The syntax and semantics groups join forces again this week to prep (loosely speaking) for Polly Jacobson's colloquium this Friday. The interdisciplinary group will gather at Aynat's place in Northampton at 8:00 pm. Contributions intellectual and spirituous are welcome!
[Thanks Annahita!]
This week's S reading group will be devoted to Gillian Ramchand's recent book Verb Meaning and the Lexicon: A First-Phase Syntax. Gillian is the syntax guru in residence and also the colloq presenter this Friday.
The group will start with chapter 3 (and mention chapter 1 and chapter 2 as recommended background), in what should be the first of two reading groups meetings devoted to the book.
The meeting begins at 8:00 pm at Misato and Maria's place. Please bring snacks and other refreshments.
[Thanks Aynat!]
The Syntax and Semantics Groups held a joint meeting on Monday, March 23, at Rajesh's place in Northampton. The meeting featured two practice talks:
[Thanks Annahita!]
The S-groups meet jointly today (March 12), 4:30 pm, in the department lounge. The meeting features a talk by Magda Oiry entitled 'A true case of optionality: Wh-in-situ patterns like long movement in French.' The talk promises to be of interest to syntacticians, semanticists, and acquisitionists.
[Thanks Annahita!]
Syntax Reading Group meets today (Feb 19), 8:00 pm, in Northampton. The week's reading:
Kennedy, Christopher and Jason Merchant. 2000. Attributive comparative deletion. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 18:89-146.
Semantics Reading Group has its first meeting of the semester today (Thursday, February 12), 8:00 pm , at Maria and Masashi's place. The plan is to discuss Karttunen 1974:
Lauri Karttunen. 1974. Presupposition and linguistic context. Theoretical Linguistics 1: 181-194. Also in Pragmatics: A Reader, Steven Davis (ed.), pp. 406-415, Oxford University Press, 1991.
[Thanks Aynat!]
As we announced last week, Seth Cable is speaking in the joint semantics and syntax reading group meeting today (December 11), 4:30 pm, in the department lounge. The title of the talk is 'Sequence of Tense as Abstraction over Topic Time'; here's the abstract.
[Thanks Annahita!]
The S Reading Group (joint semantics and syntax reading groups) meets next on December 11, at 4:30 pm, in the South College Lounge. Seth Cable will present some of his current and ongoing work on sequence of tense. This is the final S group (disjuncively understood) meeting of the semester.
[Thanks Annahita!]
From Annahita:
Please join us for a special Thanksgiving edition of syntax reading group, to be held on Tuesday, November 25, at 8:00 pm, at Amy Rose's house in NoHo. The main course will be Kyle Johnson's review of Kayne's book The Antisymmetry of Syntax (Johnson, Kyle. 1997. A review of The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Lingua 102:21-53). Warm beverages may also be on the menu, and other contributions (of the edible variety) are also welcome as always.
Syntax Reading Group met on Tuesday, October 7. Annahita Farudi presented her joint work with Maziar Toosarvandani on complex predicates and ergativity in Zoroastrian Dari. Here's an abstract.
Syntax Reading Group holds its first meeting of the semester today (September 18), starting at 7:00 pm, at Chris, Karen, and Annahita's Northampton pad. The plan is to read a squib left over from a previous semester's wish-list: Daniel Büring's Bound to bind (2005, Linguistic Inquiry 36.2).
A report on the recent S-group meeting: The working conclusion was that there will continue to be two separate reading groups (semantics and syntax), but that they will be organized in closer conjunction, in order to ensure, for example, that there is always a time set aside before a syntax or semantics colloq to do appropriate background reading, no matter what the subject of the colloq is.
[Thanks Annahita!]
The syntax and semantics reading groups gather tomorrow (September 12), at 2:30 pm, in the department lounge, to plan for the semester. In the past, these student-run groups have led separate but overlapping lives. What does the future hold? A blissful interface?
[Thanks Aynat, Annahita, and Martin!]
