Summer Neurolinguistics School 2022: Lecturers and Talks

Invited plenary lectures

Michael Daniel (Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, HSE University)
Size matters? Probing for size effects in gender assignment in four East Caucasian languages

The work to be presented is a collaboration work with Margarita Popova, Anton Buzanov, Ekaterina Voloshina. In this study, we tested for referent size effects in nominal classifications of four East Caucasian languages: Archi, Lak, Rutul and Tsakhur. The study is based on an experimental paradigm together with the analysis of a database of concepts of different sizes with size judgements.

Mariya Khudyakova (Center for Language and Brain, HSE University)
Expectations vs. Reality: experimental studies of bilingual populations in Russia .

Doing psycholinguistic research in different languages and cultures can be challenging in various ways. In this talk I will discuss the experience of conducting standardized language assessment in Nenets-Russian bilingual children which highlighted the need for cultural adaptation of such tools. Also, I will share and discuss the unexpected results of the experiment on processing of Bashkir evidentiality by Bashkir-Russian bilinguals. 

Olga Parshina (Center for Language and Brain, HSE University)
Experimental methods in the field: Mission impossible?

The talk will be focused on the methods to conduct offline and online (psycho)linguistic experiments in the field. We will discuss currently available methods (e.g., reaction-time paradigms, eye-tracking, EEG recordings), as well as possible challenges and advantages that go along with them.

Invited oral presentations

Olga Dragoy (Center for Language and Brain, HSE University)
Intraoperative language mapping in multilingual population of Russia

The protocol of language mapping during an awake neurosurgery is applied to preserve eloquent language areas in an individual patient. What can we do when a few languages of a patient are at stake? This talk will overview available solutions and approaches and will welcome the audience to join the work of the Center for Language and Brain HSE on the development of the Multilingual intraoperative language mapping battery .

Timofey Mukhin, Polina Nasledskova (Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, HSE University) 
Experimental study of demonstrative pronouns in Kina Rutul

The talk presents the analysis of results of the experimental study of deictic uses of demonstrative pronouns in Kina Rutul (< Lezgic < East Caucasian), which is spoken by approximately 600 people in the village of Kina in Dagestan. With use of the questionnaire proposed by Wilkins (1999), we determined the main functions of demonstrative pronouns and also identified secondary factors affecting the use of the pronouns (such as visibility of the object and boundaries of living space). The demonstrative system was proved to be polycentric (person-oriented). Also, the correlation between the speaker's age and the frequency of use of the medial demonstrative by people of different ages (younger than 45 and older than 45) was established, which may indicate an ongoing change in the system of demonstratives.

Julia Normanskaja (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences; Ivannikov Institute for System Programming, Russian Academy of Sciences)
LingvoDoc platform: a software that reproduces the experimental phonetic, etymological and morphological work of a researcher 100 times faster.

LingvoDoc is a linguistic platform designed for compiling, analyzing and storing dictionaries, corpora and concordances of various languages and dialects. It stores unique data on the endangered languages of Russia and keeps records on some extinct languages. The presentation will review the possibilities of this unique software that reproduces the experimental work of a researcher 100 times faster.

Maria Usacheva (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences)
Quasi-spontaneous speech as a specific genre. Experimentally modelled situation of selling and its spontaneous correlate (Beserman Udmurt case)

Experimental methods without strictly controlled conditions do not restrict participants' speech on the language level. Nevertheless, speech which appears during experiments of this kind differs from spontaneous one; in fact, such quasi-spontaneous speech can be treated as a specific genre with its certain structure and preferred language units. In my presentation, I will try to highlight the peculiarities of quasi-spontaneous speech by comparing results of experimental modelling of the situation of selling goods in the shop with spontaneous texts recorded in a real shop. Both mini-corpora, the experimental (referential communication) one and the spontaneous one, contain the Beserman variety of Udmurt.

Andrian Vlakhov (Arctic Social Sciences and Humanities Laboratory, HSE University)
Multilingualism in the Izhma Komi community and some reflections on (linguistic) experiments in anthropology

Generally, anthropology (and related fields such as qualitative sociolinguistics) aims at describing existing, “real-world” socio-cultural phenomena rather than simulating reality under experimental conditions. However, there is some evidence that experimental data, e.g. in multilingual communities, can prove useful in describing and interpreting social reality, since traditional emic approach does not allow for sufficient distancing from informants’ personal opinions and stereotypes. Based on field data from several research trips to the Russian Arctic, I will describe the multilingual strategies of the Izhma Komi community and reflect on whether it is possible and/or useful to apply experimental methods in qualitative studies.

Nina Zdorova (Center for Language and Brain, HSE University)
Reading in morphologically distinct languages: an eye-tracking study in Russian-Adyghe bilingual children and adults

Cross-linguistic studies of reading in synthetic and analytic languages demonstrate morphology-related behavior of eye movements. This talk will cover a recently conducted eye-tracking study of sentence reading in a synthetic (Russian) and a polysynthetic (Adyghe) languages in the bilingual population of Maikop, The Republic of Adygea in Russia. Reading characteristics in both Russian and Adygh will be discussed from the perspective of morphological differences between the two languages, as well as from some universal psycholinguistic parameters affecting reading.

Victoria Pozdnyakova (Center for Language and Brain, HSE University )
Clinical tests for minority languages of Russia

Since bilingualism is widespread in Russia, there is a need for diagnostics of language and cognitive disorders in ethnic languages other than Russian. In the case of aphasia, an objective evaluation of all patient’s native languages is critical in determining the severeness and profile of the language deficit, which allows us to better predict language recovery and to plan therapy. This report outlines our experience with the adaptation of the “Russian Aphasia Test” for Tatar language and the development of Adyghe version of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test.