The Linguistics Colloquium this Friday November 22nd will be given by Gary Thoms (NYU). Time and place: 3.30pm in ILC S211. Title and abstract below.

Counter-counter-cyclicity

One of the best ideas in Chomsky’s Minimalist critique was the proposal that structure building proceeds monotonically, captured via his Extension Condition. Somewhat unfortunately, it has become increasingly common for syntactic analysis to reject this proposal on empirical grounds and to allow a range of counter-cyclic derivations to capture a range of phenomena which seem to resist cyclic treatments given standard base representations. In this talk I argue against counter-cyclic derivations by means of a series of case studies — the ‘punting’ of interveners, ‘skipping’ derivations, late merge of adjuncts, and ‘tucking in’ in multiple wh-questions — and I argue that counter-cyclic proposals fail to capture the facts. I argue that multidominant representations (of the kind championed by Kyle Johnson) give us a means by which to capture these phenomena more effectively, with a particularly important role for rethinking the specifics of our base structures. 

We are happy to introduce you to our very accomplished incoming class!

Hee Joong Choi

Hello, I’m Hee Joong from South Korea. As some of you might already know, I just finished my third year of Ph.D. coursework in Hispanic Linguistics here at UMass. My interests in semantics and pragmatics have always attracted me to the Linguistics Department, and now I am joining the linguistics program as a second-year (joint Ph.D.) student. Currently, what interests me the most is how words translate into actions, which is why Speech Act Theory plays a significant role in my research agenda. Besides linguistics and learning/teaching languages, I enjoy doing core exercises and cardio workouts. Oh, and I like to try making new dishes from scratch, too!

Duygu Demiray

My name is Duygu (they/them), and I am from Istanbul. I work on sentence processing and I am specifically interested in the effects of syntactic structure on the encoding and retrieval of linguistic elements. I am hoping to get more into computational linguistics (and maybe theoretical syntax). I got my MA from UC Santa Cruz and my BA from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. When I am not doing linguistics stuff, I like reading about (socio)musicology and pop culture, and playing the same three video games. 

Kenta Kakenami

I’m Kenta Kakenami (he/him) from Japan. My research interests lie in syntax and semantics, particularly those of my native language, Japanese. I previously worked as a high school teacher in my hometown. In my free time, I enjoy watching Japanese TV shows and anime, and listening to various types of music.

Roger Liu

Hello, I am Roger Cheng-yen Liu (he/him) from Taiwan. I am interested in speech sound (phonetics, phonology, prosody) as well as its interface with other grammatical module (syntax and semantics) in different facets (theoretical, experimental, diachronic, and probably computational—in which I have very limited experience). I like language, because it pleases me both mentally and physically through analyzing grammatical formulae and manipulating the articulators respectively. I work on linguistics, because I wonder how theories can elegantly predict variations of human language with a finite set of parameters and elements. Besides linguistics, I am interested in popular music in Taiwan and Japan (especially before the 1990s), and I consider myself to be a good singer. I also like to play computer games (genre: JRPG), and I used to be familiar with the RPG Maker series.

Yanran Mou

Hi there, I’m Yanran (she/her)! I’m from Edmonton, Alberta, and recently finished up my undergrad at McGill University. I’m interested primarily in suprasegmental phonology, particularly in a language learning context, but would love to explore the world of information structure and its interaction with phonology. In my spare time, you can find me looking at birds in the woods or walking my dogs around town.

Nir Segal

Hi, I’m Nir. I’m from Jerusalem. My name comes from biblical Hebrew and means “plowing” or “plowed field.” My main interest is the study of meaning, which has led me to focus on formal semantics. However, thanks to some enthusiastic professors who showed me how to frame interesting research questions, I’ve also gotten into syntax and psycho-/neurolinguistics. Outside of linguistics, I enjoy music, films, reading, and laughing.

The first Lingle (Linguist Mingle) of the year will happen on Wednesday, November 29 at 5:30. Lingles are events for all of our various linguistics undergraduate majors. They are partly social and partly informational. This Lingle will include:

1. Food and socializing
2. An info session (optional!) on computational linguistics, including a Q&A on jobs in linguistics with one of our recent graduates.

