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Sesquipedalian #23
the SESQUIPEDALIAN Volume VII, No. 23
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Hugorotius born (1701) April 10, 1997
-/-\-/ LOOK WHO'S TALKING /-\-/-
-- John Rickford delivered the William J. Cooper Foundation Lecture at
Swarthmore on March 24 on the topic, "African American Language and
Culture: American Fruit with African and Creole Roots." The talk used
slides and tape-recordings from the South Carolina and Georgia Sea
Islands to illustrate parallels between the Sea Islands, the Caribbean
and West Africa with respect to various aspects of language and
folk/material culture, and between them both and the inner city
African American speech community.
-/-\-/ FELLOWSHIP AWARDS /-\-/-
-- Arman Maghbouleh has been awarded a Hertz fellowship for 97-98.
This prestigious award is designed to promote the national defense by
supporting the applied physical sciences, so either we are mistaken or
Arman is the first linguist ever to receive one. The award carries a
large endowment both for the grantee and to Stanford. Congratulations
to him. Further information about the fellowship can be found at
http://www.hertzfndn.org/
-/-\-/ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-\-/-
'Creole-to-creole contacts in the Spanish Caribbean'
John M. Lipski
University of New Mexico
Friday, April 11, 3:30 pm, 460-146
Scholars have long puzzled over the lack of Spanish-based
creole languages in Latin America, especially given the more than 400
years of rich and varied Afro-Hispanic linguistic contacts and the
large number of creoles with English, French, and Dutch lexical
bases. The two existing creoles which might be considered as
Spanish-based (Papiamentu and Colombian Palenquero) arguably have more
Portuguese than Spanish roots. A number of explanations have been
proposed for the scarcity of Afro-Hispanic creoles, including
demographic ratios, social conditions, control of African slaving
stations.
There is abundant if sometimes untrustworthy documentation of
Africans' approximations to Spanish in the 18th and 19th century
Caribbean, and most indicate only second language learners' creation
of a rough pidgin. There is, however, a small residue of texts--and
even some living memories--of speech forms which appear to suggest
creolization of Spanish in the Caribbean. If Spanish did creolize,
what happened to the creole(s)? Could vernacular Caribbean Spanish be
a post-creole variety? If Spanish did not creolize, how does one
explain the creole-like features found in some attestations?
The answers are as complex as the questions: Spanish may have
briefly creolized in isolated plantation environments or remote placer
mining operations. The present study offers an additional source of
information on creoloid structures: the contact with other established
creole languages which took place during the 19th century. Method,
motive, and opportunity for transfer from creole languages to
Afro-Hispanic pidgin are demonstrated. Large numbers of workers
speaking Papiamentu, English-, French- and Dutch-based creoles arrived
in Spanish Caribbean colonies after the Haitian revolts of the 1790's,
and the convergent structures found in these Afro-Atlantic creoles
partially shaped developing Afro-Hispanic language in certain
environments. The strong Afro-creole presence may in turn have left a
permanent imprint on vernacular Caribbean Spanish, reinforcing
existing evolutionary tendencies and in a few cases producing
innovative structures.
-/-\-/ PHONOLOGY WORKSHOP /-\-/-
Rm 146, Bldg 460
Thu, 4/17/97, 7:30 pm
Prosodic Divergence in Early Germanic
Paul Kiparsky
Stanford University
In response to the foot structure imposed by the combination of fixed
stress and moraic trochees, early Germanic dialects syllabify medial
clusters so as to avoid LH sequences and three-mora syllables. The
way this happens depends on whether the clusters are permissible
onsets or not (Cr-, Cl- vs. *Cy-). In the latter case, the foot
structure constraints are implemented by glide deletion in
Scandinavian and in Old English, and by Sievers' Law in Gothic and
continental West Germanic, where glide deletion is prevented by
higher-ranked Faithfulness constraints. Upon the resulting two
syllabification patterns, the West Germanic languages superimpose a
new prosodic structure which lengthens the weak branch of a foot,
triggering both West Germanic gemination and high vowel deletion after
bimoraic sequences. The difference in syllable structure arising from
the ranking of the foot structure constraints above Faithfulness in
Old English and below Faithfulness in continental West Germanic
explains why gemination applies just after short vowels in Old English
but independently of syllable weight in continental West Germanic,
while high vowel deletion obeys the identical quantitative
restrictions in both.
