Stephen C. Levinson

Presentations

Displaying 1 - 17 of 17
  • Blokpoel, M., Dingemanse, M., Kachergis, G., Bögels, S., Drijvers, L., Eijk, L., Ernestus, M., De Haas, N., Holler, J., Levinson, S. C., Lui, R., Milivojevic, B., Neville, D., Ozyurek, A., Rasenberg, M., Schriefers, H., Trujillo, J. P., Winner, T., Toni, I., & Van Rooij, I. (2018). Ambiguity helps higher-order pragmatic reasoners communicate. Talk presented at the 14th biannual conference of the German Society for Cognitive Science, GK (KOGWIS 2018). Darmstadt, Germany. 2018-09-03 - 2018-09-06.
  • Bögels, S., Milvojevic, B., De Haas, N., Döller, C., Rasenberg, M., Ozyurek, A., Dingemanse, M., Eijk, L., Ernestus, M., Schriefers, H., Blokpoel, M., Van Rooij, I., Levinson, S. C., & Toni, I. (2018). Creating shared conceptual representations. Poster presented at the 10th Dubrovnik Conference on Cognitive Science, Dubrovnik, Croatia.
  • Byun, K.-S., De Vos, C., Roberts, S. G., & Levinson, S. C. (2018). Interactive sequences modulate the selection of expressive forms in cross-signing. Talk presented at the 12th International Conference on the Evolution of Language: (EVOLANG XII). Toruń, Poland. 2018-04-15 - 2018-04-19.
  • Casillas, M., Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (2018). Acquiring a typologically rare phonological contrast in Yélî Dnye. Poster presented at the Nijmegen Lectures 2018, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
  • Garrido Rodriguez, G., Huettig, F., Norcliffe, E., Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (2018). Participant assignment to thematic roles in Tzeltal: Eye tracking evidence from sentence comprehension in a verb-initial language. Talk presented at Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP 2018). Berlin, Germany. 2018-09-06 - 2018-09-08.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2018). Interactional foundations of language: The Interaction Engine hypothesis [invited talk]. Talk presented at the JASS conference. Tokyo, Japan. 2018-03-08.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2018). Spatial cognition, empathy and language evolution [invited lecture by PSJ (Pragmatics Society of Japan)]. Talk presented at the Consortium of University in Kyoto (a.k.a. Campus Plaza Kyoto). Kyoto, Japan. 2018-03-15.
  • Levinson, S. C., & Bögels, S. (2018). Seeing the unseen: Discovering the cognitive processes underlying conversation. Talk presented at the 5th International Conference of Conversation Analysis (ICCA 2018). Loughborough, UK. 2018-07-11 - 2018-07-15.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2018). Where it all begins - interactive language use as a key to insights at different time scales [invited talk]. Talk presented at CoEDL Fest 2018. Melbourne, Australia. 2018-02-05 - 2018-02-08.
  • Garrido Rodriguez, G., Huettig, F., Norcliffe, E., Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (2017). Participant assignment to thematic roles in Tzeltal: Eye tracking evidence from sentence comprehension in a verb-initial language. Poster presented at the workshop 'Event Representations in Brain, Language & Development' (EvRep), Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
  • Hömke, P., Holler, J., & Levinson, S. C. (2017). Blinking as addressee feedback in face-to-face conversation. Talk presented at the MPI Proudly Presents series. Nijmegen, The Netherlands. 2017-06-29.
  • Hömke, P., Holler, J., & Levinson, S. C. (2017). Eye blinking as listener feedback in face-to-face communication. Talk presented at the 5th European Symposium on Multimodal Communication (MMSYM). Bielefeld, Germany. 2017-10-16 - 2017-10-17.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2017). A manifesto for time. Talk presented at the Workshop Key Questions and New Methods in the Language Sciences. Berg en Dal, The Netherlands. 2017-06-14 - 2017-06-17.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2017). Cultural diversity in an age of fear [invited talk]. Talk presented at Pressing Questions in the Study of Psychological and Behavioral Diversity: An Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium. Irvine, CA, USA. 2017-09-07 - 2017-09-09.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2017). Natural forms of purposeful interaction among humans: What makes interaction effective [invited talk]. Talk presented at the Ernst Strungmann Forum. Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 2017-05-22.
  • Levinson, S. C. (2017). Processing in interactive language use offers clues to the evolution of language. Talk presented at the 30th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Cambridge, MA, USA. 2017-03-30 - 2017-04-01.

    Abstract

    The central niche for language use is social interaction: this is the context in which language is
    learned, most heavily used, and doubtless evolved. Interactive language use has well defined
    properties which look strongly universal. Amongst these is turn-taking or the rapid alternation
    of speakers. Investigations of turn-taking reveal rather stable temporal parameters, with
    alternating short bursts of speech (averaging c. 2 secs), separated by modal gaps of only 200 ms
    or less. Given the latencies involved in language production (c. 600 ms for a single word, 1500
    ms for a simple clause) this implies an overlap in comprehension and production by the
    addressee towards the end of the incoming turn, an implication confirmed by neuroimaging
    and other measures. Such multitasking must involve a high cognitive load. Looking at the
    development of turn-taking in infancy and childhood, one can see relatively quick responses in
    the early months slowing down as ever more complex language has to be crammed into short
    turns, with children struggling to meet adult norms even in middle childhood. The intensive
    processing required by turn-taking suggests it might be a kind of “fossil” with temporal
    properties inherited from our primate ancestors before complex vocal language gradually
    developed, filling short turns with increasingly complex structures. A glance across our primate
    cousins gives some reasons to think this is a plausible scenario.
  • Slonimska, A., Roberts, S., & Levinson, S. C. (2017). Selection pressures on language emerge from interaction between individuals in conversation. Talk presented at the Inaugural Cultural Evolution Society Conference (CESC 2017). Jena, Germany. 2017-09-13 - 2017-09-15.

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