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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20250418
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20250421
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20250326T203826Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250326T204000Z
UID:10000288-1744945200-1745117999@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Princeton Phonology Forum (PɸF 2025) - Sound Patterns and Human History
DESCRIPTION:
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/princeton-phonology-forum-p%c9%b8f-2025-sound-patterns-and-human-history/
LOCATION:Friend Center Convocation Room (Rm 113) and via Zoom
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2025/03/Phonology-Forum-2025-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250417T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250417T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20250408T154003Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250408T154041Z
UID:10000289-1744907400-1744912800@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Canonical and non-canonical conversion in Baltic
DESCRIPTION:Conversion is best known from languages like English where nouns may be used as verbs and vice versa without any formal marking\, e.g.\, email (n) – email (v)\, walk (v) – walk (n). Such pairs can be interpreted either as instances of derivation without overt affixation or as cases of lexical multifunctionality. I pose the question of whether the concept of conversion can be successfully applied to inflectionally rich languages like Latvian and Lithuanian (Baltic\, Indo-European)\, and argue for recognizing a continuum of phenomena based on the canonical typology approach developed by Greville G. Corbett and colleagues. I begin with canonical cases of conversion where the change of word class has no formal expression\, and move on to less canonical examples characterized by inflectional class change\, vowel\, consonant\, and tone alternations. \n  \nJurgis Pakerys is a professor of Baltic linguistics at the Department of Baltic Studies\, Vilnius University. His recent research includes studies on derivational networks\, verbal inflection classes\, and onomatopoeia\, as well as on transitivity pairs and morphological and periphrastic causative constructions in the Baltic languages. Currently\, he focuses on interpreting conversion in Baltic and evaluating derivational productivity in Lithuanian.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/jurgis-pakerys/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/09/Jurgis-Pakerys.jpg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250410T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250410T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20250325T171118Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250402T172857Z
UID:10000287-1744302600-1744308000@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Reading James Baldwin through the Lens of Black Deaf and Disability Studies
DESCRIPTION:Join us for a public conversation with Dr. Rezenet Moges-Riedel on reading Baldwin through a Black Deaf and Disability Studies lens on Thursday\, April 10. Dr. Moges-Riedel is an Assistant Professor and Co-Assistant Director of the ASL Linguistics and Deaf Cultures Program at California State University Long Beach. She is a linguistic anthropologist and a leading scholar of D/deaf identity and intersectionality\, in particular how D/deaf culture intersects with race and gender in different societies\, and has conducted research on the intersectional experiences and retention of deaf faculty of color working at postsecondary institutions. Her concept of “Black Deaf Gain” rethinks the provocative concept of “deaf gain” (rather than hearing loss) from a racialized perspective. \nDr. Moges-Riedel will be in conversation with Dr. Kelsey Henry\, Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in Race and Ethnicity Studies in the Society of Fellows and Lecturer in the Humanities Council and African American Studies. Dr. Henry is an interdisciplinary historian whose work integrates perspectives from Black studies\, histories of science and medicine\, and disability studies\, and her research focuses on histories of race\, antiblackness\, and developmental disability within the United States. In this conversation\, Dr. Moges-Riedel and Dr. Henry will reflect on their experiences researching and teaching in Black Disability Studies and Black Deaf Studies in dialogue with James Baldwin’s writings\, including Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time. In this stimulating discussion\, they will focus on how James Baldwin’s ideas might help us think about the building of various Black identities and the state of the civil rights movement today\, including the possibly/soon-to-dismantled Section 504 and other Diversity\, Equity\, and Inclusion policies—urgent issues of our time. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Timothy Loh\, Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows and Lecturer in the Humanities Council and Anthropology. \nThis event was organized by Timothy Loh and Noah Buchholz\, Senior Lecturer in the Humanities Council and the Program in Linguistics and Director of the American Sign Language Program.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/reading-james-baldwin-through-the-lens-of-black-deaf-and-disability-studies/
LOCATION:219 Aaron Burr\, Princeton\, 08544\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2025/03/250225_BC_Moges-Riedel_Poster.jpg
GEO:40.3467174;-74.6568772
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250325T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250325T190000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20250314T134029Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250314T135054Z
UID:10000286-1742923800-1742929200@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Program in Linguistics Sophomore Open House 2025
DESCRIPTION:Join Linguistics faculty\, independent majors and minors for a fun and informative gathering where you will learn all about the Program\, including course offerings\, degree requirements and current projects. \nRefreshments will be provided. \nWe look forward to seeing you there!
