Željko Bošković gave an invited talk (Nominal and non-nominal subjects: Their structural positions and adieu to the A/A’-distinction) at the Workshop on Factors in Natural Language Design (FIND) – the Nominal Domain and Beyond, which took place December 11th-12th at the University of Göttingen.
Author: Adrian Stegovec
UConn linguistics at FDSL
The 16th conference on the Formal description of Slavic languages (FDSL16) took place November 29th-December 1st at the University of Graz. UConn linguistics was represented at the conference with talks by:
- Arthur Stepanov (PhD 2001, now at University of Nova Gorica). Exploring feature assignment in real time: The case of Russian numeral phrases
- Magdalena Kaufmann and Neda Todorović (2016, now at University of Connecticut & Reed College). The remote and the impossible in Serbian
- Sara Andreeta, Matic Pavlič, Penka Stateva (PhD 2002, now at University of Nova Gorica), and Artur Stepanov. Sentence comprehension in minority languages: The Slovenian Community in Italy
- Jakob Lenardič (visiting scholar Fall 2017, now at Institute of Contemporary History, Slovenia). Slavic Reflexive Impersonals: Passivisation and Unaccusativity
- Krzysztof Migdalski (post-doc 2006-2008, now at University of Wrocław). On the non-directionality of language change – a case of functional elements in Slavic
- Svitlana Antonyuk (post-doc 2018-19, now at University of Graz). A quantification-based approach to the deduction of phases in (East) Slavic
… and an invited talk by:
- Željko Bošković. Spelling-out phases (Workshop on Information Structure, Prosody and Phase Theory in Slavic)
Gu Defense
Shengyun Gu successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled Bimanual coordination: The non-dominant hand in Shanghai Sign Language on Friday October 27th.
Congratulations, Shengyun!
Shengyun during the defense:
Dr. Gu with her committee after the successful defense:
Dr. Gu cutting her well earned cake:
UConn Linguistics at BUCLD
The 48th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD48) took place on 2nd-5th November 2023. UConn linguistics was represented at the conference with talks by:
- Roeland Hancock, Sahil Luthra and William Snyder. Neuroanatomical Support for the Maturational Hypothesis of Subject-Experiencer Passives
- Helen Koulidobrova (PhD 2012, now at Central Connecticut University) and Gabriel Martinez Vera (PhD 2020, now at Newcastle University). Not a matter of a degree: ASL signing children and acquisition of gradability
… and posters by:
- Deborah Chen Pichler (PhD 2001, now at Gallaudet University), Mary Cecilia Conte, Patrice Creamer, Martin Dale-Hench, Elaine Gale, Linghui Gan, Corina Goodwin, Shengyun Gu, Kaj Kraus, Chui-Yi Margaret Lee, Diane Lillo-Martin, Jeffrey Palmer, Bettie Petersen and Meghan Shaw. Profile of a Family’s Bimodal Bilingual Development
- Adina Camelia Bleotu, Andreea Nicolae, Anton Benz, Gabriela Bilbiie, Mara Panaitescu, Monica Casa and Lyn Tieu (PhD 2013, now at University of Toronto). On the role of alternatives and QUD in implicatures with disjunction in child Romanian
- Shuyan Wang (PhD 2022, now at Rutgers University). Children’s delay in scalar implicatures: Evidence for processing account
- Ting Xu (PhD 2016, now at Tsinghua University), Lyn Tieu and Stella Christie. Mandarin-acquiring children’s interpretation of presuppositional you ‘again’
Željko Bošković | Two invited talks at Peking University
Željko Bošković will give two invited talks this week at the Peking University, sponsored by Peking University Overseas Famous Scholar Lecture Plan:
The talks will be titled:
- “On Wh and Subject Positions, the EPP, and Contextuality of Syntax” (November 1st)
- “Distributed Coordinations and Wh&Wh Coordinations” (November 3rd)
Adrian Stegovec | UMass Amherst Linguistics Colloquium
Adrian Stegovec will give a colloquium talk at UMass, Amherst on October 27th, 2023. His talk will be titled “Short scrambling as smuggling: The argument from Slovenian ditransitives”. More information on the talk will be posted here.
