UBC Library now has online access to the ejournal Cognitive Science: A Multidisciplinary Journal.

This is the official journal of the Cognitive Science Society, whose researchers hold a common goal: understanding the nature of the human mind. The Society promotes scientific interchange among researchers in disciplines comprising the field of Cognitive Science, including Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, Anthropology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Education.

Check out their list of top 10 classics from the journal (along with pdf versions of the papers.)

The top paper? Mental models in cognitive science by P.N. Johnson-Laird (1980). Click the link below to read the abstract.Abstract:
This article postulates that mental models differ from visual images and from propositional representations, and it presents evidence that corroborates the differences. It argues that reasoners use propositional representations of, say, spatial descriptions to construct mental models. It also argues that mental models rather than formal logic underlie syllogistic inference, e.g., some of the parents are drivers, all of the drivers are scientists, therefore, some of the parents are scientists. The article was the first in a journal to present a case for mental models as the end result of comprehension and as the starting point of deductive reasoning. This idea led to many subsequent investigations (see the mental models Website).

The Spring 2007 issue of the Modern Language Journal is out. Articles include:

- Literature, the Interpretive Mode, and Novice Learners by V.M Scott et al
- A Linguistic Analysis of Simplified and Authentic Texts by S. Crossley et al
- Carnival in a Mainstream Kindergarten Classroom: A Bakhtinian Analysis of Second Language Learners’ Off-Task Behaviors by A. DaSilva Iddings and S. McCafferty
- A Child’s Development of Interactional Competence in a Swedish L2 Classroom by A. Cekaite
- Foreign Language Pedagogical Knowledge: Toward a Developmental Theory of Beginning Teacher Practices by J. Watzke
- The Development of Practices for Action in Classroom Dyadic Interaction: Focus on Task Openings by J. Hellermann
- Radical Awareness and Word Acquisition Among Nonnative Learners of Chinese by H. Shen and C. Ke

UBC Library has access to this journal online through Blackwell-Synergy.

One of my favorite language sites is Omniglot (www.omniglot.com), a guide to the languages, alphabets, syllabaries and other writing systems of the world.

Developed and maintained by one man, Simon Ager, the extensive site (and gorgeous, too!) provides visual and textual information on writing systems like alphabets, abugidas, syllabaries, complex writing systems (Chinese, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, etc.), and alternative writing systems (fictional and constructed alphabets and other communication systems), as well as information on some of the languages written with these writing systems.

Links included on each language page provide further information. For example, if you go to to page for Ainu (spoken on the Japanese island of Hokkaido by an estimated 15 families), you’ll find that it is written with a version of the Japanese katakana syllabary. You’ll also find numerous links to sample texts in Ainu, links to information about the Ainu language and people, online word lists (and lessons), sound files of oral literature of the Sakhalin Ainu, and other sites of related interest.

This site may be useful for students in LING 101, Languages of the World.

Books of related interest in Koerner Library:

Coulmas, Florian. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems. Blackwell, 1999.
An excellent reference for all major (and some minor) writing systems.

Coulmas, Florian. The Writing Systems of the World. Blackwell, 1991.
Linguistic study of writing and writing systems.

Daniels, Peter T. & Bright, William. The World’s Writing Systems. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Detailed coverage of most all writing systems, with illustrations and text samples.

Of interest to computational linguists: UBC Library now has access to the electronic version of the Encyclopedia of Human Computer Interaction from Idea Group.

A sampling of the many entries::

The URL for the eBook is located in the catalogue record for the print title – search by title in the library catalogue to locate it.

(And we do also have the print volume of this book; it can be found over in the Science and Engineering library in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.)

Friday afternoon fun:
Did you ever read the popular Choose Your Own Adventure series of game books as a child? In this series, the reader determines the outcome of a story by selecting from a series of options on each page.

Trey Jones of the satirical online journal “Speculative Grammarian” (the premier scholarly journal featuring research in the neglected field of satirical linguistics) has created a similar online game just for linguists – Choose Your Own Career in Linguistics.

The adventure begins…
“You are a freshman at a respectable university and, in order to fulfill some elective requirements, you sign up for Linguistics 101 because it looks easy and it’s scheduled for MWF at 11, which is tolerable. After a semester of linguistics, you find you enjoy learning odd facts about odd languages and it really isn’t too hard, so you sign up for Linguistics 102 … ”

And then? Will it be a double major in Linguistics and English with a serving of fries, or great glory analyzing the language of beings on distant planets. You choose your path …

In November 2004, Google launched a new search tool, Google Scholar, which indexes scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including articles, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, conference proceedings, and technical reports. In the Google Scholar and More! workshop this Friday, you’ll learn about Google Scholar and other tools for scholarly searching – whether you’re starting with a bibliography, an author’s name, a topic, or just an idea.

The session is on Friday, Feb 9 from 12-1 pm in the Buchanan building, room B114 (show me a map)

This is part of the Arts Outreach program, sponsored by UBC Library, and supported in part by funding from the office of the Dean of Arts.

Tomorrow at the Library: Writing a Literature Review
Wednesday, Feb 7 from 12:15-1:15pm at Koerner Library

For students in all disciplines, not just English literature! Theses and dissertations in many subject areas – including linguistics – begin with a review of what research has been done in the area. Learn the established conventions and patterns that your lit review will follow.

The workshop will be taught by Ramona Montagnes, the Director of UBC’s Writing Centre since 1992.

This is part of the Graduate Student Workshop series.

Tomorrow at the Library: Changes in Scholarly Publishing and the Open Access Movement
Friday, Feb 2nd from 12-1pm at Koerner Library.

The scholarly communication system is going through a process of change across the world. Driven by the escalating costs of journal publication, a revolution in authoring and publishing as a result of new technologies, and a feeling that existing models restrict rather than encourage a free flow of information, scholars are re-evaluating the traditional scholarly publishing process in favour of a freer, open access model. This session will describe the building momentum for change in scholarly communication and how it is expressing itself in the Open Access Movement.

For a list of journals in linguistics that have adopted the Open Access publishing model, please see the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) list of Linguistics journals. Journals include the Journal of Intercultural Communication, the Bilingual Research Journal, and the Estudios de linguistica del espanol to name a very few.