Main
department news
Annual Mini-Conference
The Annual Department Mini-Conference will take place on Thursday, May 15, starting at 9:00 am, in the Math Lounge in Lederle Tower.
Downloadable version of the schedule
| Jesse Aron Harris |
Events and extraction in pseudo-coordination |
9:00-9:35 |
| Wendell Kimper |
Syntactic reduplication and the spellout of movement chains |
9:35-10:10 |
| Meg Grant |
The (non-)interaction of ellipsis and binding: Evidence from re-binding |
10:10-10:45 |
| Misato Hiraga |
Japanese Many quantifiers and their interaction with demonstratives |
10:45-11:20 |
| Break |
Lunch provided |
11:20-12:00 |
| Emily Elfner |
The interaction of linearization and prosody: Evidence from pronoun postposing |
12:00-12:35 |
| Pasha Siraj |
How to win the discourse game using particles |
12:35-1:10 |
| Martin Walkow |
When can you ask a inner negation polar question? |
1:10-1:45 |
[Thanks Kyle!]
End-of-Semester Lunch
The department held is End-of-Semester Lunch yesterday. It featured sandwiches from Andiamo and a cake from the Henion Bakery. The cake was decorated with the names of our graduating majors:
- Amanda Bernhard
- Clara Donascimento
- Daniel Green
- Ekaterina Kravtchenko
- Elizabeth Oconnor
- Natan Pakman
- Yelena Paschenko
- Amy Patno
- Ho Ching Yuen
Thanks to everyone who helped arrange the lunch! And congratulations to our new Linguistics BAs!
SALT 18 is Upon Us!
Cover design by Pasha Siraj
The Linguist List Grad School Challenge is On!
The Linguist List Grad School Challenge is on right now. In 2006, UMass Amherst finished in second place. In 2007, we were again #2. As of this writing, we are at #5, but the margins are close. Donate now to push us to # 1 this year! (Let's at least make sure we beat Stanford, who beat us out for the top spot in both 2006 and 2007.)
[Thanks Helen!]
SALT 18 Nearly Upon Us
Cover design by Pasha Siraj
Undergrad Mentees Meet Mentors Pizza Event
We're holding a completely informal, pizza-fueled "Meet your Faculty Mentor" event on Wednesday, March 5, starting at 5:30 pm in the department lounge (South College, Third Floor). This is a chance for undergrads to meet their new faculty mentors as well as other linguistics majors.
[Thanks Rajesh!]
Candy PSA
A plan to hold onto the candy, from the Candy Monster:
Denizens of South College,
REDACTED
We hope that this news finds you all in good health.
Candy Monsters
Calling all Ling 201 Materials
John Kingston is recompiling and expanding the department's collection of Ling 201 (Intro to Linguistics) materials. Get him your stuff on CD, and he'll help make the collection available to our community again.
[Thanks John! Thanks contributors!]
The Candy Monster is Broke Again
Dire news from the Candy Monster:
Candy monster currently has no money.
If we do not get some significant donations soon, we will be forced to stock the candy jars with nothing but chalky, unpleasant conversation hearts until Easter.
That is all.
Candy Monster
A Maximum Deliciousness Model of Beer and Cookie Consumption
From Wendell:
Parallel consumption of beer and cookies has long been assumed in the field of post-colloq receptions. However, the current model for such phenomena evaluates the beer and the cookies independently, and fails to capture a generalization already familiar to the field of department wine tastings: two elements artfully paired are more delicious than equally tasty elements unpaired or poorly paired.
In this semester, we propose an interactional model of beer and cookie consumption. We introduce a correspondence relationship between beer and cookies, and propose that the well-formedness of the overall gustatory experience can be influenced by the relative harmony of the pairing.
For the purposes of this exercise, cookies will be from the Chocolate+X family (where X = some flavor > Chocolate on the Excitement Scale). This is not an essential feature of the model, but rather serves to highlight the effect of beer-cookie correspondence and to provide a secondary exploration of variation within the Chocolate+X paradigm.