This week's syntax reading group — the final one of the semester — will feature Cherlon Ussery reporting on some of her current research: 'Case and agreement as different components of the grammar'. The meeting is today (May 1), 8:00 pm, at Amy Rose's place. It is likely to also feature some manner of delectable refreshments. Abstract below.
[Thanks Annahita!]
SynRG meets today (April 17), starting at 8:00 pm, at 60 Walnut Street. The plan is to discuss Dave Embick and Alec Marantz's paper Architecture and blocking.
[Thanks Annahita!]
The other SRG meets today (April 3), at Annahita, Chris, and Karen's place in Northampton, starting at 8:00 pm. The group will read an article in preparation for Jason Merchant's colloquium, namely, 'Voice and ellipsis'.
[Thanks Annahita!]
The other SRG meets today (March 13). Masaaki Kimaya (Hamblin College) and Tom Roeper will present their paper, coauthored with Angeliek van Hout, entitled 'Covert movement, reconstruction, and edge phenomena in English and Japanese nominalizations'. The meting starts at 8:00 pm, at Rajesh's house.
[Thanks Annahita!]
The Syntax Reading Group and the Semantics Reading Group join forces this week to prepare for Veneeta Dayal's colloquium on Friday. The plan is to read Dayal's The universal force of free choice any. The meeting will be at Amy Rose's place, starting at 8:00 pm. The goal is an informal, inclusive discussion.
[Thanks Annahita!]
Hans Broekhuis will speak in the Syntax Reading Group today (November 15), 8:00 pm, at Amy Rose's place. The talk will focus on Hans's approach to implementing a syntactic theory that combines Minimalism with Optimality Theory. It's called 'Derivations (MP) and Evaluations (OT)'. (Abstract below.) It will be good background for his Friday colloquium. All are welcome.
Derivations (MP) and Evaluations (OT)
The goal of this talk is to present a version of the overall structure of the grammar in which the derivational and representational modules are on equal footing, and to propose a certain division of labor between the two components. The claims made in this talk are restricted to syntax, but it goes without saying that I believe that the proposal proposed here should be extended to other subdisciplines like phonology (cf LaCharité and Paradis 2000).
[Thanks Annahita!]
Eric Potsdam
University of Florida (and current UMass Amherst visitor)
Backward control in Malagasy and selective copy pronunciation
Thursday, November 8, 8:00 pm, Amy Rose's place
The Syntax Reading Group welcomes
Cedric Boeckx
Harvard
On some basic ingredients of Narrow Syntax
Thursday, October 25, 8:00 pm, Rajesh Bhatt's house
[Thanks Annahita!]
Syntax Reading Group meets today (October 11), 8:00 pm, at Amy Rose's place. The plan is to discuss chapter 3 of Lectures on Government and Binding. Amy Rose will lead the way.
The group meets again on October 25 for a guest lecture by Cedric Boeckx.
[Thanks Annahita!]
The first meeting of the syntax reading group will be held today (September 27), 8:00 pm, at Rajesh's house. The event will feature a talk by guest Rob Truswell entitled 'Event Structure, Phrase Structure, and A'-Locality.' Here's an abstract for the talk.
As background reading, Rob recommends either or both or any combination thereof of the following "two short proceedings papers which overlap with what I'm going to speak about (and each other)":
[Thanks Annahita!]
A first (organizational) meeting of the syntax reading group will be held tomorrow (September 14), at 4:30 (or immediately following the GLSA meeting, if it should end later than 4:30). The group will discuss scheduling for this semester, as well as potential topics, articles, and so forth.
One guest speaker is already anticipated: Cedric Boeckx (Harvard) will speak at some point early in the semester.
You've invited to come with suggestions for articles you would be interested in reading and/or presenting. Also, if you have work of your own you would like to present, or if you need to give a practice talk, please consider using Syntax Reading Group as a forum.
If you can't make the meeting but have scheduling concerns or article suggestions, please let Annahita know. Also, drop her a note if you are interested in presenting.
