The Town meeting will happen on Friday, September 5, in the main lobby of the department. (The “main lobby” is that area outside Michelle and Tom’s offices, immediately beyond the front door to the department.) The Town Meeting is the occasion upon which all the new members of the department meet the established members of the department. It is also a time at which much of the human infrastructure of the department is revealed (e.g., who is graduate program director? what is a graduate program director? what is a guru?). And finally, it is where photographs or linguists are produced for the department website and directory. We’ll start taking individual photos at 2:30. Since many of the old photos were lost in the move, you should come to this even if you had a photo in South College. The town meeting will start at 3:15, with the group photo happening directly afterwards.
31 August 2014
Lyn Frazier honored at Faculty Convocation
Lyn Frazier, along with seven other UMass faculty, will receive the award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creative Activity at the Tenth Annual Faculty Convocation on Friday, September 12. Join us in congratulating Lyn on this high honor.
Kratzer gives Sweet Lecture
Angelika Kratzer gives the Henry Sweet lecture at the 2014 annual meeting of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain on September 1. Her lecture, “The semantics of embedding and the syntax of the left periphery,” is the plenary talk at a workshop on the syntax and semantics of embedding that includes talks by Enoch Aboh, Adriana Bellettii, Martina Faller and Daniel Rothschild. For more information, go here.
Call for papers: Grasping Ellipsis
The University of Campinas in Sao Paulo Brazil will be hosting a workshop “Grasping Ellipsis: its syntax, semantics, acquisition and processing” on May 4-5 2015. They are accepting abstracts for 30 minute talks until November 2. For more information, go here.
Alex Drummond
Alex Drummond will be a visiting professor in syntax for the 2014-15 academic year. He has worked on the Binding Theory, Quantifier Raising, issues in anaphora and ellipsis, Preposition Stranding and on general issues of the design of syntactic derivations. You can find out more about his work here.
He’ll be teaching a seminar in the Spring. This term, his office is in the CSAAL area of the department: N472.
Sang-Im Lee-Kim
One of the visiting phonology faculty this academic year is Sang-Im Lee-Kim, who has just completed a dissertation (“Contrast Neutralization and Enhancement in Phoneme Inventories: Evidence from Sibilant Place Contrast and Typology”) at NYU. You can find out more about her research (and name) here. Her office is N434.
Robert Staub
The inaugural dissertation defense in the Seminar Hub (N400 of the new department) took place on July 25, and featured Robert Staub who successfully defended his dissertation, “Computational Modeling of Learning Biases in Stress Typology.” Robert will be visiting faculty in the department for the 2014-15 academic year, teaching a proseminar in Phonology (LING 730) in the Fall and LING 402 in the Spring. You’ll find him in room N454 of the department.
Semantics position at Toronto
The Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto (St. George Campus), invites applications for a full-time tenure-stream position in the area of Semantics. The appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Professor, and will begin on July 1, 2015.
Qualifications include a proven record of research in formal semantics. The ideal candidate will have experience in fieldwork on an understudied language as well as a secondary strength in syntax. Applicants must have completed the Ph.D. by the start date or shortly thereafter and have a demonstrated record of excellence in teaching and research.
Duties include teaching and supervision at the undergraduate and graduate levels, maintaining an active research agenda, and participating in the academic life of the department.
Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
All qualified candidates are invited to apply online by clicking on the link below. Applications should include a cover letter of no more than 2 single-spaced pages, a curriculum vitae, a research statement, evidence of teaching ability (including a statement of teaching philosophy), a writing sample, and the names and email addresses of three referees. Please combine your application into one or two files. If you have questions about this position, please contact lingdept@CHASS.UTORONTO.CA.
All application materials should be submitted online and received by October 24, 2014.
Submission guidelines can be found at: http://uoft.me/how-to-apply. We recommend combining attached documents into one or two files in PDF/MS Word format.
Applicants should also arrange to have three letters of reference, preferably as signed PDF documents on letterhead, sent directly to Professor Keren Rice at the address lingdept@CHASS.UTORONTO.CA with the subject line: "Semantics – (your full name)" by the job deadline date.
More information on the University of Toronto (http://www.utoronto.ca) and the Department of Linguistics (http://linguistics.utoronto.ca) can be found on their respective websites. Linguistics course descriptions are available at www.artsandscience.utoronto.ca/ofr/calendar/crs_lin.htm.
All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.
McCarthy/Pater NSF
Joe Pater writes:
John McCarthy and I are very pleased to be able to announce that the NSF has awarded a grant of $305,613 to support a project entitled “Computing constraint-based derivations: Phonological opacity and hidden structure learning”, starting September 1, 2014, and lasting for 3 years. John and I will direct the grant, and the other senior personnel will be Robert Staubs (UMass) and Mark Johnson (Macquarie). The grant will support a graduate student RA, and also includes a Research Experience for Undergraduates component that will involve two undergraduates every semester. This coming semester, Presley Pizzo will be an RA on the grant, and Amanda Doucette and Stephanie Rich will participate in the REU program. All are welcome to participate in grant activities, including our weekly meetings which will take place at 10 am Thursdays this semester. We will announce grant meetings on the ling-phonology mailing list (https://list.umass.edu/mailman/listinfo/ling-phonology). Students interested in future RA-ships or the REU program are especially encouraged to attend grant meetings, and also to talk with John or me.
The project plans include the creation of a publicly accessible database on instances of phonological opacity, development of accounts of opacity in Harmonic Serialism and comparison with other approaches, implementation of computational tools for working with derivational versions of OT and Harmonic Grammar ("OT-Help 3"), and research on the learning of hidden structure in a Maximum Entropy framework, including learning of derivations (the goals of the project will undoubtedly evolve as we pursue this collaborative work).
UMass at AMLaP XX
The 2014 Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing conference will be hosted by the University of Edinburgh from Wednesday, September 3, through Saturday, September 6. UMass students, faculty and alumni are well-represented. Chuck Clifton will be chairing a panel discussion entitled "The Past, Present and Future of Psycholinguistics,” and the following papers are on the schedule:
"Ambiguity advantages in attachment and pronominal reference: Evidence from eye movements during reading” by Margaret Grant, Brian Dillon and Shayne Sloggett
"Adjective sprouting in much-less ellipsis” by alumni Katy Carlson and Jesse Harris.
"SNAP judgments: Small N acceptability paradigm (SNAP) for linguistic judgments” by Jeremy Hartman, with Kyle Mahowald, Peter Graff and Edward Gibson.
24 August 2014
Department Potluck Picnic
The annual beginning-of-the-year potluck picnic/party will happen at Barbara and Voldja’s place (50 Hobart Lane in Amherst) on Saturday, September 6. It starts at 3:30 and continues into the evening. WHISC has been informed that casual dress is acceptable. Sporting events include badminton and croquet (casual dress is acceptable for these activities as well). Feel free to bring equipment for more strenuous activities.
Bring things to eat and drink. There will be a charcoal grill provided, and it’ll be hot by 4:30 or so. International foods are encouraged, as are adventuresome dishes.
Also bring friends, family, children, colleagues, hangers-on, partners, companions and Philosophers. But no dogs please.
Here is a message from Barbara regarding Hobart Lane’s notorious parking issues:
There is no parking permitted on most of Hobart Lane. Parking is possible in our driveway, and parking is possible in the daylight hours on the opposite side of the street between our house and where Hobart Lane turns into a dirt road, but for safety, put a note under your windshield wiper that tells the police your name and that you are now at 50 Hobart Lane and asking them please to let us know if there is a problem. (The parking restrictions help us combat the problems of large beer parties in the neighboring apartment complexes on Hobart Lane, so we like to stay friends with the police! We'll let them know about the party, but they won't be able to grant a total parking waiver for a September Saturday. They usually agree to come and let us know when cars need to be moved, rather than just towing them away.)
Masashi Hashimoto defends
Masashi Hashimoto will defend his dissertation, “Experiencing in Japanese: The Experiencer Restriction Across Clausal Types,” on Friday, August 29, in the Seminar Hub (N400).
Mellon Post-Doc at McGill
A world-renowned university located in the cosmopolitan metropolis of Montreal, Canada, McGill University has earned an international reputation for scholarly achievement and scientific discovery. Founded in 1821, McGill has 21 faculties and professional schools, which offer more than 300 programs from the undergraduate to the doctoral level. McGill attracts renowned professors and researchers from around the world and top students from more than 150 countries, creating one of the most dynamic and diverse educational environments in North America.
Three Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships will be awarded for the academic year 2015-2016 to promising young scholars. The stipend for each fellow is $52,000 CAD (plus benefits), in addition to a research allowance of $8,500. The Fellowship is renewable once. Each fellow will teach an undergraduate course in both fall and winter terms and may be asked to give a public presentation on his or her research. Fellows will be provided with office space and are expected to be on campus making use of McGill’s resources, particularly during the academic year.
Eligibility:
Scholars who received their PhD after June 2012 or who will have completed all PhD degree requirements by June 1, 2015 are eligible to apply. While research projects must be based in the humanities, interdisciplinary applications are especially welcome. Fellowships are open to scholars of any nationality. Applicants who do not have the PhD in hand at the time of application must include a letter from their Department Chair specifying the date of the dissertation defense. Successful applicants who do not complete all requirements for their PhD by June 1, 2015, will have their offer of award withdrawn.
