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Sesquipedalian #14
the SESQUIPEDALIAN Volume VI, No. 14
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Robert Burns born (1759) January 25, 1995
DEAF-EAR
By Neal Oribio <pueo@lava.net>
The characters and events portrayed in this story are fictional. Any
resemblance to persons or events... past, present, or future... are
coincidental. (Pidgin Translation: Steh may'k beeleev, no beeg ting.)
----------
[Adapted from a joke I heard]
My Ungko... he tink my Antee steh going deaf. My Antee... she no like go
doctor, but.
One time... my Ungko wen go look da doctor. My Ungko wen tell da
doctor... "Hoy, doctor. I tink Mada steh going deaf. She no like come
doctor, but. What can do, eh?"
Da doctor wen tell my Ungko... "We will need to determine the seriousness
of her hearing loss."
"How can, but?" My Ungko wen tell da doctor again. "Mada no like come
look you."
Da doctor wen scratch his chin. "Perhaps we can try something without her
noticing."
"Shoots!" My Ungko wen ansah. "What you like try?"
So da doctor wen explain... "You might try asking a question... from
across the room... when she is not looking at you... use your normal
volume for speaking... if she does not respond... take three steps closer
to her... and repeat the question... continue this until she responds...
then, on your next visit... tell me how close you were when she
responded."
"Kay-den"... my Ungko wen tell da doctor... "I going try 'em." Enden my
Ungko wen go home.
My Antee... she steh wash da dishes. My Ungko... he steh behind... by da
door sai. So, my Ungko wen aks my Antee... "Hoy, Mada... where get my
reading glasses?"
My Antee... she still steh wash dishes, but. So, my Ungko... he wen go
take chree steps. Enden he go aks again... "Hoy, Mada... where get my
reading glasses?"
Still yet... my Antee still steh wash da dishes. My Ungko... he wen go
take chree mo steps. Enden he go aks one mo time... "Hoy, Mada... where
get my reading glasses?"
My Antee wen go turn aroun'... she get all piss-off kind look ontop her
face... she go tell my Ungko... "Hoy, Fada... I told you two time
already... steh by da television... you steh deaf-ear, or what?"
Pau...
[ From 'KA HA`I MO`OLELO -- The Storyteller,' Short Stories & Tall
Tales from and about Hawai`i (The Hawaii NewsList). Originally posted
to alt.culture.hawaii -- republished with permission.]
-\-/-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM \-/-\-
Friday, Jan. 26, 3:30 pm.
Margaret Jacks Hall (460), Room 146
Dani Byrd
Haskins Laboratories
Phonological Influences on Articulatory Timing
We see evidence of phonological structure in the act
of speaking--not just in what we speak but in how we speak it.
Phonological influences are manifest in the temporal and
spatial patterning of articulation. Despite the pervasiveness
of these influences, however, only a very few temporal
"signatures" of prosodic structure have been identified
at the level of articulatory patterning. This presentation
will examine the temporal organization of oral articulatory
gestures as a function of segmental, syllabic, and phrasal
structure. Articulatory data collected with electropalatography
and with a magnetometer will be reported from three experiments
considering the effects of place and manner, syllable structure,
and phrasal structure on the articulation of consonant sequences.
The focus of the discussion will be on the temporal coordination
of these articulations. The implications of these and other
experimental results on intergestural timing will be interpreted
within the theory of Articulatory Phonology. Limitations of this
approach will be addressed, and an alternative, Phase Window framework
for articulatory timing will be outlined.
--------------
Reception follows.
For directions and a complete list of colloquia, see
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/~kessler/colloq/
-\-/-\ CALL FOR PAPERS \-/-\-
-- PERSPECTIVES ON NEGATION: Sponsored by the NWO Pionier program. To
be held at the University of Groningen, August 24-26, 1996. The aim
of this symposium is to provide a forum for current work in the
syntax/semantics interface directed at the study of negation and
negative polarity. We welcome papers on the semantics of negation;
the effects of negation on aspect and anaphora; the import of negation
and denial for theories of the dynamic interpretation of discourse;
the licensing of negative polarity items; the acquisition of negation
and polarity items; and the syntax and semantics of negative concord.
Those interested in presenting a 30-minute paper should send 5 copies
of a 500-word anonymous abstract, with name, affiliation, postal and
email address, on a separate sheet or card. Fax or email submissions
will not be accepted. Send abstract before May 1, 1996 to
Pionier Conference on Negation
c/o Jack Hoeksema
Faculty of Letters
University of Groningen
P.O. Box 716
9700 AS Groningen
The Netherlands
Notification of acceptance will be no later than June 1, 1996.
email: hoeksema@let.rug.nl, sanchezv@let.rug.nl, rullmann@let.rug.nl,
vdwouden@let.rug.nl
WWW: http://www.let.rug.nl/Linguistics/Rullmann.html
-- SS11: Sociolinguistics Symposium 11: New Interdisciplinarities at
the University of Wales, Cardiff. Midday Thursday 5th September
through midday Saturday 7th September, 1996. New deadline for
submissions is end of February, 1996. SS11 welcomes submissions in
any area of sociolinguistics. The selection committee will
particularly welcome individual paper submissions which contribute to,
or seek to establish, new subfields of sociolinguistic research, or
which forge new connections between established approaches.
