[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Sesquipedalian #13, January 13, 1994
-
Subject: Sesquipedalian #13, January 13, 1994
-
Flags: 000000000000
The SESQUIPEDALIAN WEEKLY HERALD Volume IV, Number 13
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-
January 13, 1994
WHAT I MEANT TO SAY WAS...: Many people who experienced auto accidents
were asked to explain what happened in a few words or less on
insurance forms. The following quotes are taken from these forms.
'Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I
don't have.'
'The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its
intentions.'
'I thought my window was down, but found out it was up when I put my
hand through it.'
'I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.'
'A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.'
'The guy was all over the road; I had to swerve a number of times
before I hit him.'
'I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law
and headed over the embankment.'
'In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.'
'I had been shopping for plants all day and was on my way home. As I
reached an intersection, a hedge sprang up obscuring my vision. I did
not see the other car.'
'I had been driving my car for forty years when I fell asleep at the
wheel and had an accident.'
'I was on my way to the doctors with rear end trouble when my
universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident. As I
approached the intersection, a stop sign suddenly appeared in place
where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in
time to avoid the accident.'
'To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front, I struck the
pedestrian.'
'My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.'
'An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and
vanished.'
'I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of
the roadway when I struck him.'
'The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.'
'The indirect cause of this accident was a little guy in a small car
with a big mouth.'
'I was thrown from my car as it left the road. I was later found in a
ditch by some stray cat.'
'The telephone pole was approaching fast. I was attempting to swerve
out of its path when it struck my front.'
'I was unable to stop in time and my car crashed into the other
vehicle. The driver and passengers this left immediately for a
vacation with injuries.'
-\-\-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-/-/-
The Department is spared from a colloquium yet again this week. Next
week, the Winter colloquium schedule kicks into gear with John
McCarthy (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), who presents:
'Prosodic Morphology in Optimality Theory: The Emergence of the
Unmarked.' However, you may wish to attend some of the talks at the
Tri-Lateral Phonology Weekend (see below)...
-\-\-\ PHONOLOGY WEEKEND /-/-/-
The Tri-Lateral Phonology Weekend (TREND) will be happening this
weekend, on Friday at CSLI and on Saturday at UCSC.
Friday (Cordura 100, CSLI, Stanford)
9:00-10:00 Coffee
10:00-10:30 Jaye Padgett, UCSC
On the Bases of Interaction
10:30-11:00 Chris Golston, UCB
Prosodic Metrics
11:00-11:15 break
11:15-11:45 Gary Lutes, Stanford
Lithuanian Nominal Accent
11:45-12:15 Sharon Inkelas, Orhan Orgun, Cheryl Zoll, UCB
Lexical exceptions: prespecification or subgrammar?
12:15-14:00 Lunch
14:00-14:30 Lionel Wee, UCB
Identifying the Reduplicant
14:30-15:00 Erin Duncan, UCSC
Word Shape and Optionality in Jilotepequeno Pocomam
15:00-15:30 Break
15:30 John McCarthy, U. Mass.
Prosodic Morphology in Optimality Theory:
the Emergence of the Unmarked
Friday after the talk there will be a Happy Hour at Cordura, followed
by a dinner and party at Bill Poser's house in the evening.
Saturday (Cowell Conference Room, Cowell College, Santa Cruz)
9:00-10:00 Coffee
10:00-10:30 Denis Nepveu, UCSC
Georgian Consonant Clusters
10:30-11:00 Paul Kiparsky, Stanford
Remarks on Markedness
11:00-11:15 break
11:15-11:45 John McCarthy U. Mass.
