PhD Fellowships at UConn

LANGUAGE PLASTICITY: GENES, BRAIN, COGNITION, COMPUTATION
NSF-IGERT Ph.D. Fellowships at the University of Connecticut
Website: http://igert.cogsci.uconn.edu; Brochure; Flier

We are pleased to announce a new graduate training program at the University of Connecticut, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program. We will admit 27 IGERT Fellows over the next 4 years. IGERT Fellows receive five years of full funding, including two years of NSF IGERT stipend ($30,000 per year) and three years at normal departmental levels. Trainees enter through any of 7 Ph.D. programs: Linguistics; Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences; Physiology & Neurobiology; and 4 programs in Psychology: Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical, Developmental, and Language & Cognition. (Note that NSF stipends are available only to U.S. citizens and permanent residents, but others can apply to the program and can receive full funding at standard departmental levels.) Trainees complete normal home department specialist training, but also a common core of "Foundations" courses that provide them background in the fundamental ideas, methods, and terminology in each participating domain sufficient to allow them to work in collaborative, interdisciplinary teams. Course-based work is integrated with hands-on training and access to cutting edge tools for neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, genetics, and computational modeling.

Why are we bringing together these areas in our training program? Unifying cognitive and biological approaches will allow language development, processing, and disorders (acquired and developmental) throughout the lifespan to be studied in the context of complex, dynamic interactions of genes, environment, neurobiology, cognition, and culture, affording new insights into the nature of language. Today, cognitive and biological fields are weakly linked. Cognitive domains coupled with Behavior Genetics provide correlational clues to possible genetic bases for language disorders; causality can begin to be assessed with true experiments with gene knock-out or knock-down animal models using methods of Behavioral and Molecular Neuroscience and Genetics (focusing on sensory and cognitive traits associated with language). Currently, such research focuses primarily on language disorders, and there is little transfer back from biological to cognitive domains. Our training program prepares a new generation of scientists not just to accelerate transfer between cognitive and biological domains, but to unify them, and realize the potential for biological approaches to inform not just the bases of disorders, but the bases of mechanisms supporting language plasticity and cognitive and computational theories of language development and processing more generally.

OPPORTUNITIES. In addition to NSF Fellowships, funds are available to support research costs, international internships with partners in Europe and Asia, and trainees have access to leading scientists and state-of-the-art laboratories.

DIVERSITY. We share NSF's mission to increase participation in science by underrepresented groups. UConn and our IGERT provide mentoring and support systems for all Ph.D. students, with particular attention to the concerns of underrepresented groups. Women, minorities, and Deaf individuals are especially encouraged to apply.

APPLY! To be considered for our IGERT training program, see our website (http://igert.cogsci.uconn.edu) for application details. NSF Fellowships are available only to U.S. citizens or permanent residents, but others may join the program as IGERT Associates, funded by normal departmental mechanisms. Departmental application deadlines vary between December 1, 2012 and January 1, 2013.

Participating Faculty

Psychology
James Magnuson, PI, Perception, Action, Cognition; Haskins Labs
Holly R. Fitch, Co-PI, Behavioral Neuroscience
Ken Pugh, Co-PI, Perception, Action, Cognition; Haskins Labs
Heather Bortfeld, Developmental; Haskins Labs
Marie Coppola, Developmental; joint appointment in Linguistics
Inge-Marie Eigsti, Clinical; Haskins Labs
Deborah Fein, Clinical
Joseph LoTurco, Physiology & Neurobiology; Behavioral Neuroscience
Letitia Naigles, Developmental
Heather Read, Behavioral Neuroscience
Jay Rueckl, Perception, Action, Cognition; Haskins Labs
Whitney Tabor, Perception, Action, Cognition; Haskins Labs

Linguistics
William Snyder, Co-PI
Diane Lillo-Martin

Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Carl Coelho, Co-PI
Bernard Grela
Emily Myers; Haskins Labs; joint appointment in Perception, Action, Cognition
Pradeep Ramanathan
Tammie Spaulding

Haskins Labs / Yale Child Study Center
Elena Grigorenko

Johnson at NYU on Friday

Kyle Johnson, following earlier gigs this semester by Rajesh Bhatt and Kristine Yu, will give a colloquium talk at New York University this Friday, December 7. A title and abstract  follow.

An ellipsis without an antecedent: Andrews Amalgams

I will argue that the best analysis of Andrews Amalgams (as found, for example, in "She ate you'll never believe how many apples") involves an unorthodox outcome from the linearization procedure, as in Guimaräes's 2004 UMaryland dissertation. That outcome arises in part by virtue of the licensing condition on ellipsis that determines where sluices can be. This means that the condition which licenses ellipsis is not something that also enforces the condition that the ellipsis must have an antecedent. We must find a way of explaining why these things are normally paired which is less deterministic than Jason Merchant's well-known proposal.

