LGSA Fledgelings

Why some languages sound so fast

2011-11-21T10:15:00.000-08:00

Interesting study on the speed of speech across different languages:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2091477,00.html

I haven't tried to find the actual paper in Language. And although the conclusion of the article is thought-provoking, I think there are some questions that can be raised as to the methodology. First, as one of the commentors noted, they only tested 8 languages, then seemed to make the generalization that the results from testing those 8 languages applied to all of the world's languages. This may be a misrepresentation by the Time Science writer, and may not be present in the actual paper.

A second question I had regarding methodology was the specifics on how they categorized syllables as more or less information-dense. Again, the actual paper in Language might explain this, but the Time Science article didn't touch on it at all. Since "information density" must be a somewhat subjective semantic classification, and the study's conclusion hinges on such a classification, I'd be quite curious to learn what exactly the parameters were.

What do you guys think? Any other questions/doubts?
If anyone can find a freely accessible version of the actual paper, let me know and I will post it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hannah

LGSA Pub Nite!

2011-09-18T23:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is happening!

When: Thursday, September 29th, 8p.m.
Where: Hog & Rocks, in the Mission
(3431 19th St, between San Carlos St & Mission St)

Hog & Rocks is newish and great... decent beer, wine and cocktails selection, as well as very yummy food for those of you (us) who may be hungry coming straight from class:
http://www.hogandrocks.com/

Open to all SFSU Linguistics & related MAs and faculty. Come drink and get to know your fellow students!

- Hannah

Linguistic Links: two unrelated but intriguing phenomena

2011-09-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

So. I'm sure most if not all of you are already deeply buried in readings for your classes, but I wanted to post a couple links to some interesting goings-on in the linguistics world. Well worth checking out, even if the checking-out has to be postponed until Thanksgiving or winter break.

(I will be posting more links to articles etc. throughout the year...good for bookmarking...for that rainy/foggy/cold San Francisco day when the only thing you want to do is cradle a coffee and imbibe a fascinating snippet of linguistics research...)

The first one is called "Meet The Computer That Tells The 'That's What She Said' Joke Better Than You":
http://www.businessinsider.com/thats-what-she-said-computer-technology-2011-4
Read about robots and double entendre/humor identification!
(Scroll to just below the article to access the actual paper.)

The second is entitled "Recursion and Human Thought: Why the Piraha don't have numbers":
http://edge.org/3rd_culture/everett07/everett07_index.html
It's a talk with Daniel L. Everett (and accompanying full text) about recursion, and how the language of a tribe in the Brazilian Amazon challenges the Chomskian claim that recursion is the essential property of human language.

Enjoy!

-Hannah

Paper Presentation: Positional Verbs of Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec

2010-04-16T11:36:00.000-07:00

A message from Dr. Troi Carleton:
Keiko Beers, a former MA student in our program, will be presenting a paper on positional verbs of Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec at the upcoming WAIL conference in Santa Barbara. She will be giving us a preview on Tuesday in HUM (room, TBA) at 3:30. Anyone one going to Oaxaca this summer should make a special effort to be there. I encourage all of you to come. Thanks!

New Feature: List of Corpus Databases & Related Links

2009-12-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

We've added a new feature to the LGSA blog sidebar. If you look to the ~~left~~ right, you'll see a list of links to various corpus databases and related corpus searching tools and links. Please feel free to email us with any additions! Below is a list of what is currently there. Happy searching!

UPDATE: Check out the sidebar! I've added some new sites that I won't be adding to this list. (Hat tip to Dr. Keck for the good links!)

Two great holiday/end-of-semester events, happening tomorrow!

2009-12-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share some info about two events, happening tomorrow (Thursday, Dec. 10th):

At 6:30 pm, The San Francisco ASL Group will be gathering at Frjtz in The Mission (590 Valencia Street), for some holiday cheer, gourmet fries and belgian beer! This is a sign language only event, but all levels of signing ability (including none at all) are welcome and encouraged to participate.
At 8:00 pm, the Graduate Literature Association (GLA) is hosting an end-of-semester celebration at Shannon Arms (915 Taraval Street). Enjoy a beer, martini, glass of wine, or pepsi with professors and students!

Also, mark your calendars for the LGSA pub night! It's happening Friday, December 19th, 8:00 pm at Mission Bar. More details to come.

Hope to see you there!

More Constraint Confusion at Your Disposal...

2009-10-05T10:07:00.001-07:00

Following up on this recent post about mixed messaging in recycling vs. garbage bins, I have found yet another example of confusion on campus. To the left, we see a very clearly labeled example of What To Do With Your Disposables. Two bins, equal size, both open-topped, but one blue, one black, one lined, one unlined, and one clearly labeled recycling, while the other not. The messages are aligned with our expectations and all is well. Except that the bins are located in a seldom-used room where no food and drink are allowed. And if we are to take this example as a model exemplar, then all other bins must be re-examined. The saga continues.

Oh, it should also be noted that these bins are HUGE. ~3' tall to be (not-so) exact. I imagine that the blue one is for paper recycling only (which is odd, considering that they are both located in the auditorium of the ceramics/fine-arts building).

Note: It has come to my attention, by someone dear to me who works in the food service industry, that it is highly possible that SFSU does not indeed recycle/sort all the garbage on campus, as evidenced by the ridiculous amount of extra work created from the necessary sorting that must occur as a result of mis-appropriated bins. Or it is possible that only certain bins/areas of refuse are actually being tended to for recycling/sorting purposes. This would be sad, and feared to be true. We'll get to the bottom of this, one way or another! Ba-dump-bump.

IMPROMPTU PUB/WINE NIGHT

2009-09-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

There is no reason not to celebrate is a reason to celebrate!!!!!!!

COME FRIDAY (September 25th) to an impromptu PUB/WINE night at BAR NORCINI for a night of fine wines, fine beers and fine people 7:30pm to last call at 10:45pm

SPECIAL OFFER from our very own linguist/oenophile: HAPPY HOUR ALL NIGHT FOR LINGUISTS!!
That's $5 drinks, $5 red and white wines, and $3 beer.

BAR NORCINI is located On Powell between O'Farrell and Geary, so 2 1/2 blocks from BART and MUNI lines...6, 7, 71, 21. map

Constraint Ranking at Your Disposal...

2009-09-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

Over the last three semesters I've spent at SF State, one thing has perpetually confused me: How to throw out my garbage properly.

I try to be a conscious consumer, and I try to follow the social rules of the road and otherwise. However, I sometimes take the nerdview* of things, and this can cause problems in the day to day. Case in point. (see picture)

Do you see what I see? Where would you put your food waste? Where would you put your recyclable bottle?

Here are some of the problems I've identified with what are, to me, conflicting messages:

• The color of the bins.
• The size of the bins.
• The messaging on the bins.
• The placement of the bins.
• The accessibility (open-topped-ness) of the bins.
• The current contents of the open-topped bin.
• The presence of a liner in the bin.

For me, each of these criteria are weighted, based on my past experiences with garbage and recycling. For instance, a blue bin means recycling. But so does a closed-top bin. A large bin near a doorway means garbage, but so does an open topped bin with trash in it. Especially one with a liner. A bin labeled with "recycling" means that recyclable goods belong there. Especially when the bin also labeled with a qualifier, such as "CLEAN AND DRY ONLY."

If I were to rank these constraints, in order of importance to my categorical assessment, they'd probably look like this:

Recycling bins are BLUE or GREEN, labeled, smaller than garbage bins, closed-topped, placed less prominently, and don't usually have liners.
Garbage bins are not BLUE or GREEN, have liners, unmarked, larger than recycling bins, open topped, and placed prominently.

So what is to make of 2 equal sized bins, both having liners, both marked with recycling stickers, one blue and open-topped containing garbage and recyclables, one black and closed-topped with contents unknown, both placed prominently by a door?

I've taken some informal polls and the consensus is that the black, closed-topped bin, doubly marked is the recycling bin. I get this. But then why does the garbage bin have a recycling sticker on it. And why is it blue?

Further compounding the issue (or possibly disambiguating it, depending on your perspective), is the presence of nested bins, found propping the doors of many of the smaller classrooms. While the garbage bin is consistently blue, the recycling bin follows the 'smaller' constraint, but violates the 'liner' constraint. However, it can be argued that the bins in this case are reversed, as the 'recycling' bin is barely large enough to fit 2 bottles, and the 'garbage' bin is liner-less and somewhat covered by the nested bin.

What to do? All I can say is this: the situation causes undo computational strain on my feeble brain.

Also, who painstakingly sorts this stuff? Every day I see both types of bins with mixed garbage/recycling in them, probably due to peoples' confusion in processing the mixed messages. I feel for these people, meaning all of us. Common sense does not always prevail.

*Why does nerdview seem to come up often in relation to garbage?

*** UPDATE! ***

Walking on campus, I found some more confusion to share:

On the left, below, we have a small, black, liner-ed, labeled, close-topped, garbage bin sitting beside a larger, blue, unlined, unlabeled, close-topped, GARBAGE bin. And in the next photo (right), we have THREE bins (whee) that mix up the constraints in more ways I can describe here. I think you're getting the idea.

Free event on SFSU Alumni Day - Saturday, Oct 17, 2009

2009-09-14T23:26:00.000-07:00

Check out this free event, taking place Saturday, Oct. 17th, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm at the Cesar Chavez Student Center, Rosa Park A:

Cultural Variations in Facial Expression and Nonverbal Behavior
David Matsumoto, professor of psychology

Join internationally acclaimed author and psychologist David Matsumoto for a presentation about his groundbreaking research on facial expression and nonverbal behavior and their variations from culture to culture. Hear how his studies, which garnered a prestigious $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, have shed new light on how humans manage emotional displays according to social context, suggesting that the ability to regulate emotional expressions is innate and not learned through observation.

Professor Matsumoto received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1981 with high honors in psychology and Japanese. He subsequently earned his M.A. (1983) and Ph.D. (1986) in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He has served as professor of psychology and director of the Culture and Emotion Research Laboratory at San Francisco State since 1989. He has studied culture, emotion, social interaction and communication for twenty years, and has published approximately 400 works related to these areas.

An apology to Alan Turing, better late than never

2009-09-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

Geoff Pullum, over at Language Log, has written a nice post about Alan Turing's life, and the current UK Prime Minister's recent public apology on behalf of the British Government for the despicable and inhumane treatment Turing suffered under their country's law, which led to Turing's suicide in 1954.

Alan Turing made revolutionary advances in computer science, mathematics, cryptology and the WWII war effort. Turing's work has been crucial to linguistics, particularly in computational linguistics.

Updates on Fledgelings Calendars

2009-09-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

The Fledgelings Calendars have been updated with new events and features! You can now subscribe to both the Academic and Events calendars using iCal or XML (for your favorite RSS/feed reader - I prefer Google Reader personally). Check it out!

UC Berkeley events open to SFSU Linguists!

2009-09-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

Just want to let you all know about some of the regular events that our friends over at UC Berkeley are hosting this semester.

The Phonology Phorum, a weekly talk and discussion series, is held every Monday from 11am-noon, in 50 Dwinelle (UCB phonology lab). More information about upcoming phorums, found here.
The Syntax and Semantics Circle meets every Monday, from 12:30-2:00pm in 1303 Dwinelle. More information about the Syntax and Semantics Circle can be found here.
The next event is the UCB Linguistics Dept. Colloquium, taking place every Monday from 4–5:30pm in Dwinelle 182. More information about the UCB Colloquium can be found here.
Lastly, the ICBS Seminars are held every Friday from 11:00am–12:30pm in 5101 Tolman hall. Their schedule is posted here. Last Friday's Roger Levy talk about garden path sentence parsing was really interesting and informative! Don't miss the next one, Sept. 11th, where Yuko Munakata will talk about "Developing Cognitive Control."

That's a lot of great information to get in on! Also, these events will be updated on our Fledgelings Calendar, so please keep checking it, as we probably won't be making out weekly post reminders.

We will be updating you all again soon with some announcements about LGSA- and SFSU-hosted events. Until then, we hope to see you at some of these great UCB opportunities!

2009-08-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

The Graduate Literature Association presents:
"You're All Going to Die" Anything Goes and Poetry or Prose Night
Thursday, 8 pm on September 3rd, at Cafe Du Soleil (200 Fillmore Street).

Message from Ned B., President of the GLA and event host:
Save the date and help me fill this place out. Here's a breakdown of what to keep in mind :::

Signups will be that night. You have until 7:45pm to signup or until we have 24 total readers for the night. So, if you want to read, you'd better get there early...

...and, yes, we're going to start promptly at 8pm. PROMPTLY AT 8pm. It'll give us more time to hang out and less time reading late into the night.

If you're going to read, keep it under 5 MINUTES long. That's right: 5 MINUTES. WE WILL TIME YOU. And we will hug you when we have to stop you.
As far as reading goes, you can bring anything you want to read. It doesn't have to be poetry. It doesn't have to be yours. You can bring the packaging label for your toilet paper and read that. It doesn't matter. BUT DO IT FULL OUT.
You don't have to read anything. You are just as welcome to sit back, relax, clap at what you love and hiss at what you hate.
Clapping and hissing will be encouraged.
If you have some musical instruments you'd like to bring and play, do it.

IMPORTANT ::: DON'T TAKE YOURSELF SO SERIOUSLY. Come and have fun. The end. Remember. Someday, we won't exist and neither will the English language. If you choose to take yourself seriously, then take yourself so seriously that it's stupid. Ridiculousness is encouraged.

That's pretty much it... and here's the rundown of information for the night again:

Where: Cafe Du Soleil @ 200 Fillmore Street.
When: Thursday, September 3rd @ 8pm (sign-ups will start before that)

"You're Going to Die" ...be there when it happens.

Come Higgins, be reasonable!

2009-08-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

I watched the 1938 classic 'Pygmalion' the other day and while it was not my favorite, it did star a Leslie Howard as a surly phonetician. The movie is based on the 1913 play of the same name, by George Bernard Shaw. It was also re-adapted in film in 1964, as 'My Fair Lady', featuring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. I haven't read the play or seen 'My Fair Lady' yet, so my take on this is strictly limited to the 1938 film.

The plot of Pygmalion is as follows (from IMDB):
The snobbish & intellectual Professor of languages, Henry Higgins makes a bet with his friend that he can take a London flower seller, Eliza Doolittle, from the gutters and pass her off as a society lady. However he discovers that this involves dealing with a human being with ideas of her own.

According to Wordnik.com (a fantastic site for historical and cultural etymologies of words), the word 'Pygmalion' comes from Greek mythology, referring to a king of Cyprus who created a statue of a woman and loved it so much that the Goddess Aphrodite gave it life.

Unbeknown to many at the time I would argue, as far as linguistics goes, this movie is more about sociolinguistics than phonetics (if one had to choose). The movie is a fantastic and grotesque display of language attitudes, stemming from two progressive (at the time) but ultimately false premises:

You can change your socioeconomic station by changing your language.
Some dialects are bad, unrefined and/or socially undesirable.

There are some serious flaws with those ideas, but they are fascinating nonetheless, especially as represented in a 1938 film focused on socioeconomic class and language.

The movie opens with a street scene. There is a mix of dialects mingling about, all being recorded by a suspicious looking man leaning against a column taking notes. When a passerby calls him out, and a crowd forms, the man (our protagonist of sorts) rattles off quotes from his notebook and identifies all of the neighborhoods of origin of the various speakers. He is obliquely accused of some sort of sorcery, and he combats this by explaining that he is a linguist. Nobody asked how many languages he spoke.

The movie carries on outrageously from there. The man, Professor Higgins, is by today's standards, a completely insufferable, misogynistic a-hole. He is somewhat prescriptivist as well, which is a whole 'nother crime of existence. I kid, I kid. Sort of.

Anyways, the movie reveals all sorts of interesting and laughable phenomenon. The script is written with a pretty thorough understanding of the London Cockney accent, which is impressive, even though (and thankful that) attitudes about this particular dialect, and language attitudes in general, have changed somewhat. But we still have a ways to go.

There is ample material for linguists to get excited about...lot's of oral cavity drawings, familiar quotes (the rain in Spain, anyone?), and mentions of places of articulation. The style-shifting is a kick. There is a particular scene I found, um, entertaining. The student, Eliza Doolittle, is being publicly 'tested' for the first time. Her phonology is excellent and passable to the high-class company, but her lexical choices are questionable. This is passed off my Prof. Higgins as that new 'street slang'. This, apparently has high prestige. Other notable things too...watch for yourself here: Tea scene in Pygmalion.

Oh, and don't get your hopes up about the ending. It is horribly lame. As my s/o said to me while watching the 10-minute final argument scene, "Just how long is this one gonna go on?!"

In summary, it's an interesting film, full of linguistic bits to admire or pick apart. Please share your thoughts on this! Also, what are some of your favorite films about or featuring linguists?

Pragmatics of knocking

2009-08-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

While camping with some linguists and non-linguists this weekend, a funny little language quirk came up. Upon returning from a trip to the bathroom, a non-linguist friend asked, "How come when somebody knocks on a bathroom door, or simply barges in, we say 'There's someone in here!' and not 'I'm in here'?"

Fair enough question. Really, why is it that we don't claim our own agency when responding to the unexpected bathroom intrusion? It's not as if we are so startled that we forget who we are. It is also unlikely that we are trying to remain unknown to our intruders (that would necessitate climbing out the bathroom window after our business, I would think). So what is going on here?

The first thing we must establish when answering the bigger question is a determination of what exactly is going on here. Meaning that we must figure out what is different between these two sentences, before we can figure out the reasons why a speaker would automatically orient to one phrasing over another. And before I go on, it should be noted that there is a premise here that has not been tested whatsoever; rather a bunch of drunken linguists around a campfire assumed that the 'There's' phrasing is more prevalent than the 'I'm' phrasing. We didn't go knocking on tents and barging into bathrooms to verify this, despite the grounds being rife for this sort of empirical study.

There are several differences between the following two sentences, and many of them involve deixis. For reference, the two sentences being compared are as follows:

A) There's someone in here!
B) I'm in here!

The first thing we noticed is the lack of agency signaled by the indefinite referent 'someone'. We also determined that 'somebody' could work in place of 'someone', even though there are ever-so-slight semantic differences. It seems more important in this case that a person spontaneously refers to him or her self as something other than 'I'.

One thing that is puzzling about this is that we know that in the case of barging in, the responder is abruptly tasked with the responsibility of conveying the occupancy of the room as quickly as possible. So we would expect shorter phrases, such as B (and not A). Sometimes this is the case, but I'm inclined to think they are more often the 1 word variety...Hey! Occupied! Here!

Another thing to notice is the perspective of the responder. By using the word 'here' in both cases (as opposed to 'there' or something else entirely) we know that the deictic center (place of semantic focus) is indeed in the bathroom. This is important because it's contrasted with deixis of the speaker who responds, who does so NOT in the first person. So, while the location of focus is in the room, the perspective is shifted away from the responder (who presumably is also located in the room).

I think that last point is key, since it more salient to establish that somebody is in the room rather than exactly who is in the room (which presupposes a somebody). And it answers the question that is asked by the paralinguistic act of knocking on a door. Because when we knock on a door, we are not asking "Who is in here?" but rather "Is there someone in here (and may I enter)?"

It is interesting that this is implicitly understood. Also, that even in a split-second response (possibly while compromised in some pants-down fashion), we tailor our answers to place focus on the presence of a person in a particular location rather than the identity of the person in that location. We even take linguistic pains to avoid putting ourselves in the equation.

It is possible that there are several other factors involved. Maybe this phenomenon only happens in bathrooms and other super private places. Maybe we disassociate from claiming ourselves as a discretionary measure. Maybe something else is pragmatically conveyed by using 'I'm in here' that we haven't thought of. Perhaps there is a trend not to do this in publicly shared spaces in general (as opposed to the rooms of our homes, where we 'own' the space and there's expectations about the identities of the occupants).

Anyways, that's plenty on this topic for now. Please comment if you have any additional thoughts about what might be going on in there.

#lsa2009, zeitgeists 'and shit'

2009-07-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

We're 1/6th of the way into the 2009 Linguistic Institute at UC Berkeley. I've had lots of things to say, but little time to write. For me, the whole experience can be summarized so far as both unbelievably inspiring and absolutely intimidating. The sheer wealth of opportunity for us is overwhelming. Aside from the courses, there are conferences, lectures, workshops and social events. The professors are accessible and interested. The entire experience is available to us and for us.

Not to mention the excellent opportunities here on the Berkeley campus. For $10 you can get an RSF membership for the entire summer, offering free reign of the gym, group classes, and four pools. It's been in the 90ºs here. The Hearst pool, a Julia Morgan design with marble deck and a view of the bay area, is like a little high-top retreat and refreshing sanctuary. I highly recommend taking advantage of it! Also, lesser known highlights...stop by the Cal1 office for your Cal1 card and AC Transit sticker. Free bus access anywhere! Once that hot little card is in your hands, you can add money to it, and use it for purchases anywhere on campus, and many places nearby. The Perimeter bus (P-line) makes this card definitely worthwhile. Especially if you need to get up that hill to Stanley Hall or Donner Lab. It drops off at Mining Circle and you're good.

Back to linguistics though...

First things first, I'm happy to discover a little Twitter contingency going. It's been a very fun way to network with people here. We're all coming from different places, and converging on the same shared interests. This is what Twitter was made for. #lsa2009 is your friend.

Another thing that fellow linguists and I have noticed as we've travelled around together for almost two weeks are the current trends and almost meme-like topics that have been circulating through the discourse. Frames, blends and schemas are hot right now. As is NTL, ECG, R, TGrep2, and many other letters in our delectible* acronym soup. There is also spoken and near unspoken life-after-Universal-Grammar – not because it is unappreciated, but because there are exciting new theories about language evolution that have found their ways into the minds of these syntacticians, psycholinguists, cognitive scientists, historical linguists, sociolinguists and the like. It truly is an exciting time.

These themes are contagious. I hear an idea mentioned in one class, then carried over into another with a whole new perspective added to it. It's like a giant game of intelligent telephone. And the professors are in on it too. They sit in each other's classes, share theories, and bring treats freshly baked from their subfield of the big pie. Sometimes they even make – and lose – bets with each other, as witnessed in yesterday's delightful reparte between Geoffrey Pullum and Adele Goldberg in LSA 110, English Grammar. With AirBears, a corpus search, and Google, these things move fast!

I'm currently enrolled in four courses, all tucked into seemingly disparate pockets of linguistics. There is always crossover of course, but my Tuesdays and Thursdays literally go something like this:

8:30 - 10:15 Discussion of stylistic choices and discursive features of Obama, hipsters, 'and shit' – referring to the actual use of 'and shit' as indexical of a particular identity construction construction.**
10:30 - 12:30 Meet with various professors and TAs to talk about my favorite subject, linguistics!
12:30 - 1:30 Meet with fellow linguists to talk about the things we all just talked about with other linguists.
1:30 - 3:15 Get mind blown by Neural Theory of Language. Recruitment Learning happens. Neurons strengthen. That's how it works. Isn't that cool?!
3:15 - 3:35 Revising mental map of Dwinelle Hall.
3:36 - 5:15 Humbling reminder hour. There is this whole field called 'Psycholinguistics' out there. And I mean out there. I embrace this time, and take what I can. Unix, TGrep2, R Regressions, Uniform Information Density, and many things that start with the letter 'A'. Having come from a background focused on qualitative sociolinguistic study, this is a whole new animal. I'm beyond intrigued, and determined to walk away as friends with these new terms. Additionally, Jaeger and his crew are wicked smart, and constantly offer up areas for further exploration, possibly study designs, and ways to bridge our backgrounds with the offerings of the field. Talk about inspiring!
5:15 - 7:00 Decompression with food.
7:00 - 8:30 Find lecture. Get inspired all over again. Think about future. Dream big.

And that's it. Celebrity fest ends for the day. Repeat and wear better shoes tomorrow.

*This close to going for the bad pun. Be thankful I didn't.
**Here I must apologize. I've wanted to use the 'construction construction' construction all week.

Animal Minds

2009-07-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

There was a very fascinating episode of To the Best of Our Knowledge on the radio today (NPR, 88.5 bay area fm). It was called "Animal Minds" (and can be heard by clicking that link there).

PRI Website excerpt:

In Baltimore, Maryland, there's an octopus that likes to play with toys. In Vienna, Austria, there's a border collie with a vocabulary of 340 words - more than many toddlers. Southeast Asia is home to dozens of elephants who like to paint. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, re-thinking animal intelligence. Not only are they smarter than we thought – in some cases they're smarter than us.

Definitely worth checking out. Then go talk to your pets.

Call for (blog) Posters!

2009-07-04T18:39:00.000-07:00

The LGSA encourages guest posts and collaborations! We would love to share your linguistics-related event, observations, or research with other SF State students and readers of this blog. If you have something to say, let us know. Please email us at fledgelings at gmail dot com to discuss your ideas or suggestions; we're happy to help and spread the word.

You can't get there from here!

2009-07-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

Dwinelle Hall is arguably the most famous building on the UC Berkeley campus, and undeniably the most confusing. I did my undergrad in Linguistics at Cal, and I fondly remember orientation day, where world expert Folklore Professor Alan Dundes told us of the legend – two feuding brothers, in a torrid love triangle with a woman, then resigned to designing separate wings of the same building, resulting in a convoluted mess of twisty passages leading almost nowhere, not unlike this sentence. This story is not true, except for the twisty passages leading almost nowhere part.