On Coronal `Transparency'
11:45-12:15 Chang Yong Sohn, Stanford
An Optimality Account of Old English High Vowel Deletion
12:15 Luganda syllabification: an exercise in structure building
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Phonology Hike
-\-\-\ CALL FOR PAPERS /-/-/-
-- NACAL: 22nd North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics
(March 18-20, 1994, Madison, WI-- In Conjunction with the Annual
Meeting of the American Oriental Society, March 20-23, 1994). Papers
are invited on any linguistic subject relevant to any language of the
Afroasiatic phylum (Chadic, Berber, Cushitic, Omotic, Egyptian,
Semitic). Research on areas such as the following encouraged:
structural analysis (semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology,
phonetics), sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, discourse analysis,
historical linguistics, writing systems, etc. Survey presentations,
which give an overview of the current state of knowledge on a given
language family or topic, are welcome, as are group submissions for
panels on particular topics, such as a language or family or
conceptual issue. Those wishing to present a paper should send the
following to the address printed below to be received by February 15,
1994: Three copies of an abstract, no more than half a page in length.
One of the copies should be suitable for photo-reproduction. The title
of your presentation and your name should appear at the top of the
abstract; $20 payable to Robert Hoberman, for registration and all
mailings. The abstracts and a copy of the program will be mailed to
you before the meeting, even if you cannot come to Madison; A
completed registration form. You are welcome to photocopy the form and
post the original for other colleagues who may be interested in the
conference. If you submit by fax or e-mail, please send your check
separately and note that fax does not provide a good original for
photocopying. Mail to:
Robert Hoberman
Dept. of Comparative Studies
SUNY
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3355
phone: 516-632-7462
messages: 516-632-7460
fax: 516-632-6252
email: rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu
-\-\-\ FELLOWSHIPS/ASSISTANTSHIPS /-/-/-
-- UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA: Postdoctoral position in the Dept. de
Psicologia Basica. The person appointed will join a Project on Speech
Perception, funded by a one-year grant from the Human Capital Project
of the European Community. The project is developed in a consortium
of European Laboratories. Our partners in this project are: LSCP.
CNRS (Jacques Mehler), MRC.CDU (John Morton), Lab. Psychologie
Experimentale, ULB (J. Morais), Lab. Interdisciplinare. SISSA (L.
Rizzi), Max Plank Institut fur Psucholinguistics (W. Levelt). The
focus of research is on the nature of linguistic representations, on
how such representations are computed by the mind when we perceive
speech signals. The main emphasis is on the perception of sound and
the computation of phonological representations. How linguistic
knowledge is put to use in segmentng continuous speech streams into
words and how linguistic knowledge is employed in perception and
comprehension; in particular, the research will concern speech
perception in bilingual contexts. The position is available after
February 1st 1994. Applicants are invited with a background in speech
perception, experimental psychology, acoustic phonetics, speech signal
processing, or phonology. Applicants should have a Ph. D. and must be
citizens of a EC country (or permanent residents). Knowledge of or
willingness to learn Spanish is desired. Send a cover letter,
curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and reprints or
recent publications to
Dr. Nuria Sebastian
Dept. de Psicologia Basica
Universitat de Barcelona
Adolf Florensa s.n.
08028 Barcelona - SPAIN
email: sebastia@farmacia.ub.es
-- The Institute for Research in Cognitive Science (IRCS) at the
University of Pennsylvania provides opportunities for several
postdoctoral positions in Cognitive Science. The deadline for
applications is February 1, 1994. Decisions will be made March 15,
1994. To apply, please send a cover letter indicating your proposed
research, including a statement about how you would benefit from
working in our interdisciplinary environment and your resume. Please
have two or three referees send letters of reference directly to
Postdoctoral Fellow Selection Committee
Institute for Research in Cognitive Science
University of Pennsylvania
400C 3401 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228
-\-\-\ TRUE LINGUISTS /-/-/-
More quotes from various members of our faculty (but we're not saying
which):
'Pay attention to the switch from Roman to Greek letters... it's
supposed to be theoretically significant.'
'It's a property of the end, not being at the beginning.'
'The technical term for this is "the way Semitic does it."'
On the derivational morphology of 'better': 'More good is bad because
better is good.'
And finally, Noam Chomsky, referring to the chain condition: 'It's
only valid where it -is- valid.'
-\-\-\ 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.)
