Whamit!

Strange VP ellipsis in the news (second email down the page).

Strange right node raising in the news.

The Music-Language reading group, which meets on Fridays at 3:30 when there is no colloquium, has a website on which readings and topics for our meetings are posted.  Last Friday, we discussed grouping and meter in the context of West African drum music (Claire Halpert led the discussion) and in the context of clave patterns and related rhythmic phenomena (Jonah Katz led the discussion).  At our meeting this Friday, we will discuss aspects of the syntax of tonal harmony.

An illustration of the effects of visual information on auditory processing.

The Modularity Reading Group has changed the time and place of their meetings.
From now on, the group will meet Friday mornings, 10am-12pm, in 24-402.

To keep up to date with what’s happening in the group, see their website at:
http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/groups/modularity/

The joint NSF/NIH program for documenting endangered languages will be accepting funding applications until Saturday, November 1st.

Jeremy Hartman will lead a discussion of Phillipe Schlenker’s Expressive Presuppositions on Wednesday at 3PM in 26-310. If you would like to present a paper or would like to see a particular paper discussed, please let us know. More information can be found on the LF Reading Group’s webpage

This is a periodic reminder that if you ever use the phonetics lab space or equipment, you should subscribe to the phonlab e-mail list: (it’s extremely low volume)

http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/phonlab

In addition, if you are not sure about the correct way to do something in the lab, please just ask someone who knows. (This includes signing up for times to reserve the booth, recording to a file, adjusting the levels or switch mics, adjusting the fitting of the head-mounted microphone, and so on). Finally, if you know of others who use the lab but who might not be on one of the ling lists, such as RA’s/UROPs, class participants, and so on, please forward this to them, and be sure they know where to look for instructions/training, and who to go to for help.

In preparation for Chris Kennedy’s colloquium, LF Reading Group will discuss two of his papers this week: Vagueness and Grammar (L&P, 2007) and Modes of Comparison (CLS, 2008). Reading the papers is not a prerequisite to attend. See you on Wednesday at 3PM in 26-310.

Last year we started a research group studying experimental and quantitative methods in the investigation of linguistic theory. Due to popular demand we will continue our meetings this year.

The format of the group will be similar to Phonology Circle/LF Reading group and other seminars. Participants can propose sessions which should fall roughly into one of three categories:

1. You have recently run an experiment and would like to discuss ways in which to analyze and/or make sense of your data.
2. You have a particular project and would like to talk about ways in which to experimentally test your hypotheses.
3. You stumbled upon a particular experimental or statistical method and would like to learn what it’s all about.

MathMod meets biweekly on Thursdays at 5pm in 32-D831. For details and information, please contact Peter Graff.

The first meeting of the Music Language Reading group will be this Friday, Sept. 26, from 3:30-5:00, location TBA. If you’re interested in participating, and you haven’t been receiving emails, please contact David Pesetsky or Jonah Katz to be added to the list.

One of the best-kept secrets in the department is LingWiki, a collaborative repository of general information concerning life inside and outside the department, compiled by students. It’s chock full of useful tidbits, especially for those new to the department and/or the area. Please have a look. Also, if you’re a student, please help us by adding information.

From Jonah Katz and David Pesetsky:

We are interested in starting a reading group based loosely around linguistics-inspired approaches to music cognition, especially structural approaches to music theory. The idea would be to start out by going through part or all of Lerdahl & Jackendoff’s Generative Theory of Tonal Music, a foundational text in this area. We would help ‘teach’ the book to some extent, because it’s dense and difficult, and we’ve both spent a lot of time with it.  After going through GTTM, we’d like to keep meeting. Some ideas are to look at more recent literature in this area or, ideally, to encourage people to start and discuss their own projects.We want the group to be accessible to anybody with a minimal background in playing/studying music. For instance: if you can’t transpose an orchestral score on sight, don’t worry!  But if you can’t read music at all, you’d probably need some remedial study — we’d need to assume that. If you can’t analyze chord progressions, fine; if you don’t know what a ‘chord’ is, this is probably not for you. Please let us know (e-mail jkatz and pesetsk) if you have any interest in participating in such a group this semester. Our impression is that there are lots of musical people in the department and increasing interest in this topic.

[From the MIT Libraries site:]

Implemented in the fall of 2008, the Faculty Book Delivery Pilot Project offers faculty the opportunity to have books delivered to their offices upon request. The service takes 2-3 days, and is initiated using the “Your Account” feature in Barton. .