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/program-in-linguistics-sophomore-open-house-2025/
LOCATION:Green Hall 1-C-4C
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2025/03/symmetrical-618264_640.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250304T123000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250304T133000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20250220T212829Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250220T213710Z
UID:10000284-1741091400-1741095000@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Challenging the Canons of Language Study
DESCRIPTION:Observing language studies for more than a half century has allowed me to view the establishment of topical domains of research\, the selection of data\, methods of analysis\, and ideological and practical concerns of linguistics in the field. I use the term “canon” to refer to principles or doctrines by which a topic is judged as appropriate and acceptable for study\, or to a body of written works considered to be authoritarian and representative within a subject area. Linguists need to recognize and\, at times\, challenge these canons as they develop within the field. In this analysis\, I consider several research studies that warrant further scrutiny in terms of their implications on the canons of research within the framework of sociolinguistics. \nThe first case examines dialect recession in sociolinguistics. The focus of most variationist studies of linguistic change to date has been the emerging and increase in new forms. The opposing process\, or the decline and loss of older variants\, is less well understood. We framed the question of language obsolescence on the islands of Ocracoke\, NC\, and Smith Island\, MD\, (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes (1995); Schilling-Estes & Wolfram (1999)) in terms of recession models in the “endangerment canon” in general linguistics\, and found differential models of obsolescence that included both dissipation and concentration trends in our studies of these receding dialects. Ironically\, our conclusions were largely ignored or rejected by the “endangerment canon” within general linguists while considered as informative and insightful by sociolinguists. \nA second case involves the development and adoption of a holistic measure for the examination of African American Language (AAL) that we applied during a longitudinal study of African American speakers for the first two decades of their lives (Kohn\, Wolfram\, Farrington\, Van Hofwegen\, Renn 2021). A “Dialect Density Measure” based on an index of types and tokens of diagnostic structures used in AAL served as the basis for a holistic score of dialect use that showed correlations with social and educational attributes. We thought we demonstrated the quantitative validity of the measure through a series of manipulations that were largely accepted in research in allied fields. But variationist sociolinguists maintained skepticism and largely rejected the basis of our study\, influenced by predetermined\, normative models for quantitative analysis and a socialized aversion to holistic measurements for measuring language varieties\, leaving a gap in sociolinguistic insight. \nThe final case is the role of social and educational engagement in linguistics. Whereas analysis and application of sociolinguistic knowledge coincided with the advent of the field of sociolinguistics (Labov 1984)\, some developments within sociolinguistics actually marginalize the role of engagement operationally. By illustrating our sociolinguistic engagement model for the Island of Ocracoke over three decades\, we demonstrate how different strands of formal and informal programs can\, in fact\, radically transform how a community changes its perception of a culturally significant language variety. We demonstrate how the significance of long-term engagement in formal and informal engagement programs locally and nationally can change attitudes about language variation. I conclude with a plea for linguistics never to abandon the moral and ethical commitment to serve the communities we research\, and to recognize explicitly the goal of community enlightenment as a central theme in in the field. \n  \nWalt Wolfram is William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor at North Carolina State University\, where he also directs the Language and Life Project. He has pioneered research on social and ethnic dialects since the 1960s and published 24 books\, edited 8 books\, and published over 300 articles. Over the last several decades he\, his colleagues\, and his students have conducted more than 4\,000 sociolinguistic interviews with residents of North Carolina and beyond\, primarily under funding from the National Science Foundation. In addition to his research interests\, Professor Wolfram is particularly interested in the engagement of sociolinguistic information with the public\, including the production of television documentaries\, the construction of museum exhibits\, and the development of an innovative formal and informal materials related to language diversity for different institutions. He has received numerous awards\, including the North Carolina Award (the highest award given to a citizen of North Carolina)\, Caldwell Humanities Laureate from the NC Humanities Council\, the Holladay Medal at NC State\, the Board of Governor’s Award Holshouser Award for Excellence in Public Service\, and the Linguistics\, Language and the Public Award from the Linguistic Society of America. He has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences\, and served as President of the Linguistic Society of America\, the American Dialect Society\, and the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/challenging-the-canons-of-language-study/
LOCATION:Green Hall 0-S-9
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2025/02/dave-walt-and-natalie.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241024T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241024T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240911T173150Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T204826Z
UID:10000275-1729787400-1729792800@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Abstract representations and the phenomenon of incomplete neutralisation
DESCRIPTION:Research over the last few decades has consistently questioned the sufficiency of abstract/discrete phonological representations based on putative misalignments between predictions from such representations and observed experimental results. Here\, I’ll first suggest that many of the arguments ride on misunderstandings of the original claims from generative phonology\, and that the typical evidence furnished is consistent with those claims. I’ll then narrow in on the phenomenon of incomplete neutralisation and show again that it is consistent with the classic generative phonology view. I’ll further point out that extant accounts of the phenomenon do not achieve important desiderata and typically do not provide an explanation for either the phenomenon itself\, or why there are actually at least two different kinds of incomplete neutralisation that don’t stem from task confounds. Finally\, I present new experimental data and our explanation that the phenomenon is an outcome of planning using abstract/discrete phonological knowledge. \n  \nKarthik Durvasula is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies for Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics\, Languages\, and Cultures at Michigan State University. His research is focused primarily on understanding how to interface abstract and categorical linguistic theories with the fine-grained and gradient nature of the observed data in formal experimentation. Over the last 10-15 years\, he has used a variety of techniques to probe this question: (a) field-work\, (b) formal behavioural and neurolinguistic experimentation\, and (c) computational modelling. Most recently\, he has been looking at fine-grained effects and timing relationships in speech articulations and gradient sound patterns present in the lexicon of a language to understand the nature of phonological knowledge.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/karthik-durvasula/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/09/Karthik-Durvasula.jpg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241023T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241023T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20241014T201424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241014T201548Z
UID:10000278-1729701000-1729706400@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Dialing into the Past: Alexander Graham Bell\, Eugenics\, and Shaping Historical Memory
