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Sesquipedalian #31
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To: ling-local, ling-others
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Subject: Sesquipedalian #31
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From: Alistair Murray <alistair@csli.stanford.edu>
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Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 11:47:44 PDT
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Cc: gopher-quip
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Flags: 000000000000
The SESQUIPEDALIAN WEEKLY HERALD Volume IV, Number 31
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June 2, 1994
-\-\-\ SPECIAL LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-/-/-
Thursday, June 2
5:30 pm
Ventura 17
SEMANTIC ATOMS OF ANAPHORA: SELFISH LANGUAGES AND SELFLESS ONES
Ken Safir
Rutgers University
Do anaphors have semantic content? It is often tacitly assumed
that elements used syntactically as anaphors, that is, elements that
must be bound by an antecedent in a given syntactically determined
domain, are `bleached' of semantic content. If anaphors differ in
their distribution, the relational meaning of morphemes internal to
the anaphor are usually treated as accidental or only historically
relevant to these differences. For example, it is generally assumed
that the difference of the independent meanings of /self/ in English
or /meme/ ("same") in French is not a relevant factor in
distinguishing differences in the distribution of the anaphors
/himself/ and /lui-meme/ ("him-same") in English and French,
respectively.
The central thesis of this talk is that the semantic content of
anaphors can indeed be an active factor in determining the anaphoric
pattern. I will argue further that anaphors which respect familiar
treatments of Principle A are contentful predicates and that the
semantic relational content of these predicates will restrict their
distribution, at least in part, in a very general way. Not only will
predicates of different semantic content behave differently from one
another, but those anaphors that are not contentful will behave
differently as a class from all of the contentful ones. Although the
existence and distribution of relational anaphors will be consistent
with Principle A, I will also argue that not all elements that have
been called anaphors fall under it. My proposal will be developed in
the context of a more general approach to anaphora that I will call
`universalist' (see Safir (1993)). The central premise of the
universalist position is that all anaphora specific statements are
derived from independently motivated properties of lexical items that
do not modify or select amongst principles of anaphora.
===========================================================================
-\-\-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-/-/-
This will be the last Linguistics Colloquium for academic year 1993-94.
Friday, June 3
3:30 pm
Ventura 17
Happy Hour to follow
CUTTING THE ERGATIVITY PIE
A Dissertation Proposal
Christopher Manning
Stanford University
Anderson (1976) suggested that the majority of ergative languages
appear to have accusative syntax if tested via the major cyclic
transformations. This thesis led to the current orthodoxy (Dixon
1979) of a world consisting of accusative languages and ergative
languages with the latter mainly morphologically ergative languages
but with the odd one syntactically ergative (Dyirbal seems the only
uncontroversially accepted exemplar).
One problem has been that the Philippine languages have always sat
uneasily outside this classification system. This is especially
disturbing since a minority faction (Johnson 1980, Payne 1982, Blake
1988) has repeatedly observed the similarity between Philippine and
various ergative languages. This talk begins with Kroeger's (1993)
analysis of Tagalog (which pace Schachter (1976, 1977) analyzes the
Philippinists' topic as being the subject) and extends it to cover
ergative languages, building on what I take to be the essence of
Bittner (1994) and Sadock's (ms) analyses of Inuit and Campana (1992)
and Van Valin's (1982) analyses of Mayan languages. The result is a
large supply of syntactically ergative languages (but under a
different definition of subjecthood!) and `semantic' (argument
structure based) theories of binding and control.
===========================================================================
UCDAVIS LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM
"Lexical and nonlexical noun incorporation"
Mark Baker, McGill University
It is often thought that sentences are built up of completely formed words.
The Mohawk language challenges this idea by allowing its speakers to say
things like "I bed-bought" in place of "I bought the bed". This is known
as the noun incorporation construction, and some linguists believe that it
is an example of a compound word formed in the syntax by a transformational
process. Others, however, believe that these are merely ordinary transitive
verbs, formed by a type of compounding that is only minimally different
>From the kind of compounding found in English. In this talk I will briefly
review the issues at stake, and then present some new data from the Mohawk
language that helps to resolve this question. In particular, I will show
that incorporated nouns act just like ordinary objects for purposes of
pronoun coreference and question formation. It will also be shown that
verbs with incorporated nouns take a unique agreement pattern which is not
otherwise found in the language. There will also be a brief discussion of
how these results generalize to other languages with noun incorporation
and what they mean about the nature of syntax.
