34.1476, Rising Star: Ariela Herček

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-1476. Thu May 11 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.1476, Rising Star: Ariela Herček

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Editor for this issue: Lauren Perkins <lauren at linguistlist.org>
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Date: 10-May-2023
From: Lauren Perkins [lauren at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Rising Star: Ariela Herček


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 Ariela Herček, an MA student at the University
of Ljubljana. Ariela was nominated by her adviser, Monika Kavalir.

Ariela Herček is currently finishing her Master's Degree in English
and General Linguistics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Her
love of language and the written word is infectious and multifaceted,
and Ariela's ongoing research into the influence of English and Dutch
on Modern and Early Sranan vocabulary is a testament to her
fascination with these particular languages, as well as with the
broader issues in historical sociolinguistics. She has a unique
ability to do painstakingly detailed reading and analysis without
losing sight of the big picture and the major linguistic topics
involved. In addition, she is a published poet and translator who also
organizes slam poetry evenings.

Ariela writes:

The recent decades have been marked by unique and unprecedented
challenges arising from the changing socio-economic circumstances and
advances in technology. Both have left a lasting mark on our use of
language and our perception of language learning. Additionally, they
have affected, perhaps the most profoundly, the way we communicate. I
am inclined to divide the main trends in the changing linguistic
landscape into two rough categories: those trends that are closely
connected with the social status of language (and communication), and
those which play a significant role in technological developments. In
truth, they are tightly intertwined, but separating these two
categories helps establish a rough framework for any further detailed
examinations.

The social aspect of language covers those social changes such as
political and economic trends. These are, for example, related to
power relations, culturally different communication strategies, the
ruling political parties, and other similar factors. The topics of
gender, hate speech, and other aspects of identity (including the
linguistic identity of speakers) also fit under this category. I find
these views on language change especially relevant and would argue
that they set the basis of where the field of linguistics will have to
turn to in the future in order to explain and evaluate the
newly-emerging trends.

The second category, perhaps the one we have been most preoccupied
with in the recent years, and especially in the months since ChatGPT
was made publicly available, is that of language and technology. This
can mean either how language affects our decisions to develop our
technology, but also how technology affects the already-existing
language norms. Neural networks and natural language processing (NLP)
stand out among the topics in this category, as well as their role in
AI systems. For AI, the sociolinguistic aspect should not be
forgotten: where the data for the AI model is sourced from, how it is
sourced, and especially what kind of information the AI model puts out
based on the input (e.g. if it is biased or offensive) – and how that
information is perceived by the users.

It comes full circle then – because the speakers of language are
social creatures, and because we operate within a world that requires
and encourages communication, the social factors will always be
relevant to the discussion around any language change, even the one
seemingly very technical in nature.

This is the main reason for my interest in sociolinguistics, and – in
some way – for my interest in language contact, too. What historical
periods where language contact happened all have in common is the
human factor. Language has always been and, all things being equal,
will always remain dependent upon the way humans use it, shape it, and
change it. This is why I am also intrigued by semantics, a field which
also – to some extent – submits to the changing socio-historical
circumstances.

My research has primarily dealt with putting all these aspects
together – the sociolinguistic insight, teachings from contact
linguistics, and the theoretical framework provided by semantics.
Combining these allows the researcher to establish a broader
contextual overview and therefore more easily work from the inside out
to define the more specific characteristics or inner workings of
language. I have always been in favor of interdisciplinary research,
and I strongly believe that an interdisciplinary approach is vital in
our never-ending endeavour to understand language and all its
components.

__________________________

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