Department of Linguistics and Languages will host a talk by Dr. Bryan Gick, from the University of British Columbia & Haskins Laboratories, on Friday, July 13, 2018. Dr. Gick and his lab are well known for their work on both biomechanical modelling (ArtiSynth) and multimodal perception. All biological sounds originate with neural commands to muscle activations, and resulting body movements. However, our theories of phonetics and phonology in biological communication have seldom been built on plausible embodied theories of how bodies move. In this talk, Dr. Bryan Gick will show how a better understanding of biological movement can help people make sense of how sounds are produced for communication. This approach provides a framework for understanding basic mechanics of biological sound production for speech and non-speech communication, and sheds light on such divergent issues as how innate infant behaviors bootstrap speech sounds, how smiling while you talk is like speaking in a different accent, and why we want to fail to meet speech targets (and how this relates to sound change).