Paula Fikkert will receive an ERC Synergy Grant for research on the relationship between sound, script and knowledge of language. The Synergy Grants are the largest grants from the European Research Council (ERC). A grant amounts to a maximum of 14 million euros for a period of six years.
The project, entitled ’Phonological cognisance and allied linguistic representations: acquisition, bilingualism, change and script’ (PAAL) is a collaboration between Paula Fikkert at Radboud University, Aditi Lahiri at Oxford University and Allison Wetterlin and Linda Wheeldon at the University of Agder. Fikkert, professor of First Language Acquisition and Phonology at the Centre for Language Studies and also dean of the Faculty of Arts , is the lead applicant. Following the start of the project she will stay on as dean, although some of her duties will be taken over by vice-deans and the director of operations.
Producing and comprehending language
The focus of the project is on phonology, which is the system of sounds and sound structures that we use to produce and comprehend language. The researchers intend to investigate both spoken and written language processing, first and second language acquisition, language change and script.
Fikkert: ’Language is a unique skill that makes us human, and language processing occurs so rapidly we are unaware of its complexity. Phonology plays a key role in human language processing. Both speech production and speech comprehension are by no means trivial tasks given the vast amount of variation. No word is ever spoken identically even by the same speaker, and variation significantly increases across different types of speakers - e.g., native and non-native, children and adults. This is why phonological representations are so important: they must contain the essential information for recognising words, and ignore details that are not relevant for recognition, and the essential information to produce words.’
Understanding human language processing
The project is concerned with phonological representations and cognisance, which is the native speaker’s core knowledge of their language. ’This knowledge is often implicit; for example, a native speaker of English or Dutch knows that ’bnik’ is not a possible word in the language, without having to consult their mental lexicon’, Fikkert explains. ’Importantly, our claim is that phonological representations and cognisance are both needed. This enables us to make a breakthrough in our understanding of human language processing, in which phonology plays a key role.’
The researchers will use tightly controlled theoretically motivated phonological manipulations to test phonological processes in different areas and across a range of different languages and populations. Fikkert: ’Showing that cognisance determines what is and what is not possible in the different domains, will lead to a better understanding of processes in all those domains and will set a new baseline for understanding human language processing. This will have important theoretical consequences. It may also lead to innovations in related domains, for example, novel methods to help children with language problems, as well as new methods to teach a language.’
’We aim to create synergy across different fields of phonological investigation. This enables us to create interesting, new and interdisciplinary research for future generations of scientists - a group that we will keep on training as we have done before.’
