most empirical research on reading, as well as computational modeling work, centers on monomorphemic and monosyllabic words. However, the majority of words we encounter in real-world reading are longer and more complex, and it is in these words where the real challenges for readers lie. This talk presents an overview of my research from recent years exploring the cognitive mechanisms underlying the reading of polysyllabic and multimorphemic words. Key findings from behavioral and eye-tracking experiments reveal how both skilled and developing readers process these complex words, providing novel insights into orthographic, semantic, morphological, and prosodic influences on word recognition.

Short bio

Dr. Jana Hasenäcker is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Her research focuses on the use of functional units (graphemes, bigrams, syllables, morphemes) and statistical regularities in reading and its acquisition. During her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Berlin, Germany), she investigated the developmental trajectory of morphemes as reading units in German across elementary schools. In her subsequent postdoc at the International School for Advanced Studies (Trieste, Italy), she explored form-meaning regularities beyond morphological relationships in Italian beginning and skilled readers. In her more recent research, she also explores the role of prosodic features in visual word recognition.

Social media handles

X: @JanaHasenacker

Mastodon: @JanaHasenacker@mstdn.social

Email Kirsty Green for a Teams Link.