Finally, we are not suggesting that this interactional model of beer and cookie consumption should replace the previously assumed independent model — that model is able to capture the crucial generalization that each element is still extremely delicious regardless of the presence or absence of the other. Rather, we argue for implementing a theory of Maximum Deliciousness, with both interactional and independent models operating simultaneously.
From the Candy Monsters
Denizens of South College,
First off, let me congratulate everyone on an enjoyable, candy-filled
fall term. Candy appeared in the candy jars at a steady rate throughout
the term, and it is only now, so close to Valentine's Day, that the
candy is running low. This happy circumstance is due to YOU, the
wonderful people who contributed the money and candy to make this
happen. Your support has not gone unnoticed.
That said, Valentine's Day approaches, and therefore that most important
of holidays, the Day After Valentine's Day. With 10 days to go, the
candy stash is running low and unfortunately our funds are in no better
shape. At this rate, we are looking at a bleak and candyless February
and March.
One good term deserves another! Support your local candy jars by
donating. We take donations in the form of money or candy. A large
donation goes a long way to getting us through the winter!
Love,
Your Candy Monsters
End-of-Semester Graduation Cake
[Thanks Sarah!]
End-of-Semester Lunch
The Linguistics End-of-Semester Lunch will take place on Wednesday, December 12, starting at 12:15 pm, in the Freeman Lounge.
[Thanks Sarah and Joe!]
Candy Call to Action
From your Candy Monster, Anisa Schardl:
Right now, we have enough money to eat last Christmas's ribbon candy and
stale Double Bubble to our hearts' content. Trust me, unless we get
some hefty candy donations TODAY, it's going to be a long 3.5 months
until Valentine's Day.
Bring in your left over Halloween candy, empty your pockets of their loose change --- do what it takes to bring back the chocolate!
[Thanks Anisa!]
Kitchen Under Attack
Kitchen Monsters will come to attack our fridge this Friday, October 19th! So secure
your food by simply put your NAME and DATE on anything you have in the fridge.
Otherwise, the K Monsters will take it away!
[Thanks Misato!]
Apple Tasting
From Rajesh
Dear Malus Domestica afficionados,
This is a reminder that the apple tasting is coming up.
It is scheduled to happen coming Saturday, September 29,
at Rajesh's house. Here
is what you can expect:
- Many kinds of apples: Akane, Cortland, Gala, Honeycrisp,
Macoun, two kinds of Mcintosh (ordinary and Red Max), Shamrock,
and `Silken'. This last variety was supplied to me under
secretive circumstances by the wonderful people at Cold Spring
Orchards. I would tell you their name but I have been instructed
specifically not to. I have also been told that if I return
at an appointed time on Saturday, there may be more `Silken'
apples to be had.
- Goods, baked and other, made from these apples. If you'd like
to make something for the tasting, please let me know and I will
get the apples of your choice (see above list) to you.
- Pinot Noirs from Oregon. Mostly from the Willamette Valley.
- Itinerant phonologists from all over New England.
Contributions in the form of a nice bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir or
something made from apples would be most welcome. Otherwise you
could contribute $6 (students)/$12 (faculty) towards the cause.
RSVPs would be greatly appreciated.
- Rajesh
GLSA Meeting
The GLSA will hold its first fall meeting tomorrow (September 14) at 3:30 pm, in Machmer, in one of the empty W-2* rooms. On the agenda: determining monsterships, general GLSA business, and UMOPs.
[Thanks Jesse!]
News from The Node
From Node Monster Meg Grant:
I hope the semester is starting off well for everyone. In addition to
the semi-annual reminder to return overdue books, I have a couple of
announcements concerning the Node.
- We have lots of new books! The books John McCarthy ordered for us
have arrived and are on the shelves. There have also been a number of
other donations lately. Just a few examples:
- A Natural History of Infixation (Alan Yu)
- New Horizons in the Analysis of Control and Raising (William Davies and
Stanley Dubinsky, eds.)
