Joe Pater writes:
Mark your calendars for the 3rd Annual ICESL Workshop, Friday April 26th, 3:30 - 6:30. Our speakers will be Lyn Frazier of Linguistics (presenting collaborative work with Chuck Clifton and Brian Dillon) and Gwyneth Rost of Communication Disorders. We'll have a poster session too, which is a great way to get conversations about our research going, so get postering ("old" posters welcome too, of course!).
Ezra Keshet will give a guest presentation in the Topics in Syntax seminar on Thursday. The talk will begin at 4:00 PM and will be in Machmer W-27 (not the room the seminar is normally scheduled for).
Title: Answering Questions about Coherence and Anaphora"
Abstract:
As I will argue in my general-audience talk (and preview here), discourse coherence relations between sentences can constrain pronoun referents in a way suitable to generate sloppy readings in ellipsis contexts. For instance, sentence (1d), which stands in a RESULT relation to (1c), most easily means that people didn’t vote for Nixon:
(1) a. Kennedy looked good on TV. b. People voted for him.
c. Nixon looked bad on TV. d. People didn’t.
In this talk, I claim that coherence relations are a type of projective meaning (see Tonhauser et al. 2013) that determines a hidden Question Under Discussion (QUD) as defined by Roberts (2012). For instance, (1b) is understood as a response to the (hidden) QUD What resulted from Kennedy looking good on TV? while (1d) is the response to QUD What resulted from Nixon looking bad on TV? (See Kehler 2009) for a previous suggestion along these lines.)
Pronouns in the answers to questions are often quite constrained in their interpretations:
(2) Q: Who does Bill like? A: He likes Mary. [He must refer to Bill]
I argue that these constraints on pronouns follow from a very small modification to theories of Focus/Givenness such as Rooth (1992) and Schwarzschild (1999). Under Rooth’s system, for instance, a ~ (‘squiggle’) operator effectively ensures that the answer in (2) appears in the Hamblin (1973) denotation of the question. The ~ operator, I argue, can alter the local assignment function to achieve its purpose, setting the referents of pronouns such as he in (2) to properly fit them into the question denotation. With this machinery in place, the pronoun him in (1b) can receive a locally-derived meaning (Kennedy) via the ~ operator but this meaning can have a different extension (Nixon) when picked up by the ellipsis site in (1d).
Next, I extend this analysis to embedded coherence relations, especially in quantified sentences containing a donkey pronoun, such as (3). The “consequent” clause he cries in (3) stands in a RESULT relation to the “antecedent” clause Jill teases a boy. In fact, this consequent stands in several different RESULT relations to the antecedent – one for each situation quantified over by whenever. I argue that the consequent clause is therefore evaluated with respect to a slightly different QUD for each situation quantified over, analogous to the way the phrase his sister in (4) generates a slightly different presupposition for each boy quantified over by every. Since each QUD for the consequent potentially pertains to a different boy, the pronoun he in he cries can end up referring to different boys (but in each situation refers to the boy that Jill teased in that situation).
(3) Whenever Jill teases a boy, he cries.
(4) Every boy loves his sister.
Claire Moore-Cantwell writes:
Robert Stabus will give a practice talk for his upcoming WCCFL talk at Presley's place Tuesday night at 6:30. Please bring snacks/drinks!
First Call for Papers
Semantics and Philosophy in Europe 6
It is our pleasure to announce the 6th Semantics and Philosophy in Europe Colloquium (SPE6), which this yearwill take place in St Petersburg during the White Nights.
