SFB 1287:  Limits of Variability in Language: Cognitive, Computational, and Grammatical Aspects

• Subject Area: Humanities ; Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: since 2017
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 317633480

The language faculty forms part of the cognitive system, and thus the use of language is constrained by the cognitive limitations of the individual language user. At the same time, language is a tool for interaction and communication, and must provide flexible but efficient mechanisms that enable the language users to achieve communicative success with a variety of interlocutors. The linguistic system must therefore exhibit a high degree of variability at all levels of linguistic description. We define this variability as a range of different possible linguistic behaviors that are available to an individual language user, a group of language users, or in specific languages. In particular, this also includes the phenomenon of Hidden Variability, where identical surface structures have different underlying structural representations and/or different semantic interpretations. The variability is limited by the constraints of the underlying linguistic system and shaped by cognitive and social or communicative factors. Limits of variability can be observed when a linguistic behavior is relatively consistent, that is, resistant to influences of cognitive factors or communicative situations, conventions, and change, and/or when it shows relative consistency across and within languages, groups of language users, and individuals. To identify the stable constraints and the design features of the underlying linguistic system, the CRC 1287 explores the systematicity and the limits of variability in linguistic behaviours across different types of variability. This CRC is a truly interdisciplinary research cluster with participating researchers from formal, computer and psycho-linguistics, typology, psychology, from Germanic, Romance, and Slavic studies, and education science. Building on our empirical, theoretical, and methodological insights from phase 1 and 2, we will further increase our understanding of the factors imposing limits on linguistic variability to shape our understanding of the mental grammar systems and the processing architectures used by human language users and Large Language Models. Phase 3 places greater emphasis on the dual nature of language as part of humans’ biological cognitive endowment, on the one hand, and as a social means for communication, on the other. The CRC-projects will focus on the following novel aspects: (i) extralinguistic (domain-general) delimiting factors of linguistic variability resulting from the biological/cognitive endowment vs. communicative pressures; (ii) the nature and limits of Hidden Variability and how it can be acquired in the face of surface-identity; and (iii) practical transfer to the clinical sector (rehabilitation of individuals with aphasia) and the education sector (improving language skills in kindergarten children), as well as outreach in the form of a Citizen Science Project involving the general public in the documentation of dialectal variability in the state of Brandenburg.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Current projects

• B01 - Can individual differences in auditory-motor synchronization explain individual differences in language processing across the lifespan? (Project Heads Ladanyi, Ph.D., Eniko ;  Tuomainen, Outi ;  Wartenburger, Isabell )
• B03 - Modeling the control of eye movements and sentence processing (Project Heads Engbert, Ralf ;  Rabe, Maximilian ;  Vasishth, Shravan )
• B07 - Variability in infants’ gaze dynamics during word recognition: Insights from experiments and computational modeling (Project Heads Boll-Avetisyan, Ph.D., Natalie ;  Engbert, Ralf )
• B08 - Shifting the limits of domain-specificity: Correlational and causal approaches to the P600-as-P3 hypothesis (Project Heads Rabovsky, Milena ;  Wartenburger, Isabell ;  Weymar, Mathias )
• B09 - How different aspects of language processing depend on attention: Variability and its Limits (Project Heads Rabovsky, Milena ;  Schad, Daniel )
• C02 - Hidden variability and its limits in expressing meaning. A view from West African languages (Project Head Zimmermann, Malte )
• C04 - A dynamical basis for the flexibility of intersegmental coordination across languages and segment types (Project Head Gafos, Adamantios )
• C05 - (In)variability in locality constraints. Evidence from resumption (Project Heads Georgi, Doreen ;  Salzmann, Martin )
• C07 - (Hidden) Variability in Vowel Phonotactic Systems (Project Heads Boll-Avetisyan, Ph.D., Natalie ;  Gafos, Adamantios )
• C11 - Disagreements and their limits in discourse structure annotation: From insights to machine learning (Project Heads Scheffler, Tatjana ;  Stede, Manfred )
• D01 - Probing and Mitigating the Limits of Variability Prompt Variability in Large Language Models (Project Head Schlangen, David )
• D02 - Relatively (un)limited. The typology and comparative syntax of relative clauses revisited: Correlatives, word order correlations, and accessibility (Project Head Salzmann, Martin )
• D03 - (In)variable resumption in relative clauses: Spanish compared to other Romance languages (Project Heads Fliessbach, Jan ;  Uth, Melanie )
• D04 - Dialect acquisition in different sociolinguistic contexts: Limits of variability in Alemannic and Pomerano (Project Head Pfeiffer, Martin )
• D05 - Limits of variability in the complexity of valency class systems (Project Head Serzant, Ilja )
• MGK - Integrated Research Training Group (Project Head Tuomainen, Outi )
• Q - Scientific service and infrastructure project (Project Heads Haaf, Ph.D., Julia M. ;  Vasishth, Shravan )
• T02 - Predicting treatment outcomes for language impairments from variability in linguistic behavior and exploring the impact of language specific working memory (Project Heads Hanne, Sandra ;  Stadie, Nicole H. )
• T03 - Specific variability in the speech input as a tool in language support and language therapy for young children (Project Heads Gafos, Adamantios ;  Höhle, Barbara ;  Lonnemann, Jan )
• WIKO - Variability in present-day Brandenburgian (Project Heads Pfeiffer, Martin ;  Zimmermann, Malte )
• Z - Central Administrative Project (Project Head Georgi, Doreen )

Completed projects

• A01 - Integration of linguistic resources in highly diverse urban settings: Stretching the limits of variability (Project Heads Freywald, Ulrike ;  Wiese, Heike )
• A03 - Discourse Strategies across Social Media: Variability in Individuals, Groups, and Channels (Project Heads Scheffler, Tatjana ;  Stede, Manfred )
• B02 - The link between production and comprehension. Insights from aphasia (Project Heads Burchert, Frank ;  Stadie, Nicole H. ;  Vasishth, Shravan )
• B04 - Bilingual processing ability as a predictor for language learning (Project Heads Clahsen, Harald ;  Felser, Claudia )
• B05 - (Limits of) variability in speech planning (Project Head Wartenburger, Isabell )
• C01 - Shift of borders in syntactic variability: A training approach (Project Heads Fanselow, Gisbert ;  Kliegl, Ph.D., Reinhold )
• C03 - Effects of variable input on word learning and word recognition in infants (Project Heads Gafos, Adamantios ;  Höhle, Barbara )
• C06 - Grammatical processing and syntactic change (Project Heads Demske, Ulrike ;  Felser, Claudia )
• T01 - Transforming text across media (Project Heads Scheffler, Tatjana ;  Stede, Manfred )

• Applicant Institution: Universität Potsdam
• Participating University: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
• Spokespersons: Professorin Dr. Doreen Georgi, since 10/2022; Professorin Dr. Isabell Wartenburger, until 10/2022