DATE: 3 June 1994
TIME: 4pm
PLACE: 912 Sproul Hall, UCDavis.
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-\-\-\ CALL FOR PAPERS /-/-/-
SALT 5
Semantics and Linguistic Theory
Fifth Annual Meeting
University of Texas at Austin
February 24 - 26, 1995
SALT 5 welcomes submissions for 30-minute presentations (with 10
additional minutes for discussion) on any topic in the semantic
analysis of natural language emphasizing the connection to linguistic
theory.
Submit 10 copies of the abstract, no more than 2 pages (l,OOO words) long.
Please include a 3X5 card with the following information:
author name(s)
address
affiliation
phone number and e-mail address
paper title
Abstract deadline is November 1, 1994
Send abstracts to:
SALT 5 Committee
Department of Linguistics
University of Texas at Austin
Austin TX 78712 - 1196
Inquiries are welcome to the above address or e-mail to
ligk417@utxvms.cc.utexas.edu
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-\-\-\ JOB OPENINGS /-/-/-
Centre for Computational Linguistics
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology,
Manchester, UK
Post of Research Assistant - Knowledge Acquisition from Corpora and Generation.
We are seeking a suitable candidate to fill a research post on a
project funded by Matsushita Electric Industry Company Ltd.
(Panasonic). The post is initially for two years with a possible
extension of one year beginning as soon as possible. The project deals
with the construction of tools for knowledge acquisition from textual
corpora and for text generation. We are dealing with technical
texts/sublanguages. The applicant should have a good first degree and
preferably postgraduate qualifications in artificial
intelligence/computing. Applicants should have a good knowledge of C,
in a UNIX environment. Knowledge of computational linguistics,
especially generation, is important. An interest in or familiarity
with hypertext would be an advantage. The applicant will join a team
collaborating with the Japan-based Matsushita Research Centre. Salary
will be between 12828 and 18855 per annum, depending on age and
experience. Please quote reference MA/RA.
Applications, including full curriculum vitae and the names of
two referees, should be sent to:
Dr. S. Ananiadou
(re: Matsushita RA)
Centre for Computational Linguistics
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology,
PO Box 88
Manchester, UK
M60 1QD
to arrive as soon as possible. Further information may be obtained
>From the above address or by phoning 061-200 3100. An equal
opportunity employer.
Sofia Ananiadou effie@ccl.umist.ac.uk
Centre for Computational effie@cclsun.uucp
Linguistics
UMIST
PO Box 88
Sackville Street
Manchester, UK tel: +44.61.200.3082 (direct)
M60 1QD fax: +44.61.200.3099
===========================================================================
POST-DOCTORAL POSITION IN CHINESE NLP
Post-doctoral Position (Chinese Computational Linguistics)
Chinese Knowledge Information Processing (CKIP)
Academia Sinica
Primary Field: Chinese Linguistics (Syntax/Semantics)
OR: Computer Science (Chinese NLP)
Secondary Fields: Computational Linguistics, Classical Chinese
Openings: 1 Or 2
Time: July/August 1994 to June 1995
(renewable yearly pending budget approval)
Salary: U.S. $25,000/year (est.)
Requirements: (1) Ph. D. in Linguistics/C.S.
(2) (near) Native Fluency in Mandarin Chinese
Location: Chinese Knowledge Information Processing (CKIP) Group
Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
Application:
I. BY June 6 (Monday):
Email (1) cover letter (2) C.V. (3) list of publications
TO: churen@iis.sinica.edu.tw
II. BY June 13 (Monday) [If Short-listed]
Send (1), (2), (3), (4) Thesis (draft), (5) proof that you will get
your doctorate by September 1994, (6) relevant publications, and
(7) additional material showing your research ability
TO: Chinese Knowledge Information Processing
Institute of Information Science
Academia Sinica
Nankang, Taipei
Taiwan 115
III. Enquiries:
1. Send to the above email and/or snail mail addresses
OR 2. Call 886-2-7883799 ext. 2111 Dr. Chu-Ren Huang
ext. 2211 Dr. Keh-jiann Chen
The CKIP group is a on-going long-term research project on Chinese
computational linguistics. The project started in 1986 and has
already built an electronic lexicon, a parser, a classical Chinese
corpus, and a Modern Mandarin corpus. The project is funded by both
Academia Sinica (Institute of Information Science and Institute of
History and Philology) as well as outside agencies (such as the Chiang
Ching-kuo Foundation and the National Science Council of R.O.C.).