- Hidden Generalizations: Phonological Opacity in Optimality Theory (John J. McCarthy)
- This Friday we will have our semesterly GLSA meeting. I plan to
revisit the idea of stopping our subscriptions to journals we can get
online through the library, and using this money to keep our
conference proceedings up to date. I sent out an e-mail about this in
the winter and got some fantastic suggestions, but our first years
and new visitors haven't had a chance to give their input on this
matter. So, please bring your ideas along with you on Friday, and we
can make a decision together about what the Node needs to have.
- Our textbook collection is now in the TA office on the third
floor. I put some out-slips on the filing cabinet near the bookshelf,
but really a semester is probably too long a lending period for
textbooks. For now, please return textbooks as quickly as possible,
and we can decide on a firm lending period at the GLSA meeting.
- To the first years and new visitors: use the Node! If you haven't
already taken a look around, please take the time to do so. You'll
find we have everything from brand new books to older, rarer finds.
We have books, dissertations, working papers and conference
proceedings in the Node proper, and journals in the Partee room
(301). If you have any questions or need help finding something,
don't hesitate to ask.
A final thanks to Kyle and Ellen for making the Node much neater!
[Thanks Meg!]
Town Meeting this Friday
Welcome back! The Annual Departmental "Town Meeting" is this Friday, September 7, 3:30 pm, in the Freeman Lounge (third floor South College). Please come for:
- Important announcements
- Information about the department picnic
- Introductions to everyone in the department
- Individual and group photos (dress sharp!)
[Thanks Sarah!]
Department Picnic September 8
From Barbara Partee and Volodja Borschev (here's
a downloadable version of this invitation):
Linguists and Friends!
Please come to a beginning-of-the-year potluck picnic/party to greet the new school year and welcome
new faculty, new students, new visitors.
When: Saturday, September 8, starting at 3:30, continuing on into the evening
Where: 50 Hobart Lane, Amherst. (549-4501) --- Barbara and Volodja's.
Hobart Lane is a small street off North Pleasant just a short distance north of the university, opposite Puffton Village,
near the Crestview /Presidential Apartments bus stop. 50 Hobart Lane is a big white house on the left, near the end.
The party will be outdoor/indoor; dress casual.
We'll set up the volleyball net; bring other outdoor stuff.
Food and drink: Potluck
We'll have a barbecue grill set up, and some beer and wine and non-alcoholic beverages. Bring things to eat in any
category. International foods most welcome! (If you aren't up for cooking, you can bring additional beer or wine, or cheese, or
fruit, or ....) We'll likely start eating around 5:00.
*Parking problem : There is no parking permitted on most of Hobart Lane. Parking is possible in our driveway, and
it seems that parking is possible in the daylight hours on the opposite side of the street between our house and where Hobart Lane
turns into a dirt road, but for safety, put a note under your windshield wiper that tells the police your name and that you are now at
50 Hobart Lane and please to let us know if there is a problem. (The parking restrictions help us combat the problems of large beer
parties in the neighboring apartment complexes on Hobart Lane, so we want to stay friends with the police on this matter! We'll let
them know about the party, but they won't be able to grant a parking waiver for a September Saturday. Often they are willing to come
and let us know that cars needed to be moved off of Hobart Lane, before calling the tow truck.)
But don't be daunted by any of that -- somebody can always help you figure out where to park. Do come, rain or shine!
The free bus service has a bus stop very near Hobart Lane -- it's the "Crestview" stop, near Puffton Village
and North Village and Crestview apartments.
Maribel Romero Visit
From Angelika:
Maribel Romero (1998 UMass Amherst PhD; now Associate Professor at Penn) will talk in my seminar on May 8, 2:30-5:15, Machmer W-21. Everyone is welcome to attend. You don't have to be a regular participant. Maribel will talk about biased questions. The recommended readings are:
- Romero, M. and C.-H. Han. 2004. "On Negative Yes/No Questions", Linguistics and Philosophy 27.5, pp. 609-658
- van Rooij, R. and M. Safarova. 2003. On polar questions. Proceedings of SALT 13. CLC Publications.