Place: Bobrinsky Palace, Smolny College, St Petersburg
Time: June 10-14, 2013
INVITED SPEAKERS
GNENERAL SESSION:
Barbara Partee (University of Massachusetts, Amherst /Moscow University)
Kjell Johann Saebo (University of Oslo)
SPECIAL SESSIONS:
[1] The Interface between Linguistic Semantics and Philosophy of Mind
Berit Brogaard (University of Missouri, Saint Louis)
Frances Egan (Rutgers University)
Scott Soames (University of Southern California)
Tutorial:
Robert Matthews (Rutgers University)
Friederike Moltmann (CNRS, Paris)
[2] The Status of Semantics in the History of Generative Grammar
John Collins (University of East Anglia)
Wolfram Hinzen (Durham/Barcelona)
Robert May / Adam Sennett (UC Davis)
Howard Lasnik (University of Maryland)
[3] Empirical Methods in the Investigation of Semantics
Erica Cosentino (Calabria/Bochum)
Tatiana Chernigovskaya (St Petersburg)
Natalia Slioussar (Utrecht/ St Petersburg)
Markus Werning (Bochum)
Abstract Submission Details:
Please send an anonymous two-page long abstract to:slioussar@gmail.com
On a separate page please specify whether the submission is for the general session or one of the special sessions andmention title and your name, affiliation, and e-mail address
Abstract Submission Deadline: March 22, 2013
Notification of Acceptance: April 5, 2013
Organizing Committee of SPE6:
Berit Brogaard, Tatiana Chernigovskaya, Wolfram Hinzen,Robert Matthews, Robert May, Friederike Moltmann, Markus Werning, Ede Zimmermann
Conference website: TBA
Ezra Keshet (University of Michigan) will present "Two Effects of Context on Truth-Conditional Meaning" at the department colloquium this Friday (February 8) at 3:30PM in Machmer E-37. An abstract of his talk follows.
The lexical items and syntactic structure of a sentence play a large role in its interpretation, but other factors often contribute as well, such as the time/place of utterance, other sentences in the same discourse, salient surrounding objects; extralinguistic goals; and more. This talk presents case studies highlighting the semantic effects of two such suprasentential factors: focus/information structure, and discourse coherence.
The first study involves so-called conditional conjunctions such as (1) whose meanings are quite similar to conditional sentences involving the word if as in (2):
(1) You get there early enough, and you usually find a seat.
(2) If you get there early enough, you usually find a seat.
I will present evidence that such sentences require a particular information structure, namely one where the first clause is Given in the context (or accommodated as Given). I argue that the conditional meaning results from the interaction between a modal quantifier such as usually in (1) and this information structure. A standard if-clause generally serves to restrict a modal quantifier (see Kratzer 1986) and since Given material tends to join the restriction of quantifier as well, this information structure mimics the effect of an if-clause.
The second study examines how discourse coherence can constrain pronoun referents in a way previously thought to require syntactic c-command. Coherence is the name for the unspoken links between clauses in discourse, as shown in (3), which is most easily understood to mean (4):
(3) Ezra flew into Hartford. He’s giving a talk at UMass.
(4) Ezra flew into Hartford because he’s giving a talk at UMass.
Hobbs (1979) noted that the establishment of such coherence relations also constrains pronoun reference, for instance constraining he in (3) to refer to Ezra when the discourse is understood as in (4). Ross (1967) described two readings for pronouns in ellipsis, as shown in (5). Most linguists, following Reinhart (1983), claim that the sloppy reading requires a c-commanding antecedent, such as Bill, which c-commands his in (5). I argue instead that discourse coherence constraints on pronouns can also generate sloppy readings, as shown in (6) and (7).
(5) Bill loves his dog. John does, too.
a. ...John loves Bill’s dog, too. (strict reading)
b. ...John loves John’s dog, too. (sloppy reading)
(6) The man who called Jane asked her out. The man who emailed Vera did ask Vera out, too.
(7) Kennedy looked good on TV. People voted for him.
Nixon looked bad on TV. People didn’t vote for Nixon
On Monday, January 25, there was a congratulatory toast and roast event at the weekly LARC/Language Acquisition Lab meeting for Tom Roeper in celebration of his becoming a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America this September. Tom joins several other UMass faculty --- Emmon Bach, Barbara Partee, Lisa Selkirk, John McCarthy, Alice Harris and Angelika Kratzer --- on the roster of LSA fellows.
Congratulations Tom!
The linguistics department at Tel-Aviv University is proud to announce the 1st graduate student workshop in memory of Professor Tanya Reinhart, which will take place on April 11th, 2013.
MA students and PhD students not having submitted their dissertation in Linguistics by April 2013 are invited to submit abstracts of their research in all areas of theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, or neurolinguistics.
Papers will be allotted 20 minutes for presentation plus 10 minutes for discussion.
Invited Speaker: Idan Landau, Ben Gurion University.
Length:
Up to two single spaced A4 pages with 2.5 cm margins, typed in 12-point Times New Roman.
Format:
Abstracts must be anonymous and in pdf format.
Submission:
To submit your abstract, please send it to tau.linguistics.workshop@gmail.com no later than February 1st. Please state your name and affiliation in the body of the message.