I was captivated by the tale, and mostly by its telling. I vowed to depart from my linguistics curriculum for at least one course, to take a class from Dundes, Mr. Folklore Extraordinaire. Sadly, he unexpectedly died before I got the chance. Even from the brief encounter I had with Prof. Dundes on orientation day, I recognized that someone truly great was gone.

What he said rang true, as any Linguistics student at Cal knows...the building is indeed a mess. Seven floors of offices mashed up with seven(?) floors of classrooms. Built on a slope. You can actually enter Dwinelle hall on the first, second, or third floor, depending.

Truly, all you need to know about Dwinelle is two things:
1. The linguistics department is located on Level A (see map here).
2. Never attempt to walk 'through' the building. There is no such thing. Instead, enter at the corner or face closest to the office or classroom of your destination.

Ok, wait, three things:
3. If you're lost, and you see a door leading outside, take it and start over.

Tomorrow the LSA Institute Check-In begins. Since it is Sunday, and a holiday weekend, many of the offices in Dwinelle will be closed. According to the website, check-in is in room 1303 Dwinelle, from 3:00-7:00. So, according to the map, you should be able to enter the building from the main entrance (east side), and take a right. Theoretically, and if memory serves.

UPDATE: Oh boy, was I wrong. The best way to get to 1303 (LSA Institute Registration) is to enter the building at the NW corner. The office is right next to the door. Getting there from the main entrance is a pain; I don't recommend it.

Not only am I extremely excited about the LSA Institute + additional events, but I am also pretty stoked about the opportunity to go back and experience Cal with all new seriousness and mad linguistic passion. It is with a bit of regret that I didn't take full advantage of the programs, events, and instruction during my time there previously. Then, it was the most interesting means to a degree – I didn't know that linguistics would become my sole inspiration to stay in academia for as long as possible, with future aspirations of a lifelong career with language. It's all part of the journey I suppose, and another reason to enjoy the opportunity for do-over like revisiting.

I imagine that there will be plenty of things to write about over the next several weeks, albeit very little time to do so. In the meantime, I'd like to share a few tips about Cal...this stuff is random and only slightly informative, may no longer be true, but could potentially make somebody's experience there a little bit brighter. Also, if you have anything to add, please leave a comment or email to let us know, and we'll add it to the list going here:

Squirrels are rampant on campus. They are fearless and look as though they would like to be petted. They don't. It's a trick and they bite. Cute, glorified rats they are.
There is a perimeter bus that will take you from one side of campus to the other. I do not know if its running during summer, but if so, it can be a lifesaver if say, you need to get from Stanley Hall to Valley Life Sciences Building in a pinch. Also, the perimeter bus is free, and only goes in one direction (clockwise).
The Valley Life Sciences Building has a giant T-rex hanging out in the center of it all. No kidding. Opt to walk through instead of around if you get the chance.
The Greek Theater is an amazing concert venue. Go there! Drive if you must, but park as far away as possible. There is something very fun about leaving at the end of the show in a crowd of thousands stumbling down the hill together. Traffic is a nightmare and walking can be much more rewarding.
The Recreational Sports Facility (RSF) is amazing. Summer passes should be available to purchase for us. I'm going to look into it for myself on Monday. I highly recommend the Hearst Pool for open lap swim. 80º, outdoors, and a view of the city and treetops.
Here is a link to the campus map page.

I'll update this list as ideas come in or come to mind. Until then, Happy 4th of July!

A Timely Code-Cracking

2009-07-02T08:00:00.000-07:00

An interesting article appears in this morning's Wall Street Journal:

Two Centuries On, a Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code
The article covers the recent code-breaking by Dr. Lawren Smithline, Center for Communications Research in Princeton, NJ. Smithline was told by a neighbor several years ago about the secret messages hidden in correspondences between Thomas Jefferson and mathematician friend, Robert Patterson. The now 200+ year old cipher that Patterson claimed would "defy the united ingenuity of the whole human race," has finally been solved.

From the article:

To Mr. Patterson's view, a perfect code had four properties: It should be adaptable to all languages; it should be simple to learn and memorize; it should be easy to write and to read; and most important of all, "it should be absolutely inscrutable to all unacquainted with the particular key or secret for decyphering."

The contents of the cipher are interesting...the onset of the hidden message is quite familiar to many of us. It's meaning of course can't be ignored (dare I say, it be self-evident?) – the very founding message of this country, to be celebrated soon. But what I like most about this story is really, when it comes down to it, it is also simply an inside joke between friends.

It's sometimes nice to be privy to these things. It connects us to our past in a small, meaningful way, but also remind us that our leaders are not Gods, superheros, or celebrities. They are not 'good', 'evil', 'super- or sub-human'. They're just people, friends, pranksters, writers, and occasionally philosophers and cryptologists.

Which makes me think that maybe modern day linguists aren't the weird aliens I sometimes think we must be. But maybe that's just me.

Happy 4th of July, wordnerds!

Narrative, Metaphor, Gender and Identity Construction in Pixar's 'Up'

2009-06-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

NOTE: This post contains potential spoilers about the movie 'Up'. No major secrets are revealed, but themes are discussed and analyzed below. Read at your own risk.

Last night I went and saw Pixar's latest, Up, in 3D at the Daly City CineMark theater. I had read quite a lot about this movie beforehand, including Roger Ebert's movie review, an open letter from Linda Holmes at NPR, and a fascinating 650+ comment thread about Pixar's lead-character gender bias problem, (via Metafilter). I also had the pleasure of spending one of my recent weekly Spanish lessons reciting and then paraphrasing a Spanish newspaper's review and interview with the director of the film. And so with all that, and as a huge fan of Pixar's previous work, I was very intrigued and excited to see this!

Pixar does a wonderful job of conveying a complex narrative visually. As with much of their work, you get much more than just one. Up delivers the classic 'Coming of Age' story, hitting all the recognizable and relatable plot points – i.e., naivety and wonder in hero worship, standing up for what you believe in, going against the pack, accepting life's disappointments, letting go of your childhood idols and ideals (and in one particular case, physically battling them). Up also dabbles in divorce narratives, love and loss narratives, and of course, the adventure and treasure-seeking narratives. What is so interesting about these elements is how Up tells its tale. It's shockingly realistic, because these different narratives aren't relegated to individual characters, genders, age-groups, or even species! For example, just as much as Russell journeys along the coming of age storyline, so do the elderly Carl and even the dog, Doug. Our adventurer is Ellie, a young little girl, who, while not being foremost, is indeed first, and remains the inspiration and lodestar for Carl throughout the film.

Even more than these atypical representations, is the way that Pixar then weaves the narratives. Everybody is at different stages of the same story, and their actions force the hands of others. For example, it is only because Carl is deep in his misery and fixation on the past that he lashes out at Russell, who is at the turning point in his own journey, a little further down the road than his young elder. Carl's harsh words are the kick in the pants for Russell, filling him with indignation and oompf he needs to go tackle the world on his own. This frees up Carl to take inventory of his house, where he winds up making an important discovery, leading him to the next stage of the big adventure. There things aren't accidents, nor are they simply convenient plot elements. Which is exactly why well-written-but-visually-artificial characters can come to embody something more real and relatable than the seemingly real thing.

Conceptual metaphor plays a crucially big role in this film as well. It drives the 3D experience and reinforces the narrative structure. However, even this too is toyed with. The most obvious conceptual metaphor, GOOD IS UP, can be flipped on its head when its trumped by EMOTIONAL STABILITY IS CONTACT WITH THE GROUND. It's all relative, to each character and to his or her particular stage of development. This is why OBLIGATIONS ARE POSSESSIONS, except when they are PROPERTIES. Or why POSSESSING IS HOLDING, but not when that requires letting go. There's also the very 3-dimensionally represented complimentary metaphors, FREEDOM IS OPEN SPACE and FREEDOM IS MOBILITY. Which takes on a certain illogic and irony when you're an old man walking caneless along a vast, open space...with a floating house weighing you down.

Shapes, directions, colors and movements all take on both relative and fixed meanings, if that can be said. Carl's square features at once represent reliability and stubborness. Russell's convey his youth, as well as his youthful naivety. The symbolism seems natural and obvious (dare I say circular?), except when you realize each and every angle or curve was very likely a deliberate choice, designed to heighten and reinforce our experience. Why then does the most coveted and hard to find object of the antagonist's desire happen to be the most brightly colored (and therefore easiest to spot in a monochrome environment), yet perpetually elusive? How does a house provide shelter from a storm, when you aren't actually inside it? How do we balance the role of underdog vs. alpha dog, when the world tells us we can't be both?

Which leads me of one of the biggest riddles of the film...why the gender bias, Pixar? I went into this knowing that 11 out of your 11 films have a male lead. I suppose this is ok, because our princess is coming, right? (Bear and the Bow, 2011) Seriously, though, I know you can knock it out of the park already. Ellen Parsons (of Incredibles fame) was wonderfully complex and delightful; Dory (from Finding Nemo) is funny and EQ-smart and picks up all the slack; and of course, Ellie (of Up) is a total peach, not to mention the underlying motivation and inspiration for Carl.

I admit, I went into this one with my eyes and ears hyper-tuned for all things gendered. Maybe that's not an entirely fair approach, but I will say that I give them the benefit of the doubt, for all the reasons stated above having to do with their legacy of fine craftsmanship. So I was relieved to find only a few things that seemed unnecessarily biased. However, they could be deemed statistically significant, depending on your perspective.

The most obvious gender assigment were the trio of vicious dogs, all male. I don't believe that it would have made a difference to have one of them be female, but I can sort of see why they are cast as they are, being the dark triad of creation by their narcissistic, machiavellian inventor. But I do have a problem with the bit where the alpha dog has a chronic voicebox wiring problem, inviting ridicule and loss of credibility as the alpha male with a voice like a girl. There is really no need to write this element into the script, and thereby setting up the correlation between power and low, stereotypically male voice (which is also interesting to note that the alpha dog's actual, corrected voice is REALLY deep).

The other gender problem I notice is the overall lack of female character presence contrasted with the roles available to the females who are present, totalling a whopping two. Ellie is the obvious half of the female population of Up, but...SPOILER!...she dies within the first 10 minutes. As wonderful as she is, she only lives on in Carl's memory, and can have no agency whatsoever. The other character, a flightless bird named Kevin, is hunted and helpless as she struggles to protect her newborn chicks. She's voiceless, and somewhat blatantly a brightly plummaged MacGuffin. She does have personality however, and she likes chocolate. There's a point where one has to just stop reading into things. Besides, there's plenty of great, positive and healthy gender role and identity construction elements to focus on.

Which is probably a good place to switch gears and point out some other interesting things I noticed about the film, not entirely linguistic, but hey...

The design of the 3D glasses were no accident. We are all the leads in our own adventure narratives anyway, aren't we? And doesn't a 3D movie break the fourth wall by definition?
I had my ears ready for some dogwhistles, and I did happily find at least one candidate; pro-canine, although non-canonical. More of a parlor trick pun than anything. ;)
Watching a 3D film takes a few minutes of mental calibration. We are very used to 2D, where we have freedom to focus on any corner of the screen or detail that we wish. With the 3D experience, our focus is guided every step of the way. If you try to fight it, you might be in for a world of nauseaus. So, don't. Relax, and enjoy the show.

2009 Linguistic Institute: Calendar of Events

2009-06-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

There is a lot going on at this year's LSA Institute at UC Berkeley. In order to help out, I've created a Google calendar from all of the events listed here: LSA Events Schedule.

Please email me at kimwitten at gmail dot com with any suggestions about how to make this calendar more useful to you. Thanks, and see you at the LSA Institute!

Update: It should be noted that the LGSA and its members and officers are not affiliated with the LSA Institute, other than participation as attending students. This calendar is meant as a visual aid for planning purposes only.

"The Linguists" now available to view online

2009-06-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

The award-winning movie "The Linguists" can be viewed for free, online, over at Babelgum.com. Check it out!

The Linguists, previously written about here.

What the Titanic taught me about English kinship terms

2009-06-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, on May 31st 2009, the last Titanic survivor, Millvina Dean, died at her care home in Ashurst, Hampshire (England). She was also the youngest passenger aboard the ship, which sank on April 15th, 1912. Millvina Dean was 9 weeks old at the time.

It wasn't until the movie "Titanic" came out in 1997 that I learned of a distant relative's harrowing tale aboard the ship. I was 19, and the news was a matter of fascination for a while, and then became an anecdote after that. The kind of thing you mentioned to people at a party, if it came up. I was gloriously – and obnoxiously – smack dab in the middle of my own range of perception.

This week's news of Millvina Dean's death, and the Titanic's passing from living memory, prompted me to re-investigate my connection to the Titanic. After some internet searches, a conversation with my mother, and some searching through a seemingly endless stack of memorabilia I've amassed over the years, I was not only able to find out a name and backtrack my way up the family tree, but I also uncovered this newspaper article (which I scanned and uploaded to Google Docs), and this claim form.