Maribel will be here from Tuesday (May 8) to Thursday (May 10). Let me know whether you want to schedule an appointment with her and what your time constraints are.
Speech Data Management System
Tyler Kendall (NC State and Duke) visited this week to present NC SLAAP, the North Carolina Sociolinguistic Archive and Analysis Project. Tyler also consulted with faculty and students, and he worked to set up a version of NC SLAAP here in UMass Amherst Linguistics, where it can serve CSAAL and various other projects in the department. Our thanks to Tyler for sharing his ideas and his code with us!
TA Training Seminar
The Linguistics TA Training Seminar will take place on Monday, May 21, 10:30-2:30, with a break for lunch (which will be catered).
A note from John Kingston:
If you have not taught a section of 201 independently and you're scheduled to
teach one next year, you must attend the seminar. Although I and a number of
other faculty will attend and offer advice about how to teach this class, the
most valuable contributions come from experienced TAs, who will also attend. Of
course, anyone else is welcome to attend.
[Thanks John!]
Second Place in the Grad School Challenge
UMass Amherst Linguistics finished in second place in this year's Linguist List Grad School Challenge. Thanks to everyone who contributed, a special thanks to Barbara Partee for her matching gifts, and another special thanks to Peggy Speas for leading the drive for us. We had among the longest (perhaps the longest) list of donors of any school.
The silver medal brings with it two prizes for the department:
- A subscription to the online version of Labov's The Atlas of North American English, by Mouton de Gruyter
- An Introduction to Language and Linguistics by Christopher J. Hall (Continuum)
Linguist List Grad School Challenge Update
The Linguist List Grad Shool Challenge ends tomorrow. We are in second place at present, with $1867. Unfortunately, this puts us quite a bit behind first-place Stanford University, with $3270. If you've not given yet, please do so today!
Espresso Machine!
The espresso machine has arrived! Many thanks to fund-driver leader Florian Schwarz.
Linguist List Fund Drive Update
The Linguist List Grad School Challenge is off to a great start for our department. As of this writing, we are in 2nd place, with $1497 raised. We are second only to last year's champion, Stanford, but the margin is slim.
Can we get and hold the lead until April 13? These other schools are sure to swing into action now that we have risen quickly to a top spot. So keep the donations coming! Use the online forms or get your check to Peggy Speas, our coordinator for the drive.
Barbara Partee will give $10 for every UMass Amherst grad-student donation!
As we reported earlier this month, Barbara Partee spearheaded an effort to raise money for improving the coverge of Linguistics on Wikipedia. Vote "Yes" when you donate to the fund drive!
[Thanks Barbara and Peggy!]
Linguist List Grad School Challenge
The Linguist List Grad School Challenge is on! Peggy Speas has agreed to be in charge of collecting our department's donations. Get a check to her by April 13.
Last year, we were edged out of first place in the Challenge by Stanford. Peggy wrote, "I know we can triumph this year because we've been keeping in practice, donating for a new coffee system. This workout regime plus the already existing caffeine sources make us fit and ready to donate like champions!"
And she continued, "Please take a moment to consider just how you'd do research, find a job or know where conferences were without The LINGUIST List. It's hard to put a figure on the amount of time the list saves you, but any amount is welcome."
[Thanks Peggy!]
New in the Node
A lot of new stuff!
- Direct Compositionality, Chris Barker and Pauline Jacobson, eds.
- Anaphora: A Reference Guide, by Andrew Barss.
- Aspect and Reference Time, by Olga Borik.
- Cognitive Foundations of Interpretation, Gerlof Bouma, Irene Kramer, Joost Zwarts, eds.
- Linguistic Universals, byRicardo Mairal and Juana Gil.
- A History of the English Language, by Richard Hogg and David Denison, eds.
