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Sesquipedalian #21
the SESQUIPEDALIAN Volume VII, No. 21
\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/
L. Ron Hubbard born (????) March 13, 1997
LADLE RAT ROTTEN HUT
[Ladle Rat Rotten Hut is a version of the story "Little Red Riding
Hood" written in 1940 by H.L Chace, a French professor, to show his
students how integral intonation is to the meaning of language. You
can read a printed version of the story or listen to a recording and
see how much easier it is to understand the spoken version.]
Wants pawn term, dare worsted ladle gull hoe lift wetter murder inner
ladle cordage, honor itch offer lodge, dock, florist. Disk ladle gull
orphan worry putty ladle rat cluck wetter ladle rat hut, an fur disk
raisin pimple colder Ladle Rat Rotten Hut.
Wan moaning, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut's murder colder inset. "Ladle Rat
Rotten Hut, heresy ladle basking winsome burden barter an shirker
cockles. Tick disk ladle basking tutor cordage offer groinmurder hoe
lifts honor udder site offer florist. Shaker lake! Dun stopper laundry
wrote! Dun stopper peck floors! Dun daily-doily inner florist, an
yonder nor sorghum-stenches, dun stopper torque wet strainers!"
"Hoe-cake, murder," resplendent Ladle Rat Rotten Hut, an tickle ladle
basking an stuttered oft. Honor wrote tutor cordage offer
groin-murder, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut mitten anomalous woof. " Wail,
wail, wail ! " set disk wicket woof, "Evanescent Ladle Rat Rotten
Hut! Wares are putty ladle gull goring wizard ladle basking?"
"Armor goring tumor groin-murder's," reprisal ladle gull. "Grammar's
seeking bet. Armor ticking arson burden barter an shirker cockles."
"O hoe! Heifer gnats woke," setter wicket woof, butter taught tomb
shelf, "Oil tickle shirt court tutor cordage offer groin-murder. Oil
ketchup wetter letter, an den-- O bore!"
Soda wicket woof tucker shirt court, an whinney retched a cordage
offer groin-murder, picked inner windrow, an sore debtor pore oil
worming worse lion inner bet. En inner flesh, disk abdominal woof
lipped honor bet, paunched honor pore oil worming, an garbled
erupt. Den disk ratchet ammonol pot honor groin-murder's nut cup an
gnat-gun, any curdled ope inner bet.
Inner ladle wile, Ladle Rat Rotten Hut a raft attar cordage, an ranker
dough ball. "Comb ink, sweat hard," setter wicket woof, disgracing is
verse. Ladle Rat Rotten Hut entity betrum an stud buyer groin-murder's
bet.
"O Grammar !" crater ladle gull historically, "Water bag icer gut! A
nervous sausage bag ice!"
"Battered lucky chew whiff, sweat hard," setter bloat-Thursday woof,
wetter wicket small honors phase.
"O Grammar, water bag noise! A nervous sore suture anomolous
prognosis!"
"Battered small your whiff, doling," whiskered dole woof, ants mouse
worse waddling.
"O Grammar, water bag mouser gut ! A nervous sore suture bag mouse!"
Daze worry on-forger-nut ladle gull's lest warts. Oil offer sodden,
caking offer carvers an sprinkling otter bet, disk hoard hoarded woof
lipped own pore Ladle Rat Rotten Hut an garbled erupt. Mural: Yonder
nor sorghum stenches shut ladle gulls stopper torque wet strainers.
-/-\-/ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-\-/-
Friday, Mar. 14, 3:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall (460), Room 146
Miriam Butt
University of Stuttgart
(currently visiting at Xerox PARC)
Disposition/Ability in Urdu Complex Predicates and Passives
Complex Predicates in Urdu such as in (1) have a completive
interpretation in the perfect, and a habitual one in the imperfect: a
pattern that fits in well with most current theories of aspect and
genericity.
(1) Nadya-ne gaarii calaa l-ii
N-Erg car.Nom drive take-Perf.F.Sg
`Nadya has driven a/the car.'
However, complex predicates in the imperfect receive an entirely
unexpected reading with exactly and only the light verbs "le" (take)
and "jaa" (go).
