From August 18 to 20, graduate student Hyunjung Joo and Professor Adam Jardine presented their work at the Society for Computation in Linguistics (SCiL 2025), held at the University of Oregon.
Their talk, titled “Intonation as a quantifier-free logical interpretation of metrical and prosodic structure,” presented a view of intonation where tones are interpreted as literal copies of prosodic elements through a quantifier-free logical process. This approach explains different intonational patterns by how accented syllables, moras, and phrasal boundaries are copied in languages like American English, Seoul Korean, and Tokyo Japanese, providing predictions about the computational complexity and typology of intonation.
SCiL is an annual conference that focuses on the computational and formal study of linguistic theory, bringing together researchers interested in the intersection of linguistics, logic, and computation. You can find more details about their presentation and the associated paper here.