Basically, you order the book via Barton and it gets sent via campus mail. Together with the book drop on the ground floor of Stata, faculty may never have to set foot in the library again. No word yet on whether in a later phase graduate students could get this service as well.

On Tuesday, September 2, Registration Day, 3pm to 5pm, there will be a welcome party to celebrate the beginning of the fall semester in the main lounge of the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy. Everybody is welcome!

There are 8 students in the incoming class:

Samer Al Khatib, who goes by ‘Sam’, grew up in Palestine, Jordan, and Vancouver. He did his undergrad in computer science at UBC, and has just finished an MA in linguistics at Simon Fraser University. He’s interested in semantics and pragmatics (and the relationship between the two), as well as theoretical syntax, syntactic typology, historical linguistics, and Semitic languages.

Young Ah Do is from Korea, and has a B.A. and M.A. from Seoul National University. Young Ah is interested in phonology.

Natasha Ivlieva is from Moscow, where she studied in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics at Moscow State University. She is mostly interested in syntax and the syntax-semantics interface.

Marie-Christine Meyer is from Germany. She studied philosophy and linguistics at the University of Tuebingen, the University of Potsdam, and Humboldt University Berlin, where she recently completed an M.A. Although she’s interested in every area of linguistics, her main has been and most likely will be semantics, pragmatics, and philosophy of language.

Liudmila Nikolaeva, who goes by ‘Liuda’, graduated from the Linguistics Department of the Russian State University for the Humanities a year ago, and has been a grad student there for the last year. Her main interests are syntax, semantics, and fieldwork.

Rafael Nonato reports that tendonitis makes him succinct.

Sasha Podobryaev is from Moscow, where he studied linguistics at Moscow State University. His primary area of interest is syntax.

Igor Yanovich

The start of the fall semester brings with it a bumper crop of new visitors. We offer a hearty welcome to those who have already arrived:

Visiting Scholars

• Hyunsook Kang (Professor, Hanyang University Division of English Language & Culture)

  Research interests: interface of phonology and phonetics

• Anthi Revithiadou (Assistant Professor of Comparative Linguistics, University of Aegean)

  Primary research interests: metrical theory, prosodic phonology and areas of the morphosyntax-phonology interface. She works on Standard Greek and its dialects with emphasis on those that were in contact with Turkish (e.g. Pontic, Cappadocian, Rhodian Muslim Greek, etc.). She currently explores the accentual differences among various Ancient Greek dialects.

• Hiroyuki Tanaka (Associate Professor, Kwansei Gakuin University)

  Research interests: the syntax of complementizers and its interaction with semantics and morphology.

• Chi-lin Wang (Associate Professor, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology)

  Research interests: interlanguage phonology with a focus on phonotactics

Visiting Students

• Gaetano Fiorin (University of Verona)

  Research interests: the degree of semantic competence of dyslexic children

• Marina (Marlies) Kluck (University of Groningen)

  My research concerns the syntax and semantics of sentence amalgamation. I analyse these as paratactic construals involving multidominance (‘sharing’).

• Gary Thoms (Strathclyde University)

  I’m in second year of a PhD on literary language, specifically the unusual language of 20th century avant garde literature. The broader questions of my project are largely metatheoretical, and the specific topics which substantiate this inquiry include the semantic-pragmatic distinction, optional movement and derivational morphology.

• Stefano Versace (Universita degli Studi di Milano)

  Currently working on a dissertation project investigating the generativist approach to meter and its possible application in Italian contemporary poetry.

More visitors will be arriving in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for further announcements!

MIT Linguistics PhD alum Michela Ippolito and her husband had their first child: Martina was born in Toronto on July 4th:

Kazuko Yatsushiro and MIT Linguistics PhD alum Uli Sauerland had their third child: Mika Sauerland was born on August 1st:

Alya Asarina & Kirill Shklovsky
Title TBA
Thursday, May 8, 12:30-1:45
32-D461

Ezra Keshet has accepted a one-year visiting professorship in semantics at the University of Michigan. Congratulations, Ezra!

Stanford keeps a comprehensive list of funding opportunities available to linguistics grad students. Have a look.

[Thanks Hrayr!]

The Endangered Language Fund provides grants for ‘language maintenance and linguistic field work’. The deadline to apply for this year is Monday, April 21st. More information is available on the ELF’s website.

[Thanks Jessica!]