-----
All are welcome for the pre-workshop pizza. If you want to join,
R.S.V.P. Pizza will be delivered at 7:00 pm.
-/-\-/ SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM /-\-/-
"Language and information structuring"
Prof. Henriette de Swart
Thursday, 10 April, 4:15pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 146
Language and information structuring
------------------------------------
Successful communication requires a balanced presentation of old and
new information. Every new sentence in a discourse connects to the
previously established context, and at the same time adds a new piece
of information. Depending on what is `new' in a given context, the
same piece of information can be presented in different ways. The
old/new (or background/focus) distinction is related to the question
of what it is we are talking about, and what we are predicating of
this object (the topic/comment distinction). In this talk, we look at
different linguistic devices which languages exploit to encode
information structure. Furthermore, we discuss theories that have
been developed to account for the expression of topic and focus in
various languages, and the role they play in current semantic and
pragmatic research.
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Biography:
Henriette de Swart obtained her PhD from the University of
Groningen (the Netherlands) in 1991. After she graduated she was
affiliated with the cognitive science program in Groningen until she
became an assistant professor in the linguistics department at
Stanford University. She teaches semantics and pragmatics.
-\-/-\ CALL FOR PAPERS \-/-\-
-- The 22nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language
Development. November 7, 8, and 9, 1997, Boston University. All
topics in the field of language acquisition will be fully considered,
including:
Bilingualism Narrative
Cognition & Language Neurolinguistics
Creoles & Pidgins Pragmatics
Discourse Pre-linguistic Development
Exceptional Language Signed Languages
Input & Interaction Sociolinguistics
Language Disorders Speech Perception & Production
Literacy
Linguistic Theory (Syntax, Semantics, Phonology,
Morphology, and Lexicon)
Abstracts submitted must represent original, unpublished research.
Presentations will be 20 minutes long, plus 10 minutes for questions.
Please submit:
1) six copies of an anonymous, clearly titled 450-word
summary for review;
2) one copy of a 150-word abstract for use in the conference
program book if abstract is accepted. If your paper is
accepted, this abstract will be scanned into the
conference handbook. No changes in title or authors will
be possible after acceptance.
3) for EACH author, one copy of the information form printed
at the bottom of this message.
Please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard for acknowledgment
of receipt. Notice of acceptance or rejection will be sent by
late July. Pre-registration materials and preliminary schedule will
be available in late August, 1997.
All authors who present papers at the conference will be invited to
contribute their papers to the Proceedings Volumes. Those papers will
be due in January, 1998.
Note: All conference papers will be selected on the basis of abstracts
submitted. Although each abstract will be evaluated individually, we will
attempt to honor requests to schedule accepted papers together in group
sessions.
DEADLINE: All submissions must be received by May 19, 1997.
Send submissions to:
Boston University
Conference on Language Development
704 Commonwealth Avenue, Suite 101
Boston, MA 02215 U.S.A.
Telephone: 617-353-3085
mailto:langconf@louis-xiv.bu.edu
info@louis-xiv.bu.edu (automated-reply info mailer)
(WE REGRET THAT WE CANNOT ACCEPT ABSTRACT SUBMISSIONS BY FAX OR
E-MAIL.)
-- 4th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON WORLD ENGLISHES: Orgnized by the
Dept of English Language and Literature, National University of
Singapore, Singapore.
Main Themes:
- Language, Ideology and Power
- Description, Development and Creativity
- Education and the Professions
For abstract submission deadlines and further information, please see
http://www.nus.sg/NUSinfo/FASS/ELL/IAWE
-\-/-\ 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.)
-- McGILL UNIVERSITY: Department of Linguistics. Lecturer, nine-month
position, effective September 1, 1997. The department anticipates
that a tenure-track position will be advertised for the following
year. Qualifications: Ph.D. in Linguistics with primary
specialization in sociolinguistics, secondary in historical
linguistics. Interest in a non-Indo-European language would be an
asset. Teaching and research should be informed by some current
generative grammatical theory with a focus on formal constraints on
code switching, language variation and/or language change. The
candidate will be expected to teach undergraduate and graduate courses
in these areas. Demonstrated excellence in teaching and research in
the field of specialization is required. Deadline for applications:
May 15, 1997. In accordance with Canadian immigration requirements,
this advertisement is directed to Canadian citizens and permanent
residents in the first instance. Send application and supporting
documents to
Professor Brendan Gillon
Chair, Search Committee
Department of Linguistics
McGill University
1001 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, PQ
H3A 1G5 Canada
- INSTITUT FUER MASCHINELLE SPRACHVERARBEITUNG, UNIVERSITAET
STUTTGART: A position in grammar writing is available in the LFG
ParGram project. Native or near-native competence of German is
necessary. Das Projekt ParGram widmet sich der parallelen Entwicklung
von grossen LFG-Grammatiken fuers Englische, Franzoesische und
Deutsche
(http://www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/projekte/pargram/). Projektpartner
sind Xerox PARC und Rank Xerox Grenoble. Der/die erfolgreiche
Kandidat/in soll im Team an der Weiter- entwicklung, am Testen und
Warten der deutschen Grammatik mitwirken. Er/sie sollte die folgenden
Voraussetzungen erfuellen:
- Abschluss in Computerlinguistik, Informatik oder Linguistik
- sehr gute Kenntnisse der Syntax des Deutschen
- mind. Grundkenntnisse der LFG
- Erfahrungen in der Grammatikkodierung mit unifikationsbasierten
Formalismen
Erfahrungen im Einsatz von Grammar Engineering-Methoden (Test- und
Evaluationsverfahren, Corpus-basiertes Vorgehen, Dokumentations-
techniken etc.) sind von Vorteil.
Die Position als wissenschaftliche/r Angestellte/r (BAT IIa) ist
ab sofort zu besetzen und zunaechst auf drei Jahre befristet.
Eine Verlaengerung ist moeglich.
Senden Sie bitte zunaechst bis 30. April 1997 eine informelle
Bewerbung per Email an Jonas.Kuhn@ims.uni-stuttgart.de. Eine
ausfuehrlichere Bewerbung kann nachgereicht werden.
Prof. Dr. Christian Rohrer
Institut fuer maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung
Universitaet Stuttgart
Azenbergstrasse 12
D-70174 Stuttgart
Germany
-- RESEARCH ASSISTANT: We provide services to older adults who are
taking care of family members with memory loss. We are looking for
new staff members who are interested in:
-- gaining research and clinical experience
-- interviewing older adults
-- community outreach
-- being a participant observier in a support group
and psychoeducational class
-- providing support to caregivers over the phone
-- data entry & coding
-- administrative duties
The projected serves Anglo and Hispanic older adults. We are
particularly seeking Spanish-speaking applicants but encourage all to
apply. Call 415 617 2774 or 415 493 5000 ext. 27778
or fax cover letter and resume to David Coon, Ph.D.
415 617 2778
(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 \-/-\-
-- PALO ALTO TRIVIA: What word is misspelled on the front of the
Peninsula Creamery?
Solution to GROTESQUE: (b) Latin: 'grotta' (grotto, an artificial
cavelike structure), by way of the Italian word 'grotesco' (odd or
extravagant).
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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/), and at
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Department home page (http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/). The most
current issue of the Herald can be found by typing 'help quip'.
Neither Stanford University nor the Linguistics Department, nor any of
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WARNING: Contains a substantial amount of non-tobacco products. It is
a violation of federal law to use this product in a manner
inconsistent with its labelling.
All rights revoked
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