Scottish Centre for Korean Studies Distinguished Lecture Series: Hana Jee In brief Guest Speaker - Dr Hana Jee (York St John University) Title - Are Letter Shapes Arbitrary? Series - Scottish Centre for Korean Studies Distinguished Lecture Series 2022 to 23 Abstract by Hana Jee Language, as a complex system, suggests coordination between subsystems. We, for the first time, quantified mapping between letter-shapes and their canonical pronunciations, or grapho-phonemic systematicity. We examined naturally developed phonograms (Arabic, English, Greek, and Hebrew), consciously designed phonograms (Korean, Shavian alphabet, and Pitman’s shorthand), a logographic orthography (Chinese) and fictitious orthography systems (Aurebesh and Klingon). We measured all the pairwise phonological distances between phonemes in the respective alphabet system, and the corresponding pairwise orthographical distances between letters. We then tested Pearson’s r between these two lists of pairwise distances. The positive correlation coefficient means that similar letter-shapes have similar canonical pronunciation. In contrast, the negative correlation means that similar letter-shapes have more distinct sounds, or vice versa. We verified the significance of the correlations by conducting Monte-Carlo permutation tests. For the phonological distance, phonemes were encoded into vectors according to the articulatory features and the distance between the vectors were calculated in various ways. We applied three methods to measure the pairwise distances between letter-shapes. Pixel count simply defines the distances as the difference in the number of pixels between two characters. Perimetric complexity is defined as ink area divided by perimeter of the character, thus the distance means the difference in complexity. Hausdorff distance (Huttenlocher et al., 1993) quantifies the difference between two images. Since each letter was saved as an image file (PNG), we were able to compare the contribution of the font to the grapho-phonemic systematicity. About the speaker Dr Hana Jee currently teaches the Korean language and applied linguistics at York St John University. She is the vice principal of York Hanbit Hangeul School and operates a YouTube channel 하나하나한국어 that provides intermediate level Korean language classes. After studying English Education at Seoul National University (2008), she obtained a PhD in Psychology (2021) and an MSc with Merit in Psychology of Language (2017) from the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests lie in how sub-systems of language coordinate within the larger system. She has published an English grammar textbook, ‘English Grammar for general learning’, four Korean grammar books and one Korean advanced reading textbook. About the distinguished lecture series Each year, the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies welcomes a fantastic range of guest speakers to give a free public lecture. Previous lecture topics have included Korean literature, poetry, and cinema, North Korean development, East Asian international relations, Korean history and society, and queer Korea. Often, speakers will present on recent publications, and audiences have the opportunity to participate in question and answer sessions after presentations. Some of the lectures are recorded and uploaded to the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies’ YouTube channel and Facebook page. This year, some of our lectures are also part of the Asian Studies Seminar Series. How to join Lectures are free and everyone is welcome. No registration required. Are you interested in studying with us? Take a postgraduate degree in Korean Studies with us and explore one of the most dynamic countries in East Asia, gaining a unique vantage point on crucial topics of relevance across the Northeast Asian region and the globe. We offer a taught MSc, an MSc by Research, and a PhD in Korean Studies. Find out more about Korean Studies at Edinburgh Jan 17 2023 16.00 - 17.30 Scottish Centre for Korean Studies Distinguished Lecture Series: Hana Jee Join the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies for an in-person seminar by Dr Hana Jee (York St John University) on mapping letter shapes and their canonical pronunciations. Room 1.22 19 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LD Find the venue: 19 George Square
Scottish Centre for Korean Studies Distinguished Lecture Series: Hana Jee In brief Guest Speaker - Dr Hana Jee (York St John University) Title - Are Letter Shapes Arbitrary? Series - Scottish Centre for Korean Studies Distinguished Lecture Series 2022 to 23 Abstract by Hana Jee Language, as a complex system, suggests coordination between subsystems. We, for the first time, quantified mapping between letter-shapes and their canonical pronunciations, or grapho-phonemic systematicity. We examined naturally developed phonograms (Arabic, English, Greek, and Hebrew), consciously designed phonograms (Korean, Shavian alphabet, and Pitman’s shorthand), a logographic orthography (Chinese) and fictitious orthography systems (Aurebesh and Klingon). We measured all the pairwise phonological distances between phonemes in the respective alphabet system, and the corresponding pairwise orthographical distances between letters. We then tested Pearson’s r between these two lists of pairwise distances. The positive correlation coefficient means that similar letter-shapes have similar canonical pronunciation. In contrast, the negative correlation means that similar letter-shapes have more distinct sounds, or vice versa. We verified the significance of the correlations by conducting Monte-Carlo permutation tests. For the phonological distance, phonemes were encoded into vectors according to the articulatory features and the distance between the vectors were calculated in various ways. We applied three methods to measure the pairwise distances between letter-shapes. Pixel count simply defines the distances as the difference in the number of pixels between two characters. Perimetric complexity is defined as ink area divided by perimeter of the character, thus the distance means the difference in complexity. Hausdorff distance (Huttenlocher et al., 1993) quantifies the difference between two images. Since each letter was saved as an image file (PNG), we were able to compare the contribution of the font to the grapho-phonemic systematicity. About the speaker Dr Hana Jee currently teaches the Korean language and applied linguistics at York St John University. She is the vice principal of York Hanbit Hangeul School and operates a YouTube channel 하나하나한국어 that provides intermediate level Korean language classes. After studying English Education at Seoul National University (2008), she obtained a PhD in Psychology (2021) and an MSc with Merit in Psychology of Language (2017) from the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests lie in how sub-systems of language coordinate within the larger system. She has published an English grammar textbook, ‘English Grammar for general learning’, four Korean grammar books and one Korean advanced reading textbook. About the distinguished lecture series Each year, the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies welcomes a fantastic range of guest speakers to give a free public lecture. Previous lecture topics have included Korean literature, poetry, and cinema, North Korean development, East Asian international relations, Korean history and society, and queer Korea. Often, speakers will present on recent publications, and audiences have the opportunity to participate in question and answer sessions after presentations. Some of the lectures are recorded and uploaded to the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies’ YouTube channel and Facebook page. This year, some of our lectures are also part of the Asian Studies Seminar Series. How to join Lectures are free and everyone is welcome. No registration required. Are you interested in studying with us? Take a postgraduate degree in Korean Studies with us and explore one of the most dynamic countries in East Asia, gaining a unique vantage point on crucial topics of relevance across the Northeast Asian region and the globe. We offer a taught MSc, an MSc by Research, and a PhD in Korean Studies. Find out more about Korean Studies at Edinburgh Jan 17 2023 16.00 - 17.30 Scottish Centre for Korean Studies Distinguished Lecture Series: Hana Jee Join the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies for an in-person seminar by Dr Hana Jee (York St John University) on mapping letter shapes and their canonical pronunciations. Room 1.22 19 George Square Edinburgh EH8 9LD Find the venue: 19 George Square
Jan 17 2023 16.00 - 17.30 Scottish Centre for Korean Studies Distinguished Lecture Series: Hana Jee Join the Scottish Centre for Korean Studies for an in-person seminar by Dr Hana Jee (York St John University) on mapping letter shapes and their canonical pronunciations.
