Scarlett Hart
Doctoral Student in Linguistics - Scarlett’s thesis is entitled Variation in Phonological Production and Perception in Later Life
Research project title
Variation in Phonological Production and Perception in Later Life
Supervisors
Dr Heike Pichler, Dr Rory Turnbull + Dr Christos Salis
Contact details
Email: S.L.Hart2@newcastle.ac.uk
Research interests
- Experimental Phonetics
- Laboratory Phonology
- Language Variation & Change
- Sociophonetics
- Speech Perception
A brief outline of my research project
Non-pathological ageing results an incredible diversity in the physiological, cognitive, and auditory functioning of older adults. Yet, the impact of this diversity on language use remains relatively unexplored in the field of linguistics. My research investigates how ageing-related biological changes impact phonological production and perception in later life. I am utilising a biomarker-based experimental design that aims to isolate the effects of individual ageing processes from one another. I am exploring how ageing may result in changes in prosody, voice quality, plosive perception, and vowel production/perception. I have an interest in how biologically driven changes in the speech of older adults could index sociolinguistic meaning in the minds of listeners. I am also curious how auditory developments in speech perception might motivate changes in phonological production.
Conferences
- ‘Real-Time Change in Newcastle /l/: Evidence from the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English’, United Kingdom Language Variation and Change 15: Oral Presentation
- ‘Phonetic Correlates of Focus in Tyneside English’, Newcastle University School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics Postgraduate Conference: Oral Presentation
- ‘Social Predictors of Later-Life (ing) Variation’ Conference on Corpora for Language and Aging Research 6: Coauthored Oral Presentation
- ‘/l/-Darkening in Tyneside English: Phonological Predictors, Ongoing Change, and Categoricity’, Colloquium of the British Academic Association of Phoneticians 2024: Poster Presentation
Additional Responsibilities
- Chair of the Newcastle & Northumbria Postgraduate Conference in Language & Linguistics (2025)
- Co-Chair of the School of English Literature, Language, and Linguistics Postgraduate Culture Committee, Newcastle University (2024-present)
- School of English Literature, Language, and Linguistics Postgraduate Conference Organising Committee Member (2025)
- Newcastle University Linguistics Society – President & Founder (2022-2023)
- Newcastle University Linguistics Society – Welfare Officer (2023-2025)