(2) Nadya gaarii calaa le-tii hai
N.Nom car.Nom drive take-Impf.F.Sg be.Pres.Sg
`Nadya does/will drive a car.'
This reading entails not only that Nadya is able to drive a
car, but that she actually does so. It contrasts with the
run-of-the-mill modal construction ("sak" `can') in the following way:
while the modal could be used to describe a context in which Nadya in
principle knows how to drive a car, but hasn't done so for about 20
years, this could not be the case for (2). The "le"-construction
entails that Nadya does in fact exercise her ability.
A further twist to the story is provided by passives (most
commonly used in the negative) which appear to provide a reading very
close to the disposition/ability reading of (2). In the passives,
furthermore, this reading is not limited to the imperfective, but also
appears in perfects and futures.
In the talk, I will lay out the data in some detail, propose a
syntactic account for the rather complex interaction of aspectual
light verbs and passives with the tense/aspect system of Urdu, and
review the various semantic options that have become available in the
literature on generics/habituals/dispositions, within which the above
data might fall (stage vs. individual level, a generic operator, or
deontic vs. epistemic modality). I conclude that the bulk of the
literature actually has very little to say about these kinds of
readings and propose a direction in which a full-fledged semantic
account might proceed (as based on the syntactic account I provide).
------------------
Reception follows.
For directions and a complete list of colloquia, see
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/Linguistics/colloq/colloq.html
-/-\-/ SALT-7 CONFERENCE /-\-/-
SEMANTICS and LINGUISTIC THEORY
Seventh Annual Meeting
Gates Hall, Room B01 (HP auditorium)
Stanford University
*March 21-23, 1997*
Invited speakers: Gennaro Chierchia
Charles J. Fillmore
Irene Heim
Craige Roberts
FRIDAY MARCH 21
8.30: Registration, coffee
9.15: Opening Remarks
9.30-10.30: CHARLES FILLMORE, "FrameNet and Lexical Semantics"
10.30-11.10: Diana Cresti, "On the Apparent Function of Noun
Classifiers"
Coffee Break
11.30-12.10: Vivienne Fong, "A Diphasic Approach to Directional
Locatives"
12.10-12.50: Joost Zwarts and Yoad Winter, "A Semantic
Characterization of Locative PPs"
Lunch Break
2:50-3:50: CRAIGE ROBERTS, "Information Focus in Hungarian and
English, and in Universal Grammar"
3.50-4.30: Chris Kennedy, "Comparison and Polar Opposition"
Coffee Break
4.50-5.30: Sheila Glasbey, "I-Level Predicates that Allow Existential
Readings for Bare Plurals"
5.30-6.10: Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, "Types of Predicates and the
Interpretaton of Bare NPs"
SATURDAY MARCH 22
9.15: Registration, coffee
9.30-10.30: IRENE HEIM, "Semantic Types for Syntactic Categories:
Evidence from Ellipsis"
10.30-11.10: Nicholas Asher, Daniel Hardt, and Joan Busquets,
"Discourse, Parallelism, Scope, and Ellipsis"
Coffee Break
11.30-12.10: Anette Frank and Hans Kamp, "On Context Dependence in
Modal Constructions"
12.10-12.50: David Beaver, "Presuppositions in DRT"
Lunch Break
2.50-3.30: Dorit Abusch and Mats Rooth, "Epistemic NP Modifiers"
3.30-4.10: Rodger Kibble, "Complement Anaphora and Witness Sets"
Coffee Break
4.30-5.10: Christine Brisson, "On Definite Plural Noun Phrases and
the Meaning of 'all'"
5.10-5.50: Hotze Rullmann, "The Semantics of Pied-piping and WH-
indefinites"
6.00-7.00: Business Meeting
7.00-10.00: Dinner Party (open to those registered for the conference)
SUNDAY MARCH 23
9.15: Coffee
9:30-10:30: GENNARO CHIERCHIA
10.30-11.10: Christopher Pinon, "Achievements in an Event Semantics"
Coffee Break
11.30-12.10: Victor Sanchez Valencia and Frans Zwarts, "Temporal
SPEC-phenomena and the Semantics of 'as soon as'"
12.10-12.50: Veneeta Dayal, "Free Relatives and '-ever': `Identity'
and `Free Choice' Readings"
-----
For more information, consult
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/Linguistics/salt7/
-/-\-/ SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM /-\-/-
Karen Myers
AI Center
SRI International
speaking on
Advisable Planners
Thursday, March 13 at 4:15 p.m.