DESCRIPTION:Alexander Graham Bell is widely celebrated for his invention of the telephone\, but his involvement in the American Eugenics movement remains a lesser-known aspect of his legacy. Yet\, Bell is vilified in the signing Deaf community for his support for oralism and sought to dissuade Deaf people from marrying each other. This presentation explores the tension between his innovative contributions to science\, his involvement with the Deaf community\, and his role in the eugenics movement that reveals a complex legacy. By examining Bell’s role in science\, eugenics and the Deaf community\, we confront the challenge of reconciling these contrasting aspects in shaping our understanding of historical figures. \n  \nBrian H. Greenwald\, PhD is Professor of History and Director of the Drs. John S. & Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center at Gallaudet University. He is co-editor of two books and has presented widely on topics in American Deaf history. Funded by a National Science Foundation grant\, the Schuchman Center is currently at work on producing a film about the Deaf test subjects’ participation in the early years of NASA history. \n  \nNo ASL knowledge required. Interpretation will be provided.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/dialing-into-the-past-alexander-graham-bell-eugenics-and-shaping-historical-memory-4/
LOCATION:A17 Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/10/Brian-Greenwald.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20241010T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20241010T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240911T172754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20241002T200115Z
UID:10000274-1728577800-1728583200@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Additive Features of Tone and Intonation
DESCRIPTION:This talk introduces a unified featural model for the representation of tone and intonation. On the one hand\, the model successfully addresses outstanding theoretical issues in the representation of tone\, including but not limited to\, capturing 5-tone systems\, and addressing the under-generation/over-generation issues of existing binary feature systems. On the other hand\, the model straightforwardly extends to the representation of intonation (namely in tone languages)\, where its features are used as parameters in a cross-linguistic intonation-generating algorithm. The model will be explored using both relevant existing tone data\, as well as data from original fieldwork on some tone languages of west-Africa. \n  \nDr. Mamadou‘s research focuses on the representation and computation of tone and intonation\, which are two of the most widely shared aspects of human languages. From a theoretical standpoint\, he is interested in a unified theory of representation for tone and intonation\, since both are two usages of pitch\, if at two different levels of the grammar. Dr. Mamadou believes that a unified and linguistically adequate representation of tone and intonation is the first step toward a better understanding of the many nuances of tone and intonation interactions. This is where computational and mathematical approaches to tone and intonation prove almost unparalleled\, in the sense that they help calculate the exact toll their interactions place on the language speaking mind. Empirically\, Deen’s work focuses on understudied languages of sub-saharan Africa\, where he conducts fieldworks\, collecting experimental data from different languages like Ede Chaabe\, Baatonum\, Dan\, and Zarma\, spoken across Benin\, Côte-d’Ivoire and Niger.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/tajudeen-mamadou/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/09/deen-mamadou.jpg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240919T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240919T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240911T150926Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240911T150926Z
UID:10000273-1726763400-1726768800@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:The mechanics of reciprocal shift
DESCRIPTION:In this talk\, I will present ongoing work that I am conducting on the structure of complex reciprocals (e.g.\, English’s each other) cross-linguistically. I will show that in many languages the complex reciprocal can be split apart by adpositions in PPs and also by possessums in possessive structures. This word order is also strongly correlated with case agreement between part of the reciprocal and its antecedent. I present an analysis in terms of movement of part of the reciprocal and couple that with a syntactic case transmission mechanism. This analysis will have consequences for the domain of agreement operations\, linearization\, and the binding of reflexive anaphors and reciprocals inside PPs and DPs. \n  \nTroy Messick is an assistant professor in the department of linguistics at Rutgers\, The State University of New Jersey. He holds a PhD in linguistics from the University of Connecticut. His specialization is in generative syntactic theory. He has worked on a wide variety of topics in the field of syntax and its interfaces including ellipsis\, complementation\, semantic agreement\, the morphosyntactic representation of gender features\, and the structure of complex reflexives and reciprocals. He has published his work in journals such as Linguistic Inquiry\, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory\, Journal of Linguistics\, Syntax and Glossa.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/the-mechanics-of-reciprocal-shift/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/09/Troy-Messick.jpg
GEO:40.3524818;-74.6613275
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=1-S-5 Green Hall 1-S-5 Green Hall Princeton NJ 08540 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=1-S-5 Green Hall:geo:-74.6613275,40.3524818
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20240417T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20240417T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230920T170217Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240409T200700Z
UID:10000269-1713371400-1713376800@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Replicating the typology of linguistic inferences using non-words: From gestures to sound effects to emoji
DESCRIPTION:Research in contemporary semantics has uncovered a typology of linguistic inferences\, characterized by their conversational status and their behavior in complex sentences. This typology of linguistic inferences is usually thought to be specific to language and in part lexically encoded in the meanings of words. In this talk\, I will present experimental evidence of implicatures\, presuppositions\, homogeneity inferences\, and supplements\, triggered variously by gestures\, visual animations\, sound effects\, and emoji. The finding that we can replicate what are normally thought to be language-specific inferences – using non-words – raises new questions and challenges regarding the fundamental nature of linguistic inferences and how we might acquire them. \n  \nLyn Tieu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of French at the University of Toronto. She is also an Adjunct Fellow with the MARCS Institute for Brain\, Behaviour & Development at Western Sydney University and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University. Lyn conducts research in experimental and developmental semantics and pragmatics\, using experimental methods to investigate the nature of linguistic meaning and how it is acquired by young children. Lyn also currently serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief at Glossa: a journal of general linguistics.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/lyn-tieu-university-of-toronto/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/09/TIEU_Photo_resized.jpg
GEO:40.3524818;-74.6613275
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=1-S-5 Green Hall 1-S-5 Green Hall Princeton NJ 08540 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=1-S-5 Green Hall:geo:-74.6613275,40.3524818
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240403T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240403T173000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240321T153215Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240321T153814Z
UID:10000272-1712161800-1712165400@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Program in Linguistics Sophomore Open House 2024
DESCRIPTION:The Program in Linguistics invites students to meet with current faculty\, independent majors and minors to learn about the program and application process. Refreshments will be served.  \nPlease spread the word! \n  \n  \nRSVP (mbasso@princeton.edu) is requested by March 27.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/program-in-linguistics-sophomore-open-house-2024/
LOCATION:Green Hall 1-C-4C
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/03/SOH-2024.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240328T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240328T203000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240320T203642Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240321T143505Z
UID:10000271-1711654200-1711657800@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:American Sign Language Storytelling with Peter Cook
