Mélissa Barkat-Defradas
Research Scientist
Surprisingly, the study of language activity has long been conducted without any questioning of its biological function. In fact, the Human and Social Sciences (anthropology, linguistics) have long defended the idea that language appeared without any selective pressure. In this paradigm, the human being - defined as a fundamentally cultural being with few instinctive behaviors - would have "invented" articulated language (as well as writing). In this purely culturalist conception, the question of the raison d'être of language behavior has long been evacuated from scientific investigation in favor of the extensive study of the proximal and sensorimotor mechanisms that underlie it. However, asking the question of the ultimate causes of human language makes it possible to raise original questions and to answer questions that are still pending. My research aims to demonstrate that the synergy of approaches developed in linguistics and evolutionary biology can significantly advance our knowledge of this specifically human faculty. Trained as a linguist, my research interests include:(1) The study of the voice as an honest signal allowing the speaker to display - via certain vocal characteristics - his phenotypic quality and increase his reproductive success(2) The study of linguistic and genetic proximity. Following the work initially led by the geneticist L. Cavalli-Sforza, I study the genetic diversity of Arab populations in order to better understand the linguistic variability of the Arabic-speaking domain.(3) The study of the role of the family in the transmission of socially valued linguistic forms, which posits that language skills - different according to the social affiliation of individuals - participate in the social structuring of human populations.125 documents
- Mahé Ben Hamed, Melissa Barkat-Defradas, Rim Hamdi-Sultan. The evolution of Arabic(s): Making the Idiom speak for the Deme. International Journal of Modern Anthropology, 2015, 1 (8), pp.94-116. ⟨10.4314/ijma.v1i8.5⟩. ⟨halshs-01740835⟩
- Melissa Barkat-Defradas, Camille Fauth, Ivana Didirkova, Benoit Amy de La Bretèque, Fabrice Hirsch, et al.. Dysphonia is beautiful: A perceptual and acoustic analysis of vocal roughness. 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-18), Aug 2015, Glasgow, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-01820458⟩
- Christelle Dodane, Jérémi Sauvage, Fabrice Hirsch, Melissa Barkat-Defradas. Riso e prosodia. Explorando o discurso da criança, Editora Contexto, pp.55-84, 2014. ⟨halshs-01065874⟩
- Camille Frouin, Frédérique Gayraud, Melissa Barkat-Defradas. Effet de fréquence et d'âge d'acquisition dans une tâche de fluence verbale chez des francophones atteints de la maladie d'Alzheimer et des personnes âgées saines. 4ème Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française, Jul 2014, Berlin, Allemagne. ⟨halshs-01179082⟩
- André Frédéric, Fabrice Hirsch, Bechet Marion, Melissa Barkat-Defradas, Ivana Laborde Didirkova, et al.. La pause : un paramètre variable dans le discours politique. 4e Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française, Jul 2014, Berlin, Allemagne. pp.1217-1226. ⟨halshs-01061696⟩
- Hyeran Lee, Philippe Gambette, Melissa Barkat-Defradas. iPhocomp : calcul automatique de l’indice de complexité phonétique de Jakielski. JEP 2014, XXXè édition des Journées d'Etudes sur la Parole, Jun 2014, Le Mans, France. pp.622-630, 2014, Actes de la XXXe édition des Journées d'Etudes sur la Parole. ⟨hal-01277047⟩
- Hacène Bellemmouche, Melissa Barkat-Defradas, Rim Hamdi-Sultan. Influence du développement phonético-phonologique sur les premières productions lexicales d’enfants arabophones : une étude longitudinale. Journées d'études sur la parole (JEP), Association Francophone de la Communication Parlée, Jun 2014, Le Mans, France. ⟨hal-01740897⟩
- Christelle Dodane, Jérémi Sauvage, Fabrice Hirsch, Melissa Barkat-Defradas, Alessandra del Ré. Riso e discurso: do acustico ao contextual. Explorando o discurso da criança, 2014. ⟨hal-01821657⟩
- Melissa Barkat-Defradas, Camille Fauth, Fabrice Hirsch,, Benoît Amy de La Bretèque, Jérémi Sauvage, et al.. Rauque 'n' Roll : La raucité, entre symptôme pathologique & expression artistique. 5° Journées de Phonétique Clinique, Dec 2013, Liège, Belgique. ⟨hal-00918332⟩
- Melissa Barkat-Defradas. Langage & maladie d'Alzheimer. Langage et Maladie d'Alzheimer : Une synthèse des troubles du langage et de la parole associés aux syndromes démentiels DTA, Dec 2013, Strasbourg, France. ⟨hal-00923613⟩
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