March 2010 - BULA - ling.bu.edu lists

Tomorrow: "Why study Elvish?" Dr. Marc Zender, CAS 326, 7pm, 4/1
by Paul Hagstrom 31 Mar '10

31 Mar '10

Just a quick reminder of tomorrow evening's talk by Dr. Marc Zender. You can RSVP at the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113878285294454 "Why study Elvish?" Dr. Marc Zender (Lecturer on Anthropology, Harvard University) Thu Apr 1, 7pm CAS 326 Abstract: Beyond popular accolades and prestigious positions at powerful research institutions (which unfortunately are not at all involved), there are some practical benefits to a study of JRR Tolkien's invented languages and scripts. For one thing, they provide a challenge: poorly attested, highly restrictive in genre, and without comprehensive dictionaries and grammars. Like scholars of Gothic, Tocharian, and other fragmentary tongues known primarily (or solely) from disconnected manuscripts, students of Tolkien's languages employ the methods of comparative linguistics to decode these tongues, all of which are (carefully designed to appear to be) historically related. Further, although a philologist of distinction, it is frequently lamented that Tolkien did not publish nearly as many theoretical papers as some of his contemporaries; nonetheless, he worked for some sixty years perfecting the histories and relationships of his invented languages. In recent years, Tolkienian linguists have shown that these languages became the repositories of some of his most profound reflections on linguistics, philosophy, and the theory of translation: ample reward indeed for intrepid decipherers. You can keep up with other BULA happenings at the BULA web site http://bula.bu.edu Other upcoming events: Prof. Jim McCloskey (two talks: April 8, 7:30pm, KCB 101, "Sex and the Irish language: The cultural politics of language attrition" and April 9, 3:30pm, KCB 106, "Yes, no, and the construction of finite verbs in a VSO language") Please RSVP at the Facebook events: April 8: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=382245611264 April 9: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=383231800427 Movies (CAS 537C, 7pm) Apr 13: Cracking the Maya code Apr 20: The Linguists Apr 27: The Wild Child (L'enfant sauvage)

1 0

Phonology Circle Reading for Thursday April 1
by Andrei Anghelescu 26 Mar '10

26 Mar '10

Hello everyone, I just wanted to remind anyone who was interested in attending that the Phonology Circle will be meeting at 5:00 in the basement of 621 Comm on Thursday the 1st. The paper we are reading will be presented by Jason Lucas, the topic is Jamaican vowels. You can find it attached to this email. Hope to see you there! best, Andrei ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <jlucas(a)bu.edu> Date: Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 5:12 AM Subject: Phonology Paper for April 1 To: aanghelescu(a)gmail.com Cc: sjmacken(a)bu.edu, Monica Quimby <mquimby(a)bu.edu>, Nick Danis < ndanis(a)gmail.com>, Katie Franich <kfranich(a)gmail.com>, "K. Clements" < katharine.l.clements(a)gmail.com>, bslewis(a)bu.edu, Whitney Rios <wnrios(a)bu.edu>, Anna Belew <themayor(a)bu.edu> Hello Everyone, Attached is the paper I'd like us to read for next week. I apologize for providing it so late; I had some difficulty accessing it (thanks Professor Mackenzie). See you next week, Jason. PS: Andre, last week we played with the thought of expanding the email list. If you're going to do that could you pass the paper along please? Thank you.

1 0

Upcoming BULA events
by Paul Hagstrom 22 Mar '10

22 Mar '10

Hello BULA. I expect that many of you got paper flyers in classes announcing the many upcoming BULA and Linguistics events happening for the rest of the semester. There are lots! It's a good time to be a linguist! You can find listings for these events on the new BULA web site: http://bula.bu.edu/events/ The major upcoming events are: -Prof. Jim McCloskey (two talks: April 8, 7:30pm, KCB 101, "Sex and the Irish language: The cultural politics of language attrition" and April 9, 3:30pm, KCB 106, "Yes, no, and the construction of finite verbs in a VSO language") -Dr. Marc Zender (April 1, 7pm, CAS 326, "Why study Elvish?") On weeks when there are no talks, there will be Tuesday evening movie screenings at 7pm in CAS 537C. The next event up is on Tuesday, the first movie screening of the semester. "The mystery of the Rosetta Stone / Secrets of the hieroglyphs" These are part of a docu-drama series on Egypt produced by the BBC, which tells the story of the discovery and deciphering of the Rosetta Stone, and the competition between the English (Thomas Young) and French (Jean-François Champollion). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt_(TV_series)#Part_three:_Champollion Tuesday, March 23 7pm CAS 537C (Geddes Viewing Room) The movies scheduled for future Tuesdays are: Apr 13: Cracking the Maya code Apr 20: The Linguists Apr 27: The Wild Child (L'enfant sauvage) Hope to see you at these events! -Paul

1 0