This one doesn’t have a deadline until November, but it looks like a rather involved application process, with potentially great rewards. The NSF, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, is offering sizable grants and fellowships to support work on endangered languages. Details can be found here.

[Thanks Jessica!]

Whamit! wishes everyone a happy spring break! We will return next week with regular updates.

We welcome two new visitors who have arrived this week:

• Nabila Louriz (Assistant Professor, English Department at Hassan II University in Casablanca, Morocco)
  Visiting Scholar until July
  Research interests: loanword phonology
• Georgios Spathas (PhD student, University of Utrecht)
  Post-Doctoral Fellow until December 08
  Research interests: syntax and semantics of gender features on bound pronouns, especially in Modern Greek

A special warm welcome to visiting professor Enoch Oladé Aboh, who is visiting from the University of Amsterdam this semester, until May 08.

Research interest: theoretical syntax; comparative syntax (e.g., Kwa vs. Germanic/Romance, Kwa vs. Sinitic, Kwa vs. Caribbean creoles); discourse-syntax interface; language creation and language change.

Enoch will be teaching an undergraduate seminar and co-teaching a graduate seminar with Michel DeGraff:

24.910 Topics in Linguistic Theory: Information Structure at the Edge
24.921 Special Topics in Linguistics: A transatlantic sprachbund? Gbe and Haitian Creole in a comparative-syntax perspective

The Department of Linguistics & Philosophy

ICE CREAM SOCIAL

When: Registration Day, Monday, February 4, 2008
Where: 32-D850 (Lounge)
Time: 2:00—4:00

Games will start at 3:00pm

WELCOME BACK

A warm welcome to several new visitors who have recently arrived in the department:

• Zhijun Jin (Professor, East China Normal University)
  Visiting Scholar until December 08
  Research interests: second language acquisition, language change and American second language education, including teaching methods, second language teachers formation, etc.

• Seok Han Kang (Professor, University of Incheon)
  Post-Doctoral Fellow until December 08
  Research interests: prosody, phonology, developmental structure for ESL, the relationship between production and perception

• Joan Mascaró (Professor, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Catedràtic d’Universitat)
  Visiting Scholar for spring semester
  Research interests: phonology, morphology and romance languages; stress-controlled harmonic systems

More visitors will be arriving in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned for further announcements!

FiLmprov
Parade: Animated Films with Musical Improvisation
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 8 PM.
Free.
Killian Hall, MIT, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

Animated films by Kate Matson with jazz improvisation by the FiLmprov Ensemble: Peter Bloom, Mark Harvey, Jay Keyser, Bill Lowe, Chris Rakowski, and Phil Scarff

Presented by MIT Music and Theater Arts

Join Kate Matson’s theatre of visual improvisation and the inspired brass band journey through time and space as FiLmprov presents Parade.

The FiLmprov Ensemble includes six renowned improvisers: Peter Bloom, flute and saxophones, Mark Harvey, trumpet, Jay Keyser, trombone, Bill Lowe, bass trombone and tuba, Chris Rakowski, accordion and saxophones, and Phil Scarff, saxophones. These musicians have performed with a wide array of artists, including the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, the John Coltrane Memorial Concert Ensemble, Natraj, the New Liberty Jazz Band, and Cecil Taylor.

Kate Matson has presented her animated films at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harvard University, MIT, the Society for the Arts, Religion, and Contemporary Culture, in New York City, among other venues.

http://filmprov.tripod.com

MITing of the Minds 2008
4th Annual MIT Philosophy Alumni Conference
Thu Jan 24, Fri Jan 25, 09:30am-05:45pm, 32-D461

This year’s MITing of the Minds is the Fourth Annual MIT Philosophy Alumni Conference. The conference will showcase recent work in a variety of areas in contemporary philosophy. Presentations will cover topics in metaphysics, philosophy of language, epistemology, and ethics, and will be accessible to a broad audience. Each day will feature talks by MIT faculty members, current students, and alumni of the graduate program.

Web: http://web.mit.edu/philos/www/mm/

Stay up to date on developments in the phonetics lab — be on the phonetics lab mailing list!

http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/phonlab

Publishing Smart: A Hands-on Workshop on Journal Quality Measures and Publisher Copyright Policies

Addresses what copyright means to you as an author, how you can assess a publisher’s copyright policies, and how you can use web-based tools that assess journal quality. Open access publishing models and the use of the MIT amendment to alter standard publisher agreements will also be discussed.

WHEN: Friday, January 18, 2 - 3 pm
WHERE: 14N-132, DIRC