Meet Lily Trinh, Statistics summer scholar

Every year, the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland offers summer scholarships to a number of students so they can work with our staff on real-world projects.  Lily (below) is working with Dr. Steffen Klaere (Statistics) and Prof Miriam Meyerhoff (Linguistics) on a project called Structure detection in spoken language features. Lily explains:

“I ain’t going nowhere. Me no care.” These are a couple of examples that illustrate my rather interesting project research topic, looking at the use of the non-standard spoken English form also known as Bequia Creole (Bequia is  part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines). Linguists have hypotheses about Creole speakers using certain language patterns in their speech, and as statisticians we are especially interested in potential groupings among features of Creole and identifying those patterns. Over the summer, we will be analysing data obtained from conversations with speakers from three villages.

“One example is the Creole form of negation (ain’t instead of am not in standard English) possibly clustered with negative concord or double negation (I ain’t … nowhere instead of I am not … anywhere in standard English). Some other features of Creole we are also interested in include the zero copular verb (the verb “be” in English), the non-standard subject form, tense-aspect markers and the like. In particular, we would like to use statistical tools to visualise and quantify any clustering relationships.

“Being bilingual myself – I also speak Vietnamese – I hope the research will give some kind of insight into linguistic understanding of spoken languages.

“I have just completed two-and-a-half years of a conjoint BA/BCom degree. Aside from my Statistics major, I am also completing a second major in Economics for the BA component of my degree.

“I really enjoy the problem-solving aspect of science and I admire the magic of numbers to tell stories. In particular, I am amazed by the usefulness of statistics for giving undeniable evidence either for or against a logical- sounding statement. I am still considering whether to go on to Honours in statistics after I’ve finished my time as an undergraduate, but I know for sure a background in statistics will be help me to become a more competent econometrician and generally speaking, help me to make more sense of the world around me.

“Over the summer, I’m looking forward to doing lots of relaxing and pursuing my favourite pastimes: reading, cooking, origami, guitar playing, and spending lots of time at the beach with family and friends.”