Important dates:
Deadline for submission: 1 February 2013
Notification of acceptance: 1 March 2013
Workshop: 16:00 – 19:30, 11 April 2013
Contact info: tau.linguistics.workshop@gmail.com
Claire Moore-Cantwell writes:
We are pleased to announce the UMass spring Colloquium series.
5 April: Julien Musolino (Rutgers)
19 April: Ryan Bennet (Yale)
There will also be a syntax guru (Eric Potsdam) and a phonology guru
(Eric Bakovic). Eric Potsdam will be giving a talk March 29, and Eric
Bakovic will be giving a talk in April, tentatively set for the 12.
Seth Cable writes:
I wanted to send out a general announcement that the first, organizational meeting of UMAFLAB for this term will be held *this Friday* at 9AM in the Partee Room.
If you'd like to come, please let me know. Also *definitely* let me know if this time/date will not be possible for you, as there are some alternatives we could choose from.
For those who might have missed the first general announcement a few weeks back, UMAFLAB (The UMass Funny Languages Breakfast) brings together individuals with a shared interest in puzzling linguistic data, optimally (but not necessarily) from understudied or minority languages.
*Presentations are always informal*. We are *not* looking for polished work or practice talks (though those are welcome). Rather, participants are free to present any puzzles they like. They needn't have any analysis in mind; indeed, part of the fun of the group is hearing other people's thoughts on some difficult problem.
Thus, if all you have is an interesting pattern worth 'boggling at', that's perfect for our group (particularly if it's from an otherwise not-very-much-talked-about language or variety). For example, a run down of all the crazy data obtained during some recent field work (or experimental work, or whatever) would be quite ideal.
As the name suggests, our meetings are typically in the morning, with some breakfast item served. However, the schedule is always flexible, if it turns out that most people can't make it in the morning.
So, if you'd at all be interested in being part of such an endeavor, just let me know!
Presley Pizzo will be leading a discussion in PRG on how to choose between theories.
Time: Thursday, Jan. 31 at 6:30PM
Location: Packards!
Barbara Pearson writes:
We have a topic for Monday's acquisition meeting.
{Jan 28, noon -1:30, Partee Room 301)
Speaker: *Jeremy Hartman*, our new Language Acquisition professor (Office: South College 220)
Topic, *"Agentivity, affectedness, and 'target-state' passives in
acquisition"*: Work in progress.
Please join us for our first meeting of the new semester. We have Jeremy's talk, and some business matters to discuss (Plans and kudos). Come learn about the framework for a Research Workshop we hope to organize this semester.
Questions to me (while Magda, our meeting coordinator, is away this week):
bpearson@research.umass.edu
The Linguistics Research Department at UCL is looking for a semanticist with a strong commitment to world- class research. The appointment will be at Lecturer, Senior Lecturer or Reader level (Lecturer is comparable to Assistant Professor; Reader is comparable to Associate Professor). The successful candidate will have a record of high-quality publications commensurate with the stage of their academic career. He or she will contribute to the department’s research, teaching, graduate supervision, and administration.
The Linguistics Research Department has recently become part of a new Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL, which offers enhanced opportunities for cross-disciplinary research. The appointment also follows a move to newly refurbished premises where the infrastructure exists for the successful applicant to build up their own research team.
The successful applicant will start work at UCL on 1 September 2013.
The successful candidate will hold a doctorate in linguistics or a cognate discipline and will be engaged in a program of original research that enhances the department’s research portfolio and that can give rise to PhD projects and applications for research funding.
Informal enquiries can be made to Dr Nathan Klinedinst (+1 (864) 315 9878, n.klinedinst@ucl.ac.uk) or to the Head of Department, Prof Ad Neeleman (+ 44 (0) 20 7679 4045, a.neeleman@ucl.ac.uk).
Anisa Schardl and Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten will give presentations in this week's SRG. Watch this spot for updates.
The 5th annual meeting of the Illinois Language and Linguistics Society (ILLS), to be held April 5-7, 2013 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is currently accepting submissions. Please pass this on to interested students to inform them of this opportunity.
Thank you for your time,
ILLS5 Committee
Marissa Goldrich
Itxaso Rodriguez
Megan Kennedy
Lydia Medill
Kate Lyons
The 5th annual meeting of the Illinois Language and Linguistics Society will be held April 5-7, 2013 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. ILLS is a graduate student conference open to all subfields of linguistics. In addition to the general conference and a Saturday poster session, this year's meeting will include a special session Saturday, April 16th on the topic of ‘Minority languages’. We encourage submission and are currently accepting abstracts for topics in general linguistics and minority languages. Deadline for submission is January 31st.