Everyone is welcome. Please join if you’re able!

Susi Wurmbrand (Harvard University) will present “Implicational complementation hierarchies: Containment and the freedom of syntax” on Friday November 18, 2022 at 3:30pm as part of the Linguistics colloquium series. The presentation will be both in-person in S331 in the ILC and available through Zoom. Abstract can be found below. All are welcome!

Typological and cross-linguistic observations show that complementation configurations can be ranked according to their semantic properties, forming an implicational complementation hierarchy along which syntactic or morphological distinctions operate. I suggest a model where the cross-linguistically stable (possibly universal) properties follow from a rigid syntax?semantic mapping of categories defined via containment, whereas variable properties indicate the points where syntax may act autonomously.  I will discuss several phenomena where implicational relations have been observed (among them finiteness, transparency, restructuring, the left periphery) and show that they can be related to truncation options (whether implemented via exfoliation, structure removal or non-projection) regulated by containment.

Tom Roeper reports:

The GALA 15 conference (Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition) took place in Frankfurt (sept 22-240)–organized by Petra Schulz (former visitor here) with an invited address by Ana Perez, former student here,  and with papers by  former visitors Angeliek van Hout, Camelia Bleotu (with Tom Roeper), and Petra Schulz, and LAWNE member William Snyder, and a poster by Uscha Lakschmann, Deb Foucault, and Tom Roeper.

       A  very nice memorial was held for Jürgen Weissenborn at the GALA Conference in Frankfurt on Sept 24th.  Jürgen died at 83 on Feb 28th.  He was a frequent visitor at UMass,  had many friends here (including Peggy Speas, Barbara Partee, and others).  He married one of our students, Janet Randall,—who attended by zoom.   His wife Bettina, daughter Pia, and 3 grandchildren came. In addition to many remembrances, letters from Barbara Partee and Jill deVilliers were read.

Jürgen collaborated with Jill deVilliers and me on acquisition of long-distance rules,  with Angeliek van Hout on auxiliary learning, with Sandra Waxman on word-learning, among many topics he worked on.      

I also gave a lecture at ZAS in Berlin on “Minimal Interfaces as a Guide to L2, and the formulation of the Thought-Cognition connection”, and the same talk (more or  less) at the Conference in Wuppertal on “Optionality and Variation in Multilingual Syntax” organized by Leah BAuke (a former visitor here) with many leaders in the field (Antonella Sorace, Marit Wetergaard, Theresa Biberauer, among others).

This year’s Annual Meetings on Phonology (AMP) was hosted by UCLA October 21–23. The Annual Meetings on Phonology began as Phonology 2013 here at UMass.

Faculty member Gaja Jarosz gave a keynote address, Generalizing from Inconsistent Data: How Much do Exceptions Count?

Presentations from current students, faculty, and alumni included:

• Alessa Farinella presented “Prosodic constituency in Tagalog”
• Cerys Hughes presented “Probing a Neural Network Model of Sound Change for Perceptual Integration”
• Brandon Prickett (PhD 2021) presented “Is Sour Grapes Learnable? A Computational and Experimental Approach”
• Seung Suk Lee, Cerys Hughes, Alessa Farinella and Joe Pater presented “Learning stress with feet and grids”
• Aleksei Nazarov (PhD 2016) and and Brian Smith (PhD 2015) presented “Generalizing French schwa deletion: the role of indexed constraints”
• Anne-Michelle Tessier (PhD 2007), Karen Jesney (PhD 2011), Kaili Vesik, Roger Lo and Marie-Eve Bouchard presented “The Productive Status of Canadian French Liaison: Variation across Words and Grammar”

After successfully defending her dissertation in July, Seoyoung Kim has accepted a position as Language Data Scientist working for Alexa AI in Seattle Washington. She will be handling unique data analysis and research requests that support the training and evaluation of machine learning models and the overall processing of a language data collection. Wow! Congratulations, Seoyoung!

Seoyoung Kim successfully defended her dissertation “Restrictive Tier Induction” on Friday July 8. Pictured from left to right with the defense fish are Gaja Jarosz, Seoyoung Kim, and Michael Becker. Committee member Maria Gouskova (NYU) participated remotely. Congratulations Seoyoung!