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Sesquipedalian #19

the SESQUIPEDALIAN 				       Volume V, No. 19
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First dog in space (1959)			          March 9, 1995
National Panic Day

	
		    PRODUCT WARNINGS FOR PHYSICISTS

WARNING: This Product Attracts Every Other Piece of Matter in the
Universe, Including the Products of Other Manufacturers, with a Force
Proportional to the Product of the Masses and Inversely Proportional
to the Distance Between Them.

HANDLE WITH EXTREME CARE: The Mass of This Product Contains the Energy
Equivalent of 85 Million Tons of TNT per Net Ounce of Weight.

CAUTION: This Product Contains Minute Electrically Charged Particles
Moving at Velocities in Excess of Five Hundred Million Miles Per Hour.

CONSUMER NOTICE: Because of the "Uncertainty Principle," It Is
Impossible for the Consumer to Find Out at the Same Time Both
Precisely Where This Product Is and How Fast It Is Moving.

ADVISORY: There is an Extremely Small but Nonzero Chance That, Through
a Process Know as "Tunneling," This Product May Spontaneously
Disappear from Its Present Location and Reappear at Any Random Place
in the Universe, Including Your Neighbor's Domicile. The Manufacturer
Will Not Be Responsible for Any Damages or Inconvenience That May
Result.

READ THIS BEFORE OPENING PACKAGE: According to Certain Suggested
Versions of the Grand Unified Theory, the Primary Particles
Constituting this Product May Decay to Nothingness Within the Next
Four Hundred Million Years.

THIS IS A 100% MATTER PRODUCT: In the Unlikely Event That This
Merchandise Should Contact Antimatter in Any Form, a Catastrophic
Explosion Will Result.

PUBLIC NOTICE AS REQUIRED BY LAW: Any Use of This Product, in Any
Manner Whatsoever, Will Increase the Amount of Disorder in the
Universe.  Although No Liability Is Implied Herein, the Consumer Is
Warned That This Process Will Ultimately Lead to the Heat Death of the
Universe.

NOTE: The Most Fundamental Particles in This Product Are Held Together
by a "Gluing" Force About Which Little is Currently Known and Whose
Adhesive Power Can Therefore Not Be Permanently Guaranteed.

ATTENTION: Despite Any Other Listing of Product Contents Found Hereon,
the Consumer is Advised That, in Actuality, This Product Consists Of
99.9999999999% Empty Space.

NEW GRAND UNIFIED THEORY DISCLAIMER: The Manufacturer May Technically
Be Entitled to Claim That This Product Is Ten-Dimensional. However,
the Consumer Is Reminded That This Confers No Legal Rights Above and
Beyond Those Applicable to Three-Dimensional Objects, Since the Seven
New Dimensions Are "Rolled Up" into Such a Small "Area" That They
Cannot Be Detected.

PLEASE NOTE: Some Quantum Physics Theories Suggest That When the
Consumer Is Not Directly Observing This Product, It May Cease to Exist
or Will Exist Only in a Vague and Undetermined State.

COMPONENT EQUIVALENCY NOTICE: The Subatomic Particles (Electrons,
Protons, etc.) Comprising This Product Are Exactly the Same in Every
Measurable Respect as Those Used in the Products of Other
Manufacturers, and No Claim to the Contrary May Legitimately Be
Expressed or Implied.

HEALTH WARNING: Care Should Be Taken When Lifting This Product, Since
Its Mass, and Thus Its Weight, Is Dependent on Its Velocity Relative
to the User.

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PURCHASERS: The Entire Physical Universe,
Including This Product, May One Day Collapse Back into an
Infinitesimally Small Space. Should Another Universe Subsequently
Re-emerge, the Existence of This Product in That Universe Cannot Be
Guaranteed.

		    ^\^\^\ LOOK WHO'S TALKING /^/^/^

-- At WCCFL, Jong-Bok Kim and Ivan Sag will be presenting 'Parametric
differences between English and French Negation: A non-derivational
approach.' 

-- As Arnold Zwicky rides off into the sunset, he disappears in a
flurry of talks: First, at BYU, he presents 'How to talk about plants:
count and mass in English,' and 'Resisting the possessive' on March 9
& 10.  Then at Berkeley on March 15, he presents 'Conditions in
Conflict.'  Then on March 20 and 22, he presents 'Why English
adverbial -ly is not inflectional' at Arizona State University and
University of New Mexico, respectively.

LOOK WHO'S WRITING: Will Leben has graciously donated the first copy
of his new book, 'English vocabulary elements' (with Keith Denning) to
the Greenberg Room.