DESCRIPTION:Peter Cook will present an evening of animated storytelling in American Sign Language. Many of his stories reflect his personal experience as a Deaf individual growing up in the world of sounds\, providing a unique glimpse into Deaf community and culture. \nEnglish voice interpretation will be provided. No ASL knowledge is required. \n  \nPeter S. Cook is an internationally reputed Deaf performing artist whose works incorporate American Sign Language\, pantomime\, storytelling\, acting\, and movement. He has traveled extensively around the country and abroad with the Flying Words Project to promote ASL Literature with Kenny Lerner since 1986. Peter has appeared in Live from Off Center’s “Words on Mouth” (PBS) and “United States of Poetry” (PBS)\, produced by Emmy award winner Bob Holman. He has been featured at the National Storytelling festival in Jonesborough\, Tennessee\, and the Tales of Graz in Graz\, Austria\, The Deaf Way II and the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington\, D.C. Peter has worked with Deaf storytellers/poets in Europe\, Brazil\, Israel\, and Japan and was invited to the White House to join the National Book Festival in 2003. He has also been involved in numerous film projects including the ITV’s Signed Stories. \n  \nPeter lives in Chicago and is Associate Professor and Chair of the ASL Department at Columbia College Chicago. He received the 1997 Excellence in Teaching award and was one of the finalists for the 2018 Excellence in Teaching award. \n  \nThis event is funded by the 250th Anniversary Fund for Innovation in Undergraduate Education and the Humanities Council’s Program in Linguistics.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/american-sign-language-storytelling-with-peter-cook/
LOCATION:Maeder Hall Auditoriun
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/03/Peter-Cook-event.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240327T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240327T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230920T170016Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240319T175117Z
UID:10000268-1711557000-1711562400@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Temporal Coordination as a Hallmark  of Metrical Prominence Across Languages
DESCRIPTION:As our understanding of the factors shaping prosodic aspects of the speech signal grows\, there has been growing skepticism about the explanatory role of structural factors such as metrical prominence in conditioning prosodic patterns. In this talk\, I argue that such skepticism is misguided and is often rooted in problematic assumptions about the mapping between phonological structure and phonetic patterning. I draw on various types of data—notably\, multimodal corpora from two Niger-Congo languages on the relationship between speech and co-speech gesture—to demonstrate that temporal coordination\, more than any set of acoustic or articulatory enhancement strategies\, is an essential property of metrically-prominent syllables across languages. Furthermore\, I argue that metrical prominence asymmetries–though demonstrably helpful to the listener and to the learner–serve an essential role on the part of the speaker in facilitating aspects of language production. \n  \nKathryn Franich is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Harvard University\, where she also directs the Harvard PhonLab. In her research\, she examines patterns in speech acoustics\, articulation\, and perception in order to understand how language is structured\, how it is used in communication\, and how it gets passed on from one generation to the next. Much of her work draws on data from Niger-Congo languages\, in particular Medʉmba\, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon on which she has been conducting fieldwork since 2010. She is currently working on an NSF-funded grant project titled Speech and Communicative Timing Across Languages and Linguistic Contexts which aims to understand the mechanisms which underlie our ability to time our speech\, from the level of the individual articulators (using electromagnetic articulography\, for example)\, to coordination between speech and the body (as with the use of co-speech gesture\, which we’ll hear more about today)\, to coordination with other individuals\, as in conversational turn-taking.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/kathryn-franich-harvard-university/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/09/Franich_Photo_Princeton.jpeg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20240322T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20240323T170000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20231205T223327Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240311T200544Z
UID:10000176-1711094400-1711213200@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Workshop On Morphology at Princeton
DESCRIPTION:The Workshop On Morphology at Princeton (WOMP) is a semi-annual workshop centered around developments in morphological theory. \nThe inaugural meeting of WOMP will take place on March 22-23\, 2024. For preliminary details about the workshop\, including the speaker/poster line-up and the basic schedule\, click here. \n\nRegistration\nRegistration for WOMP is always free\, but participants must register in advance. For details\, see the page for the upcoming WOMP meeting. \n\nContact Information\nOrganizer: Laura Kalin (Princeton Program in Linguistics)\nContact address: lkalin@princeton.edu
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/workshop-on-morphology-at-princeton/
LOCATION:NJ
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/12/Morphology-Workshop.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20240320T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20240320T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230920T165816Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240311T203050Z
UID:10000267-1710952200-1710957600@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Operational opacity at the clausal middlefield
DESCRIPTION:Early formulations of Phase Theory posit that each clause consists of two locality domains (phases): the complete clause (CP) and a clause internal domain located roughly around vP. Syntactic evidence for the phasehood of CP comes from two types of phenomena: footprints of successive cyclic movement and operational opacity. In contrast\, evidence for a clause-internal phase has primarily come from successive cyclic movement (i.a. Legate 2003\, Aldridge 2008\, Bennett et al. 2012\, van Urk 2015). Operational opacity is not observed at vP\, a category notoriously transparent for syntactic relations. This contrast between CP and vP has led some researchers to conclude that only CP is a phase and that intermediate movement through the edge of vP must be explained differently. This talk presents the missing type of evidence\, from operational opacity\, for the clause-internal phase hypothesis. In particular\, I argue that VoiceP in Zimbabwean Ndebele is opaque for A-movement and phi-agreement. A VoiceP-external probe can only access a VoiceP-internal goal if the goal moves to Spec\,VoiceP\, and not otherwise. The talk additionally motivates the assumption that successive cyclic movement\, both A and A-bar\, is feature-driven. This is based on the observation that all movement out of VoiceP in Ndebele is blocked when Voice is independently shown to lack a movement-triggering feature. I conclude with some thoughts on why operational opacity is much easier to detect at a CP boundary than at the clausal middlefield. \n\nAsia Pietraszko is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Rochester. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago Linguistics Department. She is the director of the Field Syntax Lab at the University of Rochester and works in syntax and morphology\, with a focus on Bantu languages. She studies questions related to clausal architecture and the processes that underlie structure building\, such as selection and movement. Topics she’s worked on include verbal periphrasis\, head-movement and do-support\, A-movement\, clausal embedding and nominalization\, and backward control.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/asia-pietraszko-university-of-rochester/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/09/IMG_4792-scaled.jpeg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20240215T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20240215T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240123T204351Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240206T174307Z
UID:10000177-1708014600-1708020000@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:On two types of resumptive Ā-dependencies and feature-driven syntax