[Thanks Annahita!]
Syntax Reading Group meets today (May 3), at Kyle's house, starting at 8:00 pm. Maziar Toosarvandani will present his ongoing work on sluicing in Farsi.
Syntax Guru Roumi Pancheva is speaking today (April 26) in a joint meeting of the Syntax and Semantics Readings Groups. Her talk, joint work with Uffe Bergeton, is called 'On the history of English reflexives and intensifiers'. The meeting starts at 8:00 pm at Amy Rose's place.
The semester's final meeting of the Syntax Reading Group will be on May 3. Maziar Toosarvandani will present.
[Thanks Cherlon and Florian!]
Cherlon Ussery will present in Syntax Reading Group today (April 19), 8:00 pm, at Rajesh's place. She will be giving a practice talk for WCCFL 26, Berkeley, April 27-29.
The Syntax Reading Group meets today (March 15) at Rajesh's house, 8:00 pm. Rajesh Bhatt and Shoichi Takahashi will present their current work on comparatives. Meg Grant will bring a treat imported from her home town.
Cedric Boeckx will present at the Group's April 19 meeting, which will be coordinated with the SRG.
[Thanks Cherlon!]
The Syntax Reading Group met yesterday (February 28). Andrew McKenzie and Aynat Rubinstein gave practice talks for ECO5.
[Thanks Cherlon!]
The Syntax Reading Group meets on Wednesday, February 28, at 8:00 pm, at Amy Rose's place. Aynat Rubinstein and Andrew McKenzie will give practice talks for ECO5, which is on March 3.
[Thanks Cherlon!]
The various reading groups are in their planning stages for the semester. Here's a mapping from groups to their current organizers, whom you should contact if you're new to South College and would like to receive news about meetings and the like:
| Acquisition Lab | → | Youri Zabbal |
| PhG | → | Kathryn Pruitt |
| SRG | → | Florian Schwarz |
| Syntax | → | Cherlon Ussery |
The Syntax Reading Group will hold its final meeting of the semester today (December 7) at Rajesh's house in Northampton. There will be two student presentations:
Jonathan Bobaljik
UConn
The ABCs of Comparative Suppletion
Thursday, November 16, 7:00 pm, Kyle Johnson's House, Amherst
Line Mikkelsen
UC Berkeley
Verb phrase anaphora in a verb second language
Thursday, October 12 (today!), 8:00 pm, Amy Rose's Place, Northampton
The associated paper: Gøre support in Danish, joint work with a Michael Houser, Ange Strom-Weber, and Maziar Toosarvandani
[Thanks Cherlon and Rajesh!]
The Syntax Reading Group meets today (September 28), from 5:30-6:00ish in the evening. It's a short planning meeting. The group is thinking about moving to a more SRG-like atmosphere (later in the evening, better lubricated).
They will also have a series of invited lectures this semester: from Cedric Boeckx (Harvard), Jonathan Bobaljik (UConn), and Line Mikkelsen (Berkeley).
[Thanks Cherlon!]
The Syntax Reading Group meets today at 4:30, for a brief discussion of who to nominate for colloqs for next year. Things will probably wrap up at about 5:00 pm.
[Thanks Cherlon!]
The Syntax Reading Group meets today (March 30) at 4:30 pm. Rajesh Bhatt and Amy Rose Deal will give practice talks for CLS 42. Abstracts and links to the conference program are below the fold.
After the meeting, there will be a dinner at Rajesh's house, starting at 7:30 pm. All are invited.
The Syntax Reading Group meets today. Amy Rose Deal and Chris Davis will give practice talks for ECO 5 (MIT, March 4-5).
Dalina Kallulli presents today (February 23) in the syntax reading group. The title of the talk is 'Resumption and concealed relatives'. All are welcome!
Dalina Kallulli will give a talk in the syntax reading group on Thursday, February 23. The title of the talk is 'Resumption and concealed relatives'. All are welcome!
