Carrie A Ankerstein | University of Pittsburgh (original) (raw)
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Papers by Carrie A Ankerstein
Second language (L2) phonological development is strongly influenced by the first language (L1), ... more Second language (L2) phonological development is strongly influenced by the first language (L1), with L2 sounds being assimilated into the L1 phonological inventory. It has been argued that phones that are similar in the L1 and L2 will be most difficult to acquire whereas sounds that are not present in the L1 will be easier. In addition, commonly used substitutions in production can affect perception of L2 phonemes. In a forced-choice phoneme discrimination task, we explored how accurately Saarlandian German speakers of L2 English discriminate between /v/ and /w/; dental fricatives versus alveolar stops and fricatives; and initial position consonant cluster voicing. Nonnative speakers performed worst for the /v/-/w/ distinction followed by the dental/alveolar fricative and initial position consonant cluster voicing distinction. We conclude that different assimilation processes occur for these phonological phenomena.
Proceedings of International Conferences of Experimental Linguistics
English Today, 2017
This is a response to John E. Booth's (2015) article, ‘The fossilization of non-current Engli... more This is a response to John E. Booth's (2015) article, ‘The fossilization of non-current English pronunciation in German EFL teaching’, published in English Today. Booth makes a number of claims in his paper, but the focus here is on his main claim that German pronunciation of English is based on an archaic accent of British English.
English Today, 2018
It is probably safe to say that whenever an expert encounters their field of expertise outside of... more It is probably safe to say that whenever an expert encounters their field of expertise outside of science or academia, they shudder at misrepresentations, over-simplifications or flat out untruths. This sort of thing sometimes happens to me when I indulge in a bit of couch potato lounging and come across remarks about English or language in general on sitcoms. Thanks to Netflix, I can watch all the shows I missed when they first aired. I say this so that you, dear reader, will understand why my focus is on shows that aired several years ago and are now run as repeats or binge watched via streaming.
English Today, 2019
This paper explores the persistence of prescriptive rules in popular culture, focussing on the si... more This paper explores the persistence of prescriptive rules in popular culture, focussing on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (TBBT). Sitcom ‘nerd’ characters, such as TBBT’s Sheldon Cooper, frequently state prescriptive rules and ‘correct’ other characters’ speech. In this short study, I explored how well Sheldon himself avoids sentence final prepositions, a rule he cites on a number of occasions. Comparing these findings to other research in grammaticality judgements of sentence final prepositions, I make the call for resisting the perpetuation of prescriptive rules in sitcoms.
DEAR READER, Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics (SWPL) is a Saarland University-based annual ... more DEAR READER, Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics (SWPL) is a Saarland University-based annual online peer-reviewed journal. Our current volume contains four papers, including two papers co-authored by undergraduate students. The current papers come from the Department of English, but we hope that this changes for Volume 5 and we invite our fellow linguists from all over Saarland University to consider submitting a manuscript in 2014.
In Leclercq, P., Edmonds A., & Hilton H. (Eds.) Measuring L2 proficiency: perspectives from SLA. Multilingual Matters: Bristol. (pp. 109-121). , 2014
Behavior research …, 2009
Magnié, noted the dearth of normative data for pictorial materials, especially in contrast to ver... more Magnié, noted the dearth of normative data for pictorial materials, especially in contrast to verbal materials. This seemed to be the case despite the wide use of object recognition tasks in a number of fields, including neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, psychophysiology, and functional neuroimaging.
Applied Psycholinguistics, 2012
... definition of this class. Functional features are generally defined as “what the object does ... more ... definition of this class. Functional features are generally defined as “what the object does or is used for” (Garrard et al., 2001; Harley & Grant, 2004; McRae et al., 1997;Vinson et al., 2003). However, functional features have ...
One common attack on a successful connectionist model is that arbitrary choices were made in orde... more One common attack on a successful connectionist model is that arbitrary choices were made in order to make the model work. In this essay I in vestigated the effects o f different architectures and out put structures in two connectionist models of selective sem antic impairments. A f eedforward and recurrent mode l were built to resemble ea ch other in all other aspects and both wer e t rained on t wo different representations: one was hi ghly s tructured the other was semi-structured. In general, the behaviour across architectures and representations after lesioning are comparable: both were abl e t o simulate a selective semantic impairment. The differences lie mostly in degree of behaviour, e.g. the type of er rors ma de and rate of decl ine. These differences most likely arose because of the variables themselves, e.g. the model architecture a nd the amount of structure built into the representations.
Language, 2005
Page 1. The Neuroscience ofLanguage On Brain Circuits of Words and Serial Order Friedemann Pulver... more Page 1. The Neuroscience ofLanguage On Brain Circuits of Words and Serial Order Friedemann Pulvermuller CAMBRIDGE Page 2. Page 3. The ...
Language, 2004
... University of Hawaii at Manoa Joshua Fishman, Yeshiva University Francois Grosjean, Universit... more ... University of Hawaii at Manoa Joshua Fishman, Yeshiva University Francois Grosjean, Universite de Neuchatel Wolfgang Klein, Max Planck Institut fur Psycholingnistik Georges Liidi, University of Basel Christina Bratt Paulston, University of Pittsburgh Suzanne Romaine, Merton ...
Conference Presentations by Carrie A Ankerstein
Second language (L2) phonological development is strongly influenced by the first language (L1), ... more Second language (L2) phonological development is strongly influenced by the first language (L1), with L2 sounds being assimilated into the L1 phonological inventory. It has been argued that phones that are similar in the L1 and L2 will be most difficult to acquire whereas sounds that are not present in the L1 will be easier. In addition, commonly used substitutions in production can affect perception of L2 phonemes. In a forced-choice phoneme discrimination task, we explored how accurately Saarlandian German speakers of L2 English discriminate between /v/ and /w/; dental fricatives versus alveolar stops and fricatives; and initial position consonant cluster voicing. Nonnative speakers performed worst for the /v/-/w/ distinction followed by the dental/alveolar fricative and initial position consonant cluster voicing distinction. We conclude that different assimilation processes occur for these phonological phenomena.
Proceedings of International Conferences of Experimental Linguistics
English Today, 2017
This is a response to John E. Booth's (2015) article, ‘The fossilization of non-current Engli... more This is a response to John E. Booth's (2015) article, ‘The fossilization of non-current English pronunciation in German EFL teaching’, published in English Today. Booth makes a number of claims in his paper, but the focus here is on his main claim that German pronunciation of English is based on an archaic accent of British English.
English Today, 2018
It is probably safe to say that whenever an expert encounters their field of expertise outside of... more It is probably safe to say that whenever an expert encounters their field of expertise outside of science or academia, they shudder at misrepresentations, over-simplifications or flat out untruths. This sort of thing sometimes happens to me when I indulge in a bit of couch potato lounging and come across remarks about English or language in general on sitcoms. Thanks to Netflix, I can watch all the shows I missed when they first aired. I say this so that you, dear reader, will understand why my focus is on shows that aired several years ago and are now run as repeats or binge watched via streaming.
English Today, 2019
This paper explores the persistence of prescriptive rules in popular culture, focussing on the si... more This paper explores the persistence of prescriptive rules in popular culture, focussing on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory (TBBT). Sitcom ‘nerd’ characters, such as TBBT’s Sheldon Cooper, frequently state prescriptive rules and ‘correct’ other characters’ speech. In this short study, I explored how well Sheldon himself avoids sentence final prepositions, a rule he cites on a number of occasions. Comparing these findings to other research in grammaticality judgements of sentence final prepositions, I make the call for resisting the perpetuation of prescriptive rules in sitcoms.
DEAR READER, Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics (SWPL) is a Saarland University-based annual ... more DEAR READER, Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics (SWPL) is a Saarland University-based annual online peer-reviewed journal. Our current volume contains four papers, including two papers co-authored by undergraduate students. The current papers come from the Department of English, but we hope that this changes for Volume 5 and we invite our fellow linguists from all over Saarland University to consider submitting a manuscript in 2014.
In Leclercq, P., Edmonds A., & Hilton H. (Eds.) Measuring L2 proficiency: perspectives from SLA. Multilingual Matters: Bristol. (pp. 109-121). , 2014
Behavior research …, 2009
Magnié, noted the dearth of normative data for pictorial materials, especially in contrast to ver... more Magnié, noted the dearth of normative data for pictorial materials, especially in contrast to verbal materials. This seemed to be the case despite the wide use of object recognition tasks in a number of fields, including neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, psychophysiology, and functional neuroimaging.
Applied Psycholinguistics, 2012
... definition of this class. Functional features are generally defined as “what the object does ... more ... definition of this class. Functional features are generally defined as “what the object does or is used for” (Garrard et al., 2001; Harley & Grant, 2004; McRae et al., 1997;Vinson et al., 2003). However, functional features have ...
One common attack on a successful connectionist model is that arbitrary choices were made in orde... more One common attack on a successful connectionist model is that arbitrary choices were made in order to make the model work. In this essay I in vestigated the effects o f different architectures and out put structures in two connectionist models of selective sem antic impairments. A f eedforward and recurrent mode l were built to resemble ea ch other in all other aspects and both wer e t rained on t wo different representations: one was hi ghly s tructured the other was semi-structured. In general, the behaviour across architectures and representations after lesioning are comparable: both were abl e t o simulate a selective semantic impairment. The differences lie mostly in degree of behaviour, e.g. the type of er rors ma de and rate of decl ine. These differences most likely arose because of the variables themselves, e.g. the model architecture a nd the amount of structure built into the representations.
Language, 2005
Page 1. The Neuroscience ofLanguage On Brain Circuits of Words and Serial Order Friedemann Pulver... more Page 1. The Neuroscience ofLanguage On Brain Circuits of Words and Serial Order Friedemann Pulvermuller CAMBRIDGE Page 2. Page 3. The ...
Language, 2004
... University of Hawaii at Manoa Joshua Fishman, Yeshiva University Francois Grosjean, Universit... more ... University of Hawaii at Manoa Joshua Fishman, Yeshiva University Francois Grosjean, Universite de Neuchatel Wolfgang Klein, Max Planck Institut fur Psycholingnistik Georges Liidi, University of Basel Christina Bratt Paulston, University of Pittsburgh Suzanne Romaine, Merton ...