Annahita Farudi defends her dissertation

Annahita Farudi will defend her dissertation, "Gapping in Farsi: A cross-linguistic investigation" on Wednesday, November 28, at 4:00 PM in Barlett 205.

Paul Smolensky gives colloq on Friday

Paul Smolensky will give the department colloquium on Friday, November 30, in Machmer E-37 at 3:30pm.

Title: Gradient Symbols in Linguistic Competence and Performance

Ubiquitous in the study of cognition is the need to reconcile discrete combinatorial structure (as in linguistic representations) with continuous or ‘gradient’ structure. For example, this arises in psycholinguistics both empirically — in relating grammar to observables — and theoretically — as in partial ‘activation’ of competing alternatives. This reconciliation is also required for reducing discrete combinatorial grammatical computation to neural computation over continuous activation patterns. A general approach to this integration is Gradient Symbolic Computation, in which representations are combinatorial but consist in weighted blends of symbolic constituents. I will introduce a general cognitive architecture based on optimization, in which markedness, faithfulness and correspondence relations play central roles within and between all cognitive components. Of primary concern are computations in which symbolic blends are transient states between (nearly) discrete input and output states. I will discuss the relation between (i) faithfulness between symbolic representations and (ii) continuous similarity of the activation patterns realizing those representations, illustrating with general patterns in speech errors. I will close with speculations about potential roles of non-transient symbolic blends in syntactic competence and performance.

Foundation for Endangered Languages grants

Suzi Lima writes:

The Foundation for Endangered Languages has just announced that its 2012 grant application round is now open. Priority will be given to projects that focus on the revitalization of endangered languages and support the use of endangered languages in various spheres of community life (home, education, cultural and social life). Any language documentation proposals must have a clear and immediate relevance to prospects for language revitalization.

Full details and application forms are available on the FEL website athttp://www.ogmios.org/grants/index.htm. The deadline for submission of proposals is 31st December 2012.

Athulya Aravind at Acquisition Lab/LARC on Monday

Magda Oiry writes:

This Monday, due rescheduling, Athulya Aravind will present his work in the acquisition lab / LARC meeting. The title of his talk is:

"First and Second Order Complementation: New Experimental Directions".

 

We will meet in Herter 301 at noon.

Everyone is welcome!

William Snyder gives talk tomorrow

Tom Roeper writes:

William Snyder will be giving a guest lecture in the class on Multiple
Grammars where he will discuss his approach to Grammatical Conservatism in Acquisition.

The class meets at 230 Monday November 19th in Herter 211.

Everyone is welcome.

Tom Roeper ( and Luiz Amaral)

Project TRAIT abstract deadline delayed

Joanna Blaszczak writes:

We are finalizing the program of our  workhop "How categorical are categories?" organized within the Project TRAIT ("Temporality at the Interfaces"), funded by the Foundation for Polish Science

http://www.ifa.uni.wroc.pl/trait/.

 

We still have some free slots for a few additional (GOOD) presentations. We would be very glad if you  - or some of your PhD students - could contribute to the program of our workshop. We would like to invite you to have a look at the description of the workshop available here http://www.ifa.uni.wroc.pl/linguistics/traitworkshop.html

 

We decided to extend the deadline for selected abstract submissions till November 28th. Please find enclosed the call for papers.

Hot Chocolate and Excercise

Brian Smith writes:

For the past five years, some of us have participated in the Hot Chocolate Run. It's a 2-mile walk or a 5k run through Downtown Northampton, followed by delicious hot chocolate in a commemorative mug. The proceeds benefit Safe Passage, an organization that helps victims of domestic violence.  It happens on December 2. 

 

If you'd like to participate, you can register online, or you can download the registration form, fill it out, and put it in my mailbox with the registration fee. Under "Team/School Name", write "Linguists & Friends". Since we register as a team, each of us gets a $3 discount on the registration fee. The fee is $27 for adults and $15 for students ($24 and $15 with group discount).

 

Here's a link: http://safepass.org/HCR/

 

This year, they are anticipating selling out by Thanksgiving, so I recommend registering as soon as you read this email if you'd like to participate. (There is no longer an online registration fee!)

 

It's really a great time!

