Anna Trester Comes to Ohio State

This semester’s goal for the UnderLings is to offer information on the options available for linguists to maximize their employability, inside and outside the academic field. We’ve covered the Professional Writing Minor at The Ohio State University, undergraduate research, and scientific outreach through the Buckeye Language Network Language Pod at COSI. To focus on opportunities outside academia, the UnderLings is happy to announce:

Dr. Anna Marie Trester

“Whither Linguistics? Oh the Places You’ll Go”

Professional Applications in Linguistics

Monday, October 21, 2013, 3:30PM

1180 Postle Hall

All OSU students, alumni, and faculty are welcome to this event.

A reception will be held after the presentation in the Mortar Board Room in Thompson Library.

Doctor Anna Marie Trester is the director of the Language and Communication master’s at Georgetown University, a program designed to link linguistic theories with a range of professional fields. Her main task is “helping students bring their awareness of language and culture to the job search.” Check out Anna’s blog here.

Sources and Timelines for Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate research is a constantly visible aspect of being a student in the OSU linguistics department, and believe me, that tactic is on purpose. It’s meant to be brought up in classes and meetings and gatherings to get undergraduate students interested in doing more work than is necessary for their degree. However, undergraduates doing research doesn’t just benefit the reputation of the university, it also benefits the student.

Why you should do an undergraduate research project:

Everyone is getting bachelor’s degrees. Let’s face it; the bachelor’s degree is the new high school diploma for our generation. With government funding being what it is these days and the unemployment rates fluctuating, you’re going to need every bit of experience possible in order to stand out on grad school, job, and scholarship applications. There’s so much you can add to your resume from even a single research project: analytical writing skills, learning new computer programs, detailed analysis in a laboratory setting, statistical skills. Working with a faculty member also means that there is someone on campus that can write you a detailed, effective recommendation.

When you should start thinking about beginning a research program:

Earlier is better. I would personally recommend junior year to do a research project, meaning that you should start gathering ideas in the back of your head during sophomore year. But if you’re a junior or a senior already, that doesn’t mean you cannot start a project, you just have to move a little faster on things. I would recommend meeting with potential project advisors and having a general plan the semester BEFORE you actually begin the project, however. There is a lot of pre-planning and work involved in crafting a project, and you won’t be thanking yourself if you’re trying to do it all the week before the semester begins.

How you should choose someone to work with:

Begin by thinking about what your favorite parts of linguistics are. Which classes have you gotten the best grades in? Is the professor of that class someone you might like to work with? Coming to those professors with some ideas or just asking if they have anything they’re working on that you can help with is the easiest way to begin. You may even have to meet with a professor or grad student that you don’t know in order to begin the process.

Who you should be seeing in the planning stages of your project:

Both the department and the university have structures in place for ensuring that your project goes well. It’s up to you to decide which resources you want to use.

• ·         Undergraduate Research Office—This department will help you with all stages of undergraduate research, including planning guidance, informational seminars, and funding. Going through Internal Review Board (IRB) training is often required when doing research, and the department offers talks that guide students through the process. And FUNDING—I just can’t stress that enough. You have nothing to lose by applying to get paid to pack your resume.

 

• ·         Talk to Julie McGory, the advisor for the linguistics department. She knows all the professors and grad students and their research fields. She will likely be able to tell you who to contact in order to get the best match for a mentor or project advisor.

 

• ·         Talk to professors and grad students that work in the field you’re interested in studying, even if you’ve never met them before. I know this can be daunting, but I have yet to meet with a new professor that was unwilling to discuss research with me.

 

Try to get as involved as possible:

If you can get involved in a couple of research projects, or maybe even an internship, you’ll be able to learn more about how these projects should be put together. You can avoid getting stuck on issues in your own research by having some experience and knowing who to go to when you’re stuck. You’ll have a variety of skills and experiences to talk about in any type of application, and you’ll stand out amongst those who haven’t done research.

Good Luck!

Nichole Ashley

UnderLings President

 

Phonetics Phriday: Fundamental Frequency, Harmonics, and Formant Frequencies

One of the most common questions teachers receive in introductory acoustic phonetics is, “What’s the difference between f0, harmonics, and formant frequency?” The best way to explain these concepts is by beginning with the Source-Filter Model.

