Hello again, BULA -- it turns out that the information that went out yesterday is already slightly out of date. One of the candidates who was going to be visiting is no longer coming. The revised schedule is below:
--
HI,
Very sorry to inform you that the events announced just last night
for Laura McPherson have been cancelled.
Revised schedule for presentations by Morphology candidates
1. Neil Myler, PhD Candidate, NYU
https://sites.google.com/site/neilmylerlinguist/
Monday, February 3, 5:15-6:45 PM, KCB 101.
"Crack words, and you crack grammar: what morphology
has to teach us about the language faculty"
In this talk, I will use data from English, Quechua, and
other languages to argue that morphology is not an
independent component of the grammar. Instead,
the phenomena we call ‘morphology’ emerge partly
from syntax, partly from phonology, and partly from
the interaction between these two. Far from belittling
the importance of morphology as a subfield, I will show
that this viewpoint places the study of morphology
in a privileged position. Since the phenomena of
morphology emerge from the interaction of different
subcomponents of grammar, it follows that morphology
has more to teach us about how these subcomponents
fit together than any other subfield.
2. Laura McPherson, PhD Candidate, UCLA - CANCELLED
Thursday, February 6, 5:15-6:45 PM, in KCB 101.
3. Mark Norris, PhD Candidate, UC Santa Cruz
http://people.ucsc.edu/~mnorris/
Monday, February 10, 5:15-6:45 PM, in KCB 101.
"Refining the characterization of nominal concord:
Evidence from Estonian"
This talk is an investigation of what I will call nominal
concord -- the kind of agreement seen between nouns and the
elements that modify them (e.g., adjectives, demonstratives).
Descriptively, nominal concord is often described as various
elements "agreeing with the head noun." Theoretically, it has
been proposed that nominal concord is in some sense the noun
phrase correlate of subject-verb agreement (Baker 2008,
Carstens 2000, among others). In this talk, I investigate the
behavior of nominal concord in Estonian, ultimately arguing
that both views need to be revised. I will propose that apparent
"agreement with the head noun" is epiphenomenal and that
there are a number of important differences between concord
and subject-verb agreement that need to be taken seriously.
Instead, I will propose that nominal concord is purely
morphological: elements showing concord in Estonian must
express case and number for morphological reasons, and they
acquire those values from the closest (nominal) phrase that
contains them.
Likewise, the meeting for her with students planned for
Feb. 7 will not take place.
Sorry!
>From Alex Williams:
____
Hello Fellow Linguists,
In case you haven’t heard, the Linguistics Program is currently in the process of hiring two new professors. There is about to be a series of lectures from finalists for the position, and the Linguistics Program is asking undergraduates to attend this series of lectures so we can provide valuable feedback that will be used in the hiring process of these candidates! Now is the time for us to let the Linguistics Program hear our voice! There will also be a set of special meetings, at which we can meet the candidates and get to know them a little better. We hope to see you at as many of the events as possible and that you are able to provide the administration of Linguistics Program with some useful feedback! Below are descriptions of the upcoming lectures and the times for the individual meetings.
1. Neil Myler, PhD Candidate, NYU
https://sites.google.com/site/neilmylerlinguist/
Monday, February 3, 5:15-6:45 PM, KCB 101.
"Crack words, and you crack grammar: what morphology
has to teach us about the language faculty"
In this talk, I will use data from English, Quechua, and
other languages to argue that morphology is not an
independent component of the grammar. Instead,
the phenomena we call ‘morphology’ emerge partly
from syntax, partly from phonology, and partly from
the interaction between these two. Far from belittling
the importance of morphology as a subfield, I will show
that this viewpoint places the study of morphology
in a privileged position. Since the phenomena of
morphology emerge from the interaction of different
subcomponents of grammar, it follows that morphology
has more to teach us about how these subcomponents
fit together than any other subfield.
2. Laura McPherson, PhD Candidate, UCLA
http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/grads/McPherson/Laura_McPhersons_Hom…
Thursday, February 6, 5:15-6:45 PM, in KCB 101.
"Variable vowel harmony in Tommo So verbal morphology"
This talk probes the question of morphological distance --
what makes a suffix an "outer" suffix, and how fine-grained
can such distinctions be? I focus on the test case of Tommo So
(Dogon, Mali) derivational verb morphology, which shows an
interesting interaction with vowel harmony. Tommo So has
three vowel harmony processes (Low, Backness, ATR) that
may optionally apply to a stem or a stem+suffix combination.
Suffixes on verbs appear in a strict linear order, which can be
used to establish a hierarchy of "morphological distance" from
the stem. This 7-step hierarchy is respected by all three vowel
harmony processes, such that they apply with decreasing
frequency moving away from the stem. If we plot these
application rates across morphological structure, we find that
the data form sigmoid, or S-shaped, curves. In this talk, I first
give a description of vowel harmony rules and demonstrate
how they derive allomorphs of each suffix. I then discuss
similar cases in the literature, before suggesting an analysis
with weighted constraints that predicts the S-shaped curves
found in the Tommo So data. In sum, this talk supports the
idea of a highly textured morphology and explores ways
in which the phonology responds to that complexity.
3. Mark Norris, PhD Candidate, UC Santa Cruz
http://people.ucsc.edu/~mnorris/
Monday, February 10, 5:15-6:45 PM, in KCB 101.
"Refining the characterization of nominal concord:
Evidence from Estonian"
This talk is an investigation of what I will call nominal
concord -- the kind of agreement seen between nouns and the
elements that modify them (e.g., adjectives, demonstratives).
Descriptively, nominal concord is often described as various
elements "agreeing with the head noun." Theoretically, it has
been proposed that nominal concord is in some sense the noun
phrase correlate of subject-verb agreement (Baker 2008,
Carstens 2000, among others). In this talk, I investigate the
behavior of nominal concord in Estonian, ultimately arguing
that both views need to be revised. I will propose that apparent
"agreement with the head noun" is epiphenomenal and that
there are a number of important differences between concord
and subject-verb agreement that need to be taken seriously.
Instead, I will propose that nominal concord is purely
morphological: elements showing concord in Estonian must
express case and number for morphological reasons, and they
acquire those values from the closest (nominal) phrase that
contains them.
Time and Place for the Special Meetings for undergraduates to talk with each of the candidates:
1. Monday, February 3, 9:30-10 AM 621 Comm. Ave. room B02
2. Friday, February 7, 9:30-10 AM, 621 Comm. Ave. room B02
3. Monday, February 10, 9:30-10 AM, 621 Comm. Ave. room B02
As soon as possible after *each* visit, please send your comments to carol(a)bu.edu, so that they can be shared with the search committee.
______
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