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Other Ling Newsletters
05:29 (2007-11-01)
November 1, 2007
SALT 18 at UMass Amherst
That's right. We're hosting SALT, March 21-23!
Invited speakers
- Lyn Frazier (UMass Amherst)
- Lisa Matthewson (UBC)
- Hotze Rullmann (UBC)
- Philippe Schlenker (UCLA/Institut Jean-Nicod)
Abstracts are due December 15, 2007. Here's the call for papers. UMass Amherst linguists are welcome (encouraged!) to submit their work.
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!]
Phonology Reading Group
PhG will meet on Tuesday, November 6, 7:30 pm, at Kathryn Pruitt's apartment, to discuss Chapters 1 and 3.0-3.3 of Lev Blumenfeld's dissertation, which Emily Elfner and Wendell Kimper will present. Wendell might also bring cupcakes. There may be other snacky things. There will probably be something to drink. There will be cats.
[Thanks Kathryn!]
Semantics Reading Group
SRG will meet at 8:00 pm on November 1, at Aynat and Jan's house. Andrew McKenzie will lead a discussion about Bill Ladusaw's paper on the thetic/categorical-distinction (Thetic and Categorical, Stage and Individual, Weak and Strong), and some reactions to it. All are welcome. Bring food and drink, if you like.
[Thanks Martin!]
Life in the Wilds of Amherst
Which is scarier to you: the deer or the Q Train? (Which is more annoying: the crickets or the garbage trucks?)
From Home, Sweet ... Yikes! (New York Times, October 26, 2007):
"New York thinking applied to nature equals paranoia," said Augusten Burroughs, the author of the memoir "Running with Scissors," from his country house on the outskirts of Amherst, Mass., which he and his partner, Dennis Pilsits, built three years ago. Since then, Mr. Burroughs, 42, has poured several book advances into what he calls his "prison in the trees" in an effort to defend his rustic outpost "from nature in all its malicious glory." This includes installing an $8,000 lightning protection system and spending $2,000 on various military-grade "tactical illumination devices" --- flashlights --- and even a pair of night-vision goggles, thanks to some terrifying encounters with nocturnal neighbors.
Late one recent night, Mr. Burroughs had gone out to check the mailbox when he saw two green, glittering eyes, triangular ears "and the general impression of height" in the shadows. When the creature began to walk toward him, Mr. Burroughs ran into the garage, fearing for his life. "Our skinny, gym-polished urban bodies are no match for anything that scratches its back on a tree," he said. "Whatever it was, it was both curious and unafraid --- two traits one does not admire in wildlife when one is alone in the dark."
And it’s not just what lurks outside that sends imaginations running wild. Even the houses themselves can send chills up one’s spine. "You climb into bed, and suddenly you hear groans, creaks and low, deep thumping sounds, as though there are rabbits trapped inside the walls, or fingers gently teasing the exterior window frames," Mr. Burroughs said. "Not a night goes by that I am not absolutely convinced somebody has entered the house and they do not have a conscience."
[Thanks Christine Bartels and Angelika!]
Partee-Borschev Grant Group
November meetings of the Partee-Borschev grant group begin next week with a presentation by Misato Hiraga. Join us on Tuesday, November 6, at 12:45 pm, in the Partee Room for Misato's talk on 'Domain restriction by demonstratives in Japanese'.
[Thanks Aynat!]
Tom Roeper in Cyprus
Tom Roeper just returned from giving the keynote lecture at the EU commission COST meeting in Cyprus, which was organized by Uli Sauerland and ZAS in Berlin.
Tom writes:
The program was inspired by our AAE dialect work connected to the DELV test, and it is aimed to bring eastern and Western European scholars together to develop assessment of children speaking dialects in countries where no assessments exist. Former UMass folks (Ken Drozd, Bart Hollebrandse, Angeliek van HOut, Kazulo Yatsushiro, Petra Schulz) played a major role in jointly designed experiments on Tense and aspect, quantification and implicatures, wh-, binding, and passive.
Crucial DELV sentences like "who bought what" and quantifier spreading will now be explored in 17 languages with work in, for instance, Bulgarian, Polish, Romani, Hebrew and Arabic underway and Estonian to follow.
With a little luck (well, maybe a lot of luck) real comparisons will be possible, but no matter what it is a major step in taking eastern European dialects and their human consequences seriously. The program is seeking as many dialects as possible, and I think our students who know relevant languages and dialects might get involved in the future if they would like to.
Obituary: Juan Zamora
Professor Juan C. Zamora, of the Spanish department, died on October 8. In the Loop's obituary discusses his life-long commitment to Spanish and Portuguese linguistics.
Parts and Quantities Workshop at UBC
UBC Linguistics is hosting a workshop on Parts and Quantities, November 16. Seth Cable has volunteered to send handouts our way, so check out the program!
[Thanks Seth!]
TIE3: Conference on Tone and Intonation
TIE3 will take place September 15-17, 2008, at the University of Lisbon. Our own Lisa Selkirk is one of the invited speakers. Here's a copy of the call for papers (abstracts due April 1).