All talks will be given 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for questions. Abstracts will also be considered for a Saturday poster session. The top 4 submitted student abstracts will be awarded $200 to cover conference travel costs.
Abstracts should be maximum 500 words, with one extra page allowed for images, data, and/or references. Abstracts should be submitted via EasyAbs on LinguistList.org in PDF format with NO IDENTIFYING INFORMATION of the presenter in the document.
For more information: http://linguistlist.org/callconf/browse-conf-action.cfm?ConfID=152391
The conference URL is: http://ills.linguistics.illinois.edu/current/index.html
Please contact lso.illinois@gmail.com <mailto:lso.illinois@gmail.com> with any questions you may have.
Invited Speakers:
Zsuzsanna Faygal (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
John Rickford (Stanford University)
Carrie Gillon (Arizona State University)
Ryan Shosted (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Michael Kenstowicz (Massachussetts Institute of Technology)
Mariam Tsiskarishvili will be teaching an informal class on Georgian.
Meeting times will be scheduled with eveyone's availability in mind.
Monday or Friday after 5:00pm are possible times.
If you are interested and would like further information please contact
Mari.
m_tsiskarishvili@yahoo.com
mariam@linguist.umass.edu
The latest issue of the Chronicle for Higher Education features Tom Ernst in an article on independent scholars (with cameos from Rajesh and Jonathan Bobaljik). Take a look:
http://chronicle.com/article/Some-PhDs-Choose-to-Work/136729/
Kathryn Pruitt has accepted a tenure-track position as a phonologist in the linguistics program at Arizona State University.
Congratulations, Kathryn!
Alexandra Jesse from Psychology writes:
We are currently looking for undergraduate research assistants to work in the Language, Intersensory Perception, and Speech (short: LIPS) lab in the Psychology Department. Positions are open starting this Fall semester. Ideal applicants are those who can commit to a longer time period.
The work within the LIPS lab falls within the area of Psycholinguistics. We examine how listeners recognize speech from hearing and seeing a speaker talk. In particular, we are interested in the time- course of recognizing words - both from listening and from lip-reading, how listeners adjust to a speaker's idiosyncratic pronunciations, and what happens to these processes when people get older. We use eye-tracking and other behavioral methods to address these questions, as well as EEG.
You can visit our website for more information:
http://lips.psych.umass.edu
Typical tasks of our research assistants are:
- help with finding stimuli for an experiments (e.g., selecting words, making nonwords)
- help with recording, annotating, and editing of speech materials for the experiments
- assist with recruitment, scheduling, and testing of participants
- attend & prepare for weekly lab meetings
- do administrative research-related tasks
The typical commitment of our research assistants during the school year is 9hrs/week, for 3 credits. You would be enrolled in Psych 398B, but this course can count as an elective towards your linguistics degree. Please contact me if you have any questions about how these credits can be applied to your degree in Linguistics.
So if you are interested in the position for the Spring, please contact me as soon as possible for more information and for an application form. Once you return the completed application form, we will then contact you to schedule for an interview. We will then also require a letter of recommendation. Therefore, if you are interested, please respond to this email as soon as possible. Enrollment has to be completed by January 29th for this position.
Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten gave a presentation at the SRG this past Thursday, January 24, entitled "Wondering about Alternatives in Navajo"
Rajesh Bhatt gave the following colloquium talk at Rutgers University on Friday, January 25.
Title: Many or More
Abstract:
Most Modern Indo-Aryan languages lack dedicated degree morphology. Comparative constructions are typically marked by a marker like the Hindi-Urdu `zyaadaa'/`adhik', which is often absent is adjectival comparatives. It is however required in non-adjectival comparatives. Earlier work that has identified this marker as the comparative degree head is unable to handle this asymmetry. I argue that `zyaadaa/adhik' does not by itself encode comparative meaning; it merely makes available a degree variable. I will show that this conception of 'zyaadaa' allows for us to handle a number of environments where 'zyaadaa' does not contribute a comparative meaning. The actual meaning of comparison I will take to be introduced by a covert comparative operator. Like the covert negation assumed in treatment of negative concord, this covert comparative operator needs to be licensed. It can be licensed by 'zyaadaa' or by the standard marker (the -se ‘than’ phrase). I will end with an examination the cross-linguistic grammaticization of comparative markers in the context of Schwarzschild's proposal for Hebrew `yoter'.