Week of Feb 16
BASL talk
Discover the rich culture and history of the Black Deaf community and Black American Sign Language (BASL) with Professor Franklin Jones, Jr. from Boston University, who will be delivering a lecture followed by a Q&A session on Monday, February 16th at 6pm in Lecture Hall D in the Science Center. This event is free and open to the public. ASL interpretation will be provided.
4th Graduate Student Workshop
The 4th Annual Graduate Student Workshop held by the Department of Linguistics will take place on Friday, March 27. This one‑day event aims to showcase the wide range of work being done by our graduate students, with 20-minute presentations (15-minute talk + 5-minute Q&A). G1s and G2s are particularly encouraged to participate and gather feedback for their work.
The workshop will take place in the Mount Auburn Room in the Smith Campus Center. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. A detailed schedule will be circulated closer to the date.
If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Melody (yuxuan_wang@fas.harvard.edu) or Nofar (nofarrimon@g.harvard.edu).
LangCog
The next LangCog meeting of the semester will be Tuesday, February 17th, from 5:30-7:00pm, in William James Hall, Room 1550. The speaker is Elizabeth Coppock (Boston University), and the title and abstract of the talk can be found below. You can find the schedule for the remainder of the semester on the LangCog website. Food will be provided, as always!
Title: Unifying dependent-indefinite and independent-universal reduplicated numerals in Newar
Abstract: Newar (also known as Nepal Bhasa) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in the Kathmandu Valley region of Nepal with a rich classifier system. Classifier-affixed numerals can be reduplicated to produce a distributive reading, in a manner familiar from the literature on reduplicated numerals in Telugu, Hungarian, and Kaqchikel. For example, “My sons caught three-CLF.ANIM three-CLF.ANIM fish” (where CLF.ANIM = animate classifier) means that the sons caught three fish each. In this way, reduplicated numerals produce what is known as “dependent indefinites”, that is, indefinites that depend on the presence of a higher-scoping quantificational operator. But in addition, Newar reduplicated numerals have universal uses, which do not depend on having a quantificational element elsewhere in the sentence, as in “One letter is correct”, meaning “every letter is correct”. Thus reduplicated numerals in Newar have both ‘dependent-indefinite’ and what we might call ‘independent-universal’ uses. I offer a way of unifying these two uses in a semantics that relies on sequences. This sequence-based analysis offers an iconic treatment of the semantics of reduplication, where the repetition in form is reflected by repetition in the meaning. This is the main point, but there is also a side point: In the course of developing the analysis, we are forced to confront the question of whether to give a Chierchia-like or Krifka-like constituency for the classifier construction; I advocate a structure where the classifier and the numeral form a unit to the exclusion of the noun, a la Krifka.
Semantics lecturer job posting
The Department of Linguistics seeks applications for a lecturer in linguistics, with a focus on teaching and advising in formal semantics. The ability to teach and advise students in another area in addition to semantics is a plus.
The lecturer will be responsible for teaching four courses in this area (two per semester). We anticipate a mix of graduate and undergraduate courses, to include semantics courses at both levels, and courses possibly from among the following: an undergraduate introduction to linguistics, structure of a specific language, a methods course, an introduction to pragmatics for undergraduates, a special topics seminar, and/or other courses as appropriate to the candidate's background.
The appointee is expected to be available to contribute to the advising of both undergraduates and graduates in their area. The appointment is full time for one year and will begin on July 1, 2026 and end on June 30, 2027. For full consideration, applications should be submitted by March 21, 2026. The position is open until filled.
If you or someone you know would like to apply, please visit the posting website (https://academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15822), where further information is available. If you have any questions, please contact the department administrator Andra Pham (andra_pham@harvard.edu).