History Corner, room 200-217
*NOTE ROOM CHANGE!!*
Refreshments will be served.
Abstract:
Most work on AI planning has focused on the development of
fully automated techniques for generating plans that satisfy
high-level user goals. These methods take a description of the domain
along with a set of initial goals, and produce a solution consisting
of a set of actions that when executed in the initial state is
guaranteed to satisfy the specified goals. These approaches make no
provision for users to participate in the planning process. For many
applications this design is problematic, since users are reluctant to
relinquish full control to an automated system.
The Advisable Planner project is developing a system that
layers an advice-taking interface on top of state-of-the-art AI
planning technology. The advice-taking component accepts user
specifications of characteristics for both the desired solution and
the problem-solving process to be employed to generate a solution for
a given task, while the underlying planning technology employs those
directives to guide plan construction. As such, the advice-taking
interface allows users to interact with the planning system at high
levels of abstraction in order to guide and influence the planning
process, with the planning system performing the time-consuming work
of filling in necessary low-level details and detecting potential
problems.
Biography:
Dr. Karen Myers has an extensive background in the areas of
reactive execution systems and generative planning. She has been
involved with the development and application of reactive control
systems for mobile robots, real-time tracking, sensor management, and
crisis action management. Recently, she built the PRS-Lite system, a
compact, lightweight reactive plan execution system designed as a task
controller for a mobile robot. Currently, she is the Principal
Investigator for the DARPA-sponsored Advisable Planners project, which
is developing an advice-based interface that will enable end users who
are not experts in AI planning to easily guide and control
sophisticated planning technologies. Dr. Myers has been a member of
the AI Center at SRI since completing her Ph.D. in Computer Science at
Stanford University in 1991.
-\-/-\ LINGVISTICVS VERITAS \-/-\-
THE TOP FIFTEEN LATIN PHRASES FOR THE 90'S:
(courtesey of The Top Five List)
15> "Domino vobiscum." -- (The pizza guy's here.)
(Paul Seaburn, Houston, TX)
14> "Auda similarum ad seattles." - (They all sound just like Pearl Jam.)
(Jason Anderson, Birmingham, AL)
13> "Et tu, pluribus unum?" -- (I got backstabbed by the system!)
(David G. Scott, Kansas City, MO)
12> "Nucleo predicus dispella conducticus." - (Remove foil before
microwaving.)
(John Voigt, Chicago, IL)
11> "Bodicus mutilatimus, unemploymi forevercus."
-- (Better take the nose ring out before the job interview.)
David W. James, Los Angeles, CA
10> "Dictum ad tua mater." -- (Word to your mother!)
(Matt Loiselle, Detroit, MI)
9> "Muertes impendum pro saxophones." -- (Kenny G. must die.)
(Jason Anderson, Birmingham, AL)
8> "Si non vittet, accuittere debetis." -- (If it doesn't fit,
you must acquit.)
(Tony Hill, Minneapolis, MN)
7> "De comedius non listus nomis uricani."
(In matters of comedy, there can be no hurricane name lists.)
Michael Wolf, Brookline, MA
6> "Revelare Pecunia!" -- (Show Me The Money!)
(Bruce Ansley, Baltimore, MD)
(Doug Johnson, Santa Cruz, CA)
(Rob Seulowitz, New York, NY)
(John Voigt, Chicago, IL)
5> "Ignoramus microsoftis multa pecunia dat."
(Yeah, where *do* I want to go today??)
Natasha Filipovic, New York, NY
4> "Nemo est hoc respondere telefonum, sed si nomen numeralque post
sonitu ponis, te vocabamus." -- (No one is here to answer the
phone, but if you leave your name and number after the tone, we
will call you.)
(Tony Hill, Minneapolis, MN)
3> "Fortis Vobiscum." -- (May the Force Be With You.)
(Doug Johnson, Santa Cruz, CA)
2> "Nunc Tutus Exitus Computarus." -- (It's Now Safe To Turn Off Your
Computer.)
(Doug Johnson, Santa Cruz, CA)
and the Number 1 Latin Phrase for the 90's...
