[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Sesquipedalian #4, October 21, 1993
-
Subject: Sesquipedalian #4, October 21, 1993
-
Flags: 000000000000
The SESQUIPEDALIAN WEEKLY HERALD Volume IV, Number 4
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-
October 21, 1993
MATH RIOTS PROVE STUPIDITY INCALCULABLE
Mathematicians worldwide were excited and pleased by the
announcement that Princeton University Professor Andrew Wiles had
finally proved Fermat's Last Theorem, a 365-year-old problem said to
be the most famous in the field.
Yes, admittedly, there was rioting and vandalism during the
celebration. A few bookstores had windows smashed and shelves
stripped, and vacant lots glowed with burning piles of old
dissertations. But overall we can feel relief that it was nothing--
nothing-- compared to the outbreak of exuberant thuggery that occurred
in 1984 after Louis DeBranges finally proved the Bieberbach
Conjecture.
'Math hooligans are the worst,' said a Chicago Police
Department spokesman. 'But the city learned from the Bieberbach riots.
We were ready for them this time.'
When word hit that Fermat's Last Theorem had fallen, a massive
show of force from law enforcement at universities all around the
country headed off a repeat of the festive looting sprees that have
become the traditional accopaniment to triumphant breakthroughs in
higher mathematics. Mounted police throughout Hyde Park kept crowds
of delirious wizards at the University of Chicago from tipping over
cars on the midway as they first did in 1976 when Wolfgang Haken and
Kenneth Appel cracked the long-vexing Four-Color Problem. Incidents
of textbook-throwing and citizens being pulled from their cars and
humiliated with difficult story-problems this time were described by
the university's Math Department chairman Bob Zimmer as 'isolated.'
Zimmer said, 'Most of the celebrations were orderly and
peaceful. But there will always be a few-- usually graduate
students-- who use any excuse to cause trouble and steal. These are
not true fans of Andrew Wiles.'
Wiles himself pleaded for calm even as he offered up the proof
that there is no solution to the equation x^n + y^n = z^n, where n is
a whole number greater than 2, as Pierre de Fermat first proposed in
the 17th Century. 'Party hard but party safe,' Wiles said, echoing
the phrase he had repeated often in interviews with scholarly journals
as he came closer and closer to completing his proof.
Some authorities tried to blame the disorder on the
provocative taunting of Japanese mathematician Yoichi Miyaoka.
Miyaoka thought he had proved Fermat's Last Theorem in 1988, but his
claims did not bear up under the scrutiny of professional referees,
leading some to suspect that the fix was in. And ever since, as Wiles
chipped away steadily at the Fermat problem, Miyaoka scoffed that
there would be no reason to board up university windows any time soon;
that God wanted Miyaoka to prove it.
In a peculiar sidelight, Miyaoka recently took the trouble to
secure a US trademark on the equation x^n + y^n = z^n, as well as the
now-ubiquitous expression, 'Take that, Fermat!' Ironically, in
defeat, he stands to make a good deal of money on cap and T-shirt
sales.
This was no walk-in-the-park proof for Wiles. He was dogged,
in the early going, by sniping publicity that claimed he was seen
puttering late one night doing set theory in a New Jersey library when
he either should have been sleeping, critics said, or focusing on
arithmetic algebraic geometry for the proving work ahead. 'Set theory
is my hobby, it helps me relax,' was his angry explanation. The next
night, he channeled his fury and came up with five critical steps in
his proof. Not a record, but close.
There was talk that he thought he could do it all by himself,
especially when he candidly referred to University of California
mathematician Kenneth Ribet as part of his 'supporting cast,' when
most people in the field knew that without Ribet's 1986 proof
definitely linking the Taniyama Conjecture to Fermat's Last Theorem,
Wiles would be just another frustrated guy in a tweed jacket teaching
calculus to freshmen.
His travails made the ultimate victory that much more
explosive for math buffs. When the news arrived, many were already
wired from caffeine consumed at daily colloquial happy hours, and
immediately took to the streets en masse shouting, 'Obvious! Yesssss!
It was obvious!'
The law cannot hope to stop such enthusiasm, only to control
it. Still, one has to wonder what the connection is between wanton
pillaging and a mathematical proof, no matter how long-awaited and
subtle.
