Author: Adrian Stegovec

UConn Linguistics at SuB

Sinn und Bedeutung 30 will take place at Goethe University Frankfurt, September 23-27, 2024. UConn linguistics will be well represented at the conference, with an invited talk by:

  • Magdalena Kaufmann. Perspectives on possibility modals

… and talks by:

  • Yuta Tatsumi (PhD 2021, now at Meikai University). Temporal connectives and measure phrases in Japanese
  • Mingjiang Chen. A Causal Model Approach to the Agent Control Hypothesis
  • Yixuan Yan and Yitong Luo. Declarative but not inquisitive disjunctors derive conjunctive inference in child language: What to flatten?
  • Adina Camelia Bleotu, Lyn Tieu (PhD 2013, now at University of Toronto), Gabriela Bîlbîie, Mara Panaitescu, Anton Benz, and Andreea Nicolae.Comparing disjunction across polarities: The source of strong interpretations of negative disjunctive sentences in child language is scope, not strengthening
  • Yusuke Yagi (PhD 2025, now at Waseda University) and Ka-Fai Yip. Asymmetric reconstruction for binding but not for scope

    … and poster presentations by:

    • Jon Gajewski. A source-based ambiguity in the semantics of believe
    • Xuetong Yuan (PhD 2024, now at University of Chicago). Conditionality without if: conditional marking strategies in Mandarin

    UConn Linguistics at GALA

    The 17th Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition conference (GALA 17), was held September 11-13 in Tours, France, at the City of Creation and Innovation (MAME). UConn linguistics was well represented at the conference with talks by:

    • Elaine Grolla (PhD 2005, now at University of Sao Paolo), Kazuko Yatsushiro (PhD 1999, now at ZAS Berlin), Andreea Nicolae, Artemis Alexiadou, and Uli Sauerland. Resumption in matrix wh-questions
    • Yixuan Yan and Yitong Luo. Mandarin children interpret declarative but not interrogative disjunction as conjunction
    • André Eliatamby and Lyn Tieu (PhD 2013, now at University of Toronto). Investigating the interaction of definiteness and ad hoc implicatures in child language
    • William Snyder, Sahil Luthra, Nabin Koirala and Roeland Hancock. Passives, Raising, and the Experiencer Externalization Hypothesis
    • Chie Nakamura, Suzanne Flynn, Yoichi Miyamoto (PhD 1994, now at Osaka University), and Noriaki Yusa. Filler-gap Resolution in Cross-linguistic Wh-questions: L2 English and Lti Japanese

    … and posters by:

    • Giulio Ciferri Muramatsu. A Picture Selection Task for the Acquisition of Japanese Disjunction
    • Cory Bill, Imke Driemel, Kazuko Yatsushiro, Napoleon Katsos and Uli Sauerland. A cross-linguistic investigation of children’s negative indefinite production
    • Pravaal Yadav. Do children use the same grammar for comprehension and production? A study of long-distance questions in child-Hindi

     

    Lillo-Martin and Wang at X-PPL

    Diane Lillo-Martin and Shuyan Wang will present a poster, titled “Children’s online processing of scalar implicatures”, at the 2025 edition of the conference on Cross-linguistic Perspectives on Processing and Learning (X-PPL 2025), hosted by the University of Zurich, September 1st-2nd 2015.

    Xu and Wang | Languages

    Ting Xu (PhD 2016, now at Tsinghua University) and Shuyan Wang (PhD 2022, now a post-doc at UConn) have published an article in the journal Languages, titled “On the Acquisition of English Complex Predicates and Complex Word Formation: Revisiting the Parametric Approach”. Congratulations Ting and Shuyan!

    Abstract: Languages vary in their availability of productive endocentric bare-stem compounds (e.g., flower hat) and a range of complex predicates (separable verb-particles, double object datives, adjectival resultatives, put-locatives, make-causatives, and perceptual reports). To account for these cross-linguistic variations, two parameters have been proposed: the Compounding Parameter (TCP), which governs the formation of bare-stem compounds, separable verb-particles, and adjectival resultatives, and the Small Clause Parameter (SCP), which determines whether a verb can take a small clause complement. These parameters make testable predictions about children’s acquisition. If TCP and SCP are on the right track, we would expect correlations in the acquisition of structures governed by each parameter. This study examines these predictions by analyzing longitudinal corpora from 23 English-speaking children, assessing both the correlation between the acquisition of different structures and their acquisitional ordering. Our findings support both TCP and SCP, confirming that the acquisition of bare-stem compounds is closely associated with that of separable verb-particles, while the acquisition of (some) complex predicates is related. In addition, our results offer new insights into the potential triggers that children use to set each parameter. These findings contribute to our understanding of language variation and the role of parameter setting in first language acquisition.

    Kaufmanns | Invited talks in Tokyo and Sapporo

    Magdalena Kaufmann and Stefan Kaufmann gave a series of invited talks in August:

    • Stefan Kaufmann gave two lectures on “Probabilistic Semantics for Modality and Conditionals” at Ochanomizu University, Tokyo, on August 5 (co-hosted by Daisuke Bekki, Ikumi Imani, and UConn alum Teruyuki Mizuno, PhD 2023)
    • Magdalena Kaufmann and Stefan Kaufmann each gave a talk at a workshop on “Future Developments in Formal Semantics” at Sapporo City University, Sapporo, August 18-19:
      • Magdalena Kaufmann. Perspectives on Modals
      • Stefan Kaufmann. Import/Export and Other Conditional Invalidities

    Daniel Defense

    Penelope Daniel successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled Building a DAM: Parameters of differential argument marking on July 7th.

    Penelope will be starting her job as a postdoctoral associate in syntax at the University of Maryland in the fall.

    Congratulations, Penelope!

     

    Penelope defending:

     

    Dr. Daniel preparing for the toast after the successful defense:

     

    Dr. Daniel celebrating with her committee:

     

    The online audience at the defense:

     

     

    Stegovec mini-course at UNG

    Adrian Stegovec taught a mini-course at the University of Nova Gorica – Center for Cognitive Science of Languagebetween 17th June and 1st July, titled “Restrictions on the order and (co-)occurrence of clitic pronouns: From Slovenian to the world and back again”. The course consisted of five lectures:

    • Setting the stage: Restrictions on the order and (co-)occurrence of clitic pronouns
    • Person-based restrictions on Slovenian clitics: PCC or not PCC?
    • A typological investigation of person restrictions
    • A typological gap and why it’s there
    • Finding the source of person restrictions

     

    Laszakovits Defense

    Sabine Laszakovits successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled On the fundamental difference between dependent-up and dependent-down cases, and on their manifestation in Turkic on June 17th.

    Congratulations, Sabine!

     

    Sabine defending “in front of” most of her committee:

     

    Dr. Laszakovits with the committee and audience after the successful defense: