No.154 Seminar ： Discovering Linguistics: From Linguistics Olympiad to Ig Nobel Prize
- HUZIWARA Keisuke (The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research / Graduate School of Letters)
- 2018/10/16 4:30pm
- The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research (Research Administration Building 1F)
- Japanese (This seminar is open for students and researchers at Kyoto Univ.)
Summary
Linguistics is science. The real pleasure of science is in discovery. In this lecture, we will take three cases with the theme of discovery in linguistics. First, I will introduce the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL). IOL is one of the International Science Olympiads, typically represented by International Mathematical Olympiad. In IOL, the preliminary knowledge on the target language is unnecessary. We can enjoy solving problems as if we are solving quiz questions. Tackling with selected past problems will reveal the method of linguistics. Next, Ig Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015, for which a study on linguistics (“Huh?” is universal?) was awarded, will be introduced. According to the study, when we talk, we frequently repair the conversation by uttering a word like “huh” in many languages. Finally, several sound laws (first discovered by the presenter through extensive fieldwork, as I think) in the Luish branch of Tibeto-Burman will be demonstrated. The presenter will try to show that although a native speaker is the most ideal researcher in describing one’s native language, even a linguist without native knowledge of the target language can contribute to discovering linguistic facts by using the comparative method in linguistics.