Dr Traci Walker

BA, MA, PhD

Human Communication Sciences, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery

Senior Lecturer

traci.walker@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2420

362 Mushroom Lane

Full contact details

Dr Traci Walker
Human Communication Sciences, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery
362 Mushroom Lane
Sheffield
S10 2TS

Profile

I received my MA and PhD in Linguistics from the University of Colorado, after which I relocated the UK and took up a post as a Research Assistant at the University of York. I was an RCUK Fellow in Communication and Language Use in Interaction from 2007-2012, moving on to a lecturer post which I held till joining the Department of Human Communication Sciences at the University of Sheffield as a Senior Lecturer in September 2015.

My research investigates the function and use of linguistic structures in communication within typical and atypical populations. All my work is grounded in an interest in discovering the order and structure of language in everyday use. To that end, I work with recordings (both video and audio) of naturally-occurring interactions, combining the methods of Conversation Analysis with more traditional means of linguistic analysis.

Research interests

Application of conversation analysis to interactions on acute care wards between people with aphasia and healthcare professionals
The manipulation of fine phonetic detail to achieve particular outcomes in interaction
Integrating theories of semantics and pragmatics with what really goes on in everyday talk
The form and functions of self- and other-repetition

Collaborators

Prof Markus Reuber (University of Sheffield)
Prof Paul Drew (University of Loughborough)
Dr Gareth Walker (University of Sheffield)

Publications

Books

Walker T (2009) The phonetics of sequence organization: An investigation of other-initiated repair sequences in American English. VDM Verlag.

Edited books

Walker TS & Frajzyngier Z (Ed.) (1999) Reciprocals: Forms and functions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Walker TS & Frajzyngier Z (Ed.) (1999) Reflexives: forms and functions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Journal articles

Pevy N, Christensen H, Walker T & Reuber M (2023) Differentiating between epileptic and functional/dissociative seizures using semantic content analysis of transcripts of routine clinic consultations. Epilepsy & Behavior, 143, 109217-109217.
Pevy N, Christensen H, Walker T & Reuber M (2021) #3079 Investigating the feasibility of automating the differential diagnosis of transient loss of consciousness. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 92(8), a7-a7.
Pevy N, Christensen H, Walker T & Reuber M (2021) Feasibility of using an automated analysis of formulation effort in patients’ spoken seizure descriptions in the differential diagnosis of epileptic and nonepileptic seizures. Seizure, 91, 141-145.
O’Malley R, Morris L-A, Longden C, Turner A, Walker T, Venneri A, Mirheidari B, Christensen H, Reuber M & Blackburn D (2020) 26 Can an automated assessment of language help distinguish between Functional Cognitive Disorder and early neurodegeneration?. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 91(8), e18.2-e19.
Walker G, Walker T, Moon L & Reuber M (2020) On the potential of phonetic analysis to distinguish between people with epilepsy and non-epileptic seizures. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 30(1), 92-109. View this article in WRRO
Mirheidari B, Pan Y, Blackburn D, O'Malley R, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2020) Data augmentation using generative networks to identify dementia.. CoRR, abs/2004.05989. View this article in WRRO
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Walker T, Reuber M & Christensen H (2019) Dementia detection using automatic analysis of conversations. Computer Speech and Language, 53, 65-79. View this article in WRRO
Walker T, Christensen H, Mirheidari B, Swainston T, Rutten C, Mayer I, Blackburn D & Reuber M (2018) Developing an intelligent virtual agent to stratify people with cognitive complaints: A comparison of human-patient and intelligent virtual agent-patient interaction.. Dementia. View this article in WRRO
Xavier CCM & Walker TS (2018) Lexical repetitions and repair initiation in mother-child talk. Research on Children and Social Interaction, 2(1), 49-73. View this article in WRRO
Channon A, Foulkes P & Walker T (2018) ‘But what is the reason why you know such things?’: Question and response patterns in the LADO interview. Journal of Pragmatics, 129, 154-172. View this article in WRRO
Thomson J, Sage K, Gee M & Walker T (2018) 'What 'form' does informal assessment take? A scoping review of the informal assessment literature for aphasia. The International Journal of Disorders of Language and Communication. View this article in WRRO
Blackburn D, Mirheidari BM, Rutten C, Mayer I, Walker T, Christensen H & Rueber M (2017) PO029 An avatar aid in memory clinic. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 88(Suppl 1), A19.4-A20.
Walker TS & Benjamin T (2017) Phonetic and sequential differences of other-repetitions in repair initiation. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 50(4), 330-347. View this article in WRRO
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Harkness K, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2017) Toward the Automation of Diagnostic Conversation Analysis in Patients with Memory Complaints. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 58(2), 373-387. View this article in WRRO
Walker T, Thomson J & Watt I (2015) Displays and claims of understanding in conversation by people with aphasia. Aphasiology, 30(6), 750-764. View this article in WRRO
Walker T (2014) Form ≠ Function: The Independence of Prosody and Action. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 47(1), 1-16. View this article in WRRO
Walker T (2014) The Independence of Phonetic Form and Interactional Accomplishments. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 47(1), 23-27. View this article in WRRO
Benjamin T & Walker T (2013) Managing Problems of Acceptability Through High Rise-Fall Repetitions. Discourse Processes, 50(2), 107-138. View this article in WRRO
Robson C, Drew P, Walker T & Reuber M (2012) Catastrophising and normalising in patient's accounts of their seizure experiences. Seizure, 21(10), 795-801.
Walker T, Drew P & Local J (2011) Responding indirectly. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(9), 2434-2451.
Drew P & Walker T (2009) Going too far: Complaining, escalating and disaffiliation. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(12), 2400-2414.
Curl TS & Drew P (2008) Contingency and Action: A Comparison of Two Forms of Requesting. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 41(2), 129-153.
Curl TS (2006) Offers of assistance: Constraints on syntactic design. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(8), 1257-1280.
Curl TS, Local J & Walker G (2006) Repetition and the prosody-pragmatics interface. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(10), 1721-1751. View this article in WRRO
Curl TS (2005) Practices in other-initiated repair resolution: The phonetic differentiation of ’repetitions’. Discourse Processes, 39, 143-143.
Curl TS (2005) Practices in Other-Initiated Repair Resolution: The Phonetic Differentiation of 'Repetitions'. Discourse Processes, 39(1), 1-43.
Windeatt-Harrison IL & Walker T () Action formation, ascription, and the talk of people with aphasia. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 14(2), 292-311.
Wardrope A, Bell S, Blackburn D, Dickson J, Reuber M & Walker T () Understanding the autonomy of adults with impaired capacity through dialogue. Journal of Medical Ethics.