 

What: Hot Chocolate Run

When: December 2, 9:30 am

Why: Benefit for Safe Passage, delicious hot chocolate

How: Register online or by form. Definitely register by Thanksgiving. Sooner is better. (Team name: Linguists & Friends)

SRG's new face

Jason Overfelt writes:

I would like to introduce myself as your new SRG coordinator.  I will be doing my best to take over for Anisa who has done a wonderful job.  Thanks, Anisa!

Our final meeting this semester was last Thursday, but it's never too early to start planning ahead.  If you think you  would like to talk at SRG next semester, then feel free to email me once you know.  You should feel free to present a practice talk, discuss a  term paper you're working on, or just throw out some puzzling data.

Conner, Pearson and Jackson in Atlanta

Barbara Pearson writes:

Tracy Conner,  Janice Jackson and I presented a paper on "Dialect Awareness: Foundations for Effective Education of African American English-speaking Children" at the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association annual meeting in Atlanta on Thursday, November 15, 2012.  The paper was based on an article to appear in Developmental Psychology, January 2013, a themed edition on "Deficit versus Difference? Interpreting Diverse Developmental Paths" (and is already available on-line).  As part of Tracy's answers to an engaged audience, she was able to refer people to her poster in the following session:  New Diagnostic Criterion: Obligatory Possessive Marking in African American English.  

Magda Oiry at Maryland

Magda writes:

I gave a talk at the University of Maryland on Wednesday Nov. 14th entitled "The acquisition of Long-Distance questions" in a seminar co-taught by Valentine Hacquard and Jeff Lidz. I discussed a case of "Poverty of the Stimulus": children are able to acquire the syntax and the felicity conditions of Scope Marking without ever been exposed to it. My visit was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to Hacquard and Lidz on "Acquiring the semantics and pragmatics of attitude verbs".

Call for papers: CSSP 2013

Call for papers

CSSP 2013
The 10th Syntax and Semantics Conference in Paris
September 26-28, 2013
Université Paris Diderot, Amphi Buffon, batiment Buffon
15 rue Hélène Brion, 75013 Paris

Invited speakers

Ricardo Etxepare (CNRS UMR 5478)
Tim Fernando (Trinity College Dublin)
Bart Geurts (U. Nijmegen)
Louisa Sadler (U. Essex)

Submission deadline: April 15th, 2013


The 8th Syntax and Semantics Conference in Paris (CSSP 2009) will  
take place on September 26-28th, 2013.

The Conference welcomes papers combining empirical inquiry and  
formal explicitness. CSSP aims at favouring comparisons between  
different theoretical frameworks.
CSSP conferences combine a general session and a thematic session.

Submissions for the general session may address any topic on
syntax, semantics, or the syntax-semantics interface. The thematic session will focus on experimental syntax and semantics
We invite submissions for 40-minute presentations (including 10  
minutes for discussion). Abstracts should be at most 2 pages in  
length (including examples and references) written in French or  
English. The same person may submit at most one abstract as a sole  
author and one as a co-author. Preference will be given to  
presentations that are not duplicated at other major conferences.

Abstracts will be refereed blindly by an international programme  
committee.

For the submission procedure, please see : 
http://www.cssp.cnrs.fr/cssp2013/soumission/index_en.html

Tom Ernst teaches at Haverford

Tom Ernst will teach two undergraduate courses at Haverford College (as part of the Tri-College linguistics program, also including Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr Colleges) in the spring semester. The courses are Structure of Chinese, and Seminar in Syntax.

Suzi Lima speaks at Ecole Normale Superieure

Suzi Lima will be giving "The count/mass distinction in Yudja (Tupi): quantity judgment studies" at the  “Mass/Count in Linguistics, Philosophy and Cognitive Science” colloquium. On December 20-21, 2012 a the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

The colloquium will be preceded by a one-day tutorial on the mass/count
distinction given by Friederike Moltmann (IHPST) and David Nicholas (IJN).

If you are interested in attending, registration is required. It is done in two steps: (i) pre-registration on the conference website, (ii) final registration and payment on-site. To pre-register, create an account on the conference website, log in, and fill in the registration form.

More information, and  a program are available on the
conference website:
http://mass-count.sciencesconf.org/

UMass applies to the ASA

Abstracts were sent to the Acoustical Society of America meeting in Montreal this June. They are:

Kristine Yu and Kate Silverstein: "Voice quality and dispersion in
tonal inventories"

Jeremy Cahill, Kevin Mullin, and John Kingston: "Spectral contrast effects when Ganong effects are delayed"

Kevin Mullin, Diego Alves and John Kingston: "Lexical effects are independent of distant phonetic context effects."

Shifra Sered, Megan Whiteford and John Kingston: "How do autistic traits influence speech perception?"

