13 March 2016
ACAL 47
The 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics is being hosted by the University of California, Berkeley on March 23-26. UMass is represented by:
Rodica Ivan and Deniz Ozyildiz who are giving the paper “The Somali microscope: pronouns, determiners and possession.” (Their abstract is here,)
William Bennett, Kristine Yu and alumnus Wendell Kimper with Christopher Green who are giving the paper “Acoustic correlates of harmonic classes in Somali."
Alumna Rose-Marie Déchaine, who is giving the paper “Shona root classes: implications for the lexicon and beyond,” and, with Herman Keupdjio, “Compound pronouns in Bamileke Medumba"
Lisa Selkirk who is giving the paper “Edge-sensitivity in Bantu sentence topology: Luganda, Xitsonga, Bemba"
Leland Kusmer who is giving the paper “Prosody and the conjoint/disjoint alternation in Tshivenda"
Alumna Meredith Landman who is giving the paper “Quantification in Kipsigis"
Alumnus Ken Safir gives the paper “Actual clauses in Lubukusu and what they mean for a symmetric theory of clausal complementation."
You can learn more about the conference here.
Julianne Chaloux gets internship in the SCALE workshop
Former Linguistics RA Julianne Chaloux has been offered a summer internship position in the annual SCALE workshop hosted by Johns Hopkins University's Human Language Technology Center Of Excellence. Congratulations, Julianne!
Berezovskaya at MIT
UMass visitor Polina Berezovskaya will present “ `Small Degrees’: Degree Modification in Nenets” at the MIT LingLunch on March 17th.
TESOL Teacher Training course this summer at Hampshire
TESOL Teacher Training Course
Summer 2016 @ Hampshire College JUNE 6—July 1, 2016
tesol.hampshire.edu [2]
Teaching ESL/EFL (English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language) has become a growing field as cultures and economies globalize. The ultimate goal of this course is for participants to be prepared for actual teaching situations and be confident as TESOL instructors/tutors. Acquiring a TESOL certificate can lead to teaching opportunities around the world.
Now in its fourth year, the TESOL TEACHER TRAINING COURSE AT HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE is a proven training ground for students and professionals interested in global education. Through the course, you'll develop a philosophy of teaching values and practices, learn from peer teaching and peer feedback, plan lessons and other teaching materials, and practice action research skills to understand what goes on in the foreign language classroom. Our practice-based approach is grounded in a comprehensive overview of the history of methods for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, along with a critical examination of the underlying principles of these methodologies.
TUITION AND FEES
Tuition: $2,500
Room: $904
MEALS
Participants can chose to purchase meals daily in our dining commons
and/or chose to prepare their own meals in their condo-style living
quarters.
APPLY NOW! Applications are accepted on a rolling basis
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
April 3 / Priority Deadline for all applications
April 11 / Tuition Discount Deadline (all payments must be received in
order to receive 15% tuition discount)
May 1 / Application Deadline (application materials must be submitted)
May 15 / Payment Deadline (all payments must be submitted)
QUESTIONS? Email tesol@hampshire.edu
Why you should make UMass your destination abroad
An article about UMass by visiting student Alberto Moron Hernandez has appeared in Manchet — the newsletter of the Department of Linguistics and English at the University of Manchester.
SALT 26 program announced
The University of Texas at Austin, who is hosting the Twenty-Sixth meeting of Semantics and Linguistics Theory in early May, has just released the program and UMass is well-represented:
Alumnus Florian Schwarz, with Jérémy Zehr, Cory Bill, Lyn Tieu and Jacopo Romoli will present the paper “Presupposition projection from the scope of `none’: universal, existential, or both?"
Alumnus Chris Davis who, with Eric McCready, will present the paper “Expressives and Alternatives"
Alumnus Luis Alonso-Ovalle is presenting the paper “Are All Concessive Scalar Particles the Same? Probing into Spanish “Siquiera."
Jon Ander Mendia will present the paper “Reasoning with Partial Orders."
Alumna Suzi Lima will present the paper “On object denoting nouns: defining atoms"
Alumnus Kyle Rawlins, with Aaron Steven White, will present the paper “A computational model of S-selection” and, with Justin Bledin, the paper “Epistemic resistance moves."
