Author Archives: Ana

Shay Hucklebridge on panel on technology and language revitalization

Shay Hucklebridge will participate as a panelist on a meeting on technology and language revitalization hosted by Memorial University. The meeting will focus on how to use new learning technology in communities. When: May 13 (10:30-5:30 Newfoundland time, one and half hours ahead of MA). Where: Memorial University (via Zoom). Follow this link to register (more information can be found on the poster below):

https://forms.gle/bhQZzmNi9Uc7cKTi9

Speakers:

•   Lydia Tuglavina (Happy Valley-Goose Bay) and Alana Johns (University of Toronto) will speak about Inuttitut master-apprentice style learning with Zoom.
•    Owennatekha Maracle (Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa), Kyle Napier (Northwest
Territory Métis Nation & University of Alberta), Chris Douglas (Pirurvik Centre, Iqaluit), and Nick Welch (Memorial University) will be featured on mid-day panel discussing how to use new learning technology in communities. Also contributing to this panel will be linguists Shay Hucklebridge (University of Massachusetts Amherst) and Luke West (Florida State University).
•    Other speakers will include Ryan DeCaire (Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa & University of Toronto) on adult acquisition; Marie-Odile Junker and Cécile Planchon from Carleton University on remote documentation, and Jordan Lachler (University of Alberta) on telerevitalization. Also speaking will be Chris Harvey (Stockbridge-Munsee Community Linguist) and Claire Bowern (Yale University Historical Linguist).

Lisa Green appointed Associate Dean for Graduate Education

Lisa Green, Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics, has been appointed as Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. She will work with graduate program directors and the Graduate School to advance diversity in graduate programs, and develop resources for mentoring and professional development for graduate students. Lisa will be the first person to hold this position at our College. Her appointment begins in September.

Congratulations Lisa!

UMass linguists at SALT 31

Brown University will host the 31st meeting of Semantics and Linguistic Theory (virtually) on May 7-9. You will find the program here.

UMass linguists past and present will participate (see details below), with Seth Cable giving one of the invited plenary talks: Two Paths to Habituality: The Semantics of ‘Habitual Mode’ vs. ‘Imperfective Mode’ in Tlingit

In addition to SALT, this year will also have SALT(ED): a workshop on inclusive teaching in semantics organized by the SALT Equity and Diversity committee. Lisa Green will be one of the workshop panelists.

The Pop-Up Mentoring Program sponsored by the LSA’s Committee on Gender Equity in Linguistics will hold mentoring sessions at SALT.

UMass linguists (working with colleagues) at SALT 31:

Luis Alonso-Ovalle and Justin Royer: Modality in the nominal domain: The Chuj yalnhej + wh series

Andrea Beltrama and Florian Schwarz: Imprecision and speaker identity: How social meaning affects pragmatic reasoning

Justin Bledin and Kyle Rawlins: About what about: Topicality at the semantics-pragmatics Interface

Maria Biezma, Bettina Braun and Angela James: Prosody is adding what?

Kajsa Djarv and Maribel Romero: (Non-)factive islands from (non-)necessary triviality

Hary Chow and Marcin Morzycki: Zero, measurement, and nominal semantics in Cantonese

Sensus: Constructing Meaning in Romance

We are pleased to announce that the first meeting of Sensus, a workshop on the formal semantics and pragmatics of Romance languages, will take place virtually at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, on September 26-27 2020.

Our intention with this workshop is to bring together scholars in the growing community dedicated to the study of the construction of meaning within Romance languages. We hope this will become a regular venue for researchers with common interests in Romance semantics and pragmatics.

Invited speakers: Luis Alonso-Ovalle (McGill University), Mariapaola D’Imperio (Rutgers University), Donka Farkas (University of California, Santa Cruz).

Registration is free. Please register to obtain Zoom link shortly before conference.

– On behalf of your Sensus organizers: Ana Arregui, María Biezma, Vincent Homer and Deniz Özy?ld?z)

Gaja Jarosz to join new LSA task force

Gaja Jarosz will be joining the new LSA Task Force on Procedures for Evaluating Professional Conduct. You can read more about the new task force here:
https://www.linguisticsociety.org/news/2020/08/18/lsa-appoints-two-task-forces-address-recent-concerns
The creation of this task force is part of the LSA’s response to concerns that have been raised recently within the linguistics community. Congratulations to Gaja on the new appointment!