- Plural Predication, by Thomas J. McKay.
- Events and Semantic Architecture, by Paul M. Pietroski.
- English Intonation: An Introduction, by J.C. Wells.
- Linguistics in Potsdam 25: Optimality Theory and Minimalism: A Possible Convergence? Hans Broekhuis and Rolf Vogel, eds.
- The Grammar of Words, by Geert Booij.
- Analyzing Grammar: An Introduction, by Paul R. Kroeger.
[Thanks Meg!]
New Node Tradition
Current Node Monster Meg Grant has proposed an excellent new tradition: if a student or faculty member publishes a book, they buy a copy for the Node. Excellent suggestion, Meg! Authors, take note!
End-of-Semester Lunch
Today (December 14) is the Linguistics End-of-Semester Lunch. All are welcome. The festivities begin at 12:30 in the Freeman Lounge (Third Floor of South College). We'll eat, we'll chat, and we'll honor graduating seniors Diana Hennessey, David Fiske, and Antonio Ornelas.
DGC Day!
Today (December 14) is Doctoral Guidance Day. Meetings galore! After the lunch, the faculty will gather in The Partee Room to play cards.
Reminder from the Node
From Node monster Meg Grant:
When you finish this semester's projects and papers, please remember to return
any materials you've borrowed from the Node. If you have books out from previous
terms, it would be especially helpful to have those back. If you absolutely need
to hang on to something, please let me know by e-mail (meg at linguist) or leave
a note with your name and the book's title and author in a Point of Node Return.
Danilo Roeper-Azcarate has a Weblog!
Tom Roeper's grandson Danilo Roeper-Azcarate now has (like all good sons of the 21st centry) his own weblog. Lots of pictures of the adorable little one and his elders. A huge thanks to you, Tom, for making this link available to WHISC Readers!
Lectures in the Seminar on Aspect
Tuesdays, 2:30-5:15 pm, Bartlett 319
Nov 28: Masaaki Kamiya will present 'Negation, quantification and A-movement in nominalizations in Japanese'.
Dec 5: Angelika Kratzer will talk about her 2004 telicity
paper, with an occasional excursion into resultatives.
Angelika Kratzer. 2004. Telicity and the meaning of objective case. In Jacqueline Guéron and Jacqueline Lecarme, eds., The Syntax of Time, 389-423.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Angelika Kratzer. 2005. Building Resultatives. In Claudia Maienborn and Angelika
Wöllstein-Leisten, eds., Events in Syntax, 177-212. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Chris Potts Guest Lectures on Computation and Game Theory
Chris Potts will be guest lecturing in Barbara Partee's Mathematical Linguistics class on November 14, 16, and 21. All the meetings are 1:00-2:15 pm in Herter 640.
November 14: Computation for theoretical linguistics --- when and where is it useful to take an algorithmic perspective?
November 16: The basics of game theory: strategic games with pure and mixed strategies, the minimax algorithm, equilibria, and signaling games. Chris will review the requisite background notions from probability theory.
November 21: Linguistic applications of game theory, with attempts to apply the lessons
Upcoming Special Lectures in Math Methods
Barbara Partee's Mathematical Linguistics has a series of guest lectures coming up:
- November 14, 1:00-2:15 pm: Chris Potts on computational methods for theoretical linguistics
- November 16, 1:00-2:15 pm: Chris Potts on the basics of game theory
- November 21, 1:00-2:15 pm: Chris Potts on game theory and its applications in linguistics
- December 4, 10:00-11:15 am: Rajesh Bhatt on Optimality Theory, Part 1
- December 11, 10:00-11:15 am: Rajesh Bhatt on OT, Part 2
NELS 35 Published
NELS 35: here...
...and gone!
GLSA thanks everyone who turned up on Friday to help get NELS 35 out to its public!
[Thanks Amy Rose!