The Victory Over Fermat rally, held on a cloudless day in
front of a crowd of 30,000 (police estimate: 150,000) was pleasantly
peaceful. Signs unfurled in the audience proclaimed Wiles the
greatest mathematician of all time, though partisans of Euclid,
Descartes, Newton, Gauss and others argued the point vehemently. A
warm-up act, The Supertheorists, delighted the crowd with a ragged
song, 'It was Never Less than Probable (My Friend),' which included
such gloating, barbed verses as: 'I had a proof all ready / But then I
did a choke-a / Made liberal assumptions / Hi! I'm Yoichi Miyaoka.'
In the speeches from the stage, there was talk of a dynasty,
specifically that next year Wiles will crack the great unproven
Riemann Hypothesis ('Rie-peat! Rie-peat!' the crowd chanted), and
that after the Prime-Pair problem, the Goldbach Conjecture ('Minimum
Goldbach,' one T-shirt said), and so on. They couldn't just let him
enjoy his proof. Not even for one day.
(Eric Zorn-- Chicago Tribune)
-\-\-\ CALL FOR PAPERS /-/-/-
-- SEVENTH ANNUAL CUNY CONFERENCE ON HUMAN SENTENCE PROCESSING (MARCH
17(12:30pm) - MARCH 19(6pm) 1994): The Conference will be held at the
CUNY Graduate Center, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. This
year's CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing will include a
tutorial on syntactic theory, one poster session, and three special
sessions: TUTORIAL ON SYNTACTIC THEORY, COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE:
LONG-DISTANCE DEPENDENCIES, LEXICAL SEMANTICS, and SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE
IN CONNECTIONIST SYSTEMS. We invite submission of abstracts for
papers and posters. We especially encourage papers/posters on topics
related to the special sessions. Because of our commitment to avoid
parallel sessions, there will be time slots for only 10 presented
papers in addition to special sessions. Abstracts should be
approximately one page, no longer, in a type-face no smaller than pica
(10pt). Abstracts will be anonymously reviewed by the Steering
Committee, but should be submitted with full name, address, telephone,
and e-mail address to:
Yael Ravin
H-1-M09, T.J. Watson Research Center
P.O. Box 704
Jorktown Heights, NY 10598
email: yael@watson.ibm.com
For consideration for paper presentation, abstracts should be received
by 1 NOVEMBER 1993. Abstracts for POSTERS ONLY are due 1 January 1994.
For further information on abstract submissions contact Yael Ravin as
above. NEW: SENTENCE PROCESSING INFORMATION NETWORK (SPIN). We plan
to distribute at each CUNY Conference a digest of current research
projects on sentence processing. Submissions should be camera-ready,
typed in a box 6.5"x2.5", and include name(s), affiliation(s), and
address(es) for correspondence, and two or three topic keywords.
Submissions should be sent, by 1 January 1994, to:
Martin Chodorow
Department of Psychology
Hunter College
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10021
Queries: mschc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
-- CLS-XXX: Announcing the 30th Regional Meeting of the Chicago
Linguistic Society (April 14-16, 1994. General Session: April 14-15.
Parasession: April 15-16). We invite original, unpublished work on
any topic of general linguistic interest. The Parassesion will be on
Variation and Linguistic Theory. The treatment of variation has
proved to be a thorny issue in both synchronic and diachronic
linguistics. How should linguistic theory account for the apparent
fact that a given rule may apply only variably, or that one form may
freely alternate with another? Do grammars allow for variable rules,
and, if so, how should such rules be formulated and constrained? Or,
should variation be interpreted as a sign that two or more grammars
are competing? Are these options mutually exclusive? Papers in all
sub fields of linguistics relating to these issues are invited. They
should address the relationship between variation and linguistic
theory and discuss how considerations from both areas may help shape a
more integrated view of grammar. Please submit ten copies of a
one-page, 500-word, anonymous abstract (for a 25-minute paper), along
with a 3X5" card with your name, address, phone number, e-mail
address, title of paper, and indication of whether the paper is
intended for the main session or the parasession. The abstract should
clearly indicate the data covered, outline the arguments presented,
and include any broader implications of the work. If necessary,
append a page of data and/or references. An individual may present at
most one single and one co-authored paper. Deadline for receipt of
abstracts is January 15th 1994.
Send abstracts to: For more information, or
Chicago Linguistic Society to get on our e-mail list:
1010 E. 59th Street cls@sapir.uchicago.edu
Chicago, Illinois 60637
(312) 702-8529
-\-\-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-/-/-
Peter Sells will be the speaker at this Friday's Linguistics
Colloquium (October 22nd). The talk will be held in Cordura 100, at
3:30pm, and will be followed by a Happy Hour.