For more information, go here.
Call for papers: ESSLLI
*ESSLLI 2016 STUDENT SESSION*
Held during the 28th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information
Bolzano, Italy, August 15-26, 2016
*EXTENDED Deadline for submissions: March 15th, 2016*
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=essllistus2016
*ABOUT:*
The Student Session of the 28th European Summer School in Logic, Language, and Information (ESSLLI) will take place in Bolzano, Italy, August 15th to 26th (http://esslli2016.unibz.it). We invite submissions of original, unpublished work from students in any area at the intersection of Logic & Language, Language & Computation, or Logic & Computation. Submissions will be reviewed by several experts in the field, and accepted papers will be presented orally or as posters and selected papers will appear in the Student Session proceedings by Springer. This is an excellent opportunity to receive valuable feedback from expert readers and to present your work to a diverse audience.
*ORAL/POSTER PRESENTATIONS:*
Note that there are two separate kinds of submissions, one for oral presentations and one for posters. This means that papers are directly submitted either as oral presentations or as poster presentations.
Reviewing and ranking will be done separately. We particularly encourage submissions for posters, as they offer an excellent opportunity to present smaller research projects and research in progress.
*SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:*
Authors must be students, and submissions may be singly or jointly authored. Each author may submit at most one single and one jointly authored contribution. Submissions should not be longer than 8 pages for an oral presentation or 4 pages for a poster presentation (including examples and references). Submissions must be anonymous, without any identifying information. More detailed guidelines regarding submission can be found on the Student Session website:
http://www2.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/esslli-stus-2016/.
*SPONSORSHIP AND PRIZES*
As in previous years, Springer has kindly agreed to sponsor the ESSLLI student session. The best poster and best talk will be awarded Springer book vouchers of 500€ each.
*FURTHER INFORMATION:*
Please direct inquiries about submission procedures or other matters relating to the Student Session to marisa.koellner@uni-tuebingen.de and rziai@sfs.uni-tuebingen.de.
ESSLLI 2016 will feature a wide range of foundational and advanced courses and workshops in all areas of Logic, Language, and Computation. For further information, including registration information and course listings, and for general inquiries about ESSLLI 2016, please consult the main ESSLLI 2016 page: http://esslli2016.unibz.it.
Frana gets the De Vincenzi prize
Ilaria Frana has received the Marica De Vincenzi prize for best paper by an Italian researcher selected for IGG (Incontro Grammatica Generativa). The paper was “Mica as a Common Ground Management operator” (collaborative work with Kyle Rawlins). The prize is offered by “Fondazione Marica De Vincenzi Onlus”. WHISC as acquired the celebratory group picture from the event (from left to right: Nino Grillo, Francesca Foppolo, me and Carlo Gerace.)
EvoLang 2016
For the first time in 12 years the Evolution of Language (EvoLang) conference is taking place in the United States. There is still time to register, so don’t let this unique opportunity pass you by. EvoLang 2016 is organized by the University of Southern Mississippi and will take place March 21st-24th in New Orleans, LA at the Lavin-Bernick Center on the Tulane University campus. A wide variety of disciplines
will be represented, including: linguistics, psychology, anthropology, primatology, biology, animal behavior, and computer science. The conference opens with a variety of workshops and there is an opening night reception at Mardi Gras World with food and an open bar that is included in your registration. Some notable attendees include Simon Kirby, Tecumseh Fitch, and Terrence Deacon, as well as our plenary speakers. If you are interested in attending please visit our website http://www.usm.edu/gulfcoast/evolang-2016 to register and see the schedule of speakers. Make sure you sign up for the banquet at the Audubon Tea Room on Thursday night. There will be live music and amazing food. Registration is closing soon, so make sure to register ASAP.
06 March 2016
UMass hosts FASAL 6 this weekend
The Sixth meeting of Formal Approaches to South Asian Languages will meet March 12-13 at UMass. The talks are all held in ILC N400 and there is no registration fee. Everyone is welcome.
UMass is represented by:
Sakshi Bhatia and Ethan Poole who are giving the talk “Deriving subject and anti-subject orientation"
Alumna Amalia Gnanadesikan who will be presenting the poster “Coda-Onset Asymmetries in Dhivehi"
and
UMass visitor Konstantin Sachs who will be presenting the paper “A Movement Approach for Multi-Head Correlatives — Evidence from NPIs and Islands”
For more information, go here.
Tracy Conner in LARC on Wednesday
Tracy Conner will present her work in LARC on Wednesday, March 9, at 12:15 in ILC N458.
Daniel Altshuler at Semantics Seminar Journal Club
Angelika Kratzer writes:
Daniel Altshuler from Hampshire College will join the Semantics Seminar Journal Club this coming Wednesday (March 9) to facilitate discussion of the paper “On double access, cessation, and parentheticality”, which he co-authored with Valentine Hacquard, Thomas Roberts, and Aaron White. Everyone is welcome - you don’t have to be in the seminar, and you don’t have to be in the Journal Club. The Journal Club meets every Wednesday in N400 at 4:15 PM. You can download the paper here:
https://udrive.oit.umass.edu/kratzer/altshuler-et-al.pdf
Daniel will give a short presentation of the paper, but since it’s a Journal Club, the discussion will assume that everyone has looked at the paper in one way or other.
NASSLI 2016
Kristen Syrett writes:
The North American Summer School for Logic, Language and Information 2016 is being hosted by Rutgers this July. More information is available on the NASSLLI 2016 website, which we continue to update. The local organizing committee would like to spread the word that early bird registration is now in effect, until April 15. In addition, we are pleased to advertise information about the student scholarships and presentations during the student session. Please encourage your students to apply for either/both, and to attend NASSLLI. We have a great lineup of classes and instructors!
WHISC notes that those great instructors include Hampshire College faculty Daniel Altshuler and UMass alumni Kyle Rawlins and Craige Roberts.
Study Linguistics in St. Petersburg this summer
John Bailyn writes:
Study with world-class Linguists and Psychologists through the Linguistics Intensive track of Stony Brook’s “Explore St. Petersburg!” Study Abroad Program, which will be held this summer for the 14th year IN ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA. The dates are JULY 9 – AUGUST 7, 2016. More information can be found here: http://advancedrussian.org/
• Earn 3-6 credits
• Study together with students from other countries
• Research internships available
• No knowledge of Russian required (all seminars in English)
• Mini-fellowships of $500 and $1000 available
APPLICATION DEADLINE IS MARCH 15, 2016!
*Late applications possible (until April 1) if space remains*
For information about how to apply, go here.
NYI's lineup of Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology faculty for summer 2016 includes:
John F. Bailyn (Stony Brook) Musical Cognition, Syntax
MILOJE DESPIC (UConn) Syntax, Morphology
SABINE IATRIDOU (MIT) Syntax, Semantics
MARC VAN OOSTENDORP (Leiden) Phonology
ROUMYANA PANCHEVA (USC) Syntax, Semantics
MARIA POLINSKY (UMD) Experimental Syntax, Universals
IRINA SEKERINA (CUNY) Psycholinguistics,Cognitive Psychology
SERGEI TATEVOSOV (Moscow State) Formal Semantics
SUSI WURMBRAND (UConn) Syntax
Additionally, there will be Cultural studies and Women's and Gender studies faculty as well!
Robert Staubs goes to Mitre
Congratulations to Robert Staubs, who has been hired as a Senior Data Scientist by Mitre Corporation.
Pater on the road
Joe Pater presented "Learning in Typological Prediction: Grammatical Agent-Based Modeling” (joint work with Jennifer Culbertson, Coral Hughto and Robert Staubs) yesterday (March 5th) at the UNC Chapel Hill Spring Colloquium. He’ll be taking the talk on the road again Friday March 11th when he presents it in the University of Maryland Colloquium series.
Conner and Park get Dissertation Fellowships
Congratulations to Yang-Sook Park and Tracy Conner who have each been awarded a Summer 2016 Dissertation Fellowship. Congratulations!
NEST at UMass
UMass hosted the annual meeting of New England Sequencing and Timing yesterday, March 5. UMass was represented by the paper “Lexical knowledge is available, but not always used, very early,” by Amanda Rysling, John Kingston, Adrian Staub, Andrew Cohen, Jeffrey Starns and Anthony Yacovone. You can find a full schedule of events here.