This process of personal investigation has been both cathartic and inspiring. It has connected me to a past that is more alive to me today than ever before. I am able to look at this from a much improved viewpoint than the static, 1-dimensional vantage of a self-absorbed teenager. What I didn't see then is revealing to me now.

A short narrative such as the Fall River Evening Herald piece is bound to contain some notable sociolinguistic phenomenon. In fact, it is a treasure and artifact as much as anything lost and then found from the bottom of a sea. An article is a relic that not only has the age and antiquity of its cohorts, but also the ability to speak its story to us in style and register, not a day unchanged since 1912. These pages have magnitudes upon metas of things to tell us.

I could probably ramble a thesis on analysis of an article, but I'll just cherrypick a few choice bits for here. I found it interesting that the author introduced and ended the article with assessments of Ms. Bassani's appearance:

From the opening paragraph:
"One of the survivors of the ill-fated White Star Liner Titanic, which was wrecked in collision with a huge iceberg on the morning of April 15 off the coast of new Foundland, is Miss Albina Bassani, a pretty young Italian woman, who arrived in this city yesterday morning and is now at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Bassani, 241 London Street."

From the closing paragraph:
"Miss Bassani is a young woman of prepossessing appearance. She has a quantity of jet black hair which was neatly and becomingly arranged, bright brown eyes and pleasing features which were enhanced by a good complexion. She speaks English fluently. She is the second eldest daughter of her parents. Mr. Bassani is a piano-maker by occupation."

My how times have changed! We don't print people's street addresses in the paper anymore.

I also found this passage particularly interesting, paying attention to lexical choices and subtle semantic shifts as compared to American English today:

"When we reached this deck there was scarcely anybody to be seen. One of the officers came hurrying toward us and told us to hurry below and put on lifebelts. We were greatly surprised and alarmed, and hastened to do his bidding."

It is important to note that Albina Bassini was a non-native English speaker. Additionally, the author of the Herald article is unknown, so it cannot be determined if the typos and punctuation variations are the result of errors, re-typings, or are reflective of the style of the time.

Another thing I found particularly salient (yet tangential and somewhat banal in content comparison) is a quirk about English kinship terms. I had never noticed this before now:

The sister of your great grandmother is your great, great aunt.

That's right. There is a uneven distribution of greats in the chain of command. This is a byproduct of the logical progression:

Your mother's sister is your aunt.
Your mother's mother is your grandmother.
Your grandmother's sister is your great aunt.
Your grandmother's mother is your great grandmother.
Your great grandmother's sister is your great, great aunt.

This got me to thinking about kinship terms in general. If this one had slipped past me, then others were sure to be lurking unnoticed yet as well. And indeed! The lack of gender distinction for cousins, but not for nephews/nieces and uncles/aunts is strange. And that there are non-gender specific terms for both parents and grandparents, but no general term for both your aunt and uncle together.

The various terms for step-children, step-parents, in-laws, same-sex couples, etc. are still a work in sociolinguistic progress. I run across this frequently when I make reference to my brother's ex-wife. She was a 'sister-in-law' to me when they were together, even though I wasn't the married one. Now of course, its completely inappropriate to refer to her as such. 'Sister' is marked as well. So her first name suffices, and a long explanation if necessary. Until there's confusion between her and someone of the same name. And so it goes.

All of this inquiry has gotten my curious about how these kinship quandaries are addressed in other languages. If you have something to add to this discussion, please feel free to chime in with your comment!

Also, if anybody has tips or suggestion on how to upload and link to a publicly viewable PDF, preferably using Google Docs, I'd love to learn how its done. If so, I can link to a better version of the Herald article.

Call for Abstracts: the 2010 LSA Meeting

2009-06-01T10:21:00.000-07:00

The 84th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America will take place January 7-10, 2010 at the Hilton Baltimore. The LSA is now accepting Abstract Submissions, starting June 1, 2009 and ending July 31, 2009. Submitting an abstract is a 2-part process: 1) Begin the 5-step online form, beginning here, and 2) Prepare your abstract, following their guidelines.

According to their submission guidelines, abstracts should be unmarked, and will be matched up with their corresponding online forms, if chosen. Abstracts with names or other identifying information will not be accepted.

The LSA also provides a critique of a model abstract and an insufficient abstract, found here. This is very helpful!

Please don't be intimidated by the process! This is an excellent opportunity to put your work out there into the world and familiarize yourself with the process. Play the game, and good luck!

Paid Teaching/Tutoring Opportunity at the Learning Assistance Center (LAC)

2009-05-20T12:06:00.000-07:00

From the LAC:

Are you interested in building your professional and academic skills while helping other SF State students?

The Learning Assistance Center (LAC) is currently hiring upper division and graduate students to tutor reading/writing/study skills and math/sciences/study skills for the Fall 2009 semester. Work-study and international students are welcome to apply.

At the LAC, you’ll get the opportunity to work with a diverse group of students in a great job environment with flexible hours and ongoing support from peers and experienced faculty coordinators.

Starting pay is $10.26 an hour. Tutors work at least 8 hours a week. In addition, new tutors also take AU 697: Tutoring Across Disciplines, a seminar that meets once a week for two hours and covers the theory and practice of tutoring.

For information about positions, the application process, or AU 697, please visit the LAC web site: http://www.sfsu.edu/~lac/lacjobs.html

To be considered for an interview before the end of the semester, please submit a complete application as soon as possible. Applications submitted after May 20th will be considered for interviews over the Summer Break. Positions are limited, so submit your application for consideration as early as possible.

Applications can be dropped off on campus or sent by mail.

ASL Festival in SF, May 30th

2009-05-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

The American Sign Language (ASL) Festival (May 30, 2009, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm, Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco) is an opportunity for the general public to become familiar with the culture that uses this language. Come learn about and be entertained by ASL storytellers, a talent show, performances and community booths. You will be exposed to and entertained by ASL storytellers and performers and see a variety of signing performances, presented by actors, students, and others.

This is a FREE event.
Learn more here: http://asl.meetup.com/294/calendar/10321835/
Event flyer here: http://www.aslfestival.com/flyer_2009.html

Abstract #1: "I so got my ass kicked": a lexical semantic analysis of SO

2009-05-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

This abstract is part of the Abstract Showcase, a continuously updated feature of the LGSA blog.
***

Name: Diep Le
Presentation Date: 5/13/09
Paper Title: "I so got my ass kicked": a lexical semantic analysis of SO
Department: English, with emphasis on Linguistics

ABSTRACT:
SO, the intensifier, as in "That is SO putrid", has expanded its syntactic privilege of occurrence.
Additionally, it can now signify certainty, and add emotional emphasis. With both new senses, SO has scope over the entire proposition.

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For more information about this abstract, please contact the blog authors at Fledgelings at gmail dot com

Abstract #2: Good: A Range Marker in American Discourse

2009-05-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

This abstract is part of the Abstract Showcase, a continuously updated feature of the LGSA blog.
***

Name: Linguistics graduate student, class of 2009
Presentation Date: April 7, 2009
Paper Title: Good: A Range Marker in American Discourse
Department: English, with emphasis on Linguistics

ABSTRACT:
This paper investigates a new use of good in contemporary American discourse in which good denotes a minimum estimation with an implied range. The speaker formulates this expression by combining good with an immediately following numerical amount and noun phrase, egs, “a good thirty minutes, a good hundred people, a good fifteen pounds.” Used in this pattern, good signals an estimation which includes a minimum and a predicted range over the amount stated. The amount is gauged within a range of the actual quantity. Occurrences describe a variety of count and non-count nouns. Good is contrasted with the expression “a lot of.” Predictions for use do not combine the range marker good with intensifiers or negation. Environments in which an exact amount is known or measured are not compatible with the use of the range good.

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For more information about this abstract, please contact the blog authors at Fledgelings at gmail dot com

Abstract #3: The Definition of a Dogwhistle and its Role in Establishing Narrative Coherence

2009-05-18T22:55:00.000-07:00

This abstract is part of the Abstract Showcase, a continuously updated feature of the LGSA blog.
***

Name: Kim Witten
Presentation Date: 5/15/09
Paper Title: The Definition of a Dogwhistle and its Role in Establishing Narrative Coherence
Department: English, with emphasis on Linguistics

ABSTRACT:
Politicians use many tactics to convey messages to the audience that they wish to represent. A dogwhistle is when a speaker sends a message that contains a second, hidden interpretation meant to be understood by select audience members only. It is a metaphor modeled after the function of a literal dog whistle, which emits a noise at a pitch that only dogs can hear.

A dogwhistle has not been defined in linguistic terms, and there is no dictionary definition as of yet. Dogwhistle politics — the act of sending these types of messages for political gains — has only been studied briefly in recent years (Fear, 2007). Here I define what a dogwhistle is using linguistic terminology, and outline the necessary requirements for a speech act to be understood as such. I also demonstrate the differences between dogwhistles and other similar tropes such as inside jokes, innuendos, and puns.

Using this framework, we can see how dogwhistles are not confined to political discourse. However, since political discourse is currently recognized as the predominant genre for this trope, I examined three dogwhistles from recent events in politics, to show how this form of veiled speech can set-up two, sometimes-contradictory narratives that can affect a politician’s credibility.

Analysis of the role a dogwhistle plays in identity construction and in establishing narrative coherence is crucial if we are to understand how we use tropes to communicate ideas to others and index solidarity, distance, and power.

Keywords: dogwhistle, politics, narrative, veiled speech, audience design, trope, innuendo.
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For more information about this abstract, please contact Kim Witten at kimwitten at gmail dot com

SquibFest is Today!

2009-05-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

This semester, we have three Masters Students graduating in Linguistics, and 1 Undergraduate graduating in Language Studies. Today, in HUM Rm. 102, 2-5pm we will be celebrating their success with a graduation celebration and SquibFest presentations. Titles for two of today's presentations are below; the 3rd will be announced at SquibFest:

Good: A Range Marker in American Discourse

"I so got my ass kicked": a lexical semantic analysis of SO

Abstracts for all three presentations will be permanently featured here on the LGSA blog, to be posted soon.

We look forward to today's presentations and hope all interested linguists and SFSU students can make it!

SquibFest is Friday, May 15th!

2009-05-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

Next Friday, May 15th, we will be hosting a research presentation and graduation party to honor the graduating students in the Masters Program in Linguistics. We hope you can attend SquibFest!

SquibFest Details: Friday, May 15th, 2-5 p.m., Humanities Room 102. Food and drinks will be provided, compliments of the LGSA. Presentation topics will be announced at the event...fascinating work from your peers that you won't want to miss, trust me!

Hope to see you all next Friday!

(Click on the image below to see the flyer)

For a brief backgrounder about 'Squibs', please click here: http://fledgelings.blogspot.com/2009/03/squibs-linguistic-kind.html

If you are not already a member of the LGSA listserve and would like to join, please click here: http://fledgelings.blogspot.com/2008/09/lgsa-listserv-101.html to stay up to date (traffic is approx. 1-2 email announcements per week).

Call for Abstracts: Squibfest and/or Online Showcase

2009-04-28T08:54:00.001-07:00

Have some work you'd like to share? Here are two opportunities for you:

SquibFest is May 15th. We will be collecting abstracts until May 13th. If you are interested in preparing a short 10-15 minute presentation of your work, please let us know! You do not need to be a graduate or in the Linguistics Masters program at SF State, but your work does need to be related to linguistics. Graduating seniors in the Ling MA program will get first priority and may present any or all of their Squibs. Graduation party to follow the presentations. Food and drinks will be provided. More details to come.
Submit your Abstract to our Online Showcase, here at the LGSA Fledgelings blog. Please prepare a summary of your paper, 250 words or less, and include your name, date, paper title, dept. name, and any other relevant info. All formats accepted. Please email us at Fledgelings@gmail.com if you're interested. We will contact you to discuss your submission before it appears on the blog.

If you've attended either of the successful Squib Sessions, you have already heard a bit about the fascinating work that has come out of SF State this semester. We have topics ranging from phonology and sound symbolism to metaphor and pragmatics, and addressing fields such as environmentalism, religion, politics, dating, and work environments. We look forward to hearing more at the upcoming event and hope that you will attend!

Exploring Doctoral Studies, Presentation Today!

2009-04-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

Exploring Doctoral Studies, An Orientation and Panel Discussion
Tuesday, April 28, 2009, 2:10-4:00 p.m., HUM 587
Alumni from different disciplines in the College of Humanities will share their grad school experiences and answer your questions. Refreshments will be provided. Sponsored by the College of Humanities.

Content!

2009-03-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

This semester has gone by much quicker than we had ever anticipated! With up to 8 Linguistics students graduating (that's about half our department), and the remaining likely working on Zulu, Spanish, and Zapotec, and one month to go, the blog has gotten sparse. But don't worry, we are returning to the roost!

The plan is to post more interesting content, including sharing some of the fascinating research that our fellow fledgelings have been pursuing. And of course, posting the usual meeting and event updates.

