The University of Toronto's Graduate Language Research Day (LRD) is a student-led academic conference designed to foster connections and facilitate learning among graduate students exploring various facets of language research. We aim to showcase the rich tapestry of language-related studies spanning departments, campuses, and affiliated hospitals at the University of Toronto, as well as engage with the wider community across the Greater Toronto Area and Ontario.

Whether you're a current UofT student or visiting from another institution, LRD offers a welcoming platform for intellectual exchange, and best of all, attendance is completely free!

This year, LRD will embrace a hybrid format, granting attendees the flexibility to participate either in person at the University of Toronto St. George campus or virtually via Zoom. Presentations will also be available for asynchronous viewing at our virtual library accessible here.

We extend our gratitude to the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto for their support of LRD2024.

LANGUAGE RESEARCH DAY 2024_REGISTRATION POSTER_PDF.pdf

Registration

Meet our Keynote Speakers

Dr. Naomi Nagy

Dr. Craig Chambers

Agenda and Abstract Booklet

Abstract Submission

Registration

Save the date for Graduate Language Research Day 2024!

Date: Monday, June 3rd, 2024

Format: Hybrid (option via Zoom)

In-person Location: Rehabilitation Sciences Building, 500 University Avenue (room 140), University of Toronto

Questions? Contact us at language.research@utoronto.ca

Meet our Keynote Speakers

Dr. Naomi Nagy

Dr. Naomi Nagy is a sociolinguistics professor at the University of Toronto. Her research analyzes language variation and change in linguistic contact contexts, currently examining how heritage languages are used in Toronto and how they change, generation by generation.

During her doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania, she spent summers in Faeto, a mountaintop village in Italy, where she learned and documented an endangered variety of Francoprovençal spoken by descendants of immigrants from the French Alps who had migrated there some 800 years earlier. She was the first to look at that situation of language contact in terms of the social characteristics of the speakers. She has also been engaged in a study of French and English contact in Montreal, examining how the types and amounts of exposure to French influence how Montreal Anglophones use French, and how it differs from Francophones' French. Uniting her interests in urban Canadian contact situations and Faetar, she has developed a research project, Heritage Language Variation and Change (HLVC), to examine how a number of heritage languages, including Faetar, are used in Toronto – and specifically how (and if) they are changing from the homeland varieties, generation by generation. A book about the HLVC project will be published very soon by Cambridge University Press: Heritage Languages: Extending Variationist Approaches.

(Heritage) Russian case-marking: Variation and paths of change

Russian speakers living in the USA produced canonical case markers for only 13% of prepositional oblique nominals (instrumental, prepositional, dative, genitive, or accusative case marking on a noun in a prepositional phrase). In contrast, Łyskawa & Nagy (2020) found 94% use of canonical case markers in conversational speech from Heritage Russian speakers in Canada. Why this difference?

I’ll outline and consider several possible accounts for the stark difference in these outcomes.This fits into the larger study exploring the individual- and community-level effects that influence contact-induced language change in heritage language contexts (Nagy forthcoming, https://ngn.artsci.utoronto.ca/HLVC/).

Dr. Craig Chambers

Dr. Craig Chambers obtained a joint PhD in Brain & Cognitive Sciences and Linguistics from the University of Rochester in 2001. He held a faculty appointment at the University of Calgary before joining the University of Toronto Mississauga in 2005.

His research focuses on the real-time interpretation of spoken and written language, and involves studies of young adults, older adults, and preschoolers.

Where and how does nonlinguistic cognition fit into language abilities?

There is broad consensus that language abilities do not arise from an isolated module of the human mind but instead exhibit connections to aspects of higher-level cognition including memory, executive function, and Theory-of-Mind. Work in the language sciences routinely refers to those aspects of nonlinguistic cognition as “domain-general”. However, contemporary work outside the language sciences has suggested that the existence and importance of truly domain-general systems may be overstated.

In this talk, I will present evidence from studies of children, young adults, and older adults showing that real-time language processing appears to draw on comparatively “specialized” subsystems of nonlinguistic cognition rather than domain-general resources. I will also examine various examples of natural language phenomena which, on close inspection, bear a much weaker link to nonlinguistic cognition than previously thought. Together the results help refine our understanding of the mental architecture supporting language abilities across the human lifespan.

Agenda and Abstract Booklet

Our schedule will be made available here and may be subject to changes. We advise you to visit this page regularly to stay informed of the latest developments.

Explore our virtual presentation library available at https://osf.io/meetings/LRD2024/, where you can access complete virtual talks at your convenience from the beginning of the conference.

Agenda_LRD2024_v1.1.docx

LRD2024_Abstract Book_(Revised).docx

Abstract Submission

We welcome abstract submissions from graduate students (Master's/PhD level) and postdoctoral researchers engaged in language research at any level or aspect. We encourage submissions showcasing research in progress, pre-registrations, or preliminary results.

Abstracts should be limited to 300 words. While not mandatory, you may include in-text citations if referencing external work. Abstracts should be comprehensible to a general audience, defining any technical terms used. Each first author can submit up to two abstracts.

Abstract submissions are now closed. Decisions will be shared in early May.

For more information on how to submit an abstract on Oxford Abstracts, see a tutorial here.

View Photos Here!

Relive the moments from Language Research Day! Check out all the photos from the event in our Google Photos album. Capture your favourite memories and share them with your network. Access the full album here!

#LRD2024126 new items · Album by raluchi kasumu

FAQs

I'm submitting an abstract. Do I need to follow any specific format?

Graduate students (Master / PhD level) and postdoctoral researchers can submit an abstract about research on any aspect or level of language. Abstracts should be a maximum of 300 words. No references are required but in-text citations may be added if you would like to cite external work. Your abstract should be understandable by a general audience. Please also define any technical terms.

How can I register for LRD?

Registration for Language Research Day is now open. Please visit to get registered today: https://register.oxfordabstracts.com/event/50815?preview=false

Where is the LRD taking place?

We will be hosting LRD in-person at the Rehabilitation Sciences Building at the University of Toronto (St. George Campus). LRD is a hybrid event, more details will be available closer to the date.