Department Picnic September 7
The Annual Linguistics Department Picnic takes place on Sunday, September 7, starting at 3:30 pm, at Barbara Partee and Volodja Borschev's house: 50 Hobart Lane, Amherst.
Barbara writes:
We'll have a barbecue grill, and some beer, 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 4:30 or 5:00.
And she warns of parking issues:
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 asking them 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. But they are often willing to come and let us know that cars needed to be moved off of Hobart Lane, before calling the tow truck.)
But she emphasizes:
But don't be daunted by any of that -- somebody can always help you figure out where to park. Do come, rain or shine! And please help get the word to new faculty, students, visitors or relevant others!
UMass Amherst Linguistics #1 in Grad-Student Satisfaction
In a report of a 2007 survey made available earlier this month, graduate students in Linguistics at UMass Amherst expressed greater satisfaction with their graduate experience than grad students in any other program on campus! Way to go, Linguistics!
NSF Grant to McCarthy and Pater
John McCarthy and Joe Pater have been awarded a three-year National Science Foundation grant. The title of the project is Investigations in Optimality Theory: Typology, Learning, and Modeling. Congratulations, John and Joe!
UMass Amherst Linguistics now has four active NSF grants, in quite different areas: Rajesh Bhatt to develop a Hindi Treebank, Peggy Speas and Tom Roeper to work on evidentiality, Chris Potts to work on expressive content, and now the McCarthy–Pater project.
Keir Moulton to the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Keir Moulton has accepted a Visiting Professor position in the Linguistics Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Congratulations, Keir!
Fall Colloq Schedule
Here is the tentative schedule of colloquia for this fall:
[Thanks Misato!]
New Mexico Adopts Parsons Yazzie and Speas Textbook
Evangeline Parsons Yazzie and Peggy Speas' Navajo textbook, Diné Bizaad Bínáhoo'aah: Rediscovering The Navajo Language Description, has been adopted by the state of New Mexico as its official textbook. New Mexico is the first state to have its own official textbook! The AP story ran in lots of newspapers. Here's a link to the USA Today version.
August Cohn Thomas 2008 Named Davidson Fellow in Literature
Linguistics major August Cohn Thomas has been named a 2008 Davidson Fellow in Literature by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. This honor is given to just twenty students nationwide, covering a range of disciplines. August will be recognized for "prodigious achievement in the field of literature" at the award ceremony at the Library of Congress this September. The Fellowship comes with a $25,000 scholarship for graduate school. Congratulations, August!
Linguistics News at Kyoto University
Former UMass Amherst Linguistics visitor Yurie Hara is now at Kyoto University, where she has started a WHISC-like newsletter. She writes, "We just call it news page".
[Thanks Yurie!]
Phonology Group
PhG met on August 27 to discuss an ongoing collaborative project by John Kingston, Aditi Lahiri, and Randy Diehl.
[Thanks Kathryn!]
Lucia Romero, and Friends
Maribel Romero (1998 UMass Amherst Linguistics PhD) has made available to us an online album of shots of her new baby Lucia hanging out with friends and loved ones.
[Thanks Maribel and Lucia!]