Research in the academic year of 1994-5 will be focused on (1)
Balanced Mandarin Corpus, (2) Corpus-based Synchronic Ancient Chinese
Lexicon, and (3) Chinese Parser. Both previous post-doctoral fellows
with CKIP now hold tenure-track positions with national universities
in Taiwan.
===========================================================================
LINGUISTICS
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
The Department of Linguistics at The University of Connecticut
anticipates having a temporary position for the spring semester 1995
and a tenure track position beginning in the fall semester 1995. Both
positions are expected to be at the rank of assistant professor,
however, senior appointments might be possible.
We are seeking candidates in psycholinguistics, semantics and
morphology/phonology. Candidates should be prepared to teach in their
special area at the graduate level and, in linguistics, more generally
at the undergraduate level.
Please send a letter of interest and a CV with the names and addresses
of three references. It is not necessary to have letters of reference
sent at this time.
Send to:
Professor Diane Lillo-Martin, Chair
Linguistics Search Committee
University of Connecticut
Department of Linguistics, U-145
341 Mansfield RD, RM 230
Storrs, CT 06269-1145
EMail LINQADM@UCONNVM.BITNET
LINQADM@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU
FAX (203)486-0197 TEL (203) 486-4229
===========================================================================
JAPANESE DESK TOP PUBLISHING POSITION
Requirements:
- native speaker of Japanese; read, write and speak Japanese fluently
- familiarity with PC and Macintosh
- comfortable with Japanese key inputting
- willing to work under extreme time pressure; to work overtime if necessary
Recommended:
- artistic interest such as drawing/painting
- knows at least two kinds of word processing applications
- has experience with page layout applications such as PageMaker or QuarkXPress
- has experience with drawing applications such as Freehand or Illustrator
- previous experience in desk top publishing
Salary dependent upon qualifications.
May start as a trainee.
Send resume to:
Attn: Bibi
SimulTrans
2606 Bayshore Parkway
Mountain View, CA 943O3
No calls, please!
===========================================================================
TRANSLATOR: JAPANESE
Experienced Japanese translator needed.
Requirements:
- native speaker of Japanese
- hold BA or BS degree (higher degrees desirable)
- familiar with two or more Japanese software applications
- good at Japanese key inputting
- willing to do software related translation exclusively
- willing to work under extreme time pressure; to work overtime if necessary
- experienced in translating software manuals
Recommended:
- TOEFL score of at least 60O
- read software manuals frequently
Salary dependent upon qualifications.
May start as a trainee.
Send resume to:
Attn: Bibi
SimulTrans
26O6 Bayshore Parkway
Mountain View, CA 943O3
No calls, please!
===========================================================================
3 MONTH SUMMER RESEARCH & PROGRAMMING POSITION
NEC RESEARCH INSTITUTE
PRINCETON NJ
Due to an unexpected opportunity, NEC Research Institute in Princeton,
N.J. has an immediate opening for a 3 month summer research and
programming position. The research emphasis will be on recurrent
neural networks and machine learning methods applied to natural
language processing. The successful candidate will have knowledge of
machine learning and neural network methodologies plus excellent
coding skills in the C/Unix environment. Interested applicants should
send their resumes by mail, fax, or email to the address below.
Dr. C. Lee Giles or Dr. Sandiway Fong:
NEC Research Institute
4 Independence Way
Princeton, N.J. 08540
FAX: 609-951-2482
EMAIL: sandiway@research.nj.nec.com
Applicants must show documentation of eligibility for employment.
Because this is a summer position, the only expenses to be paid
will be salary. NEC is an equal opportunity employer.
C. Lee Giles / NEC Research Institute / 4 Independence Way
Princeton, NJ 08540 / 609-951-2642 / Fax 2482
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