The Suppositional Language project is holding a two-day workshop on Conditional Thought and Talk on October 21-22.
Magdalena Kaufmann | MIT Linguistics Colloquium
Magdalena Kaufmann gave a talk at MIT as part of their Linguistics Colloquium series on October 14th, 2022. Her talk was titled “How to be impossible or remote”.
Stefan Kaufmann | Talk at COCOA
Stefan Kaufmann will speak as part of a forum at the Converging on Causal Ontology Analysis (COCOA) zoominar on Wednesday, October 12, 2022. The information about the talk is below:
Was I speaking before I spoke?
Some English expressions let us characterize states of affairs in terms of subsequent courses of events, even if the latter do not come to pass. Well-known examples of this are “counterfactual” before-clauses (‘The police defused the bomb before it exploded’) and progressives (‘Mary was drawing a circle when she ran out of ink’). Numerous proposals have been made to capture the modal component of each of these constructions, such as Beaver and Condoravdi (2003) for before and Landman (1992) for the progressive. Both refer to possible worlds and processes or events, but ultimately rely on notions that are less well understood (reasonably probable worlds; continuation branches of events). The connection to conditionals (‘If the police hadn’t defused the bomb, it would have exploded’; ‘If she hadn’t run out of ink, she would have drawn a circle’) looms large but is not explored in detail.
Assuming that causal models are a useful tool for modeling (the relevant kind of) counterfactual reasoning, what might they tell us about the relationship between before-clauses, progressives and counterfactual conditionals? Are events crucially involved, and if so, how should they be represented in the causal model? A close look at all three constructions reveals striking similarities, but also stark differences. The similarities suggest to me that pretty much the same kind of causal reasoning is involved in before-clauses and progressives. The differences suggest that the notion of “event” that figures in the analysis of the progressive is not as useful in before-clauses. It turns out that the causal structure is useful precisely for abstracting away from other particulars of the events.
UConn linguistics at BCGL
The 15th Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL15) is taking place October 6th-7th. This year’s conference is devoted to argument structure, theta-roles, and their realization. UConn will be represented at the conference by:
- Mingjiang Chen. A decomposition analysis of Agent: Evidence from adverbial distribution
- Zixi Liu. At the crossroads of aspect and passivization: Agent in Mandarin locative inversion
UConn linguistics at FDSL
The 15th conference on the Formal description of Slavic languages (FDSL15) is taking place October 5th-7th at Humboldt University, Berlin. UConn linguistics will be represented at the conference with talks by:
- Željko Bošković. Multiple wh-fronting in a typological setting
- Matic Pavlič, Arthur Stepanov (PhD 2001, now at University of Nova Gorica) & Penka Stateva (PhD 2002, now at University of Nova Gorica). Distribution of the dual in relation to sentential function of the noun and preservation of dual morphology in six Slovenian dialects
… and an invited talk by:
- Svitlana Antonyuk (post-doc 2018-19, now at Karl Franzens Universität Graz). From scope freezing to, well, everything: Investigations into Ukrainian syntax
Fujiwara & Wang | Postdoc positions
Yoshiki Fujiwara and Shuyan Wang, who got their PhDs last academic year, have both been hired in postdoc positions. Yoshiki is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the linguistics department at Yale University, supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, while Shuyan is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the linguistics department at Rutgers University, working with Dr. Kristen Syrett. Congratulations to both and to many more successes!
UConn Linguists at TISLR
The 14th conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR14), which is taking place in Osaka, Japan on 27th-30th September 2022. The UConn linguistics community will be well represented at the conference with a keynote address by:
- Marie Coppola. How interacting minds make language: The creative forces behind homesign, sign languages, and all human communication
… talks by:
- Madeline Quam (UConn Psychology), Diane Brentari and Marie Coppola. Lexical conventionalization requires a community of primary users, communicative interactions are not enough
- Jenny Lu, Diane Lillo-Martin, Diane Brentari and Susan Goldin-Meadow. Not all points are the same from a child’s eyes
- Matthew Hall (post-doc 2013-17, now at UMass Dartmouth), Taye Hallock, Stephanie De Anda, Bobbie Jo Kite and Julie Mitchiner. “Not good enough”, or just “not enough”? Quality and quantity of signed input in DHH children from hearing families
- Kaj Kraus, Shengyun Gu, Diane Lillo-Martin and Deborah Chen Pichler (PhD 2001, now at Gallaudet University). L2 Signer Accent: Phonological Development in ASL Learners
… and posters by:
- Elena Koulidobrova (PhD 2012, now at Central Connecticut State University) and Deborah Chen Pichler. In the beginning there was… Initial communicative systems and language deprivation through the lens of Crip Linguistics
- Shengyun Gu. What a combined method reveals: H2 spread in Shanghai Sign Language
- Kadir Gökgöz (post-doc 2014-16, now at Boğaziçi University). Production of Complex Motion Events and Age of Acquisition Effects in Turkish Sign Language (TİD)
- Kathryn Davidson (post-doc 2011-2013, now at Harvard University), Annemarie Kocab and Dorothy Ahn. Embracing optionality: pragmatic constraints on loci
- Shengyun Gu. Weak hand classifier verbs in Shanghai Sign Language: a typology of person agreement
Yixuan Yan (Pepper) | New Student
Hi, my name is Yixuan Yan (Pepper), I was born in northern mainland China. Basically I’m interested in formal semantics and pragmatics, and the development and processing of them as well. Before coming to UConn, I was a research assistant doing language acquisition and experimental linguistics in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). In addition to linguistics, I have knowledge of movies, Japanese anime and TV series; I enjoy hiking and badminton, yet more of the time I prefer to sleep. (The selfie was taken at my previous EEG Lab in CUHK.)
Aarón Sánchez | New Student
I’m Aarón Sánchez, and I’m from Mexico City. I did my BA and MA at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. I have focused mostly on syntax, morphology, and syntax/semantics interface. I also like baking bread, cooking, playing tennis, and classical music.
Shangyan Pan | New Student
I am Shangyan Pan from Xuzhou, China. I graduated from Bucknell University with a B.A and honors in Linguistics in 2022. I also received minors in Math (Statistics) and Econ. My primary research interests are syntax and semantics. I also got really interested in learning Russian over the past year. In my free time, I love singing, going to Broadway shows and all things musical theater.
I look forward to learning and growing at UConn in the next few years!