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Sesquipedalian #5, October 28, 1993
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Subject: Sesquipedalian #5, October 28, 1993
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The SESQUIPEDALIAN WEEKLY HERALD Volume IV, Number 5
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October 28, 1993
STILL MORE PROBLEMS IN COMMUNICATION
Specially for those of you who just can't get enough of English
mis-translations from around the world, here's the latest installment
in the series:
- In a Bucharest hotel lobby: 'The lift is being fixed for the next
day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.'
- In a Leipzig elevator: 'Do not enter the lift backwards, and only
when lit up.'
- In a Paris hotel: 'Please leave your values at the front desk.'
- In an Athens hotel: 'Visitors are expected complain at the office
between the hours of 9 and 11 am daily.'
- In the lobby of a Moscow hotel, across from a Russian Orthodox
Cemetery: 'You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian
and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except
Thursday.'
- On the menu of a Swiss restaurant: 'Our wines leave you nothing to
hope for.'
- Outside of a Hong Kong tailor shop: 'Ladies may have a fit upstairs.'
- In a Bankok dry cleaner: 'Drop your trousers here for best results.'
- From the Soviet Weekly: 'There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Arts
by 15,000 Soviet Republic painters and sculptors. They were executed
over the past two years.'
- In a Hong Kong dentist: 'Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.'
- In a Copenhagen travel office: 'We take your bags and send them in
all directions.'
- In a Moscow hotel room: 'If this is your first visit to USSR, you
are welcome to it.'
- In a Budapest zoo: 'Please do not feed the animals. If you have any
suitable food please give it to the guard on duty.'
- In a Tokyo shop: 'Our nylons cost more than common, but you'll find
they are best in the long run.'
- From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air
conditioner: 'Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in
your room, please control yourself.'
-\-\-\ LOOK WHO'S TALKING /-/-/-
-- DON'T BE SHY: If you're giving a paper, presentation, or whatnot,
be sure to let the Sesquipeditors know so we can parade it for all to
see here in this space. If you don't bring it to our attention, who
will? (Besides our troop of ex-KGB operatives, that is)
-- Whitney Tabor speaks at the Berkeley Linguistics Department
Colloquium, Wednesday 3 November, 4:00-6:00 pm in Dwinelle 182 (UCB).
His talk is entitled 'Category Change in the History of _be going to_:
An Analogical Model.'
-- Penny Eckert presented 'The nature of social meaning in variation'
at the UC Davis Linguistics Colloquium on October 22nd.
-- LOOK WHO'S DISSERTATING: Melissa Moyer (MA in Linguistics 1985,
Stanford University), has just received her Ph.D. from the Universitat
Autonoma de Barcelona (where she also teaches). Her dissertation is
titled, 'An Analysis of Code Switching in Gibraltar.'
Congratulations, Melissa! A copy of the abstract and/or dissertation
is available from John Rickford.
-\-\-\ CALL FOR PAPERS /-/-/-
-- LOS-X: The tenth annual meeting of the Language Origins Society
(University of California at Berkeley, July 15-18, 1994). What were
the social and cultural factors that led to the origin and evolution
of language? What levels of social complexity were necessary? What
cultural forms needed to be developed? What was the evolutionary
background of language? What forms of social organization and
expressive communicatlon did we inherit from our primate ancestors?
What parallels do we see in animal social organization, proto-culture,
and expressive behavior? What evidence can archeology, the study of
fossil humans, comparative linguistics, ethnomusicology, primatology,
cultural anthropology, art history, religion, folklore, the study of
oral epics, and child language studies bring to this subject? What
changes in vocal apparatus, brain structure, and perceptual and
expressive capabilities made language possible? What social and
cultural forces contributed to these changes? What historical factors
supported the development of language? We believe that only by
gathering evidence from the widest range of human affairs can the full
complexity of language origins be understood. We also encourage those
with different approaches to language origins to participate. Please
send inquiries to
Bruce Richman, Coordinator
2200 Oakdale Rd.
Cleveland Hts OH 44118
phone: 216-932-1147
fax: 216-987-4589
Abstracts of papers should be sent to Bruce Richman by March 15, 1994.
