Penn Arts & Sciences

The University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences forms the foundation of the scholarly excellence that has established Penn as one of the world's leading research universities. We teach students across all 12 Penn schools, and our academic departments span the reach from anthropology and biology to sociology and South Asian studies.

Members of the Penn Arts & Sciences faculty are leaders in creating new knowledge in their disciplines and are engaged in nearly every area of interdisciplinary innovation. They are regularly recognized with academia's highest honors, including membership in prestigious societies like the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, as well as significant prizes such as MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships.

The educational experience offered by Penn Arts & Sciences is likewise recognized for its excellence. The School's three educational divisions fulfill different missions, united by a broader commitment to providing our students with an unrivaled education in the liberal arts. The College of Arts and Sciences is the academic home of the majority of Penn undergraduates and provides 60 percent of the courses taken by students in Penn's undergraduate professional schools. The Graduate Division offers doctoral training to over 1,300 candidates in more than 30 graduate programs. And the College of Liberal and Professional Studies provides a range of educational opportunities for lifelong learners and working professionals.

 

 

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  • Publication
    So She May Thrive: Psychological Flexibility As A Pathway To Flourishing For Teenage Girls
    (2019-08-01) Christy Curtis Peterson
    Adolescence is a heightened period of storm and stress due to the many developmental changes taking place during the teen years. For teenage girls, these challenges are often exacerbated by environmental stressors including impossible cultural standards of success, media overuse, and daily harassment by peers that threaten overall well-being. This capstone reviews research in positive psychology that promises to improve teenage girls’ ability to navigate life stressors, and to embrace adolescence as a time of wonder—of curiosity and exploration, passion, novelty-seeking and building new relationships. Psychological flexibility is proposed as a cornerstone of adolescent health and well-being, and its presence may help girls navigate the challenges posed by the adolescent years with greater resilience, connection and courage. Psychological flexibility refers to the ability to connect to the present moment and to change or persist in behaviors that align with deeply held personal values (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2012). Although a fluid construct, research suggests that emotion regulation flexibility, mindfulness, self-compassion, positivity, and valued action increase psychological flexibility and its many benefits. Targeted interventions including Mindful Self-Compassion and a modified Acceptance and Commitment Therapy training are discussed as promising strategies to help teenage girls cultivate psychological flexibility as they transition from girls into thriving adults.
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  • Publication
    Pitch Variability Cues Perceptions of Singlish: A Perceptually-guided Approach to Sociophonetic Variation
    (2024-10) Tan, Yin Lin; Lin, Ting; Sumner, Meghan
    Multiple models have been proposed to understand variation in the use of English in Singapore, many of which posit a distinction between Singlish, a colloquial variety of English in Singapore, and standard Singapore English. In contrast, an indexical, feature-based model does not draw such distinctions, but instead requires linguists to identify relevant linguistic features and the social meanings indexed by them. Using a perceptually-guided approach for prosodic features, this paper investigates the prosodic features that are associated with listeners' perceptions of Singlish. In an online study, 132 participants completed a speeded forced-choice task, where they chose which of two audio clips sounded `More Singlish', and a post-task questionnaire. Listeners' descriptions of more Singlish-sounding speakers and clips were leveraged to identify prosodic features associated with Singlish. The results showed that a clip was more likely to be chosen as `More Singlish' if it had more local pitch variability, less global pitch variability, and faster speech rate. We argue that pitch variability and speech rate cue perceptions of Singlish and are important for an indexical account of English in Singapore. The present study also underscores the utility of speeded forced-choice tasks in investigating sociophonetic variation. Future work can more precisely control for the features of pitch variability and speech rate, identify the specific social meanings indexed by these features, and disentangle the indexical pathways by which these features and their social meanings are connected.
  • Publication
    Wiggly Lifespan Change in a Crisis: Contrasting Reactive and Proactive Identity Construction
    (2024-10) Stefánsdóttir, Lilja Björk; Ingason, Anton Karl
    In the present study, we analyze the speech of two individuals, each of whom goes through a crisis while serving as a member of the Icelandic Parliament. Connecting our analysis to our previous case study, we find that an MP who assumes a proactive leadership role during a crisis style-shifts toward formal style while the crisis is ongoing. In contrast, we also look at new data from another MP, whose crisis is more personal and characterized by his lack of control, and we find that his reactive response to this situation leads to him shifting toward informal style until the crisis has passed. We hypothesize that these findings are linked to a more general pattern such that a proactive response to a crisis is linked to formal style whereas a reactive response to a crisis is linked to informal style.
  • Publication
    Visible Articulatory Variation Cueing Sound Change: Lip Rounding and Lip Protrusion Variability in the Mandarin Sibilant Merger
    (2024-10) Du, Baichen; Pfiffner, Alexandra; Johnson, Keith
    Phonological contrasts in speech production and perception are frequently studied with acoustic and/or auditory cues. Less is known about how visual cues are incorporated in a contrast, and how these cues are affected by an acoustic merger-in-progress, especially for changes that can be initiated by different articulatory gestures. This paper investigates the acoustic and visual cues in the ongoing Mandarin sibilant merger, where retroflexes are merging with alveolars. We analyzed audiovisual production data using Computer Vision articulography and found that speakers range from having an almost complete visual merger to a complete visual distinction. The direction of the visual cue merger was also consistent with the direction of the acoustic merger. Further, visual cues were found to be correlated with acoustic cues and strongly predicted spectral moments. We extend previous findings of cue weighting to a shared domain of audio and visual cues, and we discuss implications for the directionality of sound change.
