Gareth Roberts
Biographic Data
| ID | 3843498 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gareth Roberts |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gareth |
| FAMILY NAME | Roberts |
| SIGNATURE | ROBERTS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pennsylvania |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1249-2797 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Iconicity Gives Communicators a Head-Start, Even if Only the Producer Experiences It
Iconicity has increasingly come to be recognized as widespread in language. It plays a particularly important role in bootstrapping new referring expressions in existing languages and in the emergence of new languages and other communication systems. The basis of this role has long been assumed to depend primarily on transparency of the iconic signal for the receiver, who benefits from being better able to identify its meaning. But might there al…
Weaving care praxis to mediate glitches in Indigenous digital land management in northern Australia
Digital technologies increasingly entangle with everyday Indigenous land management practices, from place-based biocultural monitoring to political decision-making. As Indigenous knowledge and governance practice intersect with big data and technological devices, questions remain around how Indigenous agency can lead situated digital engagement while navigating the systemic injustices exposed through technological glitches. Drawing on glitch femi…
Values-based food systems
This paper outlines the concept of values-based food systems building on the related idea of values-based food chains (VBFCs), terms which are definitionally diffuse but which cohere around a common commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice. The paper examines the development of four multi-stakeholder local food partnerships in Birmingham, Bristol, Rotherham and Sheffield—and the national Sustainable Food Places network to whi…
Quality, not quantity, impacts the differentiation of near-synonyms
How much information do language users need to differentiate potentially absolute synonyms into near-synonyms? How consistent must the information be? We present two simple experiments designed to investigate this. After exposure to two novel verbs, participants generalized them to positive or negative contexts. In Experiment 1, there was a tendency across conditions for the verbs to become differentiated by context, even following inconsistent, …
Social biases can lead to less communicatively efficient languages
Language is subject to a variety of pressures. Recent work has documented that many aspects of language structure have properties that appear to be shaped by biases for the efficient communication of semantic meaning. Other work has investigated the role of social pressures, whereby linguistic variants can acquire positive or negative evaluation based on who is perceived to be using them. While the influence of these two sets of biases on languag…
Variability in speaker expectations of morphosyntactic mutation in Welsh
Like all modern Celtic languages Welsh exhibits initial consonant mutation with both lexical and morphosyntactic triggers. Owing to the complexity of the system and the sociolinguistic situation of Welsh, change and variation in the system seems inevitable, and evidence for change has been observed in production. Less work, however, has focused on speakers’ attitudes and expectations in perception. We used an online auditory acceptability judgeme…
Assessing the efficacy of coproduction to better understand the barriers to achieving sustainability in NHS chronic kidney services and create alternate pathways
CONTEXT: Too many people living with chronic kidney disease are opting for and starting on hospital-based dialysis compared to a home-based kidney replacement therapy. Dialysis services are becoming financially unsustainable. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of coproductive research in chronic kidney disease service improvement to achieve greater sustainability. DESIGN: A 2-year coproductive service improvement study was conduct…
Gender-based segregation in education, jobs and earnings in South Africa
Empirical foundations for an integrated study of language evolution
Half a century ago, Uriel Weinreich, William Labov, and Marvin Herzog laid out a programmatic vision for the study of language change. This included establishing five fundamental problems for the field and a radical shift from a focus on idiolects to a focus on population-level change (grounded in their concept of orderly heterogeneity). They also expressed an explicit desire to see an integrated evolutionary study of language change. In spite of…
Content deafness
The linguist’s Drosophila
Although experimental methods are used in the study of language change, it has been claimed that there is no analogue of the biologist’s Drosophila – no means, in other words, of observing change in the laboratory. Here it is argued that this pessimism is unwarranted, and that there is in fact something equivalent: a set of experimental methods developed originally to study the emergence and evolution of language, and which involve the use of nov…
System-wide improvement of early-grade mathematics
The mountains of Snowdonia in art
"The mountains of Snowdonia in art: the visualisation of mountain scenery from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day." Landscape Research, 41(5), pp. 585–586
(In)sensitivity to incoherence in human communication
James Dickson Innes 1887–1914
Perspectives on Language as a Source of Social Markers
Because linguistic forms vary between groups of speakers, language serves as a source of social markers, allowing people to distinguish between those who do and do not belong to the same social group. This review surveys interdisciplinary perspectives on four issues concerning social markers: (a) the role of inter- and intra-individual variation, (b) the purpose of social markers, (c) language as an especially good source of social markers and (d…
Opportunity to assimilate and pressure to discriminate can generate cultural divergence in the laboratory
Experimental Semiotics