 	          ^/^/^/ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM \^\^\^

                        Friday, March 10, 3:30 pm
                              Cordura 100

           Speakers, Perspectives, and Words in Acquisition
                            Eve V. Clark
             Linguistics Department, Stanford University

Speakers mark their perspective on an object, an event, an activity,
or a relation through the words they choose.  The range speakers can
draw on include different levels in hierarchical taxonomies (_animal_,
_mammal_, _dog_, _spaniel_; _meal_, _lunch_; _ingest, eat, chew_) and
orthogonal domains (_teacher_, _cellist_, _parent_, _gardener_).
Diversity in the lexicon offers choices to speakers in representing
their perspectives to addressees.  One consequence is that the same
object or the same event may be referred to in a number of ways on
different occasions, where each expression reflects a different
perspective and hence a different goal on the part of the speaker.
There is no simple one-to-one relation between terms used for making
reference and their intended referents.  This talk explores some
consequences for early lexical acquisition of such input.
-------------
Reception follows.

Future Colloquia:
March 17: Geoff Nunberg
April 7: Martin Kay

		     ^\^\^\ PHONOLOGY WORKSHOP /^/^/^

There will be a Phonology Workshop at Stanford TONIGHT--
	Date: 9th March, 7:30pm
	Place: Seminar Room, Linguistics Dept, Margaret Jacks Hall

 		 DERIVING VARIATION FROM GRAMMAR
			 Arto Anttila
		      Stanford University

A way to derive morphological variation from UG principles is
proposed. The specific case discussed is Finnish noun inflection where
phonologically definable classes of roots permit extensive variation
in suffix allomorphy. An example is /fyysikko/ `physicist' which has
(at least) three alternative genitive plurals: /fyysikkojen/,
/fyysikoiden/ and /fyysikoitten/. The generalization is that short
words behave categorically: monosyllabic roots choose one variant,
bisyllabic roots another; trisyllables (and longer roots) display
bewildering variation which however turns out to be tightly controlled
by phonology: (i) light root-final syllables permit variation, heavy
root-final syllables do not; (ii) roots ending in the maximally
sonorous /a/ strongly prefer one suffix type, roots ending in the
minimally sonorous /i/ strongly prefer another suffix type, and the
intermediary /o/ permits both types to a roughly equal degree.
	The claim is that categorical outputs, variable outputs and
statistical preferences follow from syllable prominence defined as a
combination of stress, weight and sonority.  Assuming standard
Optimality Theory, I construct a simple grammar of syllable prominence
which predicts in what circumstances variation will and will not occur
and which variant is preferred. Both categorical cases and variation
are derived from one partially ranked grammar which yields multiple
totally ranked grammars. The number of total rankings by which a
variant wins predicts its probability of occurrence.
                     
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            NEXT WEEK: POTLUCK DINNER before WORKSHOP TALK 
        To celebrate the end of the Quarter, and as a part of our
admissions activities, we will be having a get-together before next
TUESDAY's workshop, at 6:30pm. Please note changes in time AND
location. See you there!
Date: TUESDAY 14 March, 6:30pm (the talk will start around 7:30pm)
Place: Potluck dinner & workshop at Paul Kiparsky's -
        306 San Mateo Drive, Menlo Park

 			   ONLY THE TROCHEE
 		         Ruben van de Vijver
	     Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics/
		Vrije Universiteit/Stanford (visiting)

In this talk I will argue that surface-iambs result from violations of
the constraint TROCHEE and that there is no constraint which requires
that feet are iambs.
	Most theories of feet use two types of feet. A foot is either
trochee (a leftheaded foot) or it is an iamb (a rightheaded foot).  In
parametric theories (cf. Hayes 1981,1985, 1987, 1995) the choice of
the type of foot was seen as a parametric choice. The rise of
Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy and Prince
1993ab, 1994) has put this understanding in another light: Variation
is seen as the result of constraint interaction. As a consequence,
variation should not be present in the constraints themselves. This
means that constraints should not contradict each other. For if they
do, their ranking is based on the content of the contradicting
constraints and not on the surface patterns.
	A typical example of contradicting constraints are the foot
type constraints (Prince and Smolensky). One foot type constraint
requires that feet are trochees (leftheaded) and another constraint 
requires that feet are iambs (rightheaded). I will argue that there 
is no need for a constraint that requires feet to be iambic.
Rightheaded feet on the surface are the result of the violation 
of the constraint TROCHEE.  Three iambic languages, Weri,
Hixkaryana and Chugach Alutiiq Yupik are used to illustrate this
point. The interaction of familiar constraints and concepts like
NONINITIALITY, *CLASH, *LAPSE and TROCHEE will give rise to iambic
patterns. As a consequence the foot-inventory in the interesting part
of the grammar, the set of universal constraints, will consist of one
foot: the trochee.
	Finally, the issue of iambic lengthening is addressed. I will
argue that this is the consequence of a tendency to be trochaic.
Rhythmic considerations such as clash- or lapse-avoidance enhance
lengthening in rightheaded feet and shortening in leftheadded feet
(Prince 1990, Kager 1993).  

	          ^\^\^\ SOCIABLE SYNTAX SUPPER /^/^/^

Concurrent with the Friendly Phonology Feast, there will be a Sociable
Syntax Supper at the home of Joan Bresnan (11 Franciscan Ridge,
Portola Valley).  Potluck dining commences at 6:30, and then at 7:45,
John Mugane will deliver 'Syntax of the Gikuyu NP.'  That's this
coming TUESDAY, March 14.

	 	      ^/^/^/ CALL FOR PAPERS \^\^\^

-- Fourth International Conference on The COGNITIVE SCIENCE of NATURAL
LANGUAGE PROCESSING (Dublin City University, 5-7 July 1995).
Submissions may deal with theoretical issues, applications, databases
or other aspects of CSNLP, but the importance of cognitive aspects
should be borne in mind. Papers should report original substantive
research.  There is currently considerable debate regarding the place
and importance of syntax in NLP. Papers dealing with this matter will
be given preference.  Those wishing to present a paper at CSNLP should
submit a 400-word abstract to arrive not later than April 10, 1995.
Abstracts should give the author's full name and address, with Email
address if possible, and should be sent to
	CSNLP
	Alex Monaghan
	School of Computer Applications
	Dublin City University
	Dublin 9, IRELAND
	email: alex@compapp.dcu.ie 
Email submissions preferred (plain ascii).  Completed papers should be
around 8 pages long, although longer papers will be considered if
requested. Camera-ready copy must be submitted to arrive in Dublin by
19/6/94. No particular conference style will be imposed, but papers
should be legible (12pt laser printed) and well-structured.

 	         ^\^\^\ FELLOWSHIPS/ASSISTANTSHIPS /^/^/^

-- ASU: Postdoctoral fellowships are available for personnel with a
primary interest in applied research in early childhood communication
and language.  Eligible personnel include those with a Ph.D. (or
comparable degree) in a behavioral discipline (e.g., speech & hearing,
psychology, early childhood special education, or other related
disciplines).  Two tracks are available and both include a focus on
young children (infants,toddlers, or preschoolers) with communication
and/or language disorders.  TRACK ONE, which is designed for new
doctoral-level personnel, provides opportunities and support (up to
two years) for the development and implementation of an applied
research agenda.  TRACK TWO, which is designed for established
researchers (to include those desiring a sabbatical supplement)
provides opportunities and support for either (a) replication of an
applied research issue, or (b) development of new research directions
that include applied research.  A large archival database, including
longitudinal documentation of the course of initial language
acquisition in over 100 children with developmental language disorders
(of varying as well as undetermined etiologies) is available to
support certain research inquiries.  Additionally, access to a large
population of atypically developing toddlers and preschoolers
(including those with SLI, developmental delay, and other medical and
developmental problems) in the greater Phoenix area can be arranged
for those interested in collection of new data.  The fellowships are
available starting September 1, 1995.  Later start dates are also
possible.  Interested persons should submit a vita, letter of
application indicating desired start date, 3 letters of reference (new
doctoral personnel only), and a detailed statement of applied research
interests to: M. Jeanne Wilcox, Ph.D., Infant Child Communication
Research Programs, Arizona State University, Box 871908, Tempe,
Arizona 85287-1908 (FAX: 602/ 965-0965; Internet: Jeanne@asu.edu)

		     ^\^\^\ TRUE LINGUISTICS /^/^/^

PARDON OUR DUST DEPARTMENT:

'I am about to-- or I am going to-- die; either expression is used.'
          Last words of Dominique Bouhours (French grammarian)

		     ^/^/^/ JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS \^\^\^

(REDUNDANCY NOTICE: For fuller listings of these and other jobs, don't
forget to check the Jobs binder in the Greenberg Room, and the file
'jobslist.txt' on the CSLI directory /user/linguistics.)

-- EMORY UNIVERSITY: Two-year postdoctoral position to study early
language development beginning in September, 1995.  Major
responsibilities are to help design experiments on early word learning
and grammar, to supervise the running of the experiments, and to
assist in the analysis of data and write-up.  Major qualification
necessary is experience in empirical research on language acquisition
(preferably experiments) involving living, breathing children
(preferably 1-3 year olds).  Candidates should have received their
PhDs by September, 1995, but ABDs will be considered.  Interested
persons should send a vita, reprints, and three letters of
recommendation as soon as possible to
	Michael Tomasello
	Department of Psychology
	Emory University
	Atlanta, GA  30322
E-mail inquiries welcome at: tomas@fs1.psy.emory.edu.   Some interviews
will be conducted at SRCD in Indianapolis (March 30 - April 1), and a
decision made as soon thereafter as possible.  Women and minorities are
especially encouraged to apply.  Emory University is an equal
opportunity employer.  

-- SOROS FOUNDATION: The Soros English Language Teaching Program is
seeking EFL teachers for year-long teaching assignments in Central and
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics.  The program provides
fellowships for EFL teachers in secondary schools and teacher-training
colleges in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Republics.  Fellows are responsible for approximately 20 hours of
classroom instruction per week.  They not only teach English to
students, but also share the latest English language teaching
methodology with local teachers.  The program offers an excellent
opportunity for recently trained teachers to gain experience in TESOL.
Assignments are for one academic year and generally begin last week of
August.  Each country's foundation conducts a short orientation
program before the school year begins.  We offer the option of
renewing for a second or third year.  The Soros English Language
Teaching Program prefers applicants with Master's degrees in Applied
Linguistics and TESOL.  Teaching experience, travel abroad, and
knowledge of a second language are helpful.  While we primarily choose
teachers with graduate degrees, we will also consider applicants from
individuals with TESOL, ESL, or EFL certification and related
undergraduate degrees.  Interested candidates must submit an
application, three letters of reference, transcripts, and a written
essay.  Review of applications begins February 1 and continues through
July.  For priority consideration for the 1995-96 academic year, we
must receive applications by April 15, 1995.  Interviews will be
conducted March 28-April 1 at the TESOL convention in Long Beach,
California.  Applicants unable to attend the convention will be
contacted for phone interviews.  Contact
	Professor Robert B. Hausmann
	Soros English Language Teaching Program
	Linguistics Program, University of Montana
	Missoula MT 59812
	phone: 406/243-4751
	fax: 406/243-4076
	email: li_rbh@lewis.umt.edu

-- UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE: Cantonese/English Bilingual
Research Associate.  Applications are invited for a 3-year appointment
as Research Associate from 1st October, 1995. The successful candidate
is expected to work, along with two other RAs, on an ESRC-funded
research project, looking into first language development of
British-born Cantonese-speaking children. The candidate should be
Cantonese/English bilingual and preferably hold a higher degree in
either speech science or linguistics, although candidates with other
qualifications will be considered. The appointee will have major
responsibilities for community-based fieldwork, data transcription and
analysis. A working knowledge of language profiling procedures, e.g.
LARSP, is necessary.  Two copies of a letter of application and full
curriculum vitae, together with names and addresses (preferably with
fac numbers) of three referees should be sent to Dr Li Wei, Department
of Speech, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU by 13th April.
Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Li Wei on +44 (0)191 222
6760/7388 Fax: +44 (0)191 222 6518 E-mail: li.wei@newcastle.ac.uk

(REDUNDANCY NOTICE: For fuller listings of these and other jobs, don't
forget to check the Jobs binder in the Greenberg Room, and the file
'jobslist.txt' on the CSLI directory /user/linguistics.)

		       ^/^/^/ INSTA-PRIZE \^\^\^

OPERATIONS RESEARCH: Mr and Mrs Spume are having a party this evening,
and there are three tasks they must perform before the guests arrive.
Their first floor must be vacuumed-- they have only one vacuum, and
the task will take 30 minutes.  Their lawn must be mowed; they have
only one lawn mower, and this task also takes 30 minutes.  Also, their
baby must be fed, burped, changed, and put to bed, and this too
requires 30 minutes.  Assuming the couple works simultaneously, what
is the minimum amount of time they will require to complete it all?

Solution to last week's puzzle: Why, you would be in the Philippines,
of course...


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                    ^\^\^\ CONSERVE DISK SPACE /^/^/^

So you may delete your copy after you've read it (or better yet,
before you've read it), the Sesquipedalian Weekly Herald is stored
online at Stanford (in directory /user/linguistics/Sesquip/93-94), and
at Berkeley (in the directory /usr/pub.)  The most current issue of
the Herald can be found by typing 'help quip'.

Neither Stanford University nor the Linguistics Department, nor any of
their employees, makes any warranty, whatsoever, implied, or assumes
any legal liability or responsibility regarding any information,
disclosed, in this publication, or represents that its use would not
infringe privately owned rights.  No specific reference constitutes or
implies endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by Stanford
University or the Linguistics Department, or their employees.  Any
similarity to actual linguists, living or dead, is purely
coincidental.  The views and opinions expressed herein do not
necessarily reflect those of Stanford University or the Linguistics
Department, or their employees, and shall not be used for advertising
or product endorsement purposes.

Remove plastic cover before serving

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