34.1201, Rising Star: Scarlett Hart

Thu Apr 13 16:05:05 UTC 2023

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-1201. Thu Apr 13 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.1201, Rising Star: Scarlett Hart

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Editor for this issue: Lauren Perkins <lauren at linguistlist.org>
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Date: 13-Apr-2023
From: Lauren Perkins [lauren at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Rising Star: Scarlett Hart

During our annual Fund Drive, we like to feature undergraduate and MA
students who have gone above and beyond the classroom to participate
in the wider field of linguistics. Selected nominees exemplify a
commitment to not only academic performance, but also to the field of
linguistics and principles of scientific inquiry. Since this year’s
Fund Drive theme is Future tense, we are especially thankful to be
able to highlight undergraduate and MA students who are emerging as
the future leaders in our field.

Today’s Rising Star is Scarlett Hart, an undergraduate student at
Newcastle University. Scarlett was nominated by her advisers, Michelle
Sheehan and Dan Duncan.

Scarlett Hart is the current president of the newly reformed Newcastle
University Linguistics Society and a very active member of the BA in
Linguistics cohort here in Newcastle (UK). She is a keen conlanger and
creator of puns as well as a first class student. Her conlang
Resoakuma [ˈre.zwaˈku.ma] provides a creative output for her
linguistic enthusiasm. Scarlett arrived at university with a sketch of
this language but over her first year of study has enriched its
phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon and orthography based on the
content of her wide reading. Who doesn’t love a language with a
classifier used just for felines!

Scarlett is making a huge contribution to the revival of the
undergraduate linguistics community in Newcastle after the pandemic by
co-organising exciting events such as IPA scrabble. After the
difficulties of the past few years, the Linguistics Society will be a
lifeline to many students new and old.
_________________________

When asked about the topics she sees emerging as important or
especially interesting in the field of linguistics, and how she hopes
to contribute in the future, Scarlett writes:

The rapid development of new methodological tools is something I find
particularly exciting when it comes to linguistics. In the 1980s, new
computer technology allowed researchers to complete what would have
been months’ worth of manual labour in a matter of days. In the 1990s
and 2000s, access to the internet has caused the size of our corpora
to jump from tens of thousands all the way up to hundreds of millions
of words, all while our analysis tools get even more sophisticated.
And now we stand on the precipice of what will likely be the most
dramatic advancement yet, as the rate of developments in neuroimaging
and machine learning may give us access to tools in the near future
that could completely revolutionise the field of linguistics as we
know it today.

I am especially excited about how new, more precise neuroimaging
techniques might illuminate aspects of language processing and the
language faculty that we could previously only hypothesise about. As
intriguing as this is from a purely theoretical perspective, what is
likely to be even more ground-breaking is the ramifications in the
field of language pathology.

I also find the use of artificial languages in experiments very
interesting. My first steps into the world of linguistics were through
constructed languages, which has been a hobby of mine for as long as I
can remember. Although engineered languages are a powerful
experimental tool, I am also curious about the linguistic behaviour of
communities using existing constructed languages. For example, how do
groups that use Sonja Lang’s Toki Pona construct lexical items? The
majority of users are anglophones and yet we seem to primarily see
head-initial compounds rather than head-final: why is this? Is it
because of markedness?

After finishing my undergraduate degree, I plan on applying to do a
MSc in speech pathology before hopefully moving on to do a PhD. The
intersection of syntax and neuro/psycho-linguistics fascinates me and
it would be great to be able to specialise in something that could
have positive impact on those living with language disorders.
______________________

The LINGUIST List looks forward to continuing to serve the linguistics
community, including its up-and-coming stars, for years to come. You
can contribute to our Fund Drive here:
https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate

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LINGUIST List: Vol-34-1201
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