In the last few years, researchers have begun to study novel human communication systems in the laboratory (Experimental Semiotics, ES). The first goal of this article is to provide a primer to ES, which we will do by reviewing the experimental paradigms developed by experimental semioticians, as well as the main research themes that have emerged in the discipline. A second goal is to illustrate what implications ES has for linguistics. In partic…
Sustainable Landscapes in an Enlarged Europe—the Landscape Research Group/Institute for Landscape Ecology symposium
Bilingualism and Number in Wales
Speakers of Welsh in Wales have a number of systems available to them when they refer to numbers. The choice of system by individuals is determined by a mixture of historical and social factors. The systems are explained and their use is compared within different domains, including religion, broadcasting and the media, education, business and commerce and everyday conversational contexts. The notion of mathematical multilingualism is explored wit…
Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
This important collection brings together both established figures and new researchers to offer fresh perspectives on the ever-controversial subject of the history of witchcraft. Using Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic as a starting point, the contributors explore the changes of the last twenty-five years in the understanding of early modern witchcraft, and suggest new approaches, especially concerning the cultural dimensions of th…
The cultural landscape
There has been a recent shift by environmental agencies towards recognising the positive contribution made by humankind to the creation of valued landscapes. This discussion outlines the growing appreciation of cultural landscapes in various European countries. Particular attention is given to protected areas and the role of local communities in Britain. Landscape is concerned with more than mere marks on the ground, but also with the association…
Workshop reports
Landscape and nature
Charged with the responsibility for conserving “natural beauty”, National Parks are, theoretically, ideally placed to promote integrated conservation policies. The experience of the Parks in this regard is reviewed, and the question posed as to whether the increasing interest paid to them in the 1980's may have served to deflect attention away from losses in the amenity of our wider countryside
A framework for a language simulation evaluation checklist
Perspectives on Language as a Source of Social Markers
Because linguistic forms vary between groups of speakers, language serves as a source of social markers, allowing people to distinguish between those who do and do not belong to the same social group. This review surveys interdisciplinary perspectives on four issues concerning social markers: (a) the role of inter- and intra-individual variation, (b) the purpose of social markers, (c) language as an especially good source of social markers and (d…
Experimental Semiotics
In the last few years, researchers have begun to study novel human communication systems in the laboratory (Experimental Semiotics, ES). The first goal of this article is to provide a primer to ES, which we will do by reviewing the experimental paradigms developed by experimental semioticians, as well as the main research themes that have emerged in the discipline. A second goal is to illustrate what implications ES has for linguistics. In partic…
Values-based food systems
This paper outlines the concept of values-based food systems building on the related idea of values-based food chains (VBFCs), terms which are definitionally diffuse but which cohere around a common commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice. The paper examines the development of four multi-stakeholder local food partnerships in Birmingham, Bristol, Rotherham and Sheffield—and the national Sustainable Food Places network to whi…
(In)sensitivity to incoherence in human communication
Content deafness
The cultural landscape
There has been a recent shift by environmental agencies towards recognising the positive contribution made by humankind to the creation of valued landscapes. This discussion outlines the growing appreciation of cultural landscapes in various European countries. Particular attention is given to protected areas and the role of local communities in Britain. Landscape is concerned with more than mere marks on the ground, but also with the association…
A framework for a language simulation evaluation checklist
Landscape and nature
Charged with the responsibility for conserving “natural beauty”, National Parks are, theoretically, ideally placed to promote integrated conservation policies. The experience of the Parks in this regard is reviewed, and the question posed as to whether the increasing interest paid to them in the 1980's may have served to deflect attention away from losses in the amenity of our wider countryside
The cultural landscape
There has been a recent shift by environmental agencies towards recognising the positive contribution made by humankind to the creation of valued landscapes. This discussion outlines the growing appreciation of cultural landscapes in various European countries. Particular attention is given to protected areas and the role of local communities in Britain. Landscape is concerned with more than mere marks on the ground, but also with the association…
Workshop reports
Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe
This important collection brings together both established figures and new researchers to offer fresh perspectives on the ever-controversial subject of the history of witchcraft. Using Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic as a starting point, the contributors explore the changes of the last twenty-five years in the understanding of early modern witchcraft, and suggest new approaches, especially concerning the cultural dimensions of th…
Bilingualism and Number in Wales
Speakers of Welsh in Wales have a number of systems available to them when they refer to numbers. The choice of system by individuals is determined by a mixture of historical and social factors. The systems are explained and their use is compared within different domains, including religion, broadcasting and the media, education, business and commerce and everyday conversational contexts. The notion of mathematical multilingualism is explored wit…
Sustainable Landscapes in an Enlarged Europe—the Landscape Research Group/Institute for Landscape Ecology symposium
