Schedule

Atrium, 6th floor McIntyre Medical Science Building, McGill University

Charles F. Martin Amphitheatre, McIntyre Medical Science Building, MCMED 504, McGill University Session chair: Victor Kuperman, PhD

Charles F. Martin Amphitheatre, McIntyre Medical Science Building, MCMED 504, McGill University. Session chair: Victor Kuperman, PhD Fermin Moncoso del Prado Martín, PhD, Associate Professor of Computational Linguistics, Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge & Fellow, Jesus College Cambridge. Title: The distribution of phonemic contrasts in the world's languages: Information theory, reconstructing distributions, and the role of diachrony In contrast with a broad corpus of research on the distribution of the frequencies of words, the distribution of the frequencies of phonemic contrasts is remarkably understudied. Using data from over one hundred language varieties, I will discuss that all of them can be modeled a priori by a virtually parameter-free distribution; in other words, just knowing the number of phonemic contrasts in a language variety, one can accurately guess their relative frequencies. Moreover, in situations with extreme undersampling —as would be the case when documenting new, unknown varieties— this knowledge can be used for guessing the expected number of existing contrasts. Finally, I discuss how informational and diachronic constraints give rise to these distributions. Incrementally complex models of phonological change can replicate these distributions with minimum assumptions.

Atrium, 6th floor McIntyre Medical Science Building, McGill University

Charles F. Martin Amphitheatre, McIntyre Medical Science Building, MCMED 504, McGill University Session chair: Roberto G. de Almeida

Atrium, 6th floor McIntyre Medical Science Building, McGill University

Charles F. Martin Amphitheatre, McIntyre Medical Science Building, MCMED 504, McGill University Session chair: Christina Gagné, PhD

Charles F. Martin Amphitheatre, McIntyre Medical Science Building, MCMED 504, McGill University Session chair: Thomas Spalding, PhD

Faculty Club, McGill University 3450 McTavish St, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1X9