Claire Moore-Cantwell: "Syntactic predictability influences duration."

Noah Constant talks on Tuesday

Kristine Yu writes:

I'm delighted to announce that our very own Noah Constant will be giving a talk on Tuesday, 11/13 at 3:45pm in the Partee Room on part of his dissertation work.  His abstract follows below.  Please join us!
Refreshments will be served.

Title: The Prosody of English Contrastive Topic

In this talk, I give a phonological account of English contrastive topic (CT) constructions, as in (1), where the subject displays a CT intonation contour.

 (1)  Where do the grad students live?
        MOST of them... live in NORTHAMPTON.
         L+H*       L- H%                       H*      L- L%

I will review the means different languages use for marking CT, and situate my account of English within a framework that can make sense of the cross-linguistic facts.  In particular, the account seeks to explain (a) where CT meaning is encoded, (b) why CT's are often dislocated to an initial position, and (c) how the presence of a CT can affect prosodic structure.

Ariel Goldberg speaks at Hampshire College

Ariel Goldberg, Associate Professor Psychology at Tufts, will be speaking at noon on Wednesday, November 14, in the ASH lobby at Hampshire College. A title and abstract of his talk follow.

Title:  "Towards a theory of the phonological processing of multimorphemic words:  The Heterogeneity of Processing Hypothesis"

Abstract:  Although there has been extensive research investigating the lexical aspects of multimorphemic word processing (e.g., whether words are represented in a holistic or decomposed fashion), very little is known about how post-lexical phonological processes operate over multimorphemic words in production. I propose the Heterogeneity of Processing Hypothesis, which takes as its basis a simple observation: since post-lexical phonological processes in general are influenced by lexical properties, the post-lexical processing of morphologically complex words will have multiple lexical influences.  Two consequences of this organization are identified: 1) post-lexical representations must be assembled on the fly, binding together phonemes from different morphemes and 2) phonemes inherit different levels of activation depending on the properties of their parent morpheme. I argue that both of these consequences will cause post-lexical processing to vary across the word, that is, processing is predicted to be heterogeneous.  In the first case, weaker structural relationships between the phonemes in different morphemes will cause phonological processes to be weaker when acting across morphemes than within.  In the second case, different levels of activation will cause each morpheme to have different articulatory properties (e.g., hyperarticulation, vowel space, etc.). I report three studies supporting weaker heteromorphemic processing and morpheme-based levels of activation.

Jason Overfelt talks at SRG on Thursday

Jason Overfelt will be speaking at the final SRG  meeting this  semester at Barbara and Volodja's place on Thursday at 6:30p. People should bring $5 for pizza or their own dinner.

Jason will be talking about object marking and hidden argument structure alternations in Tigrinya ditransitive constructions.

Brian Dillon at Brown University on Wednesday

Brian Dillon will be giving a talk at the Ling Lang Lunch at Brown University's Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences department this Wednesday, November 14th. He will be presenting joint work with Lyn Frazier and Charles Clifton on "Syntactic complexity across the at-issue / not-at-issue divide."

Abstract:

Much work in psycholinguistics has been dedicated to uncovering the source of complexity effects in syntactic processing (Chomsky & Miller 1963; Gibson, 1998; Levy, 2007; Lewis, 1996; Lewis & Vasishth, 2005; Yngve, 1960; i.a.). There are many theoretical accounts of syntactic complexity effects, starting from Chomsky and Miller's (1963) observations on the difficulty of self-embedding, to the introduction of new discourse referents while simultaneously maintaining syntactic predictions (Gibson, 1998), among many others. One recent and influential model attempts to reduce syntactic complexity to interference effects related to memory retrieval (Lewis & Vasishth, 2005),  In the present talk I present joint work with Lyn Frazier and Chuck Clifton that investigates the source of syntactic complexity by looking how the at-issue / not-at-issue distinction relates to syntactic complexity effects. Not-at-issue content like appositives and parentheticals do not directly contribute to the truth conditions of a sentence, and so have been argued to form a separate 'dimension' of meaning (Potts, 2005). In a series of judgment experiments, it is seen that syntactic complexity in the not-at-issue dimension does not lead to complexity effects in offline judgments, while complexity in at-issue content does. I then present eye-tracking data that helps to locate the source of the complexity effects in online comprehension. The results provide initial evidence that i) the parser distinguishes at-issue and not-at-issue content, and ii) the complexity effects observed in the present data cannot be reduced to retrieval interference. I suggest that at-issue / not-at-issue distinction is used to structure parsing routines by maintaining distinct stacks for different types of linguistic content, thereby minimizing complexity for the sentence as a whole.