Opportunity to assimilate and pressure to discriminate can generate cultural divergence in the laboratory
Experimental Semiotics
In the last few years, researchers have begun to study novel human communication systems in the laboratory (Experimental Semiotics, ES). The first goal of this article is to provide a primer to ES, which we will do by reviewing the experimental paradigms developed by experimental semioticians, as well as the main research themes that have emerged in the discipline. A second goal is to illustrate what implications ES has for linguistics. In partic…
Perspectives on Language as a Source of Social Markers
Because linguistic forms vary between groups of speakers, language serves as a source of social markers, allowing people to distinguish between those who do and do not belong to the same social group. This review surveys interdisciplinary perspectives on four issues concerning social markers: (a) the role of inter- and intra-individual variation, (b) the purpose of social markers, (c) language as an especially good source of social markers and (d…
James Dickson Innes 1887–1914
System-wide improvement of early-grade mathematics
The mountains of Snowdonia in art
"The mountains of Snowdonia in art: the visualisation of mountain scenery from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day." Landscape Research, 41(5), pp. 585–586
(In)sensitivity to incoherence in human communication
The linguist’s Drosophila
Although experimental methods are used in the study of language change, it has been claimed that there is no analogue of the biologist’s Drosophila – no means, in other words, of observing change in the laboratory. Here it is argued that this pessimism is unwarranted, and that there is in fact something equivalent: a set of experimental methods developed originally to study the emergence and evolution of language, and which involve the use of nov…
Content deafness
Empirical foundations for an integrated study of language evolution
Half a century ago, Uriel Weinreich, William Labov, and Marvin Herzog laid out a programmatic vision for the study of language change. This included establishing five fundamental problems for the field and a radical shift from a focus on idiolects to a focus on population-level change (grounded in their concept of orderly heterogeneity). They also expressed an explicit desire to see an integrated evolutionary study of language change. In spite of…
Gender-based segregation in education, jobs and earnings in South Africa
Variability in speaker expectations of morphosyntactic mutation in Welsh
Like all modern Celtic languages Welsh exhibits initial consonant mutation with both lexical and morphosyntactic triggers. Owing to the complexity of the system and the sociolinguistic situation of Welsh, change and variation in the system seems inevitable, and evidence for change has been observed in production. Less work, however, has focused on speakers’ attitudes and expectations in perception. We used an online auditory acceptability judgeme…
Assessing the efficacy of coproduction to better understand the barriers to achieving sustainability in NHS chronic kidney services and create alternate pathways
CONTEXT: Too many people living with chronic kidney disease are opting for and starting on hospital-based dialysis compared to a home-based kidney replacement therapy. Dialysis services are becoming financially unsustainable. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of coproductive research in chronic kidney disease service improvement to achieve greater sustainability. DESIGN: A 2-year coproductive service improvement study was conduct…
Quality, not quantity, impacts the differentiation of near-synonyms
How much information do language users need to differentiate potentially absolute synonyms into near-synonyms? How consistent must the information be? We present two simple experiments designed to investigate this. After exposure to two novel verbs, participants generalized them to positive or negative contexts. In Experiment 1, there was a tendency across conditions for the verbs to become differentiated by context, even following inconsistent, …
Social biases can lead to less communicatively efficient languages
Language is subject to a variety of pressures. Recent work has documented that many aspects of language structure have properties that appear to be shaped by biases for the efficient communication of semantic meaning. Other work has investigated the role of social pressures, whereby linguistic variants can acquire positive or negative evaluation based on who is perceived to be using them. While the influence of these two sets of biases on languag…
Values-based food systems
This paper outlines the concept of values-based food systems building on the related idea of values-based food chains (VBFCs), terms which are definitionally diffuse but which cohere around a common commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice. The paper examines the development of four multi-stakeholder local food partnerships in Birmingham, Bristol, Rotherham and Sheffield—and the national Sustainable Food Places network to whi…
Weaving care praxis to mediate glitches in Indigenous digital land management in northern Australia
Digital technologies increasingly entangle with everyday Indigenous land management practices, from place-based biocultural monitoring to political decision-making. As Indigenous knowledge and governance practice intersect with big data and technological devices, questions remain around how Indigenous agency can lead situated digital engagement while navigating the systemic injustices exposed through technological glitches. Drawing on glitch femi…
Iconicity Gives Communicators a Head-Start, Even if Only the Producer Experiences It
Iconicity has increasingly come to be recognized as widespread in language. It plays a particularly important role in bootstrapping new referring expressions in existing languages and in the emergence of new languages and other communication systems. The basis of this role has long been assumed to depend primarily on transparency of the iconic signal for the receiver, who benefits from being better able to identify its meaning. But might there al…
Psychology (13 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Language and cultural evolution (6 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Cognitive psychology (5 works) · Geography (5 works)