Speaking of, there are two upcoming events to join in on:

This Thursday April 2nd, the monthly LGSA meeting will be held in HUM room 102, 11:30-12:00 (same time, new place).
Next Friday, April 10th, from 2:00-5:00 is Squib Session, room TBD.

Additional updates to these events will be sent through the LGSA Listserve.

Squibs, the linguistic kind.

2009-03-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

"In linguistics, squibs may outline anomalous data but not suggest a solution. A squib may also develop a minor theoretical argument. A particularly interesting variety of squibs are the so called snippets, which are 'the ideal footnote: a side remark that taken on its own is not worth lengthy development but that needs to be said'." [via Wikipedia]

Here at SF State, squibs are the pinnacle of the Linguistics Masters program. Final semesters are spent devoting to squib-work, resulting in three original papers, spread across distinct sub-fields of linguistics. 15-minute squib 'defenses' are presented to your advisory panel, at the end of your last semester.

This semester, the dept. is fortunate to have at least 8 graduate students working on squibs! This is impressive due to the sheer size of the Linguistics Masters Program at SFSU – we're pushing about ~20 students en totale; to be reckoned with. In anticipation and celebration of this, the LGSA has planned three Squib Sessions (as well as SquibFest, the party to honor it all) to help both graduating linguists and continuing students prepare and improve their work.

We welcome everyone to come and contribute!

We would like to open and close each session with a short free-for-all discussion (about 20 minutes for each), and then divide the rest of the time up between those who are actively working on their squibs. During your time, the entire group will be focused on helping you, at whatever stage your squibs are at. It's your time to do whatever you would like!

Food and beverages: YES! The LGSA will be providing a few things to snack on and drink, but we welcome any and all additions to the impromptu buffet table. It is not necessary that you bring something, but it sure makes people happy.

If you have any questions, please email us at fledgelings at gmail dot com. Especially if you would like to attend and need special equipment (we can obtain projectors, etc. if you request them in advance).

We look forward to seeing you next Friday!

Another chance to see "The Linguists"

2009-02-21T09:58:00.000-08:00

Written about previously, here and here, the award-winning film "The Linguists" will be showing this Thursday, Feb. 26th on PBS, from 10-11pm. It's a fantastic feature-length film, jam-packed with the linguistic bits that make us both giddy and proud of what we do. Don't miss it!

"Autistic Fictions" by Ian Hacking; Monday, Feb. 23, 4:00pm, HUM 587

2009-02-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

The Philosophy Department welcomes English faculty and students to a literary-philosophical talk by distinguished philosopher Ian Hacking. "Autistic Fictions" will be held on Monday, February 23, 4 p.m. in HUM 587, with a reception to follow.

Hacking is University Professor Emeritus (University of Toronto), a member of the British Academy, the American Society of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society of Canada, and winner of the Arts Molsen Prize in Humanities and Social Sciences and the Killam Prize for the Humanities. He is the author of (among other books) The Taming of Chance, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory, Mad Travellers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illness, The Social Construction of What?, and Historical Ontology. His talk concerns accounts of autism in works of fiction, part of a larger research project on the development of the concept of autism, neuro-bio-genetic space, and theory of mind.

Scholarship Opportunities and Info

2009-02-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

Interested in applying for scholarships? Here is a list of SF State scholarship resources available to assist you (this list will be updated frequently):

SF State Office of Student Financial Aid Scholarship website:
There are over 700 campus and outside scholarships listed on its "5 ways to search" scholarship database. The "Quick Search" and the "Campus Scholarship lists" are good resources as well.
One Stop Center, in the Student Services Building, has a Scholarship bulletin board with up-to-date scholarship postings and scholarship fliers.
There is also a Scholarship 101 workshop, every semester. Click here for additional info about this opportunity.
The Academic Honors and Fellowships Office provides advising for students who are interested in applying for nationally competitive and CSU-system-wide scholarships and fellowships. Successful applicants will generally have a GPA of 3.7 or above. Check the Fellowships Office website for contact information and scholarship/fellowship lists.
Note that the Fellowships Office is sponsoring five information workshops this Spring: on the Fulbright, on graduate fellowships to fund master's and doctoral level work, and on undergraduate scholarship and fellowship opportunities. Click the "Workshops" link on the Fellowships website for more information.

Here is a sampling of some of the scholarships listed at the Financial Aid scholarship website:

Alumni Association Scholarship
Brief Criteria: Currently enrolled undergraduate seniors and graduate students; 3.25 minimum GPA.
Contact: Alumni Scholarship Association
Deadline: Early April
Amount: $1,000

University Scholarship
Brief Criteria: Continuing undergraduate or graduate; 3.0 SF State undergraduate GPA; 3.5 SF State graduate GPA; financial need (file a FAFSA).
Deadline: Early May
Amount: $500-$3,500

Osher Reentry Scholarship
Brief Criteria: Pursuing first BA/BS; have a cumulative gap in education of 5 or more yrs.; be between ages 25 and 50; 3.0 minimum GPA; demonstrate financial need.
Deadline: Mid June
Amount: $2,000

Contact the Office of Student Financial Aid for more details about these and other scholarships. Definitely worth checking out!

Events, Meetings, Opportunities, OH MY!

2009-02-02T09:36:00.001-08:00

Welcome to Spring 2009 Semester at SF State University!
There is a lot going on already! I will be updating this post with events for the month of February. Items listed here are also on the Fledgelings Calendars.

First up, this Thursday there are two important meetings:

The Linguistics Program Meeting – for all new and returning graduate students, takes place this Thursday, Feb 5, from 12:00 - 12:45 in Humanities 203 (the Graduate Reading Room).
Immediately before the Linguistics Program Meeting this Thursday, the LGSA will be kicking off the semester with its first public meeting, from 11:30 - 12:00, also in Humanities 203. We will get to know each other, discuss our plans for the semester, as well as schedule fun events with the first one to be happening very soon! This meeting is for all Fledgelings, anybody interested in linguistics, or if you just want to drop in and say hi and see what we're all about. You do not need to be in the Linguistics program or an LGSA member to attend! Future LGSA meetings will be occuring on the first Thursday of each month, from 11:00am, - 12:00pm, in HUM 203.

Some great entertainment happenings as well:

A ONE NIGHT ONLY Special Performance: Word For Word's More Stories by Tobias Wolff. This Sunday, February 8, starting at 7:00pm, at the McKenna Theater (Creative Arts building). Discount rate for students! $10 tickets can be purchased by stopping by the Box Office (in the Creative Arts building). $12.50 per ticket online, here.
Special potluck dinner, immediately before this Sunday's performance. The Lit/Comp dept will be hosting this event, from 5:30pm - 6:45pm in Humanities 294. Afterwards, we will all walk to the theater together to enjoy the 7:00pm Word for Word performance. Special dinner guests James Boyd (former chair of the GLA!) and the rest of the Composition instructors, as well as Harriet Rafter, whom so many of you have turned to for help in the English department. This is a GREAT opportunity for linguistics, composition, and literature students to meet and mingle! If you are interesting in attending and contributing, please let us know – leave a comment here or drop us an email at fledgelings at gmail dot com.
Drinks + BATS Improv, with English Department's very own Dr. Whalley! On Sunday, February 22, starting at 5:30pm at the Horseshoe Tavern at 2028 Chestnut St. for drinks and conversation. This will be a great time to chat with MA TESOL students and faculty. After drinks, we will walk together to BATS improv to see Dr. Whalley and the rest of the troupe preform in a comedy improv performance! $5 at the door with student ID. BATS Improv is at Ft. Mason, starting at 7:00pm-9:00pm. For more information or to RSVP, send an e-mail to Keith Anderson at keith-and at hotmail dot com.

Conferences and other Academic Opportunities:

One of our own, Chris VanderStouwe, will be presenting his paper, "Restoring Tradition or Protecting Civil Rights: The Media's Discursive Role in the De-legitimization of Same-Sex Marriage through Coverage of Proposition 8" at this year's Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference. On February 13th, Chris will also be attending the special seminar "Is 'Hope' Enough? Anticipating the LGBTQ Discursive Landscape of the Obama Administration." The goals of this discussion panel are to identify how the Obama administration is constructing its queer-related policy arguments vs. its campaign trail rhetoric, and to discuss effective ways to invoke those arguments and address issues such as: employment rights and ENDA, the "marriage" issue, "Don't Ask Don't Tell," to develop a research agenda for lavender language inquiry that will allow scholars/activists to speak more directly to LGBTQ issues under the new administration, as well as many other issues. If you have feedback, comments, questions, or concerns that you would like Obama's team to address in regards to LGBT Discourse, Chris will be glad to bring these to the discussion at American University. You can send him an email at chrisv at sfsu dot edu.
There is a Pre-Doctoral Program Workshop for junior, senior, and grad students. It will be held on Friday, Feb. 27th, from 2:00pm - 3:00pm, in Humanities 587. Campus coordinator Dr. William Christmas will be presenting this opportunity. The California Pre-Doctoral Program supports the doctoral aspirations of CSU students, particularly those who have had educational and economic disadvantages, and aims to increase the diversity of the pool from which the CSU draws its faculty. Each applicant selected as a Pre-Doctoral Scholar will work closely with a faculty sponsor to develop a plan that leads to preparation for and enrollment in a doctoral program. If you are interested in attending the workshop, please RSVP by emailing Dr. Christmas at xmas at sfsu dot edu. Final application deadline is March 30th, 4pm, Humanities 289. More info about the Pre-Doctoral Program can be found here: http://www.calstate.edu/PreDoc/
The University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies is pleased to announce the Garifuna Language Summer Institute to be offered in La Ceiba, Honduras from May 10 - June 19, 2009. The Garifuna Summer Institute provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to acquire proficiency in Garifuna, an endangered Afro-Indigenous and Caribbean language. This six-week intensive immersion course will familiarize students with modern Garifuna language and culture through classroom study and excursions to local sites. Students will take 6 credits of Beginning Garifuna (LAS 4956) and 3 credits of Garifuna Culture (LAS 4956/LAS 6938). The Institute is a FLAS-approved program. The application deadline is March 16, 2009. Non-UF students are encouraged to apply. Additional program details, as well as information on how to apply online, can be found at: http://www.latam.ufl.edu/academic/Content/GarifunaSummerInstitute.pdf.
The Graduate Research Competition deadline is coming up! February 18th is the last day to submit your entry. Click here for more information about the Graduate Research Competition.
Registration and Fellowship Applications are now being accepted for the 2009 LSA Linguistic Institute, this summer at UC Berkeley. Click here for more information about the 2009 Linguistic Institute.

There's a lot of opportunity out there folks! If you have anything else to add, please let us know. Thanks!

The Pear Story

2009-01-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

The Pear Story (YouTube link) is a 6-minute film, developed by Wallace Chafe in 1975. It was originally showed to various speakers of English, Japanese, Chinese, German, Greek, and Mayan. They were asked to watch the video and then describe what they saw a short while later.

Chafe was interested in how different cultures recounted narratives through their language, based on a language-less stimulus. He later published his work in 1981. (The Pear Stories: Cognitive, Cultural, and Linguistic Aspects of Narrative Production can be purchased at alibris, starting at a mere $250.)

A book review by Deborah Schiffrin, originally published in Language, can be purchased for $12.00 from JSTOR, or downloaded for free by logging in through your campus library. In the review, she discusses the various contributors to the Pear Stories book (Chafe, Bernardo, Downing, Clancy, Tannen) and their respective area of study in relation to the data. She briefly goes over some of the problems with the research, but concludes that "The pear stories shows that narratives are units of discourse which are useful for exploring a variety of problems concerning the relationship of cognition, culture, and language–problems which should also be examined in narratives of personal experience told in everyday settings."

An excellent place to go to learn more about the pear stories is Mary S. Erbaugh's website, www.pearstories.org. Here she explores the value of examining narrative, elaborates on the differences between Chinese and English pear stories as well as Chinese compared with other languages (including some universal features), and provides research and teaching suggestions. Overall, a fantastic resource!

Currently, linguist, author, and blogger, Michael Erard is also featuring the pear story video on his new website, devoted to the book of the same name. At Babel No More, you can learn about his latest project, an exploration of hyperpolyglots, language superlearners, and the upper limits of linguistic ability. If you have a special language ability, you can participate in his research! Learn more about the survey here.

Another link I found, provides a list of downloadable pieces/tools related to The Pear Story, if you would like to conduct your own research.
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I hope you've found this post interesting! I think I'm done with pears for a bit now. It's time for Saturday breakfast. Enjoy yours!

"Wait, inflammable means flammable?"

2009-01-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

Inspired by this post, over at Metrolingua, I did a little internet research into contronyms, also known as antagonyms, or, more properly, autantonyms. (And from what I can gather so far, these terms are all synonyms of each other.)

I found a few fun sites on the topic, and thought I'd share. It's Friday and that's a good day to keep linguistics light and enjoyable.

