Hartman at LARC

Magda Oiry writes:

Jeremy Hartman will present his work on Root infinitives at LARC on Thursday 9:45 in the Partee room. All are welcome!

PRG tomorrow: Speed Presentations

Ivy Hauser and Coral Hughto write:

PRG is scheduled to meet this Monday 4/14 at Brian's place in Northampton. Instead of the usual presentation we will be trying something a little different, a "lightning paper discussion."  The idea is that everyone comes with a paper in mind they have recently read to give a quick 5 minute synopsis of over dinner.  It should be something you have already read for class, your research, etc. (no extra work required) and of course no handout or prepared speech is necessary.  The goal is to share the important points of several papers in the time of a single meeting.  I think ideally fairly current papers would be nice to discuss but anything goes.

Jason Merchant gives department colloquium

Jason Merchant (University of Chicago) will give the department colloquium on Friday, April 18, at 3:30 in Machmer E-37. The title of his talk is (the cryptic) “More than one phrasal comparative(*s)."

Field School Program in Peru

Piero Fioralisso, Coordinator of Special Programs of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, writes:

I am writing to you to announce the launch of the Field School Program in Peru 2014. This program, created and developed by PUCP, provides students with the opportunity to carry out practical work in research projects which are directed by some of our most prestigious faculty members and during its ten years of existence the Field School program has received more than 300 students.

We would like you to know that this season the program is offering courses that we believe may be of interest to you:

-Linguistic Summer Field School

-Spanish Language and Peruvian Studies Program

You will find our complete Field School Program offer in the following links:

-Field School Program Brochure
-Spanish Language Brochure
-Website: http://fieldschool.pucp.edu.pe/

Call for papers: Fall Meeting on Formal Linguistics

The 3rd Fall Meeting on Formal Linguistics : Language(s) and Cognition  will be organized by the UMR "Structures Formelles du Langage" Université Paris 8 / CNRS in Paris.

9-10 October 2014

invited speakers

David Barner (University of California, San Diego)

Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero (University of Manchester)

Jenny Doetjes (Leiden)

Maria Polinsky (Harvard)

Call for Papers Deadline 16 June 2014

Submissions are invited for 30 minute-papers (plus discussion) on all domains of linguistic theory.

Abstracts are invited from all areas (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics) of formal linguistics (e.g., generative grammar or related frameworks). Topics may include syntax-semantics interface, syntax-morphology interface and others. Abstracts on language acquisition, psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics are also particularly welcome in a perspective that relates them to theories of grammar.
We strongly encourage contributions exploring formal approaches to language diversity and typological works (including but not limited to sign languages, creoles, under-represented languages and comparative studies).

Abstract Submission Presentations may be in French or in English. Abstracts should be anonymous and must not exceed 2 pages (A4) (including data and references) with a 2,54 cm (1 inch) margin on all four sides using Times New Roman 12 pt.

Abstracts must be submitted online using the link below. We will accept electronic submissions only (.pdf files). EasyChair link : https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ralfe2014

Calendar Deadline for submission : June 16th, 2014

Notification of acceptance : July 13th, 2014 

Conference dates : October 9th-10th 2014

Research Assistant/Lab Manager position at Georgetown University

We are seeking a full-time Research Assistant/Lab Manager in the Brain and Language Lab at Georgetown University (http://brainlang.georgetown.edu) . The successful candidate will have the opportunity to be involved in a variety of projects, using a range of behavioral, neurological, electrophysiologial (ERPs), neuroimaging (fMRI), and biological (genetic, endocrine) approaches. S/he will have primary or shared responsibility for various aspects of research and laboratory management, including most of the following (depending on abilities and experience): creating experimental stimuli; designing experiments; running experiments on various subject groups; performing statistical analyses; writing papers; helping manage the lab's computers and server; managing undergraduate assistants; and working with the laboratory director and other lab members in preparing and managing grants and IRB protocols. The successful candidate will work closely with Dr. Ullman and with other Research Assistants, PhD students, and postdocs in the lab, as well as with our collaborators at Georgetown and at other institutions in the US and in other countries (e.g., Canada, UK, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Israel).  
 
Minimum requirements for the position include a Bachelor's degree (a Master's degree is a plus), with a significant amount of course-work or research experience in at least two and ideally three of the following: cognitive psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, computer science, and statistics. The following are highly desirable: at least some experience with Windows, Linux, E-Prime, programming, and statistics. A strong math aptitude is a plus. The candidate must be extremely responsible, reliable, energetic, hard-working, organized, and efficient, and be able to work with a diverse group of people.
 