1> "Litigata Ergo Sum." -- (I sue, therefore I am.)
(Paul Paternoster, Redwood City, CA)
[ This list copyright 1997 by Chris White and Ziff-Davis ]
[ *To forward or repost, please include this section.* ]
[ The Top Five List top5@walrus.com www.topfive.com ]
Selected from 94 submissions from 34 contributors.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Runner Up list, "Propinquus sed nullas coronas",
can be found at http://www.topfive.com/
-\-/-\ 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.)
-- LINGUISTIC PRODUCTS PROGRAM MANAGER: InXight Software, Inc.,
Grenoble, France. InXight, a recently formed Xerox New Enterprise
Company located in Palo Alto, California, develops leading-edge
technology that supports intelligent information access and markets
this technology to software Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)
for use within their applications. Much of our technology originates
in the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and the Rank Xerox Research
Centre in Grenoble, France, and we work closely with top research
teams in both centers in the areas of computational linguistics,
information retrieval, information visualization and user interface
design. Our announced OEM partners include Oracle, Infoseek,
TextWise, Citadel Computer, Verity and Microsoft, as well as several
Xerox business divisions. We are looking for a Linguistic Products
Program Manager to work at the Grenoble research facility on behalf of
InXight. This person will be part of InXight's development
organization and will function as InXight's on-site liaison with RXRC
research teams. The position reports to the InXight Director of
Development in Palo Alto, with a dotted line report to the Director of
the RXRC Grenoble lab. He/she will have the following
responsibilities:
1. management and maintenance of linguistic source materials, including
stemmers, analyzers, taggers, noun phrase extractors, and lightweight
parsing modules for European languages
2. identification of and technical liaison with lexical technology and
content suppliers in Europe
3. management of contractors hired to extend and/or maintain source
materials and products
4. in conjunction with InXight advanced product planning, evaluation of
new technologies developed at RXRC and elsewhere for possible inclusion
in InXight's product lines
5. direct contact with InXight product planning regarding existing and
upcoming competitors in InXight's areas of business
6. support for InXight customer engagements and sales efforts in Europe
The role described above requires a person with good
computational linguistic skills, especially at the lexicographic
level, in addition to good program management skills, including
organization, communication with different audiences, and the ability
to grasp complex issues quickly. While all of these skills are
important, the technical activities are the primary focus of this
role. The successful candidate will possess all of the above skills,
plus a desire to immerse him/herself in an exciting, fast-paced
environment where the contributions of every individual in the company
determine our success or failure. He/she will have at least four
years of development experience in commercial natural language
processing and/or lexicography, and will have a university degree in
computational linguistics or a related field along with some
postgraduate study. Other relevant experience, such as
program/product management or OEM sales is a definite plus.
Native/near-native fluency in English is required; proficiency in
French and/or other European languages is desirable. The ability to
work in a European Union country is also desirable; however, given the
right candidate, InXight will help to arrange the necessary permits.
The position will require travel to Palo Alto several times per year.
InXight offers the unique opportunity to bring cutting-edge technology
into the commercial world in a fun, rewarding environment. Benefits
include a competitive compensation package that includes company stock
options. Interested parties should send resume and cover letter (if
via e-mail, they should be in the body of the message, not as an
attachment) to either of the following:
InXight Human Resources Human Resources
PAHV-109 Rank Xerox Research Centre
3400 Hillview Ave. 6, chemin de Maupertuis
Palo Alto, CA 94304 38240 Meylan (Grenoble)
USA France
fax: +1-415-813-7217 fax: +33 4 76 61 50 99
mailto:staffing@inxight.com
(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 \-/-\-
-- Follow the letters up, down, left, right, or diagonally to reveal
this week's mystery quote. (Hint: quote starts on T in the bottom
right corner.)
Y E R E H C
W A P A I S
A L U N K L
E I O Y T A
R H U L I T
Answer to last week's puzzle: 921.
/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\
-\-/-\ 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/), and at
Berkeley (in the directory /usr/pub.), or on the Linguistics
Department home page (http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/). The most
current issue of the Herald can be found by typing 'help quip'.
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WARNING: Contains a substantial amount of non-tobacco products. It is
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All rights revoked
\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/-\-/