DESCRIPTION:Previous investigations into Ā-dependencies terminating in resumptive pronouns (i.e. resumptive Ā-dependencies) have reached different and often contradictory conclusions regarding the nature of resumption: some contend that resumptive Ā-dependencies are derived via movement\, while others argue that they are not. This talk contributes to the ongoing debate and resolves the apparent paradox by arguing—both from novel data and from a broad survey of the prior literature—that two types of resumptive Ā-dependencies must be differentiated cross-linguistically (building on proposals in e.g. Borer 1981\, Koopman 1984\, and Engdahl 1985). One type is base-generated without Ā-movement (e.g. in Iraqi\, Syrian\, and Tunisian Arabic; pace prior movement-based analyses of Arabic resumption\, cf. Aoun et al. 2001)\, whereas the other co-occurs with Ā-movement (e.g. in Spanish). The basis for this distinction is a critical reassessment of what diagnoses (Ā-)movement and why. The diagnostics\, which march in lockstep cross-linguistically to reliably distinguish the two types of resumptives\, are overt morphophonological reflexes of movement\, island-sensitivity\, parasitic gap licensing\, exactly stranding\, and case-connectivity. The result is the most empirically successful account of cross-linguistic patterns of resumption to date. \nFurthermore\, I argue that the correct analysis of resumption sheds light on the driving force of syntactic operations. A key corollary of my analysis of resumption is that natural language syntax must be able to differentiate between (external) Merge and Move (qua internal Merge). To account for this distinction\, I argue that Merge must be feature-driven (i.e. driven by features of lexical items; see Adger 2003; Müller 2011; and Merchant 2019)\, as opposed to being free (or untriggered; see Chomsky 2015; Collins 2017; Safir 2019). I adduce novel evidence in support of the feature-driven approach coming from variation in the construction of long-distance dependencies which interleave movement and base-generation (i.e. mixed chains\, see McCloskey 2002). \nMatt Hewett graduated with a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago in 2023 and he is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Syntax in the Department of Linguistics at Georgetown University. His research reevaluates the nature of syntactic and morphological dependencies\, with a particular focus on resumptivity and Ā-dependencies\, (l-)selection\, (pseudo)passives\, intervention effects\, discontinuous agreement\, and Semitic languages. His research has been published in (or accepted by) Linguistic Inquiry\, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory\, and Brill’s Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/matthew-hewett-georgetown-university/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/Hewett-hometown-trees.jpg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20240208T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20240208T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240123T204418Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240124T193044Z
UID:10000178-1707409800-1707415200@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Computational sociolinguistics: How lexical meaning is dynamically constructed across partners and communities
DESCRIPTION:Why do we use language differently with different partners? In this talk\, I will argue for a computational approach to sociolinguistics\, which formalizes the obstacles standing in the way of effective communication and explains how people construct shared meaning to achieve their communicative goals with different audiences. Specifically\, I’ll present a computational model of partner-specific coordination and convention via hierarchical Bayesian inference — using feedback from a partner to update one’s beliefs about what is meaningful to them. I test predictions of the model in two natural-language communication experiments where participants are grouped into small communities for a referential communication task. Finally\, I’ll discuss ongoing work exploring broader implications across four areas: (1) code-switching and the relationship between language and social identity\, (2) neural mechanisms of common ground in a hyper scanning study\, (3) developmental trajectories of sociolinguistic competence\, and (4) artificial agents that can flexibly construct meaning with human partners. \n  \nRobert Hawkins is an Assistant Professor of Psychology & Language Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his PhD in Psychology from Stanford University in 2019\, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute before starting his own lab. His work has received multiple awards in cognitive science and computational linguistics\, including Best Paper awards at EMNLP and NeurIPS in 2022 and the Cognitive Science Society Prize for Computational Modeling in Language in 2020.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/computational-sociolinguistics-how-lexical-meaning-is-dynamically-constructed-across-partners-and-communities/
LOCATION:Louis A. Simpson International Building room A71
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/PrincetonLinguisticsImage.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20240207T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20240207T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240123T204449Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240125T214149Z
UID:10000179-1707323400-1707328800@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:What's in Universal Grammar?  On participles and the inventory of grammatical primitives
DESCRIPTION:One of the goals of syntactic theory is to account for the distributional properties of grammatical units. My central question is whether the lexical categori(zer)s like n(oun)\, v(erb)\, and a(adjective)\, which are partially responsible for determining distribution\, are associated with any intrinsic semantic content. I examine this question through the lens of participles. Based on a number of distributional diagnostics\, I argue that participles are a derived category\, and that they should therefore not be considered primitives of the grammar. Specifically\, I argue that both eventive and stative participles in a number of related and unrelated languages are deverbal adjectives. This challenges the consensus in the generative literature\, which has converged on the conclusion that eventive participles are verbal\, while stative participles are adjectival. Based on this case study of participles\, as well as evidence from (deverbal) nominals\, I argue that there is no one-to-one mapping between syntactic categori(zer)s and semantic content (contra e.g.\, Baker 2003\, Panagiotidis 2015). Returning to the issue of grammatical primitives\, I then claim that there has so far been no uncontroversial evidence (syntactic or semantic) that the lexical categori(zer)s from more familiar languages are universal. I finish by considering the consequences of this conclusion for language acquisition and the contents of Universal Grammar.  \n  \nMaša Bešlin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland. She works in the subfields traditionally called syntax and morphology\, with an empirical focus on Slavic and Mayan languages. Her research has investigated such topics as the status of participles as a lexical category\, locality constraints above and below the ‘word’ level\, raising constructions\, bare-NP adverbials\, case\, and ellipsis.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/masa-beslin-university-of-maryland/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/Masa-scaled.jpg
GEO:40.3524818;-74.6613275
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20240201T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20240201T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20240123T204524Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240124T193123Z
UID:10000180-1706805000-1706810400@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Locality and linguistic theory: The crucial role of African tone languages
DESCRIPTION:We are at a juncture when the communication practices of other species are becoming better understood\, which linguists can take as an opportunity to readdress a fundamental question: what makes human language human? In this talk\, I will examine one core architectural property of language\, namely “locality”\, which restricts the possible long-distance interactions in linguistic representations. While theories of locality in phonology and morphology typically involve adjacency between interacting elements\, this talk presents two novel case studies from minority African tone languages showing that linguistic tone has looser locality demands than counterpart consonants and vowels. Such work demonstrates the outsized role which low-resource languages continue to play in linguistic theory\, and the importance of maintaining long-term collaborations with speaker communities. \nDr. Nicholas Rolle received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 2018 and currently holds a research position at the Leibniz-Centre General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin\, Germany. He is a phonologist whose research spans both linguistic theory and fieldwork-based language description\, specializing in the languages of West Africa. Most recently\, his research has focused on the ability of pitch in African sound systems to signal a wider range of meanings than in more familiar non-African languages. He has published widely in both theoretical and Africanist journals\, including Phonology\, Linguistic Inquiry\, Morphology\, and the Journal for African Languages and Linguistics. \n 
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/locality-and-linguistic-theory-the-crucial-role-of-african-tone-languages/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/01/rolle_kabala_market-scaled.jpeg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20240131T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20240131T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230920T165621Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20240124T172417Z
UID:10000266-1706718600-1706724000@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Is prediction multilevel grammatical inference?
