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Past linguistic events from 2006

 

 
      
 
         
 
        
Event reading group

The Event reading/discussion group will start meeting in September 2006.

The Event reading group will bring together cognitive psychologists, linguists, and philosophers to discuss ongoing and recent work examining the notion of 'event'. The intention of this group is to encourage cross-disciplinary interaction and help bridge conceptual and terminological gaps between researchers in the various fields. The group is organized by students at Harvard psychology and MIT linguistics and philosophy departments but is open to any interested person in the greater Boston intellectual community. We will hold bi-weekly meetings, alternating between the Harvard campus and the MIT campus. At each meeting, one of the group members or a guest will present
work relevant to the topic followed by a significant discussion time. If you would like to receive regular announcements please join the mailing list:
https://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/the_event

***We are very pleased that Angelika Kratzer (UMass) has agreed to be our first speaker on September 28th (Thursday). See below for details.

Topics to be addressed (throughout the year) include:

  • The mapping of event structure onto linguistic structure (the
    space-language interface)
  • Components of motions events (with a focus on path, manner, source, and goal)
  • The development of event structure in language acquisition
  • Pre-linguistic event representations
  • Causation, agency and intentionality
  • Thematic roles
  • Temporal properties of events (telicity, aspect, temporal parsing)
  • Neural representation of events
  • Non-human perception of events

A preliminary list of speakers:
(Order does not reflect temporal ordering.)

  • Angelika Kratzer (September 28)
  • Laura Schulz (October 12)
  • Josh Tenenbaum
  • Susan Carey
  • Jesse Snedeker
  • Gina Kuperberg
  • Amanda Brown
  • James Pustejovsky
  • Alec Marantz
  • Itamar Kahn

If you are interested to present your work in this forum please contact
one of the organizers.

Our first meeting will take place on 9/28/2006 at Harvard (15th floor of
the William James Hall) at 5:30 (a reminder will be sent out in september).

Warmly,
Laura Lakusta (lakusta@gmail.com)
& Asaf Bachrach (asaf@mit.edu)

ps
please pass this invitation to anyone you think might be interested

Date
     Thursday
       September 28 , 2006
Time
       5:30 PM
Place

      Harvard: 15th floor of
the William James Hall

 
Title TBA
Speaker(s)

Angelika Kratzer, UMass Amherst

 
Abstract

Not available at this time

Sponsor/Series Event reading group
For further information

Laura Lakusta (lakusta@gmail.com)
& Asaf Bachrach (asaf@mit.edu)

 

Date
     Wednesday
       September 27 , 2006
Time
       5:00 PM
Place

     Boston University, Stone (675 Comm. Ave.) B50

Title “Deaf Ethnicity and the Failure of Medical Ethics.”"
Speaker(s)

Harlan Lane, Matthews Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University

ASL/English interpreters will be present.

Abstract

This address is concerned with the language minority in North America called the Deaf-World and the larger society that engulfs it. I aim to show that this minority has the properties of an ethnic group, and that an unsuitable construction of the Deaf-World as a disability group has led to programs of the majority that discourage Deaf children from acquiring the language and culture of the Deaf-World and that aim to reduce the number of Deaf births—programs that are unethical from an ethnic group perspective. Four reasons not to construe the Deaf-World as a disability group are advanced: Deaf people themselves do not believe they have a disability; the disability construction brings with it needless medical and surgical risks for the Deaf child; it also endangers the future of the Deaf-World; finally, the disability construction brings bad solutions to real problems because it is predicated on a misunderstanding.
Sponsor/Series Boston University undergraduate Linguistics Association (BULA)

 

Date
         Friday,
        September 15 , 2006
Time
         3:30 to 5:00 PM
Place
         MIT, 32-141
Title
The English Perfect
Speaker(s)
James Higginbotham, University of Southern California
Abstract   
Sponsor/Series MIT Colloquia
Further info Gillian Gallagher or Patrick Jones

 

 

Date
         Friday,
         March 24, 2006
Time
        4:00 PM
Place
         Harvard, Boylston Hall Fong Auditorium
Title
TBA
Speaker(s)
   Andrea Moro , Universita Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milano, Italy
Abstract    not available
Sponsor/Series Harvard Colloquium in Comparative Syntax and Linguistic Theory
Further info http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/events.html

 

Date
         Friday,
         March 24, 2006
Time
         3:30 to 5:00 PM
Place
         MIT, 32-141
Title
TBA
Speaker(s)
Anna Szabolcsi, NYU
Abstract   
Sponsor/Series MIT Colloquia
Further info Jen Michaels, Raj Singh, Sophia Tapio
ling-coll-org@mit.edu

 

Date
         Friday,
         March 10, 2006
Time
        4:00 PM ?
Place
         Harvard Hall, room 104
Title
"The role of short-term memory in sentence comprehension"
Speaker(s)
   Carlo Cecchetto, University of Milan
Abstract    not available
Sponsor/Series Harvard Colloquium in Comparative Syntax and Linguistic Theory
Further info http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/events.html