THE PROJECTION OF PHRASE STRUCTURE AND ARGUMENT STRUCTURE IN JAPANESE
Peter Sells
Stanford University
In this talk I will present data from Japanese which bears on the
issue of the projection of argument structure relative to the
projection of phrase structure. First, I will present arguments that
Japanese has apparent raising and control constructions which involve
tensed embedded clauses, as complements to certain nominal predicates,
such as `tumori' (`intention'); an example is given in (1).
(1) taroo-wa [tokyo-e iku] tumori da
Taroo-top Tokyo-to go.pres intention copula.pres
`Taroo is expected to go to Tokyo.'
Then, I will argue that the embedded constituents are not of
category S/IP, but are in fact VPs. I will argue that these
complements do not have an embedded subject position at all, not even
one filled by an empty anaphor of some kind; this is in spite of the
fact that the complements can show the full range of inflections, and
are otherwise indistinguishable from full clauses.
Finally, I will present an analysis of the relevant facts in
terms of argument structure composition, showing that these
constructions are really complex predicates whose parts are
distributed in the phrase structure. The fact that only a VP is
projected is determined by principles governing the projection of
argument structure, while the fact that a complement is fully
inflected, regardless of whether it is S/IP or VP is determined by
independent principles governing the well-formedness of phrase
structure.
-\-\-\ WORKSHOP /-/-/-
Intro to Electronic Text Database Searching: To be given Wednesday,
October 27, at noon in the downstairs Common Area in Cordura by
Whitney Tabor.
Electronically-stored text collections (or "on-line text corpora") can
be useful research tools for linguists. I'll identify various
corpuses that are available via campus computers and give
mini-introductions on how to access them. Covered will be: AIR's
database of historical and literary texts, Csli's on-line corpus
collection which includes much contemporary English and a little
French (mostly newspaper, some transcribed spoken language, some
parsed language), various and sundry collections (homophones, names,
novels, etc.) which are available by anonymous FTP (a way of shipping
information between computers), and texts available from the
Linguistic Data Consortium which are stored on CD-ROM.
I recommend that everyone who is interested (beginners and
experienced users alike) try typing
help corpora
on Csli. This will give you access to a network of helpfiles that
identify most of the currently available resources and tell you how
to access them. If you are already familiar with the facilities, these
helpfiles may give you sufficient information to do what you want.
If not, they will still give you a sense of what possibilities there
are so you can come with more specific questions to the meeting
next Wednesday.
Please send mail to whitney@csli if you think there is a
possibility you might come to the seminar: I need to get a sense of
how much room we will need.
Whit
-\-\-\ FELLOWSHIPS/ASSISTANTSHIPS /-/-/-
-- UNIVERSITY OF HULL: Applications sought for Leverhulme
Commonwealth/USA visiting fellowships for 1994-1995. The Department
of Computer Science at the University of Hull, England, is looking to
nominate an academic from the USA or Commonwealth (other than the UK)
for a Leverhulme Visiting Fellowship. This fellowship will run for one
academic session - from 1 October 1994 to 31 July 1995 - and requires
the Fellow to be involved in a pre-determined research project. The
Department invites suitably qualified applicants in the areas of
virtual reality, logic programming, medical informatics, medical
imaging, computer-aided orthopaedics and GIS - all of which are
research interests of the Department. If you are interested please
reply to Dr Rob Macredie as soon as possible. Applicants should
include a full CV and a brief (around 50 words) description of a
suitable research project for them to undertake. The closing date for
applications is 26 October 1993. Further details will then be
distributed as necessary. The awards support the following
allowances: maintenance of 1015 pounds sterling (net) per month for a
period not exceeding 10 months; a marriage allowance of 240 pounds
sterling (net) per month for a period not exceeding 10 months in
respect of a Fellow's dependent spouse (if he or she accompanies the
Fellow to the UK and remains for at least 6 months during the Fellow's
tenure); a travel allowance up to a maximum of 400 pounds sterling for
approved internal travel in the UK; return travel costs with a maximum
not exceeding the equivalent of return economy air fares at the time
of the outward journey. In most cases Fellows are not subject to UK
income Tax or National Insurance. Please reply to:
Dr Rob Macredie
Dept of Computer Science
The University of Hull
Hull, HU6 7RX, UK
Email: R.D.Macredie@dcs.hull.ac.uk
Tel: (+44) 482 456951
Fax: (+44) 482 466666
-\-\-\ SOCIOLINGUISTICS JOB TALKS /-/-/-
***** SPECIAL SOCIOLINGUISTICS COLLOQUIA AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY *****
In addition to the Linguistics Department's weekly Friday Colloquia,
there will be a special Sociolinguistics Colloquium Series, consisting
of 3 talks on Tuesday evenings at 7:30 pm, in 200-303. THESE WILL BE
THE JOB TALKS FOR THE DEPARTMENT'S HALF-TIME SOCIOLINGUISTICS
POSITION. The first will be this Tuesday, October 26. LIVIA POLANYI
of the Institute for Research on Learning, Palo Alto and the
Department of Linguistics and Semiotics, Rice Univeristy, will speak
on "LANGUAGE USE AND THE MAINTENANCE OF SOCIAL ORDER."
