Web cookies (also called HTTP cookies, browser cookies, or simply cookies) are small pieces of data that websites store on your device (computer, phone, etc.) through your web browser. They are used to remember information about you and your interactions with the site.
Purpose of Cookies:
Session Management:
Keeping you logged in
Remembering items in a shopping cart
Saving language or theme preferences
Personalization:
Tailoring content or ads based on your previous activity
Tracking & Analytics:
Monitoring browsing behavior for analytics or marketing purposes
Types of Cookies:
Session Cookies:
Temporary; deleted when you close your browser
Used for things like keeping you logged in during a single session
Persistent Cookies:
Stored on your device until they expire or are manually deleted
Used for remembering login credentials, settings, etc.
First-Party Cookies:
Set by the website you're visiting directly
Third-Party Cookies:
Set by other domains (usually advertisers) embedded in the website
Commonly used for tracking across multiple sites
Authentication cookies are a special type of web cookie used to identify and verify a user after they log in to a website or web application.
What They Do:
Once you log in to a site, the server creates an authentication cookie and sends it to your browser. This cookie:
Proves to the website that you're logged in
Prevents you from having to log in again on every page you visit
Can persist across sessions if you select "Remember me"
What's Inside an Authentication Cookie?
Typically, it contains:
A unique session ID (not your actual password)
Optional metadata (e.g., expiration time, security flags)
Analytics cookies are cookies used to collect data about how visitors interact with a website. Their primary purpose is to help website owners understand and improve user experience by analyzing things like:
How users navigate the site
Which pages are most/least visited
How long users stay on each page
What device, browser, or location the user is from
What They Track:
Some examples of data analytics cookies may collect:
Page views and time spent on pages
Click paths (how users move from page to page)
Bounce rate (users who leave without interacting)
User demographics (location, language, device)
Referring websites (how users arrived at the site)
Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
2. Mozilla Firefox
Open Firefox and click the three horizontal lines in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
3. Safari
Open Safari and click Safari in the top-left corner of the screen.
Go to Preferences > Privacy.
Check Block all cookies to stop all cookies, or select options to block third-party cookies.
4. Microsoft Edge
Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
Disabling cookies can make your online experience more difficult. Some websites may not load properly, or you may be logged out frequently. Also, certain features may not work as expected.
The Eastern Generative Grammar (EGG) summer school is taking place online between 26th July-6th August. Adrian Stegovec will be teaching two courses at the summer school:
Person restrictions in syntax: A generative typological approach (Week 1)
Language particulars versus language universals: An Algonquian case study (Week 2)
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Diane Lillo-Martin will serve as the Department Head of Linguistics effective July 1. Diane is a renowned scholar, a pioneer in the study of sign languages and a fellow of the Linguistics Society of America. The department is grateful that a proven academic leader like Diane has volunteered to guide us through these times. Thank you, Diane!
The 9th meeting of the Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory (FEAST) colloquium, is going to be held virtually on June 1st-4th, hosted by The Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies of CUHK. UConn linguistics is going to be represented by a flash talk & poster by:
Linghui (Eva) Gan.Indexical shift with(-out) role shift: Evidence from Hong Kong Sign Language
… as well as a keynote talk by:
Kazumi Matsuoka (1998 PhD, now Keio University, Japan). Grammatical patterns of ‘mouth-based mouth gestures’ in Japanese Sign Language
The members of the UConn Department of Linguistics are sad to share that David Michaels, Professor Emeritus, has died.
David was a kind, generous, intelligent, and humble man. He was one of the early members of the Department, starting as an instructor in 1968 until his retirement in 1997, and served as Department Head for many years, from 1976 to 1992. David shaped the Department and nurtured it, and his influence is felt throughout it to this day. There is no doubt that we would not be what we are without the effort and support of David Michaels.
Our hearts are with Gerda Walz-Michaels and the rest of the Michaels family at this time.
The 30th annual meeting of Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics (FASL 30) is being held virtually on May 13–16, hosted by MIT. UConn linguistics will be represented by a talk by:
Magdalena Kaufmann, Neda Todorović (PhD 2016, now at University of British Columbia), and Ivana Jovović. Obviate me (not): Obviation effects in Serbian main and complement clauses
… as well as an invited talk by:
Aida Talić (PhD 2017, now at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign). The (Non)isomorphism between Spell-out Domains and Accent Domains
The 57th annual meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society (CLS) is taking place virtually on May 6-8, and UConn linguistics will be well represented at the conference with talks by:
Robin Jenkins.Scrambling and Successive Cyclic Movement In Turkish and Uyghur
Teruyuki Mizuno.Argument ellipsis, topicality, and a theory of null anaphora
Shengyun Gu.On weak hand spread in Shanghai Sign Language: Positive and negative evidence
Troy Messick (PhD 2017, now at Rutgers University) & Sreekar Raghotham. Morphosyntax values itself
Elena Koulidobrova (PhD 2012, now at Central Connecticut State University), Gabriel Martinez-Vera (PhD 2020, now at Goethe Universität), Kim Kurz & Christopher Kurz. Revisiting gradability in ASL
Ksenia Bogomolets (PhD 2020, now at University of Auckland): Syntactic influences on stress: Noun Incorporation and Denominal Verbs in Choguita Rarámuri
The Southern New England Workshop in Semantics (SNEWS) will be hosted by UConn Linguistics this year and will take place virtually on May 1st. UConn Linguistics will also be represented at the workshop with talks by:
Yusuke Yagi.Polarity-reversed ellipsis in Japanese
Margaret Chui Yi Lee.The wh-indefinites and their behavior as NPIs in Cantonese
Ivana Jovović, Magdalena Kaufmann, and Neda Todorović (PhD 2016, now at University of British Columbia) presented their work “Obviate me (not): obviation effects in Serbian main and complement clauses” as part of the syntax-semantics seminar at NYU on the 21st of April.