Categories and Gradience: Neural Systems for Speech Communication

We are delighted to announce a one-day workshop on Neural Systems for Speech Communication to be held at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, UK, on the 26th June 2012. The focus of the workshop is on representations and neural mechanisms for segmentation, abstraction, and categorisation in speech processing.

Our invited speakers are 
• Kai Alter (University of Newcastle)
• Matt Davis (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge)
• Aditi Lahiri (University of Oxford) 

The workshop is intended to provide a forum for discussion between researchers who approach the neurocognitive processing of suprasegmental and segmental information in speech from different intellectual contexts (notably linguistics, audition, language psychology, and cognitive neuroscience), and with different methodologies. 

* Workshop format

A number of key papers will explore the theme of the workshop from different angles, complemented by poster presentations that add breadth or depth to the discussion. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion with the invited speakers and the audience towards the end of the day. The discussion will explore commonalities and differences in theoretical and methodological approaches and their findings, trying to work towards a synthesis.

* Call for papers

Abstract submission deadline: 21 May 2012

We invite papers which address the theme of the workshop:
• Abstracts should be uploaded on or before 21 May 2012 to: http://linguistlist.org/confcustom/cgworkshop2012
• Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words, in pdf or doc (but not docx) format, with 2.5cm or one inch margins, single-spaced, and with a font size of 12pt. 
• Your abstract should be anonymous. You will be asked to submit a version with your name and affiliation on it if your abstract is selected for presentation. Please make sure that you do not use your name in the filename for your abstract, and please erase any details which might identify you in the file that you submit. Use one word from your abstract's title as the filename.
• If you need to use a phonetic font in your abstract, please either embed it in a pdf file, or use the Doulos SIL font: http://scripts.sil.org/DoulosSIL_download.

Abstracts will be considered for oral or poster presentations, but please note that only very few slots are available for oral presentation. If you wish your abstract to be considered for poster presentation only, please indicate this when submitting your abstract. Oral presentations will be 20 minutes, with 10 minutes for questions. 

Paper acceptance notification will be sent by email by 4 June 2012. Information on registration, workshop programme, accommodation and conference dinner will appear on http://www.ling.cam.ac.uk/cgworkshop/

* Organisers
Brechtje Post, Emmanuel Stamatakis, Francis Nolan, Bettina Beinhoff, Hae-Sung Jeon, Toby Hudson