Chuang at AMP, ALC, and WECOL
Jarry Chia-Wei Chuang will give three presentations at the following conferences in October and November:
- “Contractions are not the same: Syllable merger at the interfaces of phonology” is going to be presented as a poster at the 2023 Annual Meeting on Phonology (AMP 2023, online), October 20th-22nd.
- “Dislocation as Copying in Cyclic Linearization” is going to be given as a talk at the 17th Arizona Linguistics Circle (ALC 17), held by the University of Arizona on October 27th.
- “Distinction of Unstressed Tones in Mandarin Chinese” is going to be given as a talk at the 2023 Western Conference on Linguistics (WECOL 2023, online), held by California State University, Fresno on November 11th-12th.
Bogomolets & Van der Hulst | OUP Monograph
Word Prominence in Languages with Complex Morphologies co-edited by Ksenia Bogomolets (PhD 2020, now at Māori Language Commission & University of Auckland) and Harry van der Hulst has been published by Oxford University Press.
This volume focuses on the theoretical and analytical challenges that languages with complex morphologies pose for the theory and typology of word-level prosodic phenomena. The morphological complexity and phonological length that are characteristic of words in these languages make them a particularly fruitful ground for investigating the effects of both phonological and morphological factors in the assignment of prominence. The first three chapters in the volume explore general theoretical issues pertaining to word prominence in synthetic languages, including the issue of ‘wordhood’ and the empirical, theoretical, and methodological issues with delineating word-level prominence and the higher-level prosodic phenomena in these languages. These are followed by a series of case studies on stress, accent, and tone in a geographically and genetically diverse set of languages with highly synthetic morphologies including languages of the Americas, Europe and Asia, and Australia. The volume adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, combining phonetic, phonological, and morphosyntactic insights. It will be of interest not only to phonologists and morphologists, but to all those interested in the typological and theoretical issues relating to polysynthetic languages.
The volume also contains chapters written by Ksenia and Harry:
- Ksenia Bogomolets. Accent and tone in Arapaho
- Harry van der Hulst. A unified account of phonological and morphological accent
Van der Hulst | A Mind for Language
A Mind for Language: An Introduction to the Innateness Debate written Harry van der Hulst has just been published by Cambridge University Press.
How does human language arise in the mind? To what extent is it innate, or something that is learned? How do these factors interact? The questions surrounding how we acquire language are some of the most fundamental about what it means to be human and have long been at the heart of linguistic theory. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to this fascinating debate, unravelling the arguments for the roles of nature and nurture in the knowledge that allows humans to learn and use language. An interdisciplinary approach is used throughout, allowing the debate to be examined from philosophical and cognitive perspectives. It is illustrated with real-life examples and the theory is explained in a clear, easy-to-read way, making it accessible for students without a background in linguistics. An accompanying website contains a glossary, questions for reflection, discussion themes and project suggestions, to further deepen students understanding of the material.
Goodwin & Lillo-Martin | Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Ed.
The article “Deaf and Hearing American Sign Language–English Bilinguals: Typical Bilingual Language Development” by Corina Goodwin (PhD 2016) and Diane Lillo-Martin has just been published in The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education (https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enad026). Congratulations!
Abstract: Some studies have concluded that sign language hinders spoken language development for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children even though sign language exposure could protect DHH children from experiencing language deprivation. Furthermore, this research has rarely considered the bilingualism of children learning a signed and a spoken language. Here we compare spoken English development in 2–6-year-old deaf and hearing American Sign Language–English bilingual children to each other and to monolingual English speakers in a comparison database. Age predicted bilinguals’ language scores on all measures, whereas hearing status was only significant for one measure. Both bilingual groups tended to score below monolinguals. Deaf bilinguals’ scores differed more from monolinguals, potentially because of later age of and less total exposure to English, and/or to hearing through a cochlear implant. Overall, these results are consistent with typical early bilingual language development. Research and practice must treat signing-speaking children as bilinguals and consider the bilingual language development literature.