LANGUAGE USE AND THE MAINTENANCE OF SOCIAL ORDER
Investigating the relationship among speakers, language use and social
structure lies at the heart of the sociolinguistic enterprise while
characterizing the discourse competence of speakers and providing a robust
theory of discourse semantic and structural relations is the central task of
discourse analysis. Though all "discourse" is produced and interpreted as
meaningful in contexts constructed in terms of the social world, and all
social interaction manifests itself in "discourse" (in the sense of "exchanges
of related sequences of meaningful action", even if not in language per se),
it is surprising that there has been relatively little work which brings
together these two lines of inquiry: most theoretical work in universal
aspects of discourse structure has dealt with characterizing the relations
among linguistic objects without considerations of context or situation of
use, while most sociolinguistic work in discourse has not been grounded in
explicit claims or arguments about the universal in discourse competence or
the general conventions of discourse use. In order to approach questions
involving language use and the social order productively in the future, the
central concerns of sociolinguistics must be addressed using the materials,
techniques, methodologies and insights of a general discourse theory which
provides an analytic perspective for exploring how language deployed in
everyday interaction functions as part of the complex of socio-cultural
processes which perpetuate existing social structures.
In this talk, I will consider the relationship between specific interactions
among individuals and the maintenance of the existing social order as
reflected in institutions of social authority. I will make use of theoretical
notions and analytic methodologies which have been developed over the past few
years within sociolinguistics, computational linguistics, conversational
analysis and other fields to examine several interactional situations
involving individuals with different social standing within several
authoritative institutions. While the majority of the examples to be analyzed
involve educational settings in the United States and Western Europe and tend
to demonstrate the inflexibility of the framing institutional context, I will
also re-examine Susan Fisher's work on doctor-patient interaction (1982) and
consider as well an exchange between a five year old boy and a
psycholinguistic researcher in an experimental developmental protocol. These
two studies indicate the range of social and linguistic skills speakers
possess and show that individuals may sometimes succeed in using these
resources to their advantage in even the most bewildering circumstances. Taken
together, all of these fragments of complex interactions argue persuasively
for using well motivated analytic tools grounded in a model of linguistic
competence at the discourse level. The insights into what is actually taking
place at the local level arrived at using a theoretically based methodology
allows the researcher to reach an understanding of the underlying structure of
the interaction in a principled manner. This understanding, in turn, provides
input to the essentially interpretative process of assessing the social
meaning of what took place in terms of more elusive social and cultural
concerns.
My aim in considering these materials is to move beyond an analysis of
individual examples to consider broad, programmatic issues of importance to
the practice of sociolinguistics. Specifically, I will suggest that in order
to characterize how language participates in the reproduction of the existing
social order we must extend and develop our methods of sociolinguistic
research. A much extended understanding of linguistic discourse structure and
general interactional practices combined with (1) a deepened understanding of
socially conditioned judgments of situationally appropriate language use and
(2) a more complex and nuanced evaluation of an individual's social standing
will be able to provide a precise account of how micro-mechanisms of language
used by individual persons on specific occasions function in maintaining the
cultural status quo of particular social institutions and, by extension,
contributing to the essential conservatism of societies in general.
Upcoming talks:
Tuesday, November 2nd: Penny Eckert
Tuesday, November 9th: Deborah Schiffrin
-\-\-\ TRUE LINGUISTS /-/-/-
No linguistic value here, but we had to share this headline with you
anyway (from The New York Times):
JUDGE ACQUITS DETECTIVE
IN DOCTOR'S FATAL DEATH
-\-\-\ 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.)