The Wikipedia entry for auto-antonyms (a fourth variant of the term) is surprisingly good, including coinage dates, solid examples, and Janus-word lists (No. 5 now). Like this one: here, which states that it was last updated on Jan. 1, 1999. That's a timestamp to be pretty proud of when you think about what the internet was, over a decade ago!

Also, this link, here, is fun for perusing antilogies (#6!) It gives simple explanations of each contradictory meaning, as well as a brief explanation by Bob Fradkin about the origin of enantiodromes. (Seven and are we still counting?)

I tried to come up with a few of my favorite self-antonyms. "livid" springs to mind; as does "sect/secular." Not quite the same word in that last example, but a combo that has befuddled and befriended me, falsely, for many years. There's another one, I can't remember right now, but its on the tip of my tongue (perhaps literally?)...It means "caring" or "not caring at all" and sounds like "null" or something equally sonorant+y. Wonderful clues, I know, but this is how my brain works. Anybody have ideas about the word I'm looking for? If no, then what are some of your favorites? Or anti-favorites? Do share.

Or just enjoy all the contradictions — they're everywhere.

Constitution vs. Cooperation. The case of syntax and Oath of Office.

2009-01-20T12:29:00.000-08:00

Interesting linguistic phenomenon during Barack Obama's swearing-in this morning. A few blunders (including one later in Obama's Inaugural Speech, where he states that 44 people have taken this oath previously – actually, only 43 have, since Grover Cleveland was president twice, in non-consecutive terms). This post is about the the interesting exchange between the two participants in this 43rd delivery of the Speech Act we call "Oath of Office."

The official 35-word oath is written in Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution as follows:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Here is a shallow transcription of the oath, as stated this morning (delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts to Barack Hussein Obama at 12:00 pm, January 20th, 2009):

Roberts: I, Barack Hussein Obama [do solemnly swear]
Obama: [I, Barack]
Obama: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.
Roberts: That I will..execute the office of President of to the United States faithfully.
Obama: That I will execute... (nods to Roberts)
Roberts: the off– faithfully the Pres– office of President [of the United States.]
Obama: [the office of President] of the United States faithfully.
Roberts: And will to the best of my ability.
Obama: I will to the best of my ability.
Roberts: Preserve, protect, and defend, the constitution of the United States.
Obama: Preserve, protect, and defend, the constitution of the United States.
Roberts: So help you God?
Obama: So help me God.
Roberts: Congratulations Mr. President.

*Brackets "[ ]" represent overlapping speech. Parenthesis represent paralinguistic cues. Periods "." represent pauses. Hyphens "–" represent truncated speech. Text in red represents a change made to the transcription (after the original post timestamp).*

The last 4 words "So help me God" are not part of the constitutional oath, and therefore optional. I find this interesting because this is also signaled with a change in deixis by Roberts. He asks Obama "So help you God," rather than "So help me God," a change in which Roberts is no longer requesting Obama to repeat his words, but rather asking him a direct question.

Also, more noticeable, is the syntactic fumbles by Roberts in delivering the words for Obama to repeat. The constitutional oath is worded as "faithfully execute the office..." (adverb+VP), not "execute the office of President of the United States faithfully" (VP + adverb). Both are understandable and grammatically allowable in English, but have slightly different connotations, especially when delivered in this social context. The former is expected; the latter is marked.

The delivery of the "unconstitutional" word ordering prompted Obama to momentarily pause immediately after repeating "That I will execute." He nods to Roberts, now providing him with both linguistic and paralinguistic cues to perform a repair. Roberts initially misinterprets these cues as a repair request from Obama to hear the next words as he (Roberts) initially delivered them. We see this in line #6, starting with "the off–." However, Roberts immediately realizes his (second) error, and now understands that "faithfully" was what was requested, not the remaining sentence as he had previously stated it in line #4. However, he errs again in his attempt to deliver the proper constitutional ordering. Instead of giving Obama the proper words to repeat, "faithfully execute the office of...," he misspeaks by saying, "faithfully the Pres–." He realizes this and stops himself. We're on error number three now, for those keeping track. His final repair attempt results in the end of line #6, where Roberts skips the troubling adverb+verb combo, and supplies the proper end of the sentence, sans "faithfully."

Roberts' efforts are not in vain however. Even though his repairs were further botched in the surface representations, the intent to repair was conveyed to Barack Obama.

It is not actually required by the Speech Act of oath-giving that the words are repeated verbatim, or the conversational exchange go smoothly, for the oath to be considered valid. This happens at weddings all the time, and the show does go on. The intent is understood, and the Speech Act is honored as accomplishing what it intended to accomplish.

It is important however that Obama say the oath, regardless if it was delivered to him correctly. Interestingly, he has a choice now in the manner in which to say it. He can go with the constitutional version (adverb + verb phrase), or with Roberts' version (verb phrase + adverb). The former is correct, the latter is most cooperative. He can't have both.

It is interesting to see that even at the most basic level of simple conversational exchange, we see three traits emerge in our new President: leadership, cooperation, and quick thinking under pressure. Obama understood Roberts' error and allowed him to gracefully correct himself. But when he heard Roberts' repeated failed attempts to provide the proper words, Obama took charge of the situation and spoke the necessary phrase to continue with the Speech Act. That the Speech Act go on could easily be considered the priority at this point. It is important to note that, for whatever reason, Obama carried on in a way that was the most cooperative, choosing the phrasing that would align himself with Roberts, rather than slighting him.

There are a few other interesting phenomenon going on in this simple dialogue, but I am ready to enjoy the day.

If you need more wholesome oathy goodness, here is the latest at the Inuagural Blog, from the office of our new President, Barack Obama. Also, change.gov is closing up shop and coming to the whitehouse. Dot gov.

(My sincere apologies for all the bad puns in the previous paragraph.)
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There is a lot to look at here and we welcome any and all comments on this post. Thanks!
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keywords not in post: critical discourse analysis, CDA, Austin, Searle, speech act theory, blunder, screwup, mistake, swear, swearing, politics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, constatives, perlocutionary, pledge, promise, amendment, felicity conditions, conversational turn, syntax, adverbial, clause, inauguration.
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*Update: Jan. 21, 2009, 11:25 am. Upon listening to the audio again this morning, I realize that my initial transcription of the swearing-in ceremony contained an error. In line #4, Roberts actually says "to" instead of the proper word "of". I have corrected this in the transcription portion of this post, and noted the change in the reference key below it.

LSA-Decompression Pub Night Canceled

2009-01-11T21:23:00.000-08:00

Since many of us are kicking colds and/or overstimulated from the week of festivities at the LSA, we've decided to postpone Monday's pub night.

We'll be updating this blog soon with a new pub night date, as well as info about the upcoming semester, tidbits from the LSA, and various other things of interest.

Social events and the LSA!

2009-01-05T13:20:00.000-08:00

**** UPDATED Tuesday the 6th with pre-LSA-meeting place and time ****

Since there are quite a few of us that are volunteering and/or attending this week's LSA Meeting, it'd be great to get together and socialize, network, talk linguistics, and enjoy food and drinks!

If you are attending the meeting and would like to get in on the festivities, please leave a comment on this post. You don't have to have any account to comment; you can do so anonymously (just leave your name in the post so we know who you are!)

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The LSA preliminary program shows that the Graduate Student Panel will take place this Friday, January 9th, from 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm. Afterwards there will be a Student Mixer from 9:30 pm — 11:30 pm.
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If that's not enough for you, there will also be a LGSA Fledgelings pub night on Monday evening, possibly including a Pub Quiz if there's interest (click here for Mon. night Pub Quiz locations). Place and time to be determined; all suggestions welcome.

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And if that's STILL not enough linguistically fascinating social interaction, and you want to don your wordnerd hat early, we could meet up before the conference begins as well...say, 2:30-3:00ish at Emporio Rulli Café (map) near the Hilton Hotel ~~(the Urban Tavern is next door, and might be fun, although possibly a bit pricey)? We're open to all suggestions!~~

View Larger Map
Directions: Emporio Rulli Caffe is very easy to get to from BART. Get off at Powell St. Station, walk up Powell st. for 4 short blocks, following the cable car tracks, past Union Square. Then take a right on Post and the Cafe will be about 1/2 way down the block on the left. It's also 4 blocks from the Hilton. Just go back down Post and take a left on Mason. The hotel is on the corner of Mason and O'Farrell. It's a glorified coffee house with light food and lots of desserts. Price range is mostly $3-10.

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So please comment below if you would like to attend one of these events, or if you are going to the LSA meeting and just want to let us know you'll be there. (If you don't want to comment publicly, you can always drop Heather, Noah or Kim an email at Fledgelings at gmail.com.)

There is also a discussion thread about the LSA on our Google Groups Discussion Board. That is a private group, just for us to chat.

This post will be updated as event details are worked out.

Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting THIS WEEK!

2009-01-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

The 83rd Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) will take place this week, starting Thursday, January 8th and ending Sunday, January 9th. The meeting will be held at the Hilton Hotel, 333 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco.

Click HERE for the preliminary program, featuring speakers, times and topics.

Students who are members of the LSA can register to attend the conference on-site for $65. Non-member students can register on-site for $75. Pre-registration has already closed.

If you would like to purchase a student membership to the LSA you can sign up by clicking HERE. Student membership costs $30 and are valid through the end of this year. Also, member benefits (from their website):
"Members receive four issues of Language and are eligible to submit abstracts for the Annual LSA meetings and apply for tuition fellowships to the LSA Linguistic Institute. In addition, LSA members are now entitled to significant discounts on subscriptions to many journals of interest to linguists. There also is the intangible, but equally important, benefit that comes from knowing that membership supports the many significant educational and societal contributions of the LSA."

Hope to see you at the meeting!

Graduate Research Competition

2009-01-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

The Twentieth Annual CSU Student Research Competition is underway! If you would like to enter your research project, paper or creative work, go to www.sfsu.edu/~gradstdy to obtain guidelines and a registration form.

The deadline for entries is February 18, 2009, and the SFSU campus competition will be held Feb 25-Mar 3, 2009. The University will provide travel funds for up to 10 campus winners to compete in the CSU-wide competition to be held May 1-2, 2009 at CSU Los Angeles.

2009-01-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

2009 Linguistic Institute, July 6 - August 13, 2009
Linguistic Structure and Language Ecologies
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Sponsored by the Linguistic Society of America
& the University of California, Berkeley
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Director: Andrew Garrett (University of California, Berkeley)
Associate Director: Nick Evans (Australian National University)
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Registration and fellowship applications will go online from these websites in January.

The theme of the 2009 Institute is Linguistic Structure and Language Ecologies, highlighting the relation between linguistic structures and the ecologies in which they are embedded, including physical and psychological contexts, demographic and social contexts, and historical and geographic contexts.

20 six-week courses and 60 three-week courses are offered. Course listing here.

Students receive full academic credit (and all campus privileges) at the lowest per-week cost of any Linguistic Institute since 2003. Student members of the LSA may apply for fellowships that cover all tuition and fees. Information about the fellowship process.

Information about Forum and Institute lectures by Mark Baker, Stephen C. Levinson, Malcolm Ross, Natalie Schilling-Estes, Donca Steriade, and Michael Tomasello.

T.A. spot available for the Spring 2009 semester

2008-12-08T11:22:00.000-08:00

Dr. Waksler just announced one T.A. (Teaching Assistant) spot open up in the 804 Teaching Practicum class for next semester. The class is a T.A. training course for linguistics, and it has 4 workshops to be scheduled by the group during the semester, rather than regular weekly meetings. (Ignore the Thursday afternoon listing on the University website schedule.) If you would like more info, or would like to apply for the class, please e-mail Dr. Waksler.

Deadline to register online to attend LSA meeting is this Friday!

2008-12-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) will be holding their 83rd annual meeting from January 8-11, 2009, at the Hilton San Francisco!

Becoming a member of the LSA is easy, and it can be done online. For students, the cost is $30 per year, and includes the following:

Four issues of Language
Eligibility to submit abstracts for the Annual LSA meetings and apply for tuition fellowships to the LSA Linguistic Institute.
Significant discounts on subscriptions to many journals of interest to linguists.
And of course, the intangible benefit that comes from knowing that membership supports the many significant educational and societal contributions of the LSA.

Again, to join online, click here. Don't forget to sign up to attend the annual meeting once you join – it is a separate registration process. For students, the fee is $45, and you can sign up by clicking here. You do not need to be a member of the LSA to attend the annual meeting.

Please also see the previous post about receiving funding to cover costs for this event.

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THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS THIS FRIDAY!
(fees go up substantially if you pay on site)

How to do your Bibliography - the easy way

2008-11-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

Did you know that there's a website that will find your books, movies, articles, and then create citations for you, in any format you choose?

Create a free account at WorldCat.org and start searching. You can save all of your references into folders, and then just click to create a bibliography page in the style of your choosing (APA, MLA, etc.) There's even a Facebook app, as well as a Firefox plugin. It really doesn't get easier.

