Mary Beckman
Encyclopedia
Mary E. Beckman is a Professor of Linguistics
at the Ohio State University
. She edited the Journal of Phonetics from 1990 to 1994. Perhaps her most significant contribution to linguistics is the fact that in 1987, together with John Kingston, she organized the first Laboratory Phonology conference at Columbus, Ohio, and served with Kingston as series editor for the Cambridge University Press
series Papers in Laboratory Phonology from 1987 through 2004. The Laboratory Phonology movement was one of the two most important developments during the 1990s in the linguistic subdisciplines that study language sound systems, and gave rise to the Association for Laboratory Phonology
. The other important development was Optimality Theory
.
Beckman received her PhD from Cornell University
in 1984, was a Postdoctoral member of the technical staff in "Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence Research" at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, and joined the faculty at Ohio State in 1985. In 1988 she won a Presidential Young Investigator Award
from the National Science Foundation. She has directed twenty-one PhD dissertations to completion at Ohio State. Her early research focused on prosody and the development of the Tones and Boundary Indexes (ToBI
) system of intonation transcription. More recently her work has focused on phonological disorders and child language acquisition.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
at the Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
. She edited the Journal of Phonetics from 1990 to 1994. Perhaps her most significant contribution to linguistics is the fact that in 1987, together with John Kingston, she organized the first Laboratory Phonology conference at Columbus, Ohio, and served with Kingston as series editor for the Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
series Papers in Laboratory Phonology from 1987 through 2004. The Laboratory Phonology movement was one of the two most important developments during the 1990s in the linguistic subdisciplines that study language sound systems, and gave rise to the Association for Laboratory Phonology
Association for Laboratory Phonology
The Association for Laboratory Phonology is a non-profit professional society for researchers interested in the sound structure of language. It was founded to promote the scientific study of all aspects of phonetics and phonology of spoken and signed languages through scholarly exchange across...
. The other important development was Optimality Theory
Optimality theory
Optimality theory is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the interaction between conflicting constraints. OT models grammars as systems that provide mappings from inputs to outputs; typically, the inputs are conceived of as underlying representations, and...
.
Beckman received her PhD from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in 1984, was a Postdoctoral member of the technical staff in "Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence Research" at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, and joined the faculty at Ohio State in 1985. In 1988 she won a Presidential Young Investigator Award
Presidential Young Investigator Award
The Presidential Young Investigator Award was awarded by the National Science Foundation. The program operated from 1984 to 1991, and was replaced by the NSF Young Investigator Awards and Presidential Faculty Fellows Program...
from the National Science Foundation. She has directed twenty-one PhD dissertations to completion at Ohio State. Her early research focused on prosody and the development of the Tones and Boundary Indexes (ToBI
ToBI
ToBI is a set of conventions for transcribing and annotating the prosody of speech. 'ToBI' is sometimes used to refer to the conventions used for describing English specifically, but ToBI systems have been defined for a number of other languages, for example J-ToBI refers to the ToBI conventions...
) system of intonation transcription. More recently her work has focused on phonological disorders and child language acquisition.