To allow for sufficient time to learn new skills and to be productive, candidates must be available to work for at least two years, and ideally for three. The successful candidate will be trained in a variety of the methods and approaches used in the lab, including (depending on the focus of his/her work, and ongoing lab projects) statistics, experimental design, and neuroimaging methods. The successful candidate will ideally start as soon as possible (e.g., April 2014), but no later than June 1st 2014. 
 
Interested candidates should email Jarrett Lovelett (at brainlangadmin@georgetown.edu) their CV (which should include a summary of coursework and grades), and have 3 recommenders email him their recommendations directly. Salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications. The position, which includes health benefits, is contingent upon funding. Georgetown University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. 

SALT 24 program announced

The program for SALT 24, which is taking place at the end of May at NYU, has been announced. Congratulations to Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten, whose paper “Interpreting DP-modifying modal adverbs” and Suzi Lima, whose paper “All notional mass nouns are count nouns in Yudja,” are on the program. Yangsook Park is also presenting the poster “Indexicals and the long-distance reflexive `caki’ in Korean.” In addition, the following UMass alumni have posters:

Maria Biezma: “The grammar of discourse: the case of `then.’"

Aynat Rubinstein (with Elena Herburger) “Is ‘more possible’ more possible in German?"

and alumnus Florian Schwarz will be giving the paper “Presuppositions are fast, whether hard or soft — Evidence from the visual world paradigm."

Report from "Sound Systems of Mexico and Central America," at Yale on May 27

John Kingston writes:

Emiliana Cruz, our colleague in Anthropology, Etna Pascacio, a visitor from Mexico to the department since January, Jeremy Pasquereau, and I just returned from a very stimulating workshop "Sound Systems of Mexico and Central America" organized by Ryan Bennett at Yale (http://pantheon.yale.edu/~rtb27/ssmca.html). Emiliana spoke about the 15 tones in the Chatino of San Juan Quiahije (the 15th only just discovered the day before her talk!), Etna gave a poster about her analysis of the synchrony and diachrony of alveolar fricatives and affricates in Matlazinca, and I gave the second of a two-part talk describing and explaining the development of vowel register distinctions and nasal grades in the Chatino of San Miguel Panixtlahuaca -- the first part was given by Tony Woodbury of the University of Texas, Austin. The meeting was also a chance to hear talks from various instructors and participants at the Talleres de Tonos organized by Emiliana in Oaxaca the last two summers. The purpose of the Talleres is to train native speakers of Otomanguean languages in the linguistic analysis of their languages. The third Taller will be held this June 17-27.

Jonathan Rosa on the Language/Word gap

Meghan Armstrong writes:

The UMass Hispanic Linguistics program has invited Jonathan Rosa  (Anthropology) to lead a discussion on the language gap/word gap that  has been receiving substantial attention in the media.

We invite you to join us for this discussion:

Power, Perspective, and Linguistic “Problems:: Rethinking the  "Language/Word Gap"

4/8 @ 5:45 -- 217 Herter Hall

For more info: http://umasshispling.wordpress.com/

NSF Graduate Student Fellowships

Congratulations to Ivy Hauser and Leland Kusmer who have been awarded graduate student fellowships by the National Science Foundation. There were only 10 of these fellowships awarded to students at UMass. For more information about the program and awardees, go here.

UUSLAW

The annual UConn, Umass, Smith Language Acquisition Workshop took place at UConn yesterday (Saturday, April 5). UMass was represented by:

Valentina Brunetto “English speaking children’s acquisition of number words"

Michael Clauss “Ambiguity between questions and relative clauses for children and adults"

Jon Nelson “Recursive PP interpretation revisited: L1 and L2 differences in English and Spanish"

Lecturer in Phonology at Harvard

Lecturer on Linguistics

Harvard University

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

The Department of Linguistics seeks applications for a full-time lecturer in phonology. The appointment is expected to begin on 7/1/2014.  The lecturer will be responsible for teaching phonology at any level (undergraduate, beginning graduate, and advanced graduate).  The position is for one-year.  

Basic Qualifications:  Doctorate in Linguistics or related discipline ordinarily required by the time the appointment begins.

Additional Qualifications:  Demonstrated excellence in teaching is desired. 

Special Instructions:  Please submit the following materials through the ARIeS portal (http://academicpositions.harvard.edu), no later than April 30, 2014:

Required Documents

1. Curriculum Vitae

2. Cover Letter

3. Statement of Teaching Philosophy

4. Statement of Research

5. Publication

6. Course Evaluations

7. Names and contact information of two references (two letters of recommendation are required, and the application is only complete when both letters have been submitted)

Harvard is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Applications from women and minorities are strongly encouraged.

