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Angeliki Athanasopoulou

PhD
Pronouns: she/her

Contact information

Background

Educational Background

PhD Linguistics, University of Delaware, 2016

MA Linguistics, University of Delaware, 2010

BA Linguistics, University of Ioannina, 2009

Research

Areas of Research

Laboratory Phonology, Prosody, Language development, First language acquisition

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
LING 699.50/599.50 Methods in Psycholinguistics Fall 2023
LING 600/697 Professional Development Fall 2023
LING 416 Language Acquisition II Winter 2024
LING 403 Phonology II Winter 2024

Projects

When a blue berry becomes a blueberry

In this SSHRC-funded study, Dr. Curtin and I investigate an aspect of prosodic development, or the melodic properties of language, that exists in structures bigger than single words. We study children’s abilities to comprehend and produce phrases like “blue berry” and compounds like “blueberry” between the ages of 4 and 8 years. These structures often show late development (early teen years), in contrast to the rest of the sound system of a language (e.g., consonants and vowels) and despite the sensitivity young infants show for the physical properties of prosody (timing, pitch, etc.). Six-year-olds show distinct categories for compounds and phrases, but their productions' properties continue developing until the age of 8 years (for compounds). Our project tests the hypothesis that in addition to the physical properties of the melodies, children’s development of different melodic structures depends on their development of the corresponding abstract, mental categories. By understanding the changes of the prosodic system in development, we gain insights about the prosodic system itself and the linguistic models of prosody.

Awards

  • Faculty of Arts Emerging Teacher Award, University of Calgary. 2021

Publications