-- BROWN UNIVERSITY: The Brown University Department of Cognitive &
Linguistic Sciences invites applications for two visiting faculty
positions for the academic year September 1994 to June 1995. Each
position would be suited to either a senior sabbatical visitor who, in
exchange for half-time salary support, would teach one or two courses
at Brown or to a more junior applicant who would receive full salary
support and teach three courses. All Applicants must have received
the Ph.D. degree or equivalent by the time of their application.
Position 1, Vision: candidate should have strong teaching and research
interests in one or more of the following areas:
visual perception, visual cognition, computational
vision, or computational neuroscience related to vision.
Position 2, Cognition: candidate should have strong teaching and research
interests in an area such as memory, attention,
problem solving, judgment and decision making, or
comparative cognition.
Please send vitae, recent publications, three references, and a cover
letter describing teaching and research interests and qualifications to
Search Committee Vision
Brown University
Department of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences
Box 1978
Providence, RI 02912
or
Search Committee Cognition
Brown University
Department of Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences
Box 1978
Providence, RI 02912
The initial deadline for applications is February 15, 1994, but applications
will be accepted after that time until the visiting positions are filled.
Brown is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Women and
minorities are especially encouraged to apply. For further
information please contact the department at the above address,
this account, by phone at (401)863-2616, or fax at (401)863-2255
-- UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA: The Linguistics Department at the
University of Manitoba invites applications for a full-time sessional
position for 1994-95 (1 September to 31 May), subject to budgetary
approval, at the rank of Assistant Professor and with salary to depend
on qualifications and experience. Teaching duties and MA/PhD
supervision will be concentrated in, but not limited to, the core
areas of syntactic analysis, syntactic theory and semantics. The
ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate a commitment to field
research in one of the indigenous languages of North America. The
completed doctoral degree and demonstrated excellence in research and
teaching in the area of specialisation (including both formal and
typological approaches and in-depth familiarity, both analytical and
practical, in a non-Indoeuropean language as well as substantial field
research experience in a language other than the applicant's own) are
required. ``The University of Manitoba encourages applications from
qualified women and men, including members of visible minorities,
Aboriginal people, and persons with disabilities. The University
offers a smoke-free environment, save for specially designated areas.
Priority consideration will be given to Canadian citizens and
permanent residents. Further details may be obtained by e-mail
(LINGDPT@CCM.UMANITOBA.CA) or fax (204/275-5781). Applications
(including curriculum vitae, offprints, preprints, etc.) and three
letters of reference should be sent by mail to reach the Department by
28 February 1994 and should be addressed to
H.C. Wolfart, Professor & Head
Linguistics Department
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 5V5
-- SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY: Full-time temporary position in
Linguistics (Tenure-track position anticipated in 94-95) at the
Assistant Professor level. Starting date: August 24. Range:
Approximately $32,000 to $44,000. Ph.D. in Linguistics by date of
appointment. Specialization (as reflected by thesis topic and
publications): syntax and semantics, and preferably computational
linguistics and/or historical linguistics. This position requires
awareness of and sensitivity to the educational goals of a
multicultural population. Prefer cross cultural experience and/or
training, or bilingual, bicultural background. Duties include teaching
introductory and advanced courses in linguistics for undergraduate and
master's level students in Linguistics, and Teaching of English to
Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). The normal teaching load is four
three- unit courses per semester plus advising and committee work.
Submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, evidence of teaching
effectiveness, three letters of recommendation, and representative
publications by February 1 to
B. Kumaravadivelu, Chair
Search Committee
Department of Linguistics and Language Development
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192-0093
Interviews can be conducted at the BLS conference.
(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 /-/-/-
A small circus has a certain number of horses and riders. Between
them there are 50 feet and 18 heads. In addition, the circus has some
jungle animals that have, altogether, 11 heads and 20 feet. There are
twice as many four-footed jungle animals as there are two-footed
creatures. How many horses, riders, and jungle animals are in the
circus?
First correct answer via e-mail wins this week's insta-prize...
-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\
-\-\-\ 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.
Some assembly required
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-