March 2014

Week of March 31, 2014

GSAS Indo-European and Historical Linguistics Workshop:

Alexander Forte & Caley Smith (Harvard University)
The Parallel Reception of Traditional Poetry in Early Philosophy
Monday, March 31 | 5:15pm | Boylston 303

Linguistics Department Spring Open House

The Linguistics Department Spring Open House for prospective concentrators will take place on Tuesday, April 1 from 4:00 to 6:00pm in the department lounge. Refreshments will be provided. Everyone is very much welcome to attend and mingle!

Harvard at PLC 38

Jenny Lee presented her work "Constructed dual in Hopi: A cyclic insertion approach" at the 38th Penn Linguistics Colloquium (PLC) on Saturday, March 29.

MIT Colloquium 

Adamantios Gafos (Haskins Laboratories, Universität Potsdam)
Friday, April 4 | 3:30-5pm | 32-141

Thesis Defense

Chi-Ming (Louis) Liu
A Modular Theory of Radical Pro Drop
Tuesday, April 8 | 3pm-5:30pm | Boylston 303

Laura Grestenberger
Feature Mismatch: Deponency in Indo-European Languages
Wednesday, April 23 | 2pm-5pm | Sever 213

Lauren Eby Clemens
Wednesday, April 30 | 11am-2pm | Boylston 303

Week of March 24, 2014

Language Universals/Polinsky Lab Meeting 

Spanish Agreement II: A discussion of Spanish agreement in native and heritage speakers
Discussion led by Maria PolinskyGreg ScontrasZuzanna Fuchs
Wednesday, March 26 | 5:15pm | 2 Arrow Street (4th floor conference room)

Linguistics Circle Workshop 

Sharon Inkelas (UC Berkeley)
ABC+Q: segmental subdivisions in correspondence
Friday, March 28 | 4:30pm | Boylston 103

Phonological theory has long been challenged by the behavior of contour segments and contour tones in harmony patterns. Sometimes these entities participate in phonology as whole units; at other times, their subsegmental parts act independently. This talk, based on joint work with Stephanie Shih (Stanford/Berkeley), builds on insights from Aperture Theory (Steriade 1993), Articulatory Phonology (Browman and Goldstein 1989; Gafos 2002) and Autosegmental Theory (Goldsmith 1976) to propose a novel phonological representation for segments: each segment (‘Q’) is subdivided into a maximum of three ordered subsegmental phases (‘q’) that host unitary sets of distinctive features and can participate in harmony and other processes. Embedded into Agreement by Correspondence theory (Hansson 2001, Rose and Walker 2004), Q theory makes it possible to describe the dual behavior of contours. Q-level correspondence gives rise to whole-contour assimilation and dissimilation; q-level correspondence gives rise to interactions among the parts of contours. The predictions of ABC+Q theory are illustrated with evidence from local and nonlocal interactions among consonants, vowels, and tones.

Week of March 17, 2014

Happy Spring Break!

Harvard's Spring Recess began Saturday, March 15, and ends Sunday, March 23. There will be no classes and the department will have limited hours.

Larson, Nicolae, Majer, and Stranahan Win Teaching Award

Visiting Lecturer Bradley LarsonCollege Fellow Andreea Nicolae, Marek Majer and Laine Stranahan have won Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.

  • Brad Larson: Ling 102 "Sentence Structure" and Ling 112 "Syntactic Theory I"
  • Andreea Nicolae: Ling 116 "Semantic Theory I"
  • Marek Majer: Ling 108 "Introduction to Historical Linguistics" (TF)
  • Laine Stranahan: Ling 102 "Sentence Structure" (TF)

Congratulations!

Week of March 10, 2014

Call for Abstracts: Undergraduate Linguistics Colloquium 2014

The 11th Annual Undergraduate Linguistics Colloquium at Harvard will take place April 19-20, 2014. The conference is open to all interested students regardless of area of interest or level of training. See the call for abstracts for more information. The deadline for receipt of all submissions is Wednesday, March 19.

Harvard at WCCFL 32

Isabelle Charnavel presented "Antilogophoricity in Clitic Clusters" (joint work with Victoria Mateu) at the 32nd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 32) which took place on March 7-9 at the University of Southern California.

Language Universals/Polinsky Lab Meeting 

Spanish Agreement I: A discussion of syntax and processing in Spanish number and gender agreement
Discussion led by Maria Polinsky, Greg ScontrasZuzanna Fuchs
Wednesday, March 12 | 5:15pm | 2 Arrow Street (4th floor conference room)

Please go to the event page for the readings.

MIT Colloquium 

Marcel den Dikken (CUNY)
Friday, March 14 | 3:30-5pm | 32-141