Hatice Zora Gives Invited Talk at Leiden University

On 26 September 2025, Hatice Zora gave an invited talk at Leiden University’s SMiLE – Experimental Linguistics Series.

Her presentation, “Understanding the Role of Prosody at Multiple Levels of Linguistic Organization: Experimental and Crosslinguistic Insights,” explored how prosody — rhythm, intonation, and stress patterns — contributes to meaning beyond words.

Drawing on EEG and behavioral studies in Turkish and Swedish, Hatice demonstrated: 

• Prosodic cues shape understanding at both the lexical and discourse level. 

• Prosodic violations are perceived differently depending on the linguistic level.

• Cross-linguistic variation influences how listeners respond to these violations.

Together, these insights highlight the neural and psychometric foundations of prosody and advance our understanding of how the brain processes spoken language in real communicative contexts.

In other words, Prosody helps us grasp meaning beyond words. The talk showed how changes in tone, stress, and intonation affect comprehension, what happens when these cues fail, and why the effects differ across languages.

About SMiLE

The SMiLE – Experimental Linguistics Series at Leiden University is a seminar series that invites researchers to present cutting-edge work in experimental linguistics. The series provides a platform for sharing findings, fostering collaboration, and engaging in discussions on language, cognition, and communication across diverse research traditions.