The Source-Filter Model

The Source:

Forget about the filter for a moment. We’re going to start with the Source, which is where the sound comes from; more specifically, the vocal fold vibration.

• f0 – Also known as the fundamental frequency,  f0 is a property of the source and is perceived by the ear as pitch. The f0 of the adult human voice ranges from 100-300 Hz.

 

To Find the f0 in Praat:

There are several ways to find the fundamental frequency:

1. Highlight the vowel. Then go to the Spectrum menu up top and select “view spectral slice.”  In the spectrum window, you’ll see several peaks. Click on the top of the first peak. The value of the first peak in Hz is the fundamental frequency.
2. You can also find the fundamental frequency by counting and highlighting ten full periods of the vowel. Apply the 10 periods and their duration to the following formula: number of periods/ total duration. So if 10 periods of a vowel last .089 seconds, then your formula is 10/.089, which results in a fundamental frequency of 112.36 Hz.
3. Another way to find the fundamental frequency is to go to the “Pitch” menu above and select “Show Pitch.” A blue line will appear on your spectrogram. Click on one of the blue dots located near the midpoint of your vowel. The fundamental frequency will be displayed in Hertz on the right side of the spectrogram. You can also get a mean pitch of the entire vowel by selecting the vowel, going to the “Pitch” menu above, and selecting “Get  Pitch.”

 

• Harmonics- The vocal signal is a complex periodic wave made up of several simple periodic waves. Each of the simple waves is called a harmonic. The fundamental frequency, or f0, is the first harmonic, or H1. There is a harmonic at each interval of the f0 up to infinity. Vocal fold vibration produces many harmonics above f0, all the way up to 5000Hz in the adult human vocal tract. These harmonics decrease in amplitude as the frequency increases.

To Find Harmonics

Begin with the fundamental frequency. The formula for finding the different harmonics is:

H(k)=k * f0

Where k is the harmonic you’re trying to find and f0 is your fundamental  frequency. So, if you’re trying to find the second harmonic, and your fundamental frequency is 112 Hz, H2= 2 * 112, or 224 Hz.

The Filter:

You can now forget about the Source, as we are now going to talk about the Filter. The only thing you need to remember about the source in relation to the filter is that the vocal fold vibration sets the vocal tract vibrating as well. The vocal tract above the larynx is constantly changing shape as we speak, which in turn changes the quality of the vowel. While acting as a filter, the vocal tract attenuates some frequencies and accentuates others. How does the vocal tract decide which frequencies to accentuate? The size and shape of the resonator (your vocal tract) is set into forced vibration by another vibration (the source, your vocal folds) to determine its natural frequencies. This forced vibration is called resonance. The resonant frequency is the preferred frequency at which an object oscillates when set to vibration. Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with fundamental frequency.

• Formant Frequency- Resonances of the vocal tract are called formants. By changing the shape of the vocal tract, you also change the frequency of the formant. These formants can be seen as dark bands in the spectrogram. Each vowel has its own characteristic filter functions. High vowels have a low F1, while low vowels have a high F1. Front vowels have a high F2, while back vowels have a low F2.

 

 

How to Find Formant Frequencies in Praat:

Select the mid-point of the vowel and go to the “Formant” menu above. Select “Formant Listing.” The first number will be the time in the recording you’ve selected. The second number will be the F1 value, which roughly corresponds to the height of the vowel. The third number will be the F2 value, which roughly corresponds to the frontness/ backness of the vowel.

I hope this has helped to explain the differences between fundamental frequency, harmonics, and formant frequencies. Feel free to e-mail me at Ashley.94@osu.edu if you have any further questions.

 

Nichole Ashley

UnderLings President

The Ohio State University

Next Week’s Events

Monday, March 4, 7:30 pm

Jennings 60

We will be hosting a movie night, showing The Linguists. Feel free to bring your own snacks, but remember to clean up after yourselves when you leave.

Released in 2008, The Linguists is a documentary that tells the story of Greg Anderson of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages and David Harrison of Swarthmore College as they set out to document languages that are on the cusp of extinction in Siberia, India, and Bolivia.

Tuesday, March 5- 5:30 pm

12^th Ave Bread Company Loft

We have a guest speaker for our regular meeting. Brian Joseph will be giving us a talk entitled, “Sanskrit, an Introduction, in One Hour” He’ll talk about why Sanskrit is an interesting language, give some of the socio-cultural background for the language, and discuss the history and structure of the language.

 

Hope to see you there!

 

Nichole Ashley

UnderLings President

The Ohio State University

What Every Student Should Know About Getting Involved in Linguistics at Ohio State

When attending a large university like Ohio State, sometimes it can difficult to stand out in a program. As linguistics students, part of our job has been done for us, as the size of the linguistics department doesn’t really compare to, say, the biology department. However, here are some tips that all students should keep in mind if they’re interested in making the most of their time as an undergrad and making a great impression.

Join the UnderLings
This is really the easiest thing you can do, since there are no requirements for joining the club; you can participate as much or as little as you like, depending on how demanding your schedule is. But the club presents its own face to the outside world, which allows it the control to place an emphasis on individual contribution. This allows grad schools, potential faculty recommenders, fellowship and scholarship boards, and potential employers to see your name attached to your contributions and note you as an active member of the OSU linguistic community. You can achieve this by thinking of projects the UnderLings can get involved in or writing regular blog posts.

Join All the Mailing Lists That Interest You
There are many mailing lists that cover news in different departments of the university. In the linguistics department alone, there are 38 different mailing lists for graduate and undergraduate students. These mailing lists can be found here: http://mail.ling.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo.
However, there are some mailing lists that aren’t connected directly with the linguistic department. The Buckeye Language Network and the Undergraduate Research Office are two examples. Read these emails and be sure to attend any of the events you find interesting. Not only are these events excellent learning opportunities, but they’re also vital networking opportunities. You may learn about internships, funding opportunities, and research opportunities that are not otherwise advertised.

Join the Linguistics Discussion Groups That Match Your Interests
The linguistics department hosts graduate-level discussion groups centered around specific subjects in linguistics. As a freshman, sophomore, or even a junior, these discussion groups can often go over your head. However, by listening to these advanced talks, you will be learning snippets of a higher level of thinking, and therefore preparing your mind for upper-level classes and the rigor of academic presentations. From personal experience, I found that joining these groups by junior year helped immensely with my senior-level classes. In addition, you’ll  also be learning about the directions your field is heading in and networking with both faculty and grad students.

 
Start Planning an Independent Study
It’s really never too early to begin thinking about a possible independent study project, especially if you plan on going for a scholarship or grad school. Doing research is a dramatic way to set yourself apart from other applicants. Ohio State is more than happy to fund undergraduate research projects; in fact, there’s an entire office dedicated to helping undergrads with the research process. http://www.undergraduateresearch.osu.edu/. Start a document on your computer and every time you come up with an idea for a good research question in one of your classes, add it to the list.

 
Go to Office Hours
I’m not saying that you should attend every day, but at least a couple times a semester. The faculty are there to help you succeed whether it be at homework, research projects, grad school choices, or your career track. By attending office hours, teachers have the opportunity to get to know you on a one-to-one basis. They can then be more qualified to write recommendation letters or steer you towards career options you might not yet know about. Additionally, most internships are snapped up before they have the chance to be advertised. By asking your professors about internship opportunities directly, you may be matched with an unadvertised research project that better matches your own research goals.

Nichole Ashley

Underlings President

The Ohio State University

William Labov and Gillian Sankoff Come to Ohio State

                                                               

The Linguistics Department is very excited to have William Labov and Gillian Sankoff of University of Pennsylvania come to Ohio State later this week. Sponsored by the Student Linguistic Association, the event spans Thursday, February 28, and Friday, March 1. See below for a detailed itinerary.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

• 12:30–1:30pm Undergraduate Lunch with William Labov and Gillian Sankoff

          Location: 12th Avenue Bread Company, 251 W. 12th Avenue

Undergraduate students are welcome to spend an informal lunch with Dr. Labov and Dr. Sankoff to talk about their work, their studies, academia, graduate school, etc. Pizza will be provided. Contact Julie McGory at mcgory.1@osu.edu if you are interested in attending.

• 5:00–6:30pm Lecture by William Labov: The Language of Life and Death

          Location: 1180 Postle Hall. 305 W. 12th Avenue

William Labov extends his widely used framework for narrative analysis to matters of greatest human concern: the danger of death, violence, premonitions, and large-scale community conflicts. While remaining true to the facts, narrators use linguistic devices to present themselves in the best possible light and change the listener’s perception of who is to blame for what has occurred. This lecture will present cognitive and social principles that govern the construction of oral narratives of personal experience, illustrated in accounts of the escalation of violence, confrontation with death, and communication with the dead.

• 6:30–8:00pm Reception

          Location: 12th Avenue Bread Company, 251 W. 12th Avenue

Friday, March 1, 2013

• 9:10–10:05am William Labov visits Brian Joseph’s Linguistics 5901 class

          Location: 277 Caldwell Labs

Dr. Labov speaks in Brian Joseph’s Introduction to Historical Linguistics class, speaking on “’How regular is regular sound change?’ Answer: ‘very.’”

• 1:30–2:30pm Gillian Sankoff leads a Brownbag Luncheon:Professionalizing Ourselves as Linguists

          Location: Ohio Union Round Room

• 3:55–5:00pm Lecture by William Labov :What is it to be Learned?

          Location: 21 Lazenby

This presentation is an effort to define the target of the language learner, asking: what are the data that the child attends to in the process of becoming a native speaker? This question necessarily engages the definition of language in the largest sense. It is argued that the human language‐learning capacity is directed to the acquisition of the general pattern used in the speech community. Supporting this view is overwhelming evidence that children do not acquire the non‐native features of their parents’ speech, whether these are dialect differences or foreign accents. The end result is a high degree of uniformity in both the categorical and variable aspects of language production, where individual variation is reduced below the level of linguistic significance. Studies of changes now in progress typically show uniform patterns across metropolitan areas and even larger regions involving 30 to 40 million speakers. The sharp dialect boundaries that separate such regions confront us with the obverse problem of accounting for what children do not learn from closely neighboring speech communities.

Welcome! Call for Blog Posts

Call for Blog Posts

Who can post: undergraduate majors, minors, and recent alumni in Linguistics can talk about what interests them. You do not need to be an UnderLings member to submit blog posts. Topics include, but aren’t limited to:

• Class posts- Give more insight into what linguistics classes cover at OSU.

• Research- Are you working on linguistics research? Talk about what you’re doing, what it’s like being in the field, what tips might help other students when they go to do their own research.
• Featured Undergrad- Do you know an undergrad who’s working on something interesting? Do a profile on them.
• Event Coverage- There are a lot of linguistics events happening in and around OSU. Cover the who and what of the event.And any other linguistics-related topics you can think of.
  

Benefits of Writing a Blog Post:
We are in control of the face we present to the outside world, so we should definitely make it an exciting one.

• Prospective students checking out Ohio State will want to know more about linguistics, what it’s like to be a student in this department, and who we are as a club.
• Prospective employers will not only want to know what this UnderLings club is that you put on your resume, but will also be interested in seeing concrete evidence of your involvement. This effect is compounded when you become a regular contributing member of the blog!
• Even non-linguistics related jobs will be happy to know that you have experience writing in a professional capacity to the public. This writing experience can be used in your resume to give you an edge on the competition.
• Even though the submissions will be made through an officer, the posts themselves will still be signed with the author’s name, so you’re sure to get credit for anything you write.

Post Requirements:
Posts should be at least 200 words and no more than 1000 words; however, subjects longer than this can be turned into a series. Make sure your posts are easy to skim (perhaps by adding headings and bullet points), are in your own words, and are factually correct. You may want to run your post by a professor before submitting for publishing. Photos, graphs, and charts are encouraged, but be sure to credit any sources that aren’t your own. After submitting to one of the email addresses listed below, posts will be subject to light proofreading before publication.

For submissions or more information, please e-mail us at ashley.94@osu.edu, meek.81@osu.edu, or debacker.2@osu.edu.

Nichole Ashley
UnderLings President
The Ohio State University