04 November 2012

Phonetics Lab meeting tomorrow!

John Kingston writes:

The next Phonetics Lab meeting with be held Monday, 5 November 2012, 4-5:30. We will discuss plans for submitting abstracts to the Montreal meeting of the Acoustical Society of America next June and if possible compose first drafts. The deadline is 15 November 2012. Not to be missed! We try to fit round bagels into square brackets.

Sistrunk talks (really) at the Acquisition Lab/LARC meeting tomorrow

Magda Oiry writes:

Walter Sistrunk will finally present his work in the lab acquisition / LARC meeting:

The Syntax of Zero in African American Relative Clauses

Relative clauses in African American are distinct from those used in Standard English. The purpose of this study is to give a description of the observed patterns and to discover the principles at work which explain why these distinct patterns exist in both African American and Standard English. Pesetsky & Torrego’s (2003) (P&T) analysis of relative clause subject-nonsubject asymmetry accounts for zero object relatives while restricting zero subject relatives. However, an analysis that restricts zero subject relatives poses a problem for African American English (AAE), where zero object relatives and zero subject relatives occur. I argue P&T’s (2003) analysis can still account for zero subject relatives if we considered other move operations in AAE.

We will meet in Herter 301 at 12.

Everyone is welcome!

UUSLAW on Saturday

UUSLAW will meet on Saturday, November 10, in the Math Lounge. The schedule will include Fernanda Mendes, Mike Clauss and Gustavo Freire. Magda Oiry writes:

"The event is free and laid-back. We will have dinner at my place afterwards. We are likely to start around 10 and finish around 5. People can get in touch with me if they have questions."

Information about the event can be found at http://blogs.umass.edu/moiry/workshops/uuslaw-fall-12/

Roeper in the UK

Tom Roeper is just back from a whirlwind tour of the United Kingdom last week. He gave talks at Cambridge University and Durham University  on "Pair-Merge and Simplify: The acquisition path and the meaning of adjunction." He also gave a talk, "Avoid Phase: Wh Infinitives and the Acquisition Path" at York University and another,  "How Abstract are Language Disorders?" at the University of Reading.

Welcome back, Tom!

Bhatt and Johnson in Nantes

Rajesh Bhatt and Kyle Johnson were at a conference on "Sharing" (Workshare 2012) in Nantes over the weekend. Johnson delivered a paper on Amalgams, and Bhatt gave comments on a paper by Uli Sauerland on Sharing and Binding. More information about the workshop is at Workshare 2012