Registration fee is $30 before June 15 and $40 afterwards. Student fee
is $20 before June 15 and $30 afterwards. Please make checks payable
to Bruce Richman.
-\-\-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-/-/-
The next Linguistics Colloquium will take place on Friday,
October 29th at 3:30 pm in Cordura 100. The speaker will be James Kari
of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. The usual Happy Hour will
follow.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF TERMS FOR `RIVER' AND `MOUNTAIN'
IN ALASKAN ATHABASKAN LANGUAGES
James Kari
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
The distribution of terms for `river' in the place names inventories
of Alaskan Athabaskan languages is quite interesting. Rivers are
named with the term *niiq'a in the Tanana River drainage above the
Goodpaster River (i.e., in the Tancross and Upper Tanana language
areas) and on the Yukon drainage above the Dall River (i.e., in the
Gwich'in and Han language areas). In the languages downstream and to
the west and south, most streams are named with the stem *na'. The
exceptions to this abrupt demarcation in hydronyms are especially
interesting in that they imply westward rather than eastward
migration.
The distribution of terms for `mountain' in the same languages
indicates proto-Athabaskan *dzal is used in place names mainly in the
languages north of the Alaska Range. A place name `deghiloyi' meaning
`the Alaska Range' as used today in Lower Tanana in Central Alaska,
has extended its meaning to `mountain' both in place names and in the
general lexicon in the languages positioned either south or west of
the Alaska Range (Ahtna, Dena'ina, Upper Kuskokwim and Deg Hit'an).
This innovation in the naming of mountains may signal the onset of
incursions into new territories in the regions of these four
languages.
-\-\-\ FELLOWSHIPS/ASSISTANTSHIPS /-/-/-
-- BECKMAN INSTITUTE: Applications are invited for appointments as
Beckman Institute Fellows at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). These fellowships provide an excellent
opportunity for young scholars to initiate a post-Ph.D. career of
independent research in a stimulating and supportive interdisciplinary
academic environment. The fields of research encompassed by the
fellowship program include the behavioral and biological sciences,
chemistry, engineering, and physics. Selection of Beckman Institute
Fellows will be based upon evidence of professional promise, capacity
for independent work, interdisciplinary interests, and outstanding
achievement to date. A Beckman Institute Fellow will be appointed for
a term of up to three years. Candidates for a fellowship appointment
should be in their last year of predoctoral training or in their first
or second year of a postdoctoral appointment. Completion of the Ph.D.
is required before the fellowship can begin. Fellows may begin their
appointments as early as June 1994, but no later than December 31,
1994. During the term of the appointment, no teaching or
administrative duties will be required of the Fellow, other than a
brief written annual report to the director of the Beckman Institute.
The fellowship provides a stipend of $35,000 a year, and includes a
full benefits package. In addition, it will provide a budget for
support of research activity. Persons wishing to apply for a Beckman
Institute Fellowship should contact the Beckman Institute for an
application packet, at
Office for External Relations
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois
405 North Matthews Avenue
Urbana IL 61801
phone: 217/244-5582
fax: 217/244-8371
email: jjones@director.beckman.uiuc.edu
At time of contact, please indicate specific Beckman Institute
Research Groups about which you wish information. For full
consideration, application materials must be postmarked no later than
December 10, 1993. The names of those selected as fellows will be
announced on or about March 1, 1994.
-\-\-\ 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 next talk will be this Tuesday, November 2nd. PENNY ECKERT
of the Institute for Research on Learning, Palo Alto and the
Department of Linguistics, Stanford Univeristy, will speak
on 'Two Views of Variation':
Two Views of Variation
Two apparently conflicting views of the nature of social meaning have been
coexisting quietly in the field of variation.
On the one hand, variation is viewed as largely beyond the
conscious control of the speaker, and vernacular variants are seen as
emerging when attention is turned away from speech. This view is
associated with the perspective that variables acquire social meaning
by virtue of association: the social differentiation of variables,
which itself arises unconsciously, endows variables with very general
meanings related to social address. Thus the meanings of variables are
given by social structure, and their use constitutes an implementation
of language in relation to social structure.
