Author: Adrian Stegovec

Seungho Nam | New Student

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Hi, I am Seungho Nam [nᵈam sɯŋʰo] from Seoul, Korea. I did my BA in Linguistics, Hispanic Linguistics, and Classical Latin, and my MA in Hispanic Linguistics, all at Seoul National University. My primary research interest is formal semantics, and I’m specifically interested in things like clause types, counterfactuality, modality, and tense. I wrote my MA thesis on counterfactual imperatives of Spanish and Korean.

I’m also interested in the historical linguistics of Romance languages (mostly Catalan, Spanish, and Latin), especially semantic changes, mood, and modality. Because of my experience as a Spanish teacher for about ten years, second and third language acquisition and translation are other topics that are inseparable from me.

Besides my academic interests, I love to translate, go grocery shopping, and spend some time alone. I’m also involved in the LGBT rights movement in my country as a member of the community (and here you see my interest in sociolinguistics, too).

Jiabao Fan | New Student

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My name is Jiabao Fan and I come from mainland China. I received a master’s degree in Linguistics from Soochow University this July. My primary research interests are language acquisition, syntax, formal semantics, and sentence processing. I was first attracted to the theory of first language acquisition, and after I read more books about generative grammar, I found syntactic theory and formal semantics so elegant and charming. So, I come to UConn’s linguistic department to learn more about them.

 Besides my study, I love classical literature, Japanese anime (Volleyball Juvenile is my favorite), Nintendo video games and hiking.

Chia-Wei (Jarry) Chuang | New Student

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I’m Jarry (Chia-Wei Chuang 莊家瑋), from Taipei, Taiwan. I just received my B.A. in English and Linguistics from National Chengchi University (2020-23). Currently, I serve as Student Director of Linguistic Society of Taiwan (LST) (2021-present).

My first love for linguistics is sound of language. I have conducted a great pool of studies on phonetics-phonology and morpho-phonology, paying attention to especially tonology, syllable structure, lenition, and non-native acquisition. Recently, I’ve expanded my research niche to formal syntax, syntax-phonology, and syntax-pragmatics interfaces. Left-periphery as well as tense-aspect-modality are also what I am interested in now.

My native languages are Mandarin Chinese and Southern Min. Aside from them, the languages that I study include Cantonese, Hakka, Vietnamese, and English. Exploring different languages always makes me enjoy a lot. Different as they are in form and meaning, they share the same system, which is the most exciting part for me.

In my leisure time, I love singing, chatting, cooking, shopping, and playing badminton. If you’re too, why not come along with me ([jarry.chaung@uconn.edu] [personal web]). I’ll be more than happy to have more friends with similar interests.

Lee Defense

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Si Kai Lee successfully defended his doctoral dissertation titled At the Edge of Contact, Insights from the Left Peripheries of Singlish on September 18th.

Congratulations, Si Kai!

Si Kai during the defense:

 

Dr. Lee with his committee after the successful defense:

 

Dr. Lee cutting his well earned cake:

 

UConn Linguistics at M100

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MIT’s Department of Linguistics and Philosophy hosted a conference on phonology and morphology on September 8-10th to celebrate Morris Halle’s (1923–2018) centenary. UConn Linguistics was represented at the conference by the following presentations:

  • Shengyun Gu. A sketch of contrastive handshapes and their variants in Shanghai Sign Language
  • Hanyu Liu. Palatalization in Polish under the framework of feature geometry
  • Walter Shaw. Upward reanalyses of verbal morphology in Proto-Celtic
  • Andrea Calabrese. Remarks on Halle (2018)
  • Harry van der Hulst. The phonology of synthetic compounds
  • Andrea Calabrese & Laura Grestenberger. Accentuation and zero grade in the Vedic Sanskrit verbal system

The conference featured posters exclusively, and everyone can take a look at our posters through this link: http://m100.mit.edu/program.html

Carstens | Linguistic Inquiry

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Vicki Carstens’s article “Nguni bare nouns: licensing without Case” has just appeared online ahead of its print publication in Linguistic Inquiry. Congratulations, Vicki!

Abstract: Nguni bare or augmentless([–A]) nominals are licit only as strict negative dependents and wh-words. They may not appear in a preverbal subject position unless local to a negation-licensed [–A] complementizer of a subjunctive clause (Pietraszko 2021). This pattern motivates an analysis in terms of negative concord and a labeling theory approach to the Extended Projection Principle (EPP) (Chomsky 2013): [–A] nouns have uninterpretable negation features that thwart agreement and labeling in [XP, YP] configurations (see also Bošković 2019, 2020 on uninterpretable features and labeling problems) unless valued by interpretable negation in a syntactic Agree relation (Zeijlstra 2008, Haegeman and Lohndal 2010, Penka 2011). A cluster of further distributional restrictions on [–A] nominals are predictable from an independently motivated Nguni clausal topography of focus (Carstens and Mletshe 2016), eliminating any role for abstract Case in explaining the facts, contra Halpert 2015 and Pietraszko 2021. The analysis is inspired by and extends to parallel restrictions in Romance languages previously attributed to the Empty Category Principle and the EPP (Contreras 1986, Longobardi 1994, Déprez 2000, Landau 2007).

UConn Linguistics at SuB

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Sinn und Bedeutung 28, hosted by Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), is taking place September 5-8, 2023. UConn linguistics will be well represented at the conference, with the following talks:

  • Muyi Yang (UConn 2023, now at Osaka University). Back to Boolean: Rethinking clausal conjunctions in attitude ascriptions
  • Yu Hashimoto, Yusuke Yagi, and Hajime Mori. Dynamics and alternatives in unconditionals
  • Yusuke Yagi. Local context of logical connectives is not universal: A case study of Japanese disjunction
  • Adina Bleotu, Rodica Ivan, Gabriela Bîlbîie, Mara Panaitescu, Monica Casa, Anton Benz, Lyn Tieu (UConn 2013, now at University of Toronto), & Andreea Nicolae. Multiple disjunctions in child Romanian: On the possible sources of conjunctive readings

… and the following poster presentation:

  • Magdalena Kaufmann, Stefan Kaufmann, Teruyuki Mizuno (UConn 2023, now at Ochanomizu University), and Muyi Yang. Problem solving with Japanese ‘beki’

 

Picture: UConn contingent at SuB 28

UConn Linguistics at workshops in Tokyo & Ogoto-Onsen

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The 2023 Tokyo Workshop on Computational and Theoretical Semantics took place at Ochanomizu University, Tokyo on July 21. UConn linguistics was represented at the workshop by:

  • Muyi Yang (PhD 2023, now Osaka University). Back to Boolean: rethinking clausal conjunctions in attitude reports
  • Teruyuki Mizuno (PhD 2023, now Ochanomizu University). Strategies for Anderson conditionals: their implications for the theory of O- and X-markings
  • Magdalena  and Stefan Kaufmann. Just in case? 
  • Stefan Kaufmann. Shifty if‘s iffy shifts

Muyi, Teru, Magda, and Stefan also took part in the Workshop in Semantics and Pragmatics at Komorebi in Ogoto-onsen, Shiga, July 24-25, where they presented Problem solving with Japanese “beki”.

(pictured: UConn linguistics contingent at the Ochanomizu University workshop)