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Opportunities for extra credit: BUCLD: Each year, BU hosts the Boston University Conference on Language Development, the major conference for language development worldwide. This year it runs from Friday November 2nd through Sunday Novemeber 4th. At this point in the semester, you will probably have enough background to understand at least some of the syntax-related talks given at the conference. The idea is to attend one or two talks (two maximum for extra credit, each worth as much as half a homework assignment) and for each one write a short summary of the talk, listing questions it raises (or questions you had). You are of course welcomed and encouraged to attend more of the talks! Most of these talks describe two hypotheses, present some data from language acquisition, and show how that data decides in favor of one of the hypotheses. In your write-up, try to be as clear and explicit as possible about what the competing hypotheses are (as you understood them) and how the data the speaker presented bears on the choice between the two. If you have an objection to their interpretation of the data (if you don't think it shows what they say it shows), include that as well. The writeups will be due Tuesday November 13th (the Tuesday after the Tuesday immediately following the conference). The BUCLD conference home page. In particular, there is information about the schedule here. A small number of recommendations. The following talks seem like they might be of interest to (and nearly accessible to) students in LX 400. You are not obliged to choose from this list, go to any talk that interests you. I'm listing them in a rough order, with the ones at the top being the most likely to be accessible and relevant to you.
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