  • Publication
    Combinatorial Effects of Southern French Features on Perception
    (2024-10) Richy, Célia
    This experiment tests the effects of co-occurrence of Southern features on the perception of spoken Southern French. Specifically, it investigates the perception of word-internal schwas in relation to their co-occurrence with different realisations of a nasal vowel. While nasal vowels in standard French are realised as fully nasalised, they are stereotypically realised with a consonantal nasal coda in Southern varieties. Word-internal schwas are indexically linked to both formality and Southern varieties. The different combinatorial effects of these features are analysed. This study also tests whether the absence of the Southern nasal vowel in Southern French speech can impact speech perception, using a within-subject (Linguistic Conditions) and between-subject (Regional Information Conditions) design. Results show an incremental effect of schwa and Southern nasal vowel presence on the perception of accentedness, while the perceived degree of formality is affected by schwa only when co-occurring with the Southern nasal vowel. There is no evidence that feature absence plays a role in speech perception.
  • Publication
    Variation in the Acceptability of Singular They in Singapore English
    (2024-10) Venkatachalam, Alamelu; Starr, Rebecca L.
    Previously used to refer to generic antecedents and antecedents of unknown gender, singular they has been found to increasingly occur with definite antecedents of known gender. This shift is associated with rising awareness of nonbinary gender identities and the expansion of they as a preferred pronoun. Usage of singular they has been previously examined only within Inner Circle Englishes (e.g., US English). In this study, we investigate sociolinguistic factors that influence the acceptability of singular they in Singapore English, an Outer Circle variety that is pivoting towards internal linguistic norms but also experiences frequent contact with non-local Englishes. We find that singular they is rated as significantly more grammatical by younger respondents; its rating is also constrained by definiteness and interactions between social factors, including gender and religiosity. These factors are found to be stronger predictors of singular they acceptability than linguistic prescriptivism. The diffusion of singular they to Singapore English illustrates the ongoing role of non-local contact in the evolution of this variety.
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    The Social Meanings of Definite Articles with Proper Names in Spanish
    (2024-10) Fernández-Lizárraga, Evelyn
    In Spanish, the use of a definite article before a proper name (e.g., La Sara 'the Sara', El Juan 'the Juan', etc.; henceforth, DA+PN) can convey a wide range of social meanings concerning a given referent, from affection to condescension. DA+PNs can also serve other discourse functions without expressing an extreme attitude towards the referent. The present paper argues that these pragmatic effects can be derived from the meanings of definite articles and proper names; DA+PNs mark a referent as both salient (via the definite article) and hearer-old (via the proper name). Where use of a DA+PN is in competition with a bare proper name, the marked co-occurrence of an article with a name invites inferences concerning the relation between a referent and the conversation participants. In using DA+PNs, speakers draw heavily on the common ground to convey a range of meanings regarding their referents. Using experimental data, I first demonstrate the important role of common ground by manipulating the hearer-old status of referents. The results indicate that DA+PNs can be felicitous without an extreme attitudinal context if a proper name is in the common ground. Building on these results, I then analyze how speakers can exploit the common ground, giving rise to a variability of social meanings for DA+PNs.
  • Publication
    When Differential Object Marking is Optional: The Case of Copala Triqui
    (2024-10) Clemens, Lauren; Merino, Bertina F.; Rodriguez, Jamilläh; Tollan, Rebecca
    In Copala Triqui, an Otomanguean language of Oaxaca, Mexico, the presence of the accusative marker is triggered by factors pertaining to animacy and specificity (Broadwell 2022), which is common for languages with differential object marking (DOM, Silverstein 1976; Comrie 1989; Kalin 2018). This paper investigates optionality in Copala Triqui DOM, specifically as it pertains to the marking of non-human animate direct objects as participants of reversible events. Copala Triqui exhibits both VSO and SVO word orders, raising the question of how DOM and word order interact. We present a 2x2 speeded acceptability judgment experiment that crossed two factors: the presence/absence of accusative marking and VSO/SVO order. Our results show an interaction of word order and accusative marking, with presence of DOM hindering an “acceptable” response for VSO. We also found that different groups of speakers responded differently to the presence of DOM in SVO clauses: only the youngest speakers responded more quickly to SVO clauses with DOM than those without. We consider how language shift in this largely bilingual population might contribute to response time variability.
  • Publication
    Macro, Micro, and Meso Approaches to Generalizing in Queer Linguistics: Investigating Non-Binary Pronouns in Dutch
    (2024-10) Vriesendorp, Hielke
    The current paper presents data on the use of and variation in third-person singular personal pronouns in Dutch from macro, micro, and meso perspectives. It argues that it is possible to present generalizing macro findings about queer language (users) in a way that combats their marginalization, whilst mitigating the risks of presenting queer language (users) in an essentializing or stereotyping way. It does so by presenting the macro findings that the flexible use of the pronominal systems die/diens and hen/hun was dominant in production amongst inclusion-oriented language users, as well as the findings that they were used frequently and evaluated positively by by non-binary participants (in reference to themselves). This finding can be a tool in order to help fewer non-binary individuals be misgendered. To mitigate the risks of essentializing, additional analyses were conducted at both a micro and a meso level. The micro analysis showed the full range of production and evaluation of non-binary pronouns: other strategies than die/diens and hen/hun, such as name repetition and neologisms, were also used in production, and not all non-binary participants used die/diens or hen/hun as their own standard pronouns or evaluated them positively. Furthermore, in the analysis of the sociolinguistic variation between die/diens and hen/hun, meso categories beyond static social category labels allowed for social factors to be connected to interaction, rather than contributing to the notion that queer language users all share inherent, essential characteristics.