WebExp2 on the Department Server
The department server is now running WebExp2, the Web-based experiment software developed at the University of Edinburgh. At present, we just have some demos up. Contact Florian if you'd like to set up an experiment. Here are links to two of the demos. The first shows off the WebExp2 interface. The second is like Hot or Not, but it's science.
Demotest
Attractiveness
Soccer Interest List
Contact Sports Monsters Mike Key and Chris Davis if you'd like to be on the soccer interest list.
[Thanks Mike!]
Special Lecture on Infinities
Barbara Partee and Vladimir Borschev's Mathematical Methods for Linguists class is always open to guests; all are welcome. The schedule is posted here. The class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00-2:15, Herter 640
The topic for the next two meetings: infinities (perhaps infinitely many of them). Here are Barbara and Volodja's overview descriptions:
Lecture 5 (September 28)
Infinities, introduction. Finite vs. infinite. Denumerable, non-denumerable infinity. Diagonal arguments. (Partee, ter Meulen, and Wall, Chapter 4)
Lecture 6 (October 3)
What is the cardinality of a natural language? Finite (occasionally suggested, challenging aspects of competence/performance distinction), denumerably infinite (the standard Chomskyan view), non-denumerably infinite (Langendoen and Postal), unspecified as between denumerably and non-denumerably infinite (Pullum)? The goal is not to settle the question, but rather to become literate about the debate and be able to follow the arguments and to identify the assumptions on which they rest. The related handout from Ling 409, Fall 2005, will be updated for October 3.
Tasting on the 23rd
From Rajesh:
Were you aware?
UMass Amherst owns an apple research facility in verdant Belchertown,
showcasing, among other wonders, America's first pomological achievement:
the Roxbury Russet. To celebrate this discovery and our many other aestival
adventures and to mark the advent of autumn, let us convene this Saturday the
23rd day of September and properly enjoy the fruits (liquid and otherwise)
of the season.
Wines await you from Italy, from Michigan, from Greece, from California,
from Thailand, from Germany, and from Slovenia. There is also an unexpected
guest all the way from Glacier National Park in Montana (no pet bears
please!).
Come prepared for a delicious selection of apples du jour: the Akane! the
Baldwin! the Cortland! the Shamrock! and let's not forget the Winter Banana!
The friendship of Bacchus and the apple tree will be testified to by fine
local hard ciders and apple brandies (Calvados if we are lucky).
If you haven't contacted us already concerning your summer inventory, you
can resort to the usual $8 (students)/$15 (faculty) pricing scheme. An RSVP
would be most excellent.
Location: Rajesh's place
Time: 8pm (please dine in advance)
Updated Faculty Collaboration Graph
Year ago, WHISC published a collaboration graph for the tenured and tenure-track Linguistics Department Faculty. We've updated that graph. Two professors are linked iff they have collaborated on a paper or grant proposal. By these criteria, the graph is connected:
Updates and corrects are extremely welcome. Send them to Chris.
Updated Faculty--Student Collaboration Graph
WHISC also published a faculty--student collaboration graph in late 2003. That too has been updated. You can view the graph here.
Updates and corrections are extremely welcome. Send them to Chris.
End-of-Semester Luncheon: Now in the Math Lounge
The End-of-Semester Luncheon wil take place on Friday, May 19, at 12:30, in the Math Lounge (floor 16 of the Grad Research Center).
Lisa Selkirk writes:
The End-of-Semester Lunch is a time for celebrating the end of a year
of hard work and accomplishment, and is especially the time to honor
the undergraduate Linguistics majors who are graduating this
semester. We urge the graduating seniors to come, and hope that
other Linguistics majors be there as well. The faculty will be
there, as will the graduate students.
This year the End-of-Semester Lunch will also be the occasion to
honor Lee Edwards, who is retiring this year from her position as
Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. Lee Edwards has
been a enthusiastic supporter of the Linguistics Department and we
hope she will enjoy the assembled crowd of linguists at this end-of-
semester festivity.
Hope to see you there!
Lisa Selkirk
Head of Department