Term Paper Sessions!

2008-11-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

Is there any interest in meeting up on campus, possibly on Monday Dec. 1st, and/or Dec. 3rd, to present, share, and help each other with upcoming paper topics? If this would be a productive session for you, please express your interest by leaving a comment on this post or sending an email to fledgelings at gmail.com. More details to come!

Highlights from "The Linguists"

2008-11-10T14:57:00.001-08:00

We had two successful get-togethers last month to see the award-winning documentary film, The Linguists. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did (I saw it twice)! Some interesting bits from the film:

The two "stars" of the film, professors David Harrison and Gregory Anderson, speak a combined 25 languages.
Sora, an Indian language with approximately 300,000 speakers, has an interesting number system, consisting of a combination of base-12 and base-20. Ninety-three is the linguists favorite number in Sora, expressed by saying four-twenty-twelve-one.
Kallawaya is the language of the medicine healers in the Andes, Bolivia. This language is not learned at infancy, but rather passed down from the elders to young men seeking to learn the tribal ways. With less than 100 speakers, this language has been able to survive because of the value placed on the knowledge of plants, rituals, and nature, spoken of only in Kallawaya.
Speakers of Chulym have quite a different story. With only 7 speakers left in this remote Siberian village, all but one elderly and deaf, the language will be gone within 25 years. Oppressed by others' negative attitudes about their native tongue, the few remaining speakers were able to finally take joy in seeing themselves speak Chulym on video, and knowing that they were making a valuable contribution to language documentation and preservation of culture.
The film follows the last speaker of Chemehuevi, and Indian tribal language from the Arizona region of the US. He drives around in his truck, listening to language CDs made by his grandmother, so he will not forget the words she taught him. He has no one to speak to anymore.
The Linguists provides valuable insight to what field research is all about–especially helpful for those of use preparing for this summer's project in Oaxaca. (More info here and here.)

I hope you all have some time to check out this film again when it releases on video and Netflix. It's well worth it. And face it, there's really not a whole lot of feature films out there about our nerdy little passion.

(previous posts about "The Linguists" here and here.)

GRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

2008-11-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

Today, as many of you know, there was an informative meeting regarding the application process for the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship.

For those of you who missed it, here are the essentials:

Due: NOVEMBER 13th!!!!

Those eligible:

-Undergraduate Seniors that are applying for graduate school

-First Year Graduate Students

-Last chance to apply: Second-Year Graduate Students- who are in their first semester of their second year.

-If this is your last semester, check to see if you can apply at their website (there are several exceptions)

The presentation today stressed that the (lengthy) application is about presenting yourself as a candidate who possesses both intellectual merit as well as someone who will have a broad impact- they want to know that you will benefit society with your future research.

The National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship

is for a $30,000 towards your research!

Where to get more info as well as the application started:

general website: nsf.gov.grfp

phone: 866-NSF-GRFP or 866-673-4737

email: info@nsfgrfp.org

application: fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp

-The number of awards are determined by the number of applicants per field-

-Roughly there are between 8,000-9,000 applicants and roughly 1,000 fellowships are awarded-

-Your application is reviewed by professionals in the field for which you are applying-

-Having research experience is a HUGE plus-

-If you are awarded the fellowship, you are not bound to the research you proposed in your application-

GOOD LUCK!!!

MA TESOL hosts Bowling Night, RESCHEDULED!

2008-11-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

Celebrate the end of midterms at the MA TESOL bowling night! Now scheduled for NEXT Thursday, November 13th!

WHERE: Serra Bowl at Colma BART
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. ~~6th~~ 13th, 7:00pm-9:00pm

Come bowling and celebrate the middle of the semester with MA TESOL students and faculty. Don't worry about not being a good bowler*; we are there to have fun!

Please RSVP with your name and e-mail to Sarah P. or Keith A. Guests are also welcomed to join!

See you Thursday!

*I'm a positively goofy bowler. I do have my own ball though. It's intimidating to people...until after the first frame.

ENG 804, Teaching Practicum in Linguistics

2008-11-03T19:04:00.000-08:00

A note from Dr. Waksler:
You'll be figuring out your Spr09 schedules, so here's info about ENG 804, the Teaching Practicum in Linguistics. It is an excellent elective for MA Ling students' programs.

Five students will be accepted in the course, with the meeting time to be decided by the group. We meet formally for one hour ~4 times in the semester (not weekly, as in the schedule) for discussions and teaching workshops. 804 students are teaching assistants for the large Intro Linguistics course, ENG 420. Teaching assistants are available for one office hour per week, at a time of their choosing. Attendance at the 420 class lectures is not required, though each TA will proctor one exam during one class period, scheduled for Tu/Th 2:10-3:25 for Spr09.

The course is particularly recommended as excellent preparation for anyone wanting to enter academia. It is beneficial to have a teaching practicum on your graduate transcript, and, of course, in your letters of recommendation. It counts as an elective graduate course in either the MA Linguistics or MA TESOL programs. Below is a course outline to give you an idea of what we will do.

This course will enable students to apprentice with faculty who teach undergraduate language studies classes in order to gain knowledge and experience in the various skills needed to teach linguistics concepts in the classroom.

Students will aid in the teaching of a large language studies course.
Under the direct guidance of the professor, students will have the opportunity to learn about and/or gain experience in:
Leading a class discussion
Giving a class lecture
Assessing undergraduate progress by evaluating projects, papers, and/or exams*
Advising undergraduates by holding office hours outside of class
Students may make grade suggestions; the instructor of record will be responsible for all final grades.

Note: To be eligible, a student must be enrolled in the MA Program in English, Concentration in Linguistics or TESOL, and must formally apply for this Practicum on a semester-by-semester basis. Only students who have been accepted to Eng 804 by the instructor of record may enroll.

Spring 2009 Semester, fees and deadlines

2008-11-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

Today, November 3rd, tuition fees are now being accepted for the Spring 2009 semester. Deadline without late payment penalty is one month from now, December 4th.

You can pay by credit card or e-check by logging in at this link here. (It's really hard to find otherwise!) And here's the Bursar's Office website.

Advanced Field Methods Seminar, post meeting update

2008-10-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

Today's info meeting regarding this summer's Advanced Field Methods Seminar in Oaxaca went really well. About 12 of us were in attendance as Dr. Carleton gave us a quick rundown on what the project is about, how it works, what to expect, and what the requirements and costs are.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do some meaningful and amazing work. Not to mention the experience and resume-boon. I'm super motivated to learn more Spanish now! Netflix will help, as will turning on dubbed and/or subtitle tracks on everything watched on the DVD player from here on out. Spanish talk radio in the car, and podcasts through iTunes. Only seven months left to train my ears to the sounds of Mexico.

If you'd like to discuss the project, head over to the LGSA Fledgelings Google Group...we've already started a topic or two on this!

New additions!

2008-10-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

We now have a calendar and a discussion board!
A few things:

You must be a member of the Google group to visit the discussion board and add posts or comments. Please click on the "Sign in and apply for membership" link and one of us will approve it.
This requires a Google account. If you use gmail, reader, iGoogle, Picassa, Blogger, GoogleTalk, or are already a member in another Google group, then you already have a login you can use. If not, well, I can't encourage you enough to sign up. Any one of the above mentioned apps are awesome, but all of them together are quite spectacular.
Note the three links at the top of the calendar page — Academic | Events | Courses — these will take you to individual calendars for each. Pretty nifty, no?

I'll add more to this list as things come up.

LGSA Fledgelings Calendar

2008-10-21T14:56:00.000-07:00

Academic Calendar: iCal XML | Events Calendar: iCal XML

See this icon:
It's in the upper right corner of the Calendar. You can use it to display/hide various categories of calendar events.

The Linguists – A very Foreign Language Film – 2nd Screening Nov. 2nd

2008-10-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

The first showing, at the Roxy Theater this past Sunday was a success! The movie is insightful, well-made, and quite interesting. There will be another screening, and another LGSA get together to see it again, at Shattuck Cinema, in Berkeley, on November 2nd. If you are interested in attending this event, please send an email to fledgelings@gmail.com, or leave a comment on this post.

To view the trailer for this movie, visit The Linguists website: www.thelinguists.com

Also take the time to read this write-up by the National Science Foundation, who helped fund the film...
"In Siberia, fewer than 25 elderly people speak Chulym, a language spoken for generations by traditional hunter-gatherers and fishermen in small rural villages. In Bolivia, a language once spoken by healers to the Inca emperor is on the verge of extinction. In the Orissa state in the east of India, younger generations no longer speak Sora, a language of the region with a complex and expressive way of putting words together."

Sun. Nov 2, 2008, 12:30 pm | Shattuck Cinema
Tickets are $10.50, and you can buy them by clicking here.

Tomorrow, The Linguists, Roxie Theater

2008-10-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick reminder to everyone...This Sunday (tomorrow)...

11:00 am
Frjtz for crepes, Belgian beer, and fries with lots of dipping sauces. Located near the Roxie Theater at 590 Valencia St (between 16th St & 17th St).

12:30 pm
The Linguists, at the Roxie Theater. $10.50 per person. Film is 1hr 5min. Click here for previous post, including trailer.

See you there!

Info Meeting for the Advanced Field Methods Seminar in Teotitlán de Valle, Mexico!

2008-10-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

The informational meeting for the 6th Annual Advanced Field Methods Seminar is coming up. Please spread the word and tell your friends and classmates about this opportunity!

Come find out more about this exciting study abroad program! The meeting will be held NEXT Thursday, October 23rd, 2008, at 12:30 pm, in HUM 203.
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ABOUT THE PROGRAM:
When: June 13 — July 4, 2009
Where: Teotitlán de Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico
Prerequisites: English 424, English 421, English 727 (offered this Spring 2009), and proficiency in Spanish with at least one year of college level Spanish.

This three-week short-term study abroad program offered as a 3-unit summer school course through the College of Humanities and CEL, is a unique opportunity for students to participate in an ongoing linguistic field project in Oaxaca, Mexico. Be a part of helping document an endangered language and preserving a culture.

Participants will:

Participate in a collaborative community-based research project
Conduct linguistic fieldwork on location
Help document the endangered dialect of Teotitlán, Zapotec
Learn about dictionary making and archiving oral tradition
Build community ties through living in a Zapotec village

Program includes:

Lodging with a Zapotec family
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffets with seminar group
3 SFSU course units that will count as an elective toward an English BA, Linguistics MA, and MATESOL degrees and possibly other degrees.

BRAINSTORMER PUB QUIZ, at the Dubliner

2008-09-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Yep, another Pub Night!
This one's planned for next Wednesday, October 1st, starting at 7:00 pm, at The Dubliner Pub.

Get geared up to participate in the team trivia challenge:
Brainstormer Pub Quiz, which starts at 8:00 sharp.

If you're planning on attending, please try to email us at fledgelings at gmail.com or leave a comment here to let us know. Hope to see you on Wednesday!
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The Dubliner Pub
328 West Portal Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94127
(415) 566-9444

Squib Titles

2008-09-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

An update for this post, about the October 1st deadline for turning in your CE and GAP forms...

You MUST have your titles for your proposed squibs listed on the Culminating Experience form! This means that if you've only thought about your squibs, but haven't formalized the names for your squib papers, you've got some work to cram in before next Wednesday! Good luck!

(this only applies to Fledgelings graduating next semester.)

Pub night in the works!

2008-09-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

UPDATE!
Let's meet tomorrow night (Monday the 22nd), at The Little Shamrock, at 7:30 pm.
807 Lincoln Way (between 10th Ave & 9th Ave)

San Francisco, CA 94122

(415) 661-0060
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We'd like to get everybody out of their textbooks for an evening and get to know each other! Tentatively planned for Monday, September 22nd, starting at 7:30 pm. More details, including location, to come. Keep checking back!

SquibFest, anyone?

2008-09-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

Are you preparing your squibs this semester? Next semester? Far off in the future, but want to learn about the process? If so, how would you feel about having a few LGSA get togethers to help prepare for your squib presentations? If this is something that would interest you, please leave a comment on this post (click the 'Post a Comment' at the bottom of this entry) and let's start formulating a plan!

Let us know what you could use help with, how you think your time would best be spent, and when you think a meetup (or two or three) would be most useful, and we'll all make it happen.

More info about the LSA

2008-09-17T12:29:00.000-07:00

Following up on recent posts about registration for the LSA (Linguistic Society of America) meeting in SF, and applying for student travel funds, you can also get free registration to the conference by volunteering at the LSA meeting, January 8-11. If you are interested in adding your name to the pool of volunteers, please let Dr. Carleton know a.s.a.p.!