-- The University of North Carolina invites applications for a
phonologist. This is a tenure track position for an entry level
assistant professor; it will begin July 1, 1994. Candidates should
send a cv, letters of recommendation, and a research sample to
Randall Hendrick
Chair, Department of Linguistics
CB#3155, UNC,
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3155
Application deadline is 12-6-93. UNC-CH is an Affirmative
Action/Equal Opportunity Employer; women and minority candidates are
particularly encouraged to apply.
-- The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures seeks
applications for the position of Assistant Professor of Japanese.
The appointment, beginning July 1, 1994, would be as assistant
professor for a 3-year term, with the possibility of renewal.
Applicants must have Ph.D. in hand by the time of appointment.
Native or near-native fluency in Japanese, a Ph.D. in Japanese
language and/or literature, training in language pedagogy and
experience in language teaching are required. Knowledge of
Chinese or Korean is desirable. Duties will include the teaching of
upper-level courses in Japanese and in the appointee's area of
specialization, and coordination of all levels of language instruction
in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. The deadline for receipt of a
letter of application, curriculum vitae, and three letters of
recommendation is January 20, 1994, and these should be sent to
Edward Kamens
Chair, Japanese Search Committee
Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
P.O. Box 208236
New Haven CT 06520-8236
-- UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA, EDMONTON: The Department of Linguistics,
University of Alberta invites applications for a one year appointment
as Visiting Assistant Professor effective January 1, 1994.
Qualifications: Ph.D. and a demonstrated record of effective teaching
and research. The successful candidate will be expected to teach two
undergraduate courses per term plus one graduate seminar in his/her
area of expertise per year. The Department of Linguistics specializes
in psycholinguistic and experimental phonetic research. It has
excellent computer and laboratory facilities, and several active
research projects would provide the successful candidate the
opportunity for collaborative research. The one-year salary for this
position is $30,000. This amount includes a travel allowance of $600
to/from the University of Alberta. The salary may be supplemented by
spring/summer teaching ($2,500 per course/per term). Priority will be
given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada. The
University of Alberta is committed to the principle of equity in
employment. The University encourages applications from aboriginal
persons, disabled persons, members of visible minorities and women. A
letter of application, curriculum vitae, and the names and addresses
of three referees should be sent by November 10 to
Gary Libben, Chair,
Department of Linguistics,
4-36 Assiniboia Hall,
University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E7
-- INDIANA UNIVERSITY: Africanist/Linguist. Indiana University invites
applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Linguistics to
begin in August, 1994. Applicants for the position must be assured of
having a Ph.D. in hand by June, 1994. Field experience with a
non-Bantu West African language is required; proficiency in Akan or
Bambara is an advantage. Preferred specializations include
sociolinguistics, language change and variation, fieldwork techniques,
and African language pedagogy. Applicants should also be prepared and
willing to participate in the teaching of large introductory
undergraduate courses and to help with the coordination of our African
languages program. Please send a letter of application, a curriculum
vitae, three letters of recommendation, and a maximum of two examples
of your scholarly work to
Professor Paul Newman
Chair, Department of Linguistics
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405
fax: 812-855-6734
e-mail: lingdept@indiana.edu
Applications received by December 1, 1993 are assured of
consideration. Note that interviews may be held at the 1994 LSA
meeting in Boston in early January. Indiana University is an equal
opportunity/affirmative action employer.
-- UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: The Linguistics Department invites
applications for two tenure-track assistant professorships, beginning
August 1994. Applicants for both positions should either already have
a Ph.D. or expect to have one by next August, should be prepared to
teach courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and should
have a solid foundation in linguistic theory. One position will be in
phonology and one in psycholinguistics (either first language
acquisition or language comprehension/processing, preferably with
experimental expertise). It is possible that one of these appointments
could be made at a higher rank, including full professor. For both
positions, letters of application should be sent to
Professor David Lightfoot
Linguistics Department
Marie Mount Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
Letters should indicate whether applicants plan to attend the January
LSA meeting in Boston. Applicants should send a current cv and one or
two papers that they want the selection committee to read; and they
should arrange to have three letters of reference sent. For best
consideration, applications should arrive by 20 November 1993.
The University of Maryland is a AA/EO Title IX employer. Women
and minority candidates are encouraged to apply.
(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 /-/-/-
Most words in English form the plural by adding -s. But not many
become singular again when you add another -s. Can you think of any?
First person to come up with an answer gets an insta-prize for each
word.
-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\
-\-\-\ 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 both at Stanford (in directory /user/linguistics/Sesquip), 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. 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.
Not recommended for children under 3
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-