DESCRIPTION:Nearly all researchers agree that active dependency resolution relies\, to some extent\, on prediction: comprehenders appear to commit to analyses in advance of unambiguous confirmatory evidence. Researchers disagree\, however\, on how far in advance prediction occurs\, what portions of linguistic representation(s) are predicted\, and how to characterize the mechanisms that subserve predictive processes. In this talk\, I’ll present results from a series of collaborative studies on the processing of dependencies in Norwegian\, Dutch\, and English (and maybe Tagalog) to probe the limits of prediction. I’ll argue (i) that comprehenders can make predictions earlier than is commonly assumed\, (ii) that fine-grained predictions are made above the lexical level\, and (iii) that predictive mechanisms are (relatively) grammatically faithful. I discuss how these results support a model of hierarchical prediction as inference to the best analysis across multiple levels of linguistic representation. \n  \nDave Kush is an assistant professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. His areas of interest include sentence processing\, syntax\, and cross-linguistic variation.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/dave-kush-university-of-toronto/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/09/dave-kush-photo.jpg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20231206T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20231206T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230920T165424Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231127T202419Z
UID:10000265-1701880200-1701885600@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Information structure insights  from sign language anaphora
DESCRIPTION:Notions of topic and focus have been well-studied in sign languages\, which – like many spoken languages –  tend to have word orders highly influenced by information structural considerations\, along with perhaps some modality-specific considerations provided by suprasegmental nonmanuals\, the tight integration of iconic gestures into the grammatical structure\, etc. The use of signing space/”loci” for anaphora is often considered to be another modality-specific feature\, bearing on questions about semantic analyses of anaphora generally and how anaphoricity relates to other notions like definiteness\, givenness\, and contrast. This talk will provide both experimental and theoretical arguments for how the use of sign language anaphora relates to information structure in sign languages and\, by extension\, some existing questions in spoken languages regarding the relationship between anaphoricity and information structure. \n  \n  \nKathryn Davidson (BA University of Pennsylvania\, PhD University of California\, San Diego) is a Professor of Linguistics at Harvard University\, where she directs the Meaning and Modality lab and is a member of the Mind\, Brain\, and Behavior program. She previously had postdoctoral positions at the University of Connecticut and Yale University. Her research interests include formal semantics and pragmatics\, language acquisition\, and experimental semantics/pragmatics and connections between semantics and cognitive science\, and she frequently asks questions from the perspective of language in the visual modality\, both full sign languages like ASL as well as the visual/gestural aspects of spoken languages.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/kathryn-davidson-harvard-university/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/09/kate-office.jpeg
GEO:40.3524818;-74.6613275
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20231129T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20231129T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230920T165133Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231115T203630Z
UID:10000264-1701275400-1701280800@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Ticha: archival texts\, linguistic analysis\, and language activism
DESCRIPTION:There are thousands of pages of texts written in Zapotec from the 17c and 18c. In fact\, Zapotec has one of the largest corpora of early alphabetic texts in the Americas. In this talk\, I present Ticha: a digital text explorer for Colonial Zapotec (https://ticha.haverford.edu; Lillehaugen et al. 2016\, Broadwell et al. 2020)\, a digital humanities project which makes this corpus accessible to a diverse global audience. I reflect on how linguists can be productive partners in this type of interdisciplinary public humanities project (Plumb et al. in press) and share how Ticha is being used by members of the community to reclaim words and strengthen language programs (Lopez 2021). Finally\, I’ll also show how linguists are using the corpus to better understand the Zapotec morphosyntax and semantics over the last three hundred years\, including the development of the progressive aspect (Broadwell 2015)\, two-part negation (Anderson and Lillehaugen 2016)\, and the positional verb system (Foreman and Lillehaugen 2017). \n  \nBrook Danielle Lillehaugen is Associate Professor and Chair of Linguistics at Haverford College. She received her Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California\, Los Angeles in 2006 and has been learning from speakers of Zapotec languages since 1999. She publishes on the grammar of Zapotec in both its modern and colonial forms\, including publications in Language Documentation and Conservation\, International Journal of American Linguistics\, and Tlalocan. Lillehaugen is the co-director of Ticha: a digital text explorer for Colonial Zapotec. Her work has been supported by the NSF\, NEH\, and the ACLS.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/brook-lillehaugen-haverford-college/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/09/Lillehaugen-archive-scaled.jpg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20231113T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20231113T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20231025T201705Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231026T184351Z
UID:10000270-1699893000-1699898400@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Sociolinguistic Challenges for Emerging Speech Technology
DESCRIPTION:As speech technology becomes an increasingly integral part of the everyday lives of humans around the world\, issues related to language variation and change and algorithmic inequality will come to the forefront for citizens and researchers alike. Indeed\, over the past few years\, researchers across disciplines such as computer science\, communications\, and linguistics have begun to approach these concerns from a variety of scholarly perspectives. For sociolinguists who are primarily interested in how social factors influence language use and vice versa\, the fact that humans and machines are regularly speaking with one another presents an entirely new area of research interest with major impacts for linguistics and the public. In this talk\, I will present the results of recent and ongoing research related to how humans perceive the social qualities of synthesized voices (such as Siri)\, and how such perceptions may reinforce and reproduce stereotypical perceptions of human voices.  I will also present research on how Automatic Speech Recognition systems designed to provide feedback (such as the Amazon Halo) demonstrate systematic bias against socially marginalized speakers\, focusing on issues of racialized and gendered variation in voice quality. Finally\, I will discuss large-scale challenges related to speech and algorithmic bias\, as well as the pitfalls that language researchers need to be aware of when designing and evaluating new TTS and ASR systems. \nNicole Holliday is a sociophonetician\, specifically interested in how people use linguistic variation to perform and construct their social identities and to understand the identities of others through differences in their use of properties related to intonation and voice quality.  Since 2017\, she has been an Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Pomona College. She is currently the PI on a grant entitled ““Don’t Take That Tone With Me”: Linguistic Variation and Disciplinary Action on African American Children in Schools” along with Dr. Sabriya Fisher (Wellesley College)\, a project funded by the Lyle Spencer Research Awards.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/sociolinguistic-challenges-for-emerging-speech-technology/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2023/10/Holliday-image.jpg
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20230929T133000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20230929T150000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230920T162342Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230920T162342Z
UID:10000263-1695994200-1695999600@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Structuring Itelmen Word Order
DESCRIPTION:Word order in Itelmen (itl\, Chukotko-Kamchatkan) is quite flexible and has not been previously studied in any depth. This talk draws on a small text corpus to investigate the role of Information Structure in conditioning the distribution of object-verb and verb-object (OV\,VO) word orders. Although speakers in elicitation contexts generally assent to both orders and describe them as meaning the same\, a robust pattern emerges in the corpus: O denoting new discourse entities are overwhelmingly preverbal\, while given objects may occur pre- or post-verbally. In this talk\, I argue that these results have a variety of implications: (i) the observed pattern converges with other evidence that Itelmen is an OV language and provides an argument that the VO order in Itelmen is not simply a calque from Russian\, (ii) the Information-Structural evidence provides a means to resolve a syntactic puzzle about the analysis of perception verb complements in Itelmen\, (iii) the pattern contributes to larger debates about the syntactic/grammatical representation of new versus given (or topic and focus)\, potentially arguing against “focus-movement” (cartographic) perspectives\, and (iv) Information Structure provides a better characterization of the OV/VO alternations than competing accounts of such alternations that appeal to extra-grammatical communicative efficiency\, notably those rooted in ambiguity avoidance with animate objects. \n  \nJonathan David Bobaljik (B.A. McGill\, Ph.D. MIT) is Professor of Linguistics at Harvard University. He previously held faculty positions at McGill University and the University of Connecticut. He has worked with speakers of the Itelmen language in Kamchatka since 1993. His recent publications include Universals in Comparative Morphology  (MIT Press 2012) and Bogoras’s 1901 Itelmen Notebooks (Kulturstiftung Sibirien 2023\, with M. Pupynina and A. Syuryun).