Date
         Friday,
         March 3, 2006
Time
        4:00-6:00 PM
Place
         Place TBA
Title
"(In)Definiteness, polarity, and the role of wh-morphology in free choice"
Speaker(s)
   Anastasia Giannakidou, University of Chicago - based on joint work with Lisa Cheng, Leiden University
Abstract    In this presentation I reconsider the issue of free choice and the role of the wh-morphology employed in it. First some data from Greek and Mandarin Chinese are given which illustrate that the property of being an interrogative wh-word alone is not sufficient for free choice. In Greek and Mandarin, semantic and even morphological definiteness is necessary for wh-words in order to become free choice items (FCIs). An analysis is then proposed which explains the polarity behavior of FCIs crosslinguistically, and allows indefinite (Giannakidou 2001) as well as definite-like FCIs. The difference is manifested as a lexical distinction in English between any (indefinite) and wh-ever (definite); in Greek it appears as a choice between a FCI nominal modifier (taking an NP argument), which illustrates the indefinite option, and a FC free relative illustrating the definite one (following Jacobson 1995). A compositional semantics is presented of Greek FCIs in both incarnations, and we derive in a parallel manner the Chinese FCIs. Here the definite versus indefinite alternation is manifested in the presence or absence of dou, which is taken to express the maximality operator (pace Cheng 1991). This analysis has important consequences for the class of so-called wh-indeterminates. In the context of current proposals, free choiceness is taken to come almost routinely from interrogative semantics, and wh-indeterminates are treated as question words which can freely become FCIs (e.g. Kratzer and Shimoyama 2002). The results from Mandarin and Greek emphasize that wh-indeterminates do not form a uniform class in this respect, and that interrogative semantics alone cannot predict either sensitivity of free choice to definiteness, or the polarity behavior of some FCIs.
Sponsor/Series Harvard Colloquium in Theoretical Linguistics
Further info http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/events.html

 

Date
         Thursday,
         February 23 , 2006
Time
         12:30 to 1:45 PM
Place
         MIT, 32-D461
Title
"The role of distinctiveness constraints in phonology"
Speaker(s)    Edward Flemming, MIT
Abstract   Distinctiveness constraints favor maximization of the perceptual differences
between contrasting sounds - less distinct contrasts incur more severe
constraint violations. Perceptually indistinct contrasts are disfavored because
they increase the likelihood of confusion on the part of listeners.
   The preference for distinctive contrasts can be observed in the typology of
segment inventories. For example, there is a cross-linguistic preference for
front unrounded and back rounded vowels because these yield more distinct
contrasts in second formant frequency than front rounded or back unrounded
vowels. Distinctiveness constraints also give rise to positional neutralization
effects where a contrast is neutralized in environments where it would not be
sufficiently distinct. E.g. stop voicing contrasts are neutralized in final
position where crucial Voice Onset Time cues are not available.
   However, if distinctiveness constraints interacted freely with other
phonological constraints, we would expect to find other effects that are in
fact unattested. For example, articulatory markedness constraints could
motivate significant contextual variation in inventories of contrasts, e.g.
deriving front rounded vowels in complementary distribution with central
vowels. We would also expect to find 'contextual enhancement' as a counterpart
to contextual neutralization: enhancement of contrasts precisely where they
would otherwise be neutralized due to insufficient distinctiveness. This
phenomenon is not attested in a general form.
   These limitations provide evidence for a model according to which the basic
role of distinctiveness constraints lies in deriving an inventory of
contrasting segments which serves as the 'alphabet' from which underlying forms
are constructed, much like a phoneme inventory. This process is the locus of
most enhancement effects. The distinctiveness constraints evaluate contrasts
between words only to check that the contrasts are adequately realized on the
surface - if not, they are neutralized (giving rise to positional
neutralization). However, distinctiveness constraints play no other role in the
mapping from underlying to surface form. That mapping is governed by constraints
requiring faithful realization of the underlying contrasts in conflict with
markedness constraints (articulatory constraints, metrical constraints, etc).
Sponsor/Series MIT Ling-Lunch
Further info Sunny Kim or Cristina Ximenes

 

Date
         Friday,
         February 17, 2006
Time
         3:30 to 5:00 PM
Place
         MIT, 32-141
Title
"Too many examples are thought to be ellipsis and too few, across-the-board movement"
Speaker(s)
Kyle Johnson, UMASS Amherst
Abstract   
Sponsor/Series MIT Colloquia
Further info Jen Michaels, Raj Singh, Sophia Tapio
ling-coll-org@mit.edu

 

Date
      Friday,
       February 17, 2006
Time
        1:00 to 3:00 PM
Place

      Guitar Center Building Room # 205
(750 Commonwealth Avenue.)
[note change of room]

Title "Bawdy Language: Shakespeare and American Sign Language"
Speaker(s)
Peter J. Novak, Visual and Performing Arts, University of San Francisco, CA
Abstract

Not available
Sponsor/Series The University Professors Translation Seminar Series
Boston University
Further Info

http://www.bu.edu/uni/

 

Date
         Friday,
         February 10, 2006
Time
        4:00 PM
Place
         Harvard, Boylston Hall Fong Auditorium
Title
"Relativizing in Space and Time"
Speaker(s)
   Rajesh Bhatt , UMass Amherst
Abstract    not available
Sponsor/Series Harvard Colloquium in Comparative Syntax and Linguistic Theory
Further info http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/events.html

 

Date
        Wednesday,
       February 1, 2006
Time
        3:30 PM
Place

        BU, Photonics Center (8 St. Mary's St.), room 906

Title "Biolinguistic explorations: design, development, evolution"
Speaker(s)
    Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics, MIT
Abstract

Not available
Sponsor/Series The Human Development Program
Boston University
Department of Psychology Distinguished Lecture Series
Further Info

Megan Cunniff
Senior Program Coordinator
Boston University
Department of Psychology
64 Cummington Street
Boston, MA 02215
617/353-6423

 

Date
         Wednesday,
         February 1, 2006
Time
        4:00 PM
Place
         TBA
Title "The structure of short answers"
Speaker(s)
   Taisuke Nishigauchi, Kobe Shoin Graduate School
Abstract    http://banjo.shoin.ac.jp/‾gauchi/lingui/reports/InProgress/ShortAnswers/abstract.pdf
Sponsor/Series Harvard Colloquium in Theoretical Linguistics
Further info http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/events.html