To Apply:
All applicants must be in contact with a full-time faculty member in the Faculty of Arts in advance to identify an appropriate supervisor for his or her work (see http://www.mcgill.ca/arts/departments). The deadline to contact a proposed supervisor is Friday, October 24, 2014. Since each supervisor can only endorse one Mellon fellowship application, an application can only proceed once endorsement from a proposed supervisor has been obtained. Applicants will be notified of this decision by the proposed supervisor by Friday, October 31, 2014.
There is no application form. The application should include:
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1) A one-page statement of interest from the applicant detailing the proposed research project
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2) A full curriculum vitae
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3) An official copy of university graduate transcripts
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4) A copy of the doctoral diploma, or a letter from the Department Chair specifying the defense date
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5) Two letters of recommendation, one of which must speak to competence in teaching
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6) A writing sample, not to exceed 20 pages (extract from the dissertation, published work, or draft of a work in progress)
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7) A letter of support from the proposed supervisor in the Faculty of Arts at McGill, to be forwarded directly to the address below by the proposed supervisor
Applications must be received by Monday, November 17, 2014.
For more information contact: adr.arts@mcgill.ca or 514-398-4400, ext. 094822
Applications should be submitted electronically to adr.arts@mcgill.ca. Electronic letters of recommendation should be attached as PDF documents only and sent directly by the referees.
Submission by mail is also possible. The completed application should be sent to:
Professor Jim Engle-Warnick Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies Faculty of Arts
McGill University
853 Sherbrooke St. W.
Montreal, QC H3A 0G5 CANADA
Kratzer and Krifka: SIAS Summer Institute
Angelika Kratzer writes:
Mellon Post-Doc at Stanford
Stanford University invites applications for postdoctoral fellowships in the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in the Humanities, a unique opportunity for the best recent Ph.D. recipients in the humanities to develop as scholars and teachers. Up to four fellowships will be awarded for a two-year term (with the possibility of renewal for a third year). Fellows will teach two courses per year in one of Stanford’s humanities departments, and are expected to participate in the intellectual life of the program, which includes regular meetings with other fellows and faculty to share work in progress and discuss topics of mutual interest. It is expected that Fellows will be in residence during the term of their appointment. Fellows will also be affiliated with the Stanford Humanities Center and will have the opportunity to be active in its intellectual life.
Eligible fields for the 2014 competition (for fellowships beginning autumn 2015):
Classics, Linguistics, and Philosophy
Candidates for this year’s competition must have received their Ph.D. between January 1, 2012 and June 30, 2015. Fellowships will begin on September 1, 2015.
The stipend for 2014-15 is $66,000, and compensation will include additional support for computer assistance, research, and relocation expenses, depending on the needs of individual fellows.
Deadline: Applications must be submitted by November 17, 2014. To
apply, complete the online application process at the website below.
You will be asked to submit electronically the following material:
- Cover letter (circa one page) describing your research and teaching interests to an interdisciplinary search committee
- Curriculum vitae
- Dissertation abstract (up to three pages). Linguistics applicants may submit a research statement (up to three pages) as part of, or in lieu of, a dissertation abstract.
- A sample of written work (article length, no longer than 40 pages)
- A separate description of teaching experience and interests (up to three pages) Note: Courses will be offered through standing Stanford departments; applicants should familiarize themselves with recent course offerings and department curricula.
- Three confidential letters of recommendation (or the applicant’s active graduate school dossier)
Faxed or emailed application materials cannot be considered.
Stanford Ph.D.s and employees are not eligible for consideration.
Only complete applications submitted through the online system will be considered. All applications will be acknowledged. Finalists may be interviewed. For more information, please visit the website below or contact us at the email below.
Application Deadline: 17-Nov-2014
US Web Address for Applications: http://mellonfellows.stanford.edu/apply/
Contact Information:
Robert Barrick
Email: mellonfellows@stanford.edu
Partee in Inaugural issue of Semantics-Syntax Interface
Angelika Kratzer writes:
The next issue will be a special issue on "Past Tense". If you think you might be interested in contributing to this issue (The deadline is mid September).
Roeper in Leipzig
Tom Roeper gave the talk “Unlabelled Nodes in Acquisition and Morphology,” to the linguistics department at the University of Leipzig on July 4. He was also a participant on the symposium on the Acquisition of Adversitives at the International Association for the Study of Child Language in Amsterdam July 14-18.
Helen Majewski defends
Congratulations to Helen Majewski who defended her dissertation, “Interpreting Reciprocals: A Processing Approach,” last Wednesday, August 20.
Recursion: Complexity in Cognition
WHISC is pleased to announce the publication by Springer of “Recursion: Complexity in Cognition,” edited by Tom Roeper and Peggy Speas. It collects some of the papers delivered to the recursion conference hosted by UMass in 2009, including papers by UMass alumni Eva Juarros and Bart Hollebrandse, as well as Tom Roeper and Jill deVilliers.