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/structuring-itelmen-word-order/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20230419T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20230419T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20221205T212102Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230406T201820Z
UID:10000173-1681921800-1681927200@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Documenting the ASL communities:  MoLo and O5S5 projects
DESCRIPTION:As a deaf linguist in North America\, my recent work has revolved around documenting the language use of the ASL communities in North America. In my presentation\, I first describe some of the motivations that drive my documentation work with ASL communities – ethics of working with signed language communities; lack of inclusion of signed languages in general linguistics (even and especially those that discuss “all human languages”); that there’s no single ASL community but rather ASL communities; the lack of conventionalized written system for ASL. Then I describe two current documentation projects – “Motivated Look at Indicating Verbs in ASL (MoLo)” and “Documenting the experiences of the ASL communities in the time of COVID-19 (O5S5)” which I am working on sharing as open access. The work I do is because of the ASL communities and I consider myself a member of these communities. I try my best to honor the language and communities by documenting it with care and rigor and thinking about the power of representation and accessibility\, which I’ll reflect upon throughout my presentation. \nJulie A. Hochgesang (/ˈhoʊkˌsæŋ/) is a professor of Linguistics at Gallaudet University. She is a deaf* linguist who specializes in phonetics and phonology of signed languages\, fieldwork\, documentation\, and corpora of signed languages\, and ethics of working with signed language communities. Professor Hochgesang also works towards making linguistics accessible to the communities\, especially the ASL communities\, sharing multimodal products via social media and digital repositories.  She has contributed to ongoing efforts to create accessible collections for the ASL communities\, most notably as active maintainer of the ASL Signbank. Her most recent ASL documentation projects include the “Philadelphia Signs Project”. “Motivated Look at Indicating Verbs in ASL (MoLo)”\, “Gallaudet University Documentation of ASL (GUDA)”\, and “Documenting the Experiences of the ASL communities in the time of COVID-19 (O5S5 – ASL name derived from ASL variants for “Document COVID”).   \n  \n*white\, sighted\, hearing family\, early signer\, cisgender
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/julie-hochgesang-gallaudet-university-tbd/
LOCATION:via Zoom
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20230417T190000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20230417T203000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230406T202438Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230416T230856Z
UID:10000262-1681758000-1681763400@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Mamadou Diabate and Percussion Mania: Master of the talking balafon from Burkina Faso
DESCRIPTION:Mamadou Diabate and Percussion Mania is known for its virtuosic balafon playing and rhythm and is characterized by two balafons as lead instruments. This ensemble is the only one of its kind worldwide – different from all other West African bands. Musical dialogs and spectacular balafon duels between Mamadou and his cousin Yacouba Konate are one of the highlights of the show.  \n  \nSince 2001\, Mamadou Diabate has released 13 albums. The album “Keneya” was the world premiere recording of the traditional balafon music of the Sambla people. This music is actually the tonal language of the Sambla people translated into music\, a function known as surrogate speech. Musicians who don’t comprehend this language are unable to master this instrument. \n  \nMamadou Diabate keeps his culture and its musical traditions alive through his extraordinary musical creativity. His virtuosity is outstanding—some people say he plays as if he has more than two hands. His self-developed technique is showcased with exquisite balafon solos which create the impression that three balafonists are playing together. \n  \nThis event is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Department of Music and the Humanities Council.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/mamadou-diabate-and-percussion-mania-master-of-the-talking-balafon-from-burkina-faso/
LOCATION:Taplin Auditorium\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08544\, United States
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GEO:40.3467174;-74.6568772
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20230412T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20230412T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230222T175108Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230410T153645Z
UID:10000261-1681317000-1681322400@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Bua Comparative Project: Documentation and history of a language family of southern Chad
DESCRIPTION:In this presentation\, we report on ongoing descriptive and comparative-historical research on the Bua languages of Chad\, a genetically related linguistic group that remains relatively little-known. We  present the languages and internal classification of the Bua group\, give a historical review of the state of documentation of the languages\, and discuss some salient phonological and morphological features (consonants\, vowels\, tone\, nominal classification) in both synchronic and diachronic perspective\, with proposed proto-Bua reconstructions. Finally\, we  end the presentation by showing morphological evidence which link the Bua languages within Niger-Congo to noun class languages spoken in the Upper Benue Basin as well as to the Gur languages spoken in the Volta Basin. \n  \nPascal Boyeldieu is a Senior Researcher (directeur de recherche) in the African Languages Laboratory (LLACAN) at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris\, France. He specializes in the synchronic and diachronic study of Central African languages (Adamawa\, Ubangi\, Sara-Bongo-Bagirmi). He has done extensive fieldwork in Chad\, the Central African Republic\, and Sudan.  \n  \nUlrich Kleinewillinghöfer has been working as a (senior) researcher in several research projects based at the German Universities of Frankfurt (Main)\, Bayreuth and Mainz. He specializes in the description of Niger-Congo languages traditionally classified in the “Gur” and “Adamawa” groups\, spoken in the vast area between the Volta and Benue basins in West Africa\, where he has conducted extensive fieldwork. \n  \nFlorian Lionnet is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University\, where he is the Jonathan Dickinson Bicentennial Preceptor as well as the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Program in Linguistics. His research focuses on phonetics/phonology\, typology\, areal and historical linguistics\, as well as language documentation and description\, with a specific focus on African languages. His current research has been focusing on understudied and endangered languages in southern Chad\, where he has conducted annual field trips for the past several years.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/bua-comparative-project-documentation-and-history-of-a-language-family-of-southern-chad/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20230329T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20230329T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230222T174814Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230323T152623Z
UID:10000175-1680107400-1680112800@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Conceptual arguments for ellipsis as null exponence
