Home
Currently visiting UCSD
During this summer I will be visiting the Center for Research in Language at the University of California, San Diego as a visiting scholar. I will be working within the project "The emergence of grammar in a new sign language" on the emergence of phonological structure. So, for this summer I can be found in room 264 of the Cognitive Science Building, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0515, Phone: +1 858 822 5166
PhD project: Modelling the evolution of speech acquisition
In January 2009, I started as a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC) of the University of Amsterdam. My project is part of Bart de Boer's NWO Vidi project "Modelling the evolution of speech".
With this project I will investigate the evolution of speech and in particular the acquisition of (complex) speech sounds. Itwil involve artificial language experiments, both in the context of the design and implementation of agent based computer models and by doing experiments with human test subjects. During the first part of the project, I will focus on a particular language acquisition phenomenon, the critical period, and I will try to give insight into the potential benefit it can have for (the preservation of) a communication system. Computer simulations provide an excellent tool for investigating evolutionary processes and phenomena that are difficult to study otherwise, for instance because of ethical and practical reasons. Furthermore, it sheds light on therelations between micro level interactions of speaking individuals and macro level behavior of the sound system as a whole. This makes the use of these models very suitable for research on a complex dynamic system such as language. However, assumptions and simplifications need to be made when creating simulations which means that computer agent speakers do not necessarily resemble real speakers in every aspect. Therefore, it is important to incorporate real human speakers in the research about speech evolution as well. This will play a role in the next phase of my project.