PhonolEEGy3

Date: 09-Jun-2025 - 10-Jun-2025
Location: Lecce, Italy
Contact: Milko Grimaldi
Contact Email: [email protected]
Meeting URL: https://sites.udel.edu/phonoleegy3

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition; Neurolinguistics; Phonetics; Phonology; Psycholinguistics

PhonolEEGy3

The goal of the PhonolEEGy conference is to intersect experimental research based on EEG / MEG with phonological theory. While EEG / MEG-based research concerning linguistically relevant sound and its patterning (phonology) is growing, work that explicitly addresses phonological theory is still relatively limited.
The conference aims at promoting EEG / MEG-based experimental evidence as it informs phonological theory to grow the intersection of these fields.
The conference will take the form of a two-day meeting where stabilized or fresh-from-the-lab results are presented, also with room for discussing methodology, experiment design and emerging projects. Contributors are invited to present not only their data and interpretation, but also the bigger picture of how they view phonology in a linguistic context and the role of neurophysiological evidence in phonological theory.
Most existing work that brings EEG / MEG-based evidence to bear on phonological theory is based on (asymmetric) MMN and the idea that varying standards in MMN stimulus presentation allows us to elicit phonological (rather than phonetic) representations that MMN will reflect (Phillips et al. 2000). While this has proven to be a fruitful experimental setting, contributions using experimental protocols different from (asymmetric) MMN are especially invited, as are those using production data, which are also underrepresented in the field.

EEG / MEG-based work also addresses aspects of phonology that are not directly relevant to phonological theory such as:
• the transformation of the continuous acoustic signal into discrete phonological categories that are manipulated by the cognitive system
• perception and production routines in phonological or auditory processing
• neural encoding and localization of phonological items in the brain (such as segments, alternations or markedness)
• preattentive or sublexical speech processing
• processing of different types of phonological items (well- vs. ill-formed, phonemic vs. allophonic), or the kind of information stored in a phoneme (phonetic vs. more abstract)

Although this research often pursues goals that do not speak to issues in phonological theory per se, they are relevant. Contributions in this area are invited to make explicit in which way their experimental evidence or results impact phonological theory and/or the phonetics-phonology interface.
Finally, contributions are also invited which do not involve genuine neurophysiological data but rather link existing EEG / MEG / fMRI-based evidence with phonological theory.

After its initial venue in Nice / France in Fall 2020, and the second PhonolEEGy conference in UMASS/Amherst in 2023, the third event will be held at the University of Salento (Lecce – Italy) on June 9th-10th, 2025. In this context, we are specifically encouraging undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Salento to participate as audience.

Organizing Committee:
Mirko Grimaldi – University of Salento (web page)
Francesco Sigona – University of Salento (web page)
Federica Cavicchio – University of Salento (web page)
Tobias Sheer – Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS (web page)
Arild Hestvik – University of Delaware (web page)

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

We invite submissions that address issues in phonology and phonological theory based on evidence from EEG / MEG. Work in EEG / MEG may pursue goals that do not directly speak to issues in phonological theory, but which are relevant for this area.
Thus, contributions are invited to make explicit in which way their experimental evidence or results impact phonological theory. Submissions are also invited which do not involve genuine neurophysiological data but rather link existing EEG / MEG-based evidence with phonological theory.
Contributions addressing the acquisition of second language phonetics and phonology are particularly welcome. Recent research on how functional and structural neuroplasticity can be modulated by focused training, leading to improvements in L2 sound perception and production, is paving the way for innovative, evidence-based methodologies to enhance L2 learning.

Please submit an anonymous abstract that does not exceed 600 words (one inch margin, Arial 11pt font, please include a word count) to the conference email address: [email protected]
The title should be visible, and figures / tables / references may be included on a separate page. Figure captions and table legends should not contain excessive amounts of substantial text (i.e., should not be used to circumvent the length limit on the main text).

Abstract submission will open on February 28th.