DESCRIPTION:While many take ellipsis to involve “deletion at PF”\, surprisingly few attempts have been made to identify the actual mechanism(s) responsible for its characteristic silence. I pursue this matter assuming a strictly modular architecture\, which turns out to significantly constrain the hypothesis space. I argue that phonological deletion accounts should be excluded on theoretical grounds (they are inherently anti-modular: the phonology cannot interpret syntactic features such as [E]) as well as on empirical grounds (they make the wrong predictions: ellipsis can disrupt allomorph selection\, it can salvage ineffability\, etc.). The remaining alternative for elliptical silence to arise post-syntactically\, i.e. “at PF”\, requires it to take effect at Vocabulary Insertion (VI)\, an increasingly popular position. \nIn the second half of the talk\, I argue in support of this conclusion\, but against its prior implementations: under strict modularity\, the syntax cannot be in the business of telling a post- (i.e.\, non-) syntactic operation when or how to do its job\, as existing non-insertion proposals assume. Thus\, what is needed is a strictly modular theory in which elliptical silence arises due to VI’s successful application\, rather than its failed application—in other words\, one in which VI inserts silence. I sketch such a theory here\, adopting the assumption that VI can target non-terminal nodes\, overwriting previously-inserted exponents. The result is a theory in which ellipsis is\, essentially\, a dramatic case of portmanteau suppletion. \nCraig Sailor is a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin within the Centre for Language & Communication Sciences. His research deals with the question of how syntactic structures get externalized\, considering issues such as modularity\, grammatical timing\, and the division of labor between syntax and phonology. He is especially interested in ellipsis — the principled non-externalization of a syntactic constituent — as it provides a unique testing ground for competing theories of the syntax-phonology tradeoff.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/craig-sailor/
LOCATION:via Zoom
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20230308T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20230308T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20221205T211754Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230301T194717Z
UID:10000172-1678293000-1678298400@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:The role of demonstratives across languages
DESCRIPTION:Many traditional assumptions about demonstratives such as ‘that’ and ‘those’ and how they differ from definites like ‘the’ have been reevaluated in the recent semantic literature against cross-linguistic data. Taking one of the analyses for demonstratives under which they are definite descriptions with an additional restriction\, this talk focuses on the question of what this additional argument consists of. Based on data from conventional uses of demonstratives such as those with pointing and ‘exceptional’ ones such as presentational and bridging uses\, I argue for an updated semantics of definite and demonstrative expressions\, one that cuts the spectrum into two dimensions: the restrictions and the linking layer. I argue that the main function of the additional argument is that of linking the description to the intended referent\, and that this linker is inherently deictic\, thus relating it back to some of the more traditional accounts of demonstratives such as Kaplan. I discuss the predictions of this theory\, specifically on how children might acquire the different uses of demonstratives in language development. \n  \nDorothy Ahn is an Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Department at Rutgers University – New Brunswick. As a semanticist interested in cross-linguistic typology\, she investigates how the underlying building blocks of meaning compose to derive the patterns that we see within and across languages. To do so\, she makes use of both formal theoretic and experimental approaches to natural language semantics and pragmatics. Dorothy Ahn received her Ph.D. degree in Linguistics from Harvard University in May 2019 with a dissertation looking at definite expressions. She is generally interested in elements that are associated (at least structurally) with the nominal domain such as demonstratives\, anaphora\, number marking\, and quantifiers.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/dorothy-ahn-rutgers-university-tbd/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20230301T163000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20230301T180000
DTSTAMP:20260413T052012
CREATED:20230216T194759Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20230222T180824Z
UID:10000174-1677688200-1677693600@linguistics.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Variation in color expression in languages of Cameroon
DESCRIPTION:Explaining observed variation in linguistic data and its correlates is a particular challenge when describing under-studied languages lacking huge corpora. The use of a certain variable may be conditioned phonologically or grammatically\, but also by sociolinguistic factors ranging from speech registers to language contact phenomena. \n  \nIn this talk\, I showcase the various levels of variation in the color system of four Bantu speech communities in southern Cameroon. Based on data from my own fieldwork on Gyeli\, Kwasio\, and Bulu\, I show that there is a high degree of variability with respect to color terms and categories. On the one hand\, the variability can be linked to patterns of color innovation in language contact. On the other hand\, intra-community variation in color word forms and lexical choices is considerable and leaves the question whether the variation can be explained by sociolinguistic factors or whether colors do not constitute a unitary domain in these languages (Levinson 2001). \n  \nIn the second part of the talk\, I argue that sociolinguistic factors are not a standard consideration when explaining variation. This is confirmed in a study of twenty recent reference grammars\, where we find that most instances of sociolinguistic variation are discussed for phonetic/phonological variables and are often explained as dialectal differences. For other types of linguistic variables\, e.g. syntactic\, proposed social correlates of non-grammatical variation are vague. \n***** \nNadine Grimm is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of Rochester. She obtained a B.A. in General Linguistics and French at the University of Bielefeld (Germany)in 2006\, and M.A. in African Studies\, German linguistics\, and French at the Humboldt University\, Berlin in 2010\, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics at the Humboldt University\, Berlin in 2015. \n  \nDr. Grimm’s research takes place in a descriptive\, documentary\, and typological framework with a special focus on the grammatical tone\, language contact\, and phonetic features of plosives in northwestern Bantu languages. Nadine has worked on Gyeli\, a Bantu language of Cameroon\, since 2010. Previously\, she studied the numeral system of Ikaan\, a Benue-Congo language of Nigeria. \n  \nShe received the Pāṇini Award by the Association for Linguistic Typology in 2019 for her doctoral dissertation\, which consisted in a grammatical description of Gyeli. The dissertation was published as a book in 2021 (A Grammar of Gyeli\, Language Science Press)\, for which she was awarded the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award by the Linguistic Society of America in 2023.
URL:https://linguistics.princeton.edu/event/nadine-grimm/
LOCATION:1-S-5 Green Hall\, 1-S-5 Green Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08540\, United States
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