The Boston University undergraduate Linguistics Association will be
screening two videos in the coming weeks -- one on each Thursday
surrounding Thanksgiving. Come if you can!
BULA Fall Semester Movie Nights:
IN SEARCH OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE
Thu, Nov 20, 7pm
Geddes Language Center
CAS 537C (Viewing Room)
THE HUMAN LANGUAGE SERIES
Part 1: Discovering the Human Language
Thu, Dec 4, 7pm
Geddes Language Center
CAS 538
Some blurbs about the videos:
IN SEARCH OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/2120_firstlan.html
There are almost 5,000 different languages spoken in the world. Many
linguists believe that these 5,000 evolved from about 200 distinct and
apparently unrelated families. Whether or not all of these language
families could have developed from a single language is the issue
explored by this episode of NOVA.
There is a controversy among linguists as to whether a primordial
language once existed. Some claim that after about 10,000 years, any
language has changed too much for anyone to ascertain the original
tongue. They argue that theories about languages before 10,000 years
ago are pure speculation. Others are turning to DNA patterns to
support theories of language origin. All of these linguists are
collecting information that they hope will help them find
relationships among the various families of languages.
THE HUMAN LANGUAGE SERIES
http://equinoxfilms.home.mindspring.com/series.html
Our species alone has the miracle of syntax. Program One is about
words, sentences, and Universal Grammar - the system claimed to be
common to all the world's languages.
"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is gibberish, but
grammatically correct. Does this show that structure can be separate
from meaning? We learn that the "Chomskyan revolution" changed
language study into a search for what goes on inside the brain. (How
does a child just know that the marble "inside" the box isn't "near"
the box?) We find out that the human language has two great ground
plans. (Warlpiri, an Australian language, works the same way as
Latin.) There are no "primitive" languages anywhere.
How good is the human language at what it does? Language is poor at
describing faces, but there is no other way to declare, "There is not
a giraffe standing next to me." The great achievement of language is
that we can think in abstractions; that we can say anything we can
think; that only we can say new things.
Hello, BULA. Just to let you all know, there will be an undergraduate
Linguistics conference at McGill (in Montréal) in March, and if you
have any research you've done (or will have done by February) and
would like to present it this way, definitely consider it. The call
for abstracts is online here:
http://mccclu.ausmcgill.com/blog/submit-abstract/
At links off the website just given, you can also look at past
programs, to get a sense of what kind of an event this is. The
deadline for abstracts is February 9.
-Paul
Call for Papers
The Society of Linguistics Undergraduates of McGill (SLUM) at McGill
University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada is hosting its third annual
McGill’s Canadian Conference for Linguistics Undergraduates (McCCLU)
the weekend of March 6th, 2009. The aims of the conference are to
promote undergraduate research and to foster the growth of the
undergraduate linguistics community.
Undergraduate students interested in participating are encouraged to
submit an abstract for a 20-minute talk with a 10-minute question
period on any topic pertaining to linguistics. Students may also
submit an abstract for a poster on any topic relevant to linguistics
at our poster session to be held during the conference. Abstracts
should be a maximum of one-page in length and should be submitted
online to mccclu2009(a)gmail.com by Monday February 9th, 2009. Please
indicate whether you would like to be considered for a 20-minute talk
or for the poster session or both.
Please direct any further questions to mccclu2009(a)gmail.com.
For more information, check out mccclu.com.