Jacqui Guendouzi
for the Organizing Committee, SS11
Centre for Language and Communication
University of Wales
Cardiff CF1 3XB
Wales, UK
fax: 44 1222 874242
tel: 44 1222 874243
email: ss11@cardiff.ac.uk
-- Workshop on STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUENCY IN NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES
to be held at The University of Manitoba March 29th - 31st, 1996. We
invite papers on specific topics which speak to general questions of
structure and constituency in the analysis of native languages of
North and South America. While papers should speak to structure and
constituency, we hope that contributions will vary w.r.t. the kinds of
evidence they explore. Individual papers might address questions in,
for example, such areas as: - the inventory of lexical and functional
categories - the projection of lexical and functional categories - the
analysis and formal treatment of syntactic or semantic relations in
syntax and morpho-syntax - the division of labour between syntax and
morpho-syntax - the interface between syntax and morpho-syntax -
structural restrictions on syntactic or semantic relations in syntax
and morpho-syntax. Abstracts should be no longer than 1 page (a
second page with references and extra examples may be
included). Abstracts should be submitted in 5 copies: 1 camera-ready
copy with the author's name, and 4 anonymous copies. A 3x5 card giving
the title of the paper and the author's name, address, affiliation,
phone number, and e-mail address should accompany the abstracts.
Abstracts should be sent to:
SYNTAX WORKSHOP
c/o Charlotte Reinholtz
Department of Linguistics
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2
Canada
The deadline for abstract-submission is February 7th, 1996.
-- OTS Workshop on Prosodic and Phrasal Phonology Utrecht University,
July 1-3, 1996. Recent constraint-based phonology has devoted much
attention to word-level prosodic phenomena (e.g. syllabification, word
stress and prosody-governed phenomena such as reduplication,
epenthesis, minimality effects). However, it has produced few results
in prosodic areas above the word, in contrast with the extensive
research efforts in prosodic phonology during the eighties, in
particular by Selkirk, Nespor & Vogel, as well as work on intonation
structure by Beckman, Pierrehumbert, Gussenhoven, Hayes & Lahiri, and
others. The workshop's specific goal is to shed light on constraint
interactions at prosodic structure above the word. We therefore
specifically welcome papers which address one or more of the following
themes: a. Phonological structure at the phrasal level. b. Reference
to prosodic word by phrase-level constraints. c. The syntaxphonology
interface. d. Phonetic correlates of prosodic structure. Abstracts
should be restricted to two pages, including examples and
references. Three copies of abstracts should be submitted, tw-o
anonymous, and one mentioning the author's name and affiliation. The
deadline for submission of abstracts: April 1, 1996.
Send abstracts to: Rene Kager
Onderzoeksinstituut voor Taal en Spraak
Universiteit Utrecht
Trans l0
3512 JK Utrecht
The Netherlands
No abstract submissions by FAX or e-mail, please.
Information: kager@let.ruu.nl
-- BCN Workshop on Conflicting Constraints (Groningen University, July
5, 1996). In Optimality Theory (OT), grammars are sets of
simultaneous, soft constraints. Viewing a grammar as a set of
simultaneous well-formedness constraints instead of viewing it as a
set of operations in a sequential algorithm, is already a standard
view in generative grammar. The idea that the constraints are soft,
however, is novel: constraints are CONFLICTING, so that many are often
violated in well-formed outputs. Conflicts are resolved by ranking the
constraints on the ground of their relative strength. Cross-linguistic
variation can be explained through alternative rankings of universal
constraints. The aim of this workshop is to discuss the nature and
ranking of the constraints in OT. Issues for discussion involve
universality, learnability, optionality, modularity, and
compositionality. We welcome contributions for 30-minute presentations
(including 10 minutes of discussion) relating to all aspects of
linguistics (phonology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, computational
linguistics, etc.) and to typologically diverse languages. Abstracts
should be restricted to two pages, including examples and
references. Three copies of abstracts should be submitted, two
anonymous, and one mentionining the author's name and affiliation. The
deadline for submission of abstracts: March 15, 1996. Abstracts
should be sent to:
Dicky Gilbers & Helen de Hoop
Department of Linguistics
BCN, University of Groningen
Oude Kijk in 't Jatstraat 26
9712 EK Groningen
The Netherlands
Information: e-mail: gilbers@let.rug.nl,
dehoop@let.rug.nl
fax: +31-50-3636855
No abstract submissions by FAX or e-mail, please. The workshop will
take place during the first BCN summer school. BCN is a
multidisciplinary graduate school of approximately 65 PhD-students and
170 staff members, working in five Faculties (Mathematics and Natural
Sciences/Medicine/Psychology/Arts/Philosophy). The central question
in its research program is: How does the brain enable us to interact
with the environment? The BCN Summer School is to be held during the
first two weeks of July.
-\-/-\ INSTA-PRIZE \-/-\-
-- THE LAST PRIZE: Scholars discovered '2520' in heiroglyphics
engraved on a stone lid of a tomb in an Egyptian pyramid. What's the
significance of this number?
Solution to WHERE IN THE WORLD: Iran
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