Chapters

Ogden R & Walker T (2013) Phonetic resources in the construction of social actions, Studies in Language and Social Interaction (pp. 277-312). John Benjamins Publishing Company
Walker T (2013) Requests In Sbisa M & Turner K (Ed.), Handbook of Pragmatics (pp. 445-466). Mouton de Gruyter
Drew P, Walker T & Ogden R (2012) Self-repair and action construction, Conversational Repair and Human Understanding (pp. 71-94).
Drew P & Walker T (2010) Citizens' emergency calls: Requesting assistance in calls to the police, The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics (pp. 95-110).
Walker T (2010) Repetition and contrast across action sequences Comments on Bill Wells "Tonal repetition and tonal contrast in English carer-child interaction" (pp. 263-266).
Walker T (2010) Repetition and contrast across action sequences In Barth-Weingarten D, Reber E & Selting M (Ed.), Prosody in interaction John Benjamins
Drew P & Walker TS (2010) Requesting assistance in calls to the police In Coulthard M & Johnson A (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics (pp. 95-110). Routledge
Drew P & Walker T (2009) Conversation Analysis: overview and new directions In Bhatia V, Flowerdew J & Jones R (Ed.), Advances in Discourse Studies Routledge
Curl TS, Couper-Kuhlen E & Ford CE (2004) ‘Repetition Repairs’: The Relationship of Phonetic Structure and Sequence Organisation, Sound Patterns in Interaction (pp. 273-298). John Benjamins
Bhatia V () Advances in Discourse Studies Routledge

Conference proceedings papers

Attas D, Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Venneri A, Walker T, Harkness K, Reuber M, Blackmore C & Christensen H (2021) Predicting Levels of Depression and Anxiety in People with Neurodegenerative Memory Complaints Presenting with Confounding Symptoms. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, Vol. 285 (pp 58-69)
O'Malley RPD, Mirheidari B, Harkness K, Reuber M, Venneri A, Walker T, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2021) Fully automated cognitive screening tool based on assessment of speech and language. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Vol. 92(1) (pp 12-15)
O'Malley R, Walker T, Mirheidari B, Christensen H, Reuber M, Blackburn DJ & Venneri A (2020) A fully automated cognitive screening tool based on assessment of speech and language. Alzheimer's & Dementia, Vol. 16(S6) View this article in WRRO
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, OrMalley R, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2019) Computational Cognitive Assessment: Investigating the Use of an Intelligent Virtual Agent for the Detection of Early Signs of Dementia. ICASSP 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 12 May 2019 - 17 May 2019.
Mirheidari B, Blackburn DJ, Harkness K, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2017) An Avatar-based system for identifying individuals likely to develop dementia. Interspeech 2017 (pp 3147-3151) View this article in WRRO
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Reuber M, Walker T & Christensen H (2016) Diagnosing people with dementia using automatic conversation analysis. Proceedings of Interspeech 2016 (pp 1220-1224) View this article in WRRO
Walker TS (2003) The phonetics of repetition in other-initiated repair sequences. Proceedings of the ICPhS 2003
Walker TS, Fox B, Jurafsky D & Shriberg E (1998) Lexical, prosodic, and syntactic cues for dialog acts. Proceedings of ACL/COLING-98
Pan Y, Mirheidari B, Tu Z, O’Malley R, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M, Blackburn D & Christensen H () Acoustic Feature Extraction with Interpretable Deep Neural Network for Neurodegenerative Related Disorder Classification. Interspeech 2020
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, O’Malley R, Venneri A, Walker T, Reuber M & Christensen H () Improving Cognitive Impairment Classification by Generative Neural Network-Based Feature Augmentation. Interspeech 2020
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H () Detecting Signs of Dementia Using Word Vector Representations. Interspeech 2018

Working papers

Walker TS (1999) The Lakhota definite articles and topic marking, 24.

Preprints

Mirheidari B, Pan Y, Blackburn D, O'Malley R, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2020) Data augmentation using generative networks to identify dementia, arXiv.
Mirheidari B, Pan Y, Walker T, Reuber M, Venneri A, Blackburn D & Christensen H (2019) Detecting Alzheimer's Disease by estimating attention and elicitation path through the alignment of spoken picture descriptions with the picture prompt, arXiv.
Mirheidari B, Pan Y, Walker T, Reuber M, Venneri A, Blackburn D & Christensen H (2019) Detecting Alzheimer's Disease by estimating attention and elicitation path through the alignment of spoken picture descriptions with the picture prompt.. View this article in WRRO