On the other hand, variation is viewed as a resource for
complex expressions of locally-based identities. Such locally-based
meanings cannot arise passively, but must be the product of an active
use of language in the construction of group and individual identity.
I would argue that in this view, variation involves not a simple
implementation, but a process of production and reproduction of social
meaning.
While these two views may be seen as conflicting, experience
with data leads most variationists to hold some version of each.
However, the implications of the latter view have been largely
unarticulated in the field as a whole, as have the possible relations
between the two. This talk will elaborate on the latter view, and
explore a range of kinds of variation that suggest possibilities for a
resolution of the two.
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Upcoming talk:
Tuesday, November 9th: Deborah Schiffrin
-\-\-\ TRUE LINGUISTS /-/-/-
Quote from one of our faculty (but we're not saying which):
'The syntax-semantics interface is like two ends of a
long balloon, just squeeze the balloon back and forth
every ten years.'
-\-\-\ 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.)
-- FIRST-LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: 1/2 time Research Assistant.
Applications are invited from Psychology, Linguistics, or Symbolic
Systems students at Stanford, for a half-time Research Assistantship
for AY 1993-94 (beginning as early as possible in November and
extending through June). The research project will focus on two
topics in first language acquisition: (a) generic utterances and their
forms, through computer analysis of diary and transcript data; and (b)
preferred argument structure patterns in early utterances, through
experimental elicitation of utterance types. Both projects focus on
speech from children aged 1;6 to 5;0 years. The research will be
carried out in the Linguistics Department at Stanford and at Bing
Nursery School on campus.
Applicants with experience in the following areas are preferred:
observational/experimental work with children; computer analysis of
speech corpora; and statistical analysis of data. Graduate students
or upper division undergraduates welcome to apply. Due date November
5, 1994. (Pay will be hourly through December, then change to a
RAship with tuition for Winter and Spring quarters.) For further
information, please contact Dr Eve Clark, Department of Linguistics,
Stanford; email <eclark@psych> or telephone 725-1563.
-- Several linguists needed IMMEDIATELY for a CD-ROM dictionary
project. Must be a native speaker of American English with a clear
speaking voice and the ability to produce forms consistent with the
dictionary's transcription. The job also includes monitoring or review
of forms spoken by others. 8 or more hours per week for six or more
weeks, flexible hours (including weekends). $15.00/hour. Contact Phil
Hubbard (Phil@CSLI) if interested.
-- CMU: The Philosophy Department at Carnegie Mellon University
solicits candidates for a full-time, tenure-track position in its
Computational Linguistics Program. The job will commence with Autumn
Term, 1994. Applicants should be prepared to teach undergraduate and
graduate courses in linguistics theory and computational linguistics;
to engage in cross-disciplinary research with colleagues, for example,
in Computer Science, Cognitive Psychology, Philosophy (including
Logic), Information Science, or Machine Translation; to assist in the
advising and administration of students in the Computational
Linguistics Program; and to participate in the activities of the
Laboratory for Computational Linguistics. Candidates should have
backgrounds in computer science as well as linguistics. Special
consideration will be given to applicants who have demonstrated
competence in adapting linguistic theory to computational applications
or computation theory to linguistic applications. Additional weight
will be given for demonstrated ability to establish and sustain funded
research activities. Candidates should include a statement of
research interests, a sample of papers, curriculum vitae, and the
names of at least three people from whom letters of recommendation
have been requested. Applicants who do not already have the Ph.D.
degree must offer evidence that the degree will be granted by August
1994. Send applications by December 1, 1993, to
Computational Linguistics Search Committee
Department of Philosophy
Carnegie Mellon University
Schenley Park
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-3890 (USA)
Note: Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate and Carnegie
Mellon University is required not to discriminate in admission,
employment, or administration of its programs on the basis of race,
color, national origin, sex, or handicap in violation of Title VI of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Educational Amendments
of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or other
federal, state, or local laws or executive orders. In addition,
Carnegie Mellon University does not discriminate in admission,
employment, or administration of its programs on the basis of
religion, creed, ancestry, belief, age, veteran status, sexual
orientation or in violation of any federal, state, or local laws or
executive orders. While the federal government does continue to
exclude gays, lesbians and bisexuals from receiving ROTC scholarships
or serving in the military, ROTC classes on this campus are available
to all students. Inquiries concerning application of these statements
should be directed to the Provost, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000
Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 [(412) 268-6684] or the Vice
President for Enrollment, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes
Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 [(412) 268-2056]. Obtain general
information about Carnegie Mellon University by calling (412)
268-2000.
-- ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, Department of Linguistics, University of
Washington: A tenure-track appointment is intended in the area of
syntactic theory beginning September 1994. A specialization in a
non-Indo-European language and an interest in collaborative work with
other cognitive scientists on campus are especially desirable.
Applicants should have the Ph. D. degree and be highly qualified for
undergraduate and graduate teaching and independent research.
Applications, including a curriculum vitae, statement of research and
teaching interests, and three letters of recommendation should be sent
to
Professor Frederick J. Newmeyer, Chair
Department of Linguistics
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Priority will be given to applications received before December 1,
1993. Please include your e-mail address. The University of Washington
is building a culturally diverse faculty and strongly encourages
applications from women and minority candidates, AA/EOE.
-- GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: The Department of Linguistics at Georgetown
University invites applications for two tenure-track positions in
linguistics at the assistant professor level, beginning August 1994.
Depending on the qualifications of applicants, one position may be
offered at the associate professor level. The ideal candidate for the
position in Applied and Theoretical Linguistics would have a strong
publication and research program, as well as graduate and
undergraduate teaching experience in contemporary linguistic theory
(e.g., syntax, semantics or phonology) and a demonstrated ability to
relate that research to language learning and other applied
linguistics topics such as language assessment, reading or writing.
Ability to offer courses on bilingualism, first language acquisition,
morphology and/or research methods would also be desirable. The ideal
candidate for the position in Applied Linguistics would have a strong
publication and research program, as well as graduate and
undergraduate teaching experience in second language learning and
teaching, especially in areas such as second language reading,
ESL/EFL, bilingualism, and/or sociolinguistic or ethnographic analysis
of classroom interaction. Ability to offer undergraduate linguistics
courses would be desirable. Ph.D. required prior to appointment.
Send letter of application, CV, representative publications, and three
letters of reference to
Search Committee
Department of Linguistics
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057-1068
Deadline for full consideration of applications is December 1, 1993.
Georgetown is an AA/EO employer.
-- DREW UNIVERSITY (Madison, NJ): Expected full-time, tenure-track
position. Instructor/Assistant Professor of Spanish. PhD preferred,
ABD very near completion considered. Start late August, 1994. Salary
commensurates with qualifications and experience. Responsibilities
will include teaching a variety of language levels using the latest
language acquisition methodologies, such as proficiency-based
instruction, and pedagogical uses of computer, video and other
technologies. Some teaching experience and native-like proficiency in
Spanish and English required. Complete application must be received no
later than Deccmber 1, 1993 and should include letter indicating
expertise in foreign language pedagogies, resume, three confidential
letters of recommendation, and university transcripts. Send to
Dr. Ada Ortuzar-Young, Chair
Spanish Department
Drew University
Madison, NJ 07940
Will interview at ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages) Convention in San Antonio, Texas, on November 20 and 21.
Please indicate if attending. Drew University is an Affirmative
Action, Equal Opportunity Employer.
(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 /-/-/-
Mr. Subjunctive has missed his plane and must wait for the next
available flight, at midnight. 'O well,' he muses, 'if it were six
hours later I would only have to wait one-fifth as long as if it were
two hours earlier now.' What time is it?
First correct answer via e-mail wins this week's star prize.
-\-\-\ FINAL SCORE /-/-/-
The Sharks won their first game of the season last night, 3-1 against
the Edmonton Oilers, snapping a nine-game winless streak which,
ironically, brings them to their best starting record of any season
yet (1-8-1). The Sharks scored two power-play goals including one by
Igor Larinov, his first of the season, and outshot the Oilers 36-16.
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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 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.
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