Contact Information:  Cheryl Murphy, Harvard University, Boylston Hall, Rm. 305, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA  02138 

Contact Email:  clmurphy@fas.harvard.edu

Doctoral Research Fellowship in Oslo

One fully paid Doctoral Research Fellowship (3 years) within formal semantics and/or syntax is available in the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages (ILOS) at the University of Oslo (UiO).ILOS seeks to recruit PhD candidates with excellent research qualifications who will work with the research group SynSem. The doctoral research fellowship is open to topics in formal semantics, theoretical syntax or the syntax-semantics interface. Only projects that involve modern European languages (Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages) being taught at ILOS will come into consideration. The project may be anchored within one language, but theoretical contrastive studies of several languages may also come into consideration. The successful candidate must participate in the research training program organized by the Faculty of Humanities (cf. regulations and supplementary provisions for the faculty’s researcher education) and must engage in the designated research activities on a full-time basis.

The purpose of the PhD Research Fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a doctoral dissertation (monograph or article-based) to be defended at a public defense for the doctoral degree. The person appointed will be affiliated with the Faculty's organized research training. The academic work must result in a doctoral thesis that will be defended at the Faculty with a view to obtaining the degree of PhD. The successful candidate is expected to join the existing research milieu or network and contribute to its development. go here for more details.

Luiz Amaral at LARC

Magda Oiry writes:

Luiz Amaral will be presenting at the LARC meeting this Thursday (April 3) at 9:45 AM in the Partee room. His talk is: "Experimental ideas to test recursive relative clauses.”  (This talk has been rescheduled from last week.)

Everyone welcome!

Maribel Romero

Alumna Maribel Romero (Konstanz University) will be visiting the department this week. She is giving a talk on biased questions in the semantics seminar on Wednesday, April 2. The seminar meets from 2:30 to 5:15 in the Partee room.

Maribel has worked on a variety of topics in semantics, syntax/semantic, computational semantics, and pragmatics including ellipsis, reconstruction, questions, temporal interpretation, concealed questions, negation, the scope of quantifiers, superlatives, and focus. You can get a more complete picture of her range from her website here. She’ll be available for meetings this coming week, which you can arrange through Angelika Kratzer.

post-bac positions at University of Maryland

Colin Phillips from the University of Maryland writes:

The Dept of Linguistics at the U of Maryland, is looking to fill up to four full-time positions for post-baccalaureate researchers. Starting date for all positions is Summer/Fall 2014. Salary is competitive, with benefits included. The positions would be ideal for individuals with a BA degree who are interested in gaining significant research experience in a very active lab as preparation for a research career. Applicants must be US or Canadian citizens or permanent residents, and should have completed a BA or BS degree by the time of appointment. The ability to interact comfortably with a wide variety of people (and machines) is a distinct advantage. Applicants may request to be considered for all four positions or any subset. The positions are two Baggett Fellowships, one Research Assistant/Lab Manager, and one MEG Lab Manager.

The positions are open until filled, but for best consideration, applications should be received by  April 7th, 2014.

Details about all four positions may be found here:
http://ling.umd.edu/baggett/jobs/

Woolford at Georgetown

Ellen Woolford gave an invited talk at Georgetown University last Friday, March 21, entitled “No Object Agreement without Subject Agreement."

Vladimir Borschev at Moscow State University

Vladimir Borschev is giving an invited lecture “On the integration of formal and lexical semantics” at Moscow State University in a seminar led by V.A. Uspensky, M.R. Pentus and P Arkadiev  on the applications of mathematical methods in linguistics. His talk is on Saturday, April 12.

UMass at GLOW

The 37th meeting of the Generative Linguistics of the Old World meets April 2-4th in Brussels. UMass is represented by Yangsook Park and Ethan Poole. Ethan Poole will give a talk entitled “A configurational account of Finnish case.” and Yangsook Park will give a talk entitled “Indexicals and the long-distance reflexive `caki’ in Korean.” For a complete schedule, go here.

Linguistics/Philosophy blog

Seth Cable writes:

I'm writing to let you know that Alejandro Pérez Carballo and I have just set up a blog site where linguists and philosophers can share events / classes / etc. that will be of mutual interest: http://blogs.umass.edu/lingphil/

Our hope is that this will become a resource to members of our campus (and the broader Five College community) who are interested in Logic, Language, Cognition, and related areas. 

There's not much up there right now, but that's where you all come in! If you could, please let me know if you know of any additional upcoming events / talks / seminar presentations that would be of interest to and open to philosophers and philosophy students. Anything you want to share with the philosophers, I can post up there for us!

I should mention that we already plan to have linguistics course offerings up there soon. In addition, Alejandro is working on a Calendar of Events folks can subscribe to, as well as a mailing list that announces any updates to the site. Please, if you have any additional thoughts or suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated!