[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Sesquipedalian #2

the SESQUIPEDALIAN 				       Volume VI, No. 2
\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/
Gopher Hill Day					        October 6, 1995


			   HOW I MET MY WIFE
			      Jack Winter

	It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was
very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate.

	I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw
her standing alone in a corner.  She was a descript person, a woman in
a state of total array.  Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled,
and she moved in a gainly way.

	I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I'd have to make
bones about it since I was travelling cognito.  Beknownst to me, the
hostess, whom I could see both hide and hair of, was very proper, so
it would be skin off my nose if anything bad happened.  And even
though I had only swerving loyalty to her, my manners couldn't be
peccable.  Only toward and heard-of behavior would do.

	Fortunately, the embarrassment that my maculate appearance
might cause was evitable.  There were two ways about it, but the
chances that someone as flappable as I would be ept enough to become
persona grata or a sung hero were slim.  I was, after all, something
to sneeze at, someone you could easily hold a candle to, someone who
usually aroused bridled passion.

	So I decided not to risk it.  But then, all at once, for some
apparent reason, she looked in my direction and smiled in a way that I
could make heads or tails of.

	I was plussed.  It was concerting to see that she was
communicado, and it nerved me that she was interested in a pareil like
me, sight seen.  Normally, I had a domitable spirit, but, being
corrigible, I felt capacitated--as if this were something I was great
shakes at--and forgot that I had succeeded in situations like this
only a told number of times. So, after a terminable delay, I acted
with mitigated gall and made my way through the ruly crowd with strong
givings.

	Nevertheless, since this was all new hat to me and I had no
time to prepare a promptu speech, I was petuous.  Wanting to make only
called-for remarks, I started talking about the hors d'oeuvres, trying
to abuse her of the notion that I was sipid, and perhaps even bunk a
few myths about myself.

	She responded well, and I was mayed that she considered me a
savory character who was up to some good.  She told me who she was.
"What a perfect nomer," said she, advertently.  The conversation
become more and more choate, and we spoke at length to much avail.
But I was defatigable, so I had to leave at a godly hour.  I asked if
she wanted to come with me.  To my delight, she was committal.  We
left the party together and have been together ever since.  I have
given her my love, and she has requited it.

[The New Yorker]

 	            -\-/-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM \-/-\-

The colloquium series begins on October 13 with Manfred Krifka.
Watch this space for details, or check the schedule at

http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/~kessler/colloq/colloq.html

		  -/-\-/ FELLOWSHIPS/ASSISTANTSHIPS /-\-/-

-- SNORRI STURLUSON ICELANDIC FELLOWSHIPS: The Sigurthur Nordal
Institute invites applications for the Snorri Sturluson Icelandic
Fellowships for 1996.  The Fellowships are granted to writers,
translators and scholars (not university students) in the field of
humanities from outside Iceland, to enable them to stay in Iceland for
a period of at least three months, in order to improve their knowledge
of the Icelandic language, culture, and society.  The amount of
fellowships is based in principle on travel expenses to and from
Iceland, plus living expenses while in the country.  Should two
equally-qualified candidates be under consideration, preference will
as a rule be given to a candidate from Eastern or Southern Europe,
Asia, Africa, Latin America or Oceania.  The Sigurthur Nordal
Institute will assist fellows during their stay in Iceland, at the
conclusion of which fellows are expected to submit a report to the
Institute on how the money granted was spent.  Applicants for the
fellowships should submit a brief but thorough account of the purpose
of their proposed stay in Iceland, specifying period of stay, as well
as details of education and publications.  Applications should be sent
no later than 31 October 1995 to
	The Sigurthur Nordal Institute
	P.O. Box 1220
	121 Reykjavik
	ICELAND

-- MICHIGAN SOCIETY OF FELLOWS: The Michigan Society of Fellows
provides financial and intellectual support for individuals selected
for outstanding achievement, professional promise, and
interdisciplinary interests.  We invite applications from qualified
candidates for three-year postdoctoral fellowships at the University
of Michigan.  Candidates should be near the beginning of their
professional careers.  Those selected for fellowships must have
received the Ph.D. degree or comparable professional or artistic
degree between January 1, 1993, and September 1, 1996.  Fellows are
appointed as Assistant Professors or Research Scientists in
appropriate departments as Postdoctoral Scholars.  They are expected
to be in residence in Ann Arbor during the academic years of the
fellowship, to teach for the equivalent of one academic year, to
participate in the informal intellectual life of the Society, and to
devote time to their independent research.  Applications will be
reviewed by Society members and University faculty.  Final selection
will be made in January by the Senior Fellows of the Society.  Four
new Fellows will be selected for three-year terms to begin September
1, 1996.  The annual stipend will be $31,000.  Send requests for
application materials to
	Michigan Society of Fellows
	3030 Rackham Building
	University of Michigan
	Ann Arbor MI 48109-1070
	phone: 313/763-1259
Application deadline: October 13, 1995 (postmarked)

	               -\-/-\ CALL FOR PAPERS \-/-\-

-- WCCFL-XV (UC Irvine, February 29-March 3, 1996): Includes a special
workshop on Native American languages.  Abstracts are invited for
20-minute talks in all areas of formal linguistics and from any
theoretical perspective.  Abstracts should be anonymous, no more than
one page, single spaced, with all margins at least one inch wide and
in at least 11-point type (examples may be in 10-point type).  Mail
ten copies of the abstract along with a 3x5 card with paper title,
name of author(s), affiliation and status, address, phone number,
e-mail and, to facilitate the reviewing process, primary area of
linguistics addressed in the paper.  These same requirements apply to
the workshop.  Submissions are limited to a maximum of one individual
and one group abstract per author.  Please do not send abstracts by
e-mail or fax.  Deadline for receipt of abstracts: November 1, 1995.
	WCCFL-XV Committee
	Department of Linguistics
	University of California, Irvine
	Irvine CA 92717
	email: wccfl@uci.edu

-- NINTH ANNUAL CUNY SENTENCE PROCESSING CONFERENCE: The Ninth Annual
CUNY Sentence Processing Conference will be held at the CUNY Graduate
Center in New York City from 12 noon, Thursday 21 March to 6 pm,
Saturday 23 March 1996.
    Deadline for paper/poster submission: Monday 16 October 1995
    Send a one page (300 word) abstract for anonymous review to:
        Eva Fernandez, Program in Linguistics, CUNY Graduate Center
        33 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036
    or e-mail:
        LNGGC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (marked "Subject: CUNY Conference Abstract")
    Please indicate whether you prefer a paper or a poster presentation,
    or either format.
A Special Session is planned for papers about the processing of East
Asian languages (e.g., Japanese, Korean).  If you intend your submission
for this Special Session, please so indicate.
    Preliminary Program announcement will be mailed in early November.
Final Program and accommodation information will be mailed in January 1996.

-- FOURTH WORKSHOP ON VERY LARGE CORPORA (WVLC-4) (August 4, 1996 - in
conjunction with COLING 96; Turorials: Aug 2-3, Main conference: Aug
5-9, 1996): University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.  This
workshop, like preceding ones in the series, will offer an
international and general forum for the presentation of new advances
and applications in the area of large scale, corpus-based natural
language processing.  The fourth workshop will focus on the theme of:
Innovative uses and applications of large corpora.  
FORMAT FOR SUBMISSION: Authors should submit a full length paper 
(3500 - 8000 words), either electronically or in hard copy. Electronic
submissions should be mailed to "WVLC-4@ling.umu.se" and must be 
either (a) a plain ascii text, (b) a single postscript file, or 
(c) a single LaTex file (no separate figures or .bib files), following 
the COLING 96 stylesheet, which is retrievable by anonymous ftp from
ling.umu.se, /pub/SIGDAT/colsub.sty. A model submission is provided 
in /pub/SIGDAT/modelsub.tex. Hard copy submissions should be mailed 
to Ido Dagan (address below), and should include four (4) copies of 
the paper. 
REQUIREMENTS: Papers should describe original work. A paper accepted 
for presentation cannot be presented or have been presented at any other
meeting. Papers submitted to other conferences will be considered, as 
long as this fact is clearly indicated in the submission.
Submission Deadline:      February 23, 1996
Notification Date:        March 26, 1996
Camera ready copy due:    April 26, 1996
The camera ready hard copies of final papers, prepared in a double 
column format and laser printed, should be air-mailed to Eva Ejerhed 
(address below) and must be received by April 26, 1996.
Eva Ejerhed                 Ido Dagan
Dept of Linguistics, DGL    Dept of Mathematics & Computer Science
University of Umea          Bar Ilan University
S 90187 Umea, Sweden        Ramat Gan 52900, Israel
e-mail: WVLC-4@ling.umu.se  e-mail: dagan@bimacs.cs.biu.ac.il
http://www.ling.umu.se/SIGDAT/WVLC-4.html

-- TENTH ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM ON ARABIC LINGUISTICS (Salt Lake City, Utah,
March 1-2, 1996): Papers are invited for a general session on topics
that deal with the application of current linguistic theories and
analyses to Arabic.  Research in the following areas of Arabic
linguistics is encouraged: grammatical analysis, sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, historical linguistics, etc.
Papers are also invited for a parassesion on language and gender in
Arabic.  Persons interested in presenting papers for either session
are requested to submit six copies of a one-page abstract giving the
title of the paper, a brief statement of the topic and a summary
clearly stating how the topic will be developed (the resoning, data,
or experimental results to be presented).  Authors are requested to be
as specific and explicit as possible in describing their topic.  Names
are not to appear on the abstract; instead a 3x5 card should be
enclosed with the author's name, affiliation, address, phone number,
title of paper, and session to which it is submitted.  Twenty minutes
will be allowed for each presentation.  Deadline for receipt of
abstracts: November 30, 1995.  Abstracts and other inquiries should be
addressed to
	Dr Mushira Eid, 
	Dept of Languages and Literature
	1400 LNCO
	University of Utah
	Salt Lake City UT 84112
	phone: 801/581-7561 
	email: mushira.eid@m.cc.utah.edu
	fax: 801/581-7581
Papers are also invited for a workshop on non-verbal agreement in the
modern Arabic dialects which is planned for Sunday morning.  Its
purpose is to provide a forum to discuss data on agreement patterns
(other than verb agreement) in the various Arabic dialects.  For
information on the workshop, please contact the organizer
	Dr Mohammad Mohammad
	Dept of African Languages & Literature
	University of Florida at Gainesville
	Gainesville FL 32611
	phone: 904/392-1443
	email: mohammad@grove.ufl.edu

-- UCLA SYMPOSIUM FOR JAPANESE STUDIES: 'Japan: Challenging the Myth
of Uniqueness.  Japan in comparative perspective.'  The symposium
committee welcomes proposals from all academic disciplines which
attempt to view Japanese social, political, and economic development
in light of and in relation to the historical experience of other
nations and cultural entities.  Approaches employing theoretical and
explanatory models of historical development and change as they apply
to Japan are also welcome.  Please submit proposals of no more than
one page in length by November 1, 1995.  Please include university
department, field of specialization, name, address, and telephone
number along with a self-addressed stamped postcard for an
acknowledgement of the receipt of your submission.  Send proposals to
	UCLA Graduate School Student Symposium
	c/o Mariko Kitamura Bird
	Center for Japanese Studies
	405 Hilgard Avenue
	11250 Bunche Hall
	Los Angeles CA 90095-1487

		      -/-\-/ TRUE LINGUISTICS /-\-/-

-- TOP TEN LIES TOLD BY GRADUATE STUDENTS:
10. It doesn't bother me at all that my old college roommate is making
	$80,000 on Wall Street.
9. I'd be delighted to proofread your...
8. My work has a lot of practical importance.
7. I would never date an undergraduate.
6. Your latest article was really inspiring.
5. I turned down several great job offers to come here.
4. I just have one more book to read and then I'll start writing.
3. The department is giving me so much support.
2. My job prospects look good.
1. No, I'll be out of here in only two more years.

-- TOP FIVE LIES TOLD BY TAs:
5. I'm not going to grant any extensions.
4. Call me any time; I'm always available.
3. It doesn't matter what I think-- write what you believe.
2. Think of the midterm as a diagnostic tool.
1. My other section is much better prepared than you guys. 

[Harvard Crimson]

		     -\-/-\ 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.)

-- RANK XEROX: The Multi-Lingual Theory and Technology group at the
Rank Xerox Research Centre (located in Grenoble, France) is looking
for motivated researchers to work on problems in information retrieval
and natural language processing. Two positions are available.
			Research Associate
The candidate will provide technical support for our work in
multi-lingual information retrieval and contribute to the development
of an information retrieval system suited to our research needs.
Secondary work will involve other aspects of natural language
processing, as our interests range from automatic translation to text
generation to information retrieval in a multi-lingual setting. There
are a number of active projects that range in scope from long term
basic research to short term prototyping.
Applicants should have the equivalent of at least a U.S. master's
degree in computer science. A degree in a closely related field may
also be acceptable if they have a strong computational
background. Candidates must have excellent skills and considerable
experience with Unix and C/C++ programming. Some experience with both
corpus linguistics and large scale information retrieval problems
would be highly desirable. The applicant must be able to communicate
effectively in English and knowledge of other major European languages
would also be helpful.  There is no specific deadline for application,
but we expect the position to be filled early in 1996 at the latest.
			Research Scientist
The candidate will collaborate in the development of new approaches to
solving multi-lingual information retrieval problems and will also
contribute to our ongoing work to develop statistical and linguistic
tools for analyzing text in English, French, German, and other major
European languages. In particular, (s)he will collaborate with other
researchers at RXRC on projects involving the automatic extraction and
translation of terminology from multi-lingual text collections.
Applicants should have the equivalent of a PhD in computer science or
some closely related field and have practical experience with
information retrieval and a strong computational background. The ideal
background would include some experience with computational
linguistics, natural language processing, machine learning, and/or the
statistical analysis of text. Experience with large scale information
retrieval problems is also desirable. Candidates will be expected to
develop new ideas and work on long term basic research, so creativity
and strong personal motivation are essential qualities. The applicant
must be able to communicate effectively in English, and working
knowledge of French, German, or other major European languages would be
valuable. The position will be available in mid-1996.
Applications should be sent to:
Annie Zaenen                    annie.zaenen@xerox.fr
RXRC,
6 chemin de Maupertuis,
38240 Meylan, France
fax: +33 76 61 50 99

-- UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Tenure track Assistant Professor of Spanish
with specialization in second language acquisition research and
application.  Ph.D. in hand by September 1, 1996.  Will teach courses
at undegraduate and MA levels in Spanish language and language
teaching methodology/learning strategies.  Will participate in
curriculum development, particularly at elementary and intermediate
levels, and in implementation of department-wide assesment measures
and outreach programs with area schools.  Resume, transcript and 3
letters of recommendation should be received by December 1, 1995.
Send to 
	German F. Westphal,
	Dept of Modern Languages and Linguistics
	University of Maryland Baltimore County
	Baltimore MD 21228-5398
Minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to
apply.

-- UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: The Program in Linguistics at the
University of Michigan invites applications for a one-year position as
Visiting Assistant Professor in phonology and phonetics, beginning
January 1996.  The position will include 1/2 time teaching
responsibilities, including introductory phonology, and 1/2 time
research as the Language Learning Visiting Research Assistant
Professor.  We seek outstanding applicants who are especially
interested in interacting with an active group of faculty and
students.  Specializations in comparative and cross-linguistic studies
are particularly welcome.  A Ph.D. by the start of the appointment is
required.  Letter of application, CV, one representative publication,
and three letters of recommendation should be sent by November 1, 1995
to
	Professor Marilyn Shatz, Director
	Program in Linguistics
	University of Michigan
	1076 Frieze Building 
	Ann Arbor MI 48109-1285
EO/AA

-- UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: The Program in Linguistics at the
University of Michigan invites applications for a faculty position in
syntax at the assistant (tenure-track) or, possibly, early associate
(tenured) professor level, beginning fall, 1996.  We seek outstanding
applicants with teaching and research expertise in formal syntax with
the ability to relate their research to other subdisciplines or
cognate fields.  Specializations in comparative or cross-linguistic
studies are especially welcome.  A Ph.D. by the start of the
appointment is required.  Letter of application, CV, one
representative publication, and three letters of recommendation should
be sent by December 1, 1995, to
        Professor Marilyn Shatz, Director
        Program in Linguistics
        University of Michigan
        1076 Frieze Building
        Ann Arbor MI 48109-1285
EO/AA

-- UPENN: The Department of Linguistics at the University of
Pennsylvania invites applications for a tenure-track position in
phonology at the rank of Assistant Professor, beginning July 1, 1996.
The Ph.D. must be in hand or near completion at the time of
application.  An established record of effective teaching, especially
at the undergraduate level, is highly desirable.  The ideal candidate
will also have serious research interests in a related area such as
morphology or another subdiscipline.  Preference will be given to
candidates who can contribute to the tradition of interdisciplinary
research at Penn, both within linguistics and across the cognitive
sciences.  The deadline for applications is NOVEMBER 15.  A cover
letter, CV, and representative work should be sent to
	Phonology Search Committee
	Department of Linguistics
	619 Williams Hall
	University of Pennsylvania
	Philadelphia PA 19104-6305
Applicants should also have three letters of recommendation sent to
this address.  Email recommendations, with hard copy to follow, may be
sent to gene@unagi.cis.upenn.edu
EO/AA

(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 /-\-/-

SIGNS OF TROUBLE: This afternoon at the pool I saw a sign that read:

			   NOW NO SWIMS ON MON

What's so unusual (practically unique) about this message?  First
correct answer via e-mail wins this week's insta-prize.

/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\

                    -\-/-\ 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.

You must be this tall to ride the Sesquipedalian

\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/