Invited Talks

Nadine Bade, University of Konstanz
Title of the talk: Methods Matter: Experimental Perspectives on the Derivation of Implicature
Abstract: Experimental research on implicature has shown striking variability across paradigms and tasks, especially regarding whether pragmatic strengthening is observed at all, and to what degree. Building on studies that use priming, training, and truth value judgment tasks, this talk examines the derivation of implicatures with simple and complex disjunctions as well as so called ad hoc implicatures. I compare a new training paradigm to more established methods, showing that task demands and baseline assumptions crucially shape the outcomes: while some tasks reliably elicit implicatures, others make them virtually disappear. I further argue that disjunction and ad hoc implicatures are affected differently across tasks, and that the format of experimental input, whether linguistic or visual, exerts additional influence on how implicatures are derived. I discuss theoretical and methodological consequences, including the possibility of integrating experimental paradigms themselves into probabilistic models of pragmatic reasoning.

Eleanor Chodroff, University of Zürich
Title of the talk: Advancing phonetic typology with massively multilingual speech corpora
Abstract: The phonetic realization of speech sounds varies considerably across individuals, dialects, and languages. This variation extends beyond simple anatomical or biomechanical explanations, revealing additional influences from social, cognitive, and historical influences on phonetic realization. Two foundational constraints — uniformity and distinctiveness — may structure this variation within the phonological inventory; however, their consistent role across languages has been relatively under-investigated. Only in the past few years has crosslinguistic investigation of crosslinguistic phonetic variation and systematicity become feasible with dramatic increases in computational power, storage, and the availability of “massively multilingual speech corpora”. In this talk, I present recent developments in the creation of large-scale crosslinguistic phonetic corpora and the theoretical insights these resources enable. I then highlight findings on systematic crosslinguistic speech patterns such as intrinsic vowel f0 and intrinsic vowel duration, and discuss these in light of uniformity and distinctiveness.

Linda Drijvers, Radboud University
Title of the talk: Towards a neurobiology of multimodal language
Abstract: Face-to-face communication involves auditory signals, such as speech, and visual signals, such as visual speech and hand gestures. Despite the abundance of visual expressions in language, most models and theories on the neurobiology of language are based on characteristics of (clear) speech and text, and they rarely consider multimodal signals. In this talk, I will argue that we need a multimodal view on the neurobiology of language, and that these visual signals are often taken on board immediately by listeners in creating and shaping an interpretation of the linguistic input. This talk will center around the question of how we, as language users, integrate auditory and visual signals into a coherent message, how this is orchestrated within and between brains, and how we do this in both clear and adverse listening conditions.

Simon Wehrle, University of Cologne
Title of the talk: Individual variability and the natural habitat of language: Insights from autism and non-native speech
Abstract: Conversational interaction—the dynamic exchange of spontaneous utterances—is the natural habitat of language, and it lies at the heart of language use, learning, and evolution. Nevertheless, much of linguistic science has failed to do justice to this fact by depending on monologic or highly controlled speech. This is true also of most research on communication in autism, even though differences in social interaction are the defining characteristic of autism. Similarly, assessment and research of non-native speech have largely relegated interactional skills to the background. I will present results from three corpora of conversational interaction that were collected to address these gaps. The main focus lies on autistic vs. non-autistic speaker pairs, complemented by parallel research on (non-)native speakers of German. The key phenomena of interest are turn-timing (speaker transitions), backchannels (listener feedback), and hesitations (filled/silent pauses). Our analyses reveal robust group differences, but also substantial within-group heterogeneity. While such variability is to be expected, most relevant studies fail to account for individual-specific behaviour. This reflects common practice in linguistics, where human diversity tends to be downplayed if not downright overlooked. I suggest that embracing individual specificity and acknowledging the primacy of conversational speech can lead us towards a holistic, inclusive model of communicative interaction centred on cognitive as well as cultural diversity.

Konstanz Linguistics Conference 2025

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KLC24