The Linguists - a very foreign language film

2008-09-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

"As Sundance moved past the weekend it was fast becoming clear that ... the stars of the festival line-up would not be features but documentaries. One standout was The Linguists, a fantastic little film that follows professors David Harrison and Gregory Anderson as they crisscross the globe on a mission to document languages.... The excitement of these two professors proves contagious, and as the film reveals how cultural shame and colonialism have factored in the loss of these languages, their incredible dedication becomes all the more compelling." –Vanity Fair

To view the trailer for this movie, visit The Linguists website: www.thelinguists.com

Also take the time to read this write-up by the National Science Foundation, who helped fund the film...
"In Siberia, fewer than 25 elderly people speak Chulym, a language spoken for generations by traditional hunter-gatherers and fishermen in small rural villages. In Bolivia, a language once spoken by healers to the Inca emperor is on the verge of extinction. In the Orissa state in the east of India, younger generations no longer speak Sora, a language of the region with a complex and expressive way of putting words together."

The Linguists will be screening locally at the 7th Annual San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, taking place October 17th–November 6th, and at the 11th Annual United Nations Association Film Festival on October 22nd, in Palo Alto. It was an official selection at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and was quite the talk of the town there. Won't want to miss it when it comes around these parts!

****UPDATE****
This film is showing two places:
Sun. Oct 19 2008, 12:30 pm | Roxie Cinema
Sun. Nov 2 2008, 12:30 pm | Shattuck Cinema

Tickets are $10.50, and you can buy them by clicking here.

If you have any interest in seeing this event, please participate in the discussion here by leaving a comment. Thanks!

You graduating next semester?

2008-09-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

If you are graduating Spring 2009, there are 2 forms you need to complete and turn in to the English dept. by this upcoming October 1st:
1. Graduate Approved Program (GAP), and
2. Proposal for Culminating Experience (CE)
(you will need to have these forms signed by your advisor before you turn them in!)

LGSA Listserv 101

2008-09-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

What is the LGSA listserve?
It's a way that all LGSA members can send emails to each other easily. You can share information, receive updates, find out what's new, and find help for your projects.

How does it work?
The listserve is managed by a program called Majordomo. This keeps the email addresses anonymous (except for the email sender, that is YOU!) and gives you the ability to communicate with all other LGSA members directly. You must be subscribed to the list to successfully send email to LGSA@sfsu.edu.

How can I join?
It's easy. Click here and fill out your name and email address (does NOT need to be an SFSU email address).

What should I consider when I send an email to LGSA@sfsu.edu
When you send an email to LGSA@sfsu.edu, keep in mind that EVERY person who is subscribed to this list will receive this email. This may include your professors, classmates, and students from other schools and/or related fields of study. The content of your email should be related to linguistics, the English Department, the LGSA, or other topics that are relevant to students. In summary, follow the Cooperative Principle, adhere to the four maxims, and don't be afraid to speak up if you have something to share or need help!

How do I unsubscribe?
Instructions will be sent to you when you join, but you can unsubscribe at any time by sending an email to Majordomo at sfsu.edu. Leave the subject line BLANK. In the body of the email, write the following:
unsubscribe lgsa youremailaddresshere

Who moderates this list?
Your LGSA Co-President, Kim W., is the moderator for this list. Questions and concerns about listserve should be sent to her at fledgelings at gmail.com, or you can leave a comment on this post and the response will be replied here in public. Abuse of the listserv will result in appropriate action, including a termination from the list in most egregious instances. Please use the list appropriately and help make it a cooperative experience and valuable resource to others. Thank you.
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More information about what you can do with listserv can be found here. Remember that all list commands should be sent to Majordomo at sfsu.edu and NOT to lgsa@sfsu.edu!

User tip for the internet!

2008-09-14T13:29:00.001-07:00

Did you know that if you hold down the command/apple key (Mac users) or the control (PC users) while clicking on a link, on any webpage, it will open that link in a new window? (this page will no longer be the one in front, but it hasn't been replaced by your new page, I promise!)

This saves you a lot of hitting that 'back' button in your browser. Try it now!

Information about the Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA)

2008-09-14T13:12:00.001-07:00

Four issues of Language
Eligibility to submit abstracts for the Annual LSA meetings and apply for tuition fellowships to the LSA Linguistic Institute.
Significant discounts on subscriptions to many journals of interest to linguists.
And of course, the intangible benefit that comes from knowing that membership supports the many significant educational and societal contributions of the LSA.

Again, to join online, click here. Don't forget to sign up to attend the annual meeting once you join. For students, the fee is $45, and you can sign up by clicking here.

Please also see the previous post about receiving funding to cover costs for this event.

Independent Student Travel Funding!

2008-09-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

Recently an email went out to all LGSA listserv members regarding how to get funding for independent travel for SFSU students. If you missed it, here's the scoop:

Enrolled students at SFSU can receive up to $600 per fiscal year to attend conferences, cover travel expenses, and the like. Funding is limited, and there are a few guidelines:

Student must be an active participant (i.e. a presenter of a paper or performer) in the conference/meeting, not just an attendee.
Student will not be funded if he/she is eligible to receive travel funds to attend the same conference/meeting through any other IRA (Instructionally Related Activities) budget (e.g. Forensics, Model UN).
Students may not be reimbursed for mileage or the cost of a rental car unless they are employed by the University (or appointed as a volunteer) and meet the SFSU Driver Safety Program requirements.

Here's what to do to apply:

Click here to download application
Send a written request addressed to the Chair of your major department indicating the name, location, dates of the conference/meeting, and amount of travel funds needed (airfare, hotel, etc). Your name, address, SFSU ID, phone #, and email address must be included in the request. Includes a brief statement indicating how participation in this conference/meeting will enhance your education goals and attach a letter of invitation or acceptance to the conference.
The Chair will either endorse or deny the request based on adherence to the guidelines stated above and/or its educational merits. If endorsed, the Department Chair signs the application and forwards to Jennifer Daly in the College Office. Do Not Forward to Dean Sherwin. Then Dean of Humanities either endorses or denies the request based on this same criteria (guideline adherence and educational merit). If endorsed, the College Office forwards the request to the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs. He/She either endorses or denies the request, based on same criteria as The Chair and the Dean.
If approved by the Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs, the College Office will notify you via email (Dept Chairs will be cc'd) in January, 2009. Within 30 days of receiving notification, you will need to submit receipts along with a brief written evaluation of the conference/meetings attended and the value of the experience to Nancy Pappas in the College Office.
Airfare receipts must indicate student's name, itinerary, method of payment and the last four digits of their credit card number. If the receipt is inadequate, student will need to provide a copy of their credit card statement that shows their name and the airfare charge. Hotel receipts must be original on hotel letterhead in student's name that shows room/tax rate, and a zero balance.
Registration (original or electronic) receipt must show student's name, amount paid, and the last four digits of their credit card number or a photocopy of the front and back of the cancelled check, if payment was made by check.

For more information, including full guidelines, click here.
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Also, there are two scholarship awards available for English Dept. majors! They are:
The Ellanore and Maurice Bassan English Department Scholarship
The Randall Nakayama Memorial Scholarship
Applications for these two awards are due November 6th. Click on the scholarships for more information from the English dept.
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Information about the upcoming LSA meeting, next post! Keep checking back!

Welcome to the new LGSA!

2008-09-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

Thanks for stopping by!

There's a lot going on here, and we are excited about sharing it with you. This semester we have plans for meetings, lectures, squibfests, pubnights, and much more!

This blog will also be updated with interesting posts about linguistics, SFSU, resource links, and helpful information about the LGSA.

We also have a new email address. Please contact us at lgsasfsu at gmail dot com for any questions, comments, or just to say hi. And if one wasn't enough, we have an alternate email address. It's easier to remember, and reaches the LGSA officers (Kim, Noah, and Heather) directly. You can send us emails at fledgelings at gmail dot com. Don't worry though, both these emails are connected, so it doesn't matter which you use, we'll get your message and get back to you soon.

Thanks! We are looking forward to a fantastic year!

About Us

2008-08-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is the blog of the San Francisco State University linguistics graduate students. Our purpose here is to help each other, inspire discussions, and to advance and support the work done by linguists everywhere.

The blog is currently run by 2 linguistics graduate students at SF State:
Hannah Phinney and Youness Belfqih, Co-Presidents

We are always looking for contributors. If you have something to suggest, share, or would like to guest-post on this blog, please let us know. We can be reached at Fledgelings at gmail dot com.

All academics or fans of linguistics are welcome to become members of the LGSA! There is no formal procedure for joining, but you could drop us an email to let us know about you, and sign up on the LGSA listserve to get on the emailing list (available to SF State students only).

Thank you for your interest in the LGSA!

Squibfest and Party

2007-05-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

It's Official!

The Linguistics Graduate Student Association Squibfest and Graduation Party will be held

on:
Thursday, May 17th

at:
1:00pm

in:
HUM 587

We will be awarding certificates to graduates from the MAling, MATESOL, and undergrad Language Studies programs, followed by four STUNNING* presentations on FASCINATING* topics related to language or linguistics. Abstracts for these presentations will be posted here shortly.

Come join the party, collect your certificate and/or support your colleagues! The exclamation point means it's imperative.

We look forward to seeing you all there.

Graduation Ceremony/Squibfest

2007-04-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

The Linguistics Graduate Student Association is preparing it's annual Graduation Ceremony/Squibfest!

This is an exciting event in which certificates are given to all individuals graduating from the MALing, MATESOL, or undergraduate Language Studies programs. In short, you get to "walk" without wearing one of those silly hats.

In conjunction with the graduation event, we will be holding this semester's Squibfest. The Squibfest is an opportunity for anyone who has completed a language/linguistics related paper to present their findings to their peers. It is a wonderful opportunity to practice your presentation skills and to get feedback from people who actually know what you're talking about.

In order to have a successful event, we need three simple things from YOU.

1. Help us choose a date! Go to www.doodle.ch/dpiXFyUQNSi4 and select all dates that you could attend. The entire event will be approximately 2.5 hours and will be held in the Humanities building.

2. Tell us who is graduating! This one is important. If we don't know who is graduating, how can we reward them for all their hard work? If you or someone you know is graduating from one of the aforementioned programs this semester, please send the name and program to: fraser@sfsu.com

3. Present! We need presenters. Dust off your favorite old paper or pull out something the you plan to present at an upcoming conference, and test it out on us. An audience of eager peers is always kinder than an audience of unknown, competitive academics. We'll be nice. I promise. It should be noted that all those in the MALing program are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to present at least once before they graduate. For some of you this may be your last opportunity. Please send your name and a really really brief abstract to: fraser@sfsu.edu

I guess we need one more thing: Help us consume all the amazing snacks and beverages that will be provided FREE OF CHARGE at the event.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Jason Fraser

Next Brown Bag Discussion This Wednesday

2007-04-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

This week we'll be discussing, for the benefit of all those taking psycholinguistics, or for those who are really excited about morphology, this article:

Frequency effects in the processing of Chinese inflection

We will meet at the usual time and place: Wed, noon, Graduate Reading Room.

Thanks to Jason for recommending this one.

3rd Brown Bag Discussion Wed. 21st

2007-03-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Next Wednesday we will round out our series of articles on functionalist syntax with Frederick Newmeyer's 2003 Language article "Grammar Is Grammar and Usage Is Usage".

This article addresses many of the questions we've brought up in previous meetings about how a generativist might respond to some of the functionalist critiques we've considered.

As always, it will be held at noon in the Graduate Reading Room on the fifth floor of the Humanities building.

This will probably be our last syntax discussion this semester. The next (April 4th) meeting will have a psycholinguistic focus. If you have any suggestions for recent articles in that field, please let me know.

Also, don't forget that our next brown bag lecture is coming up on Thursday, March 29th at 1pm. Details here.

Alan H.

Next Brown Bag Discussion Circle

2007-02-28T23:39:00.000-08:00

The next brown bag discussion circle will be held in the Graduate Reading Room next Wednesday March 7th at 12pm.

I have received a few suggestions for articles. The consensus seems to be in favor of more reading in a functionalist vein, so I have settled upon a recent article by Martin Haspelmath which I found very thought provoking. I'm sure it will make for a lively discussion.

"Parametric versus functional explanations of syntactic universals"

Hope you all can make it!

Alan H.

First brown bag meeting a raging success

2007-02-24T11:04:00.000-08:00

We held our first brown bag meeting last Wednesday and it was great. About 8 people showed up to discuss Joan Bybee's article on functionalist grammar. We discussed her model's strengths and weaknesses, the nature of its challenge to generative grammar, language evolution, and all kinds of things.

So, we need to find an article to read for next time. I'd like to have this decision made by next Wednesday, so everyone has time to read it. Now that comments work properly, please leave comments here with any recommendations.

Alan H.

Comments are open

2007-02-24T11:02:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've been encouraging people to leave comments on this blog, but I just realized that all along comments were restricted. So I've changed the settings and everyone can now comment on any post they want by clicking on the "comment" link beneath each post. Sorry about that!

Alan H.

Spring 2007's First Pubnite is also a PubQuiz (optional)

2007-02-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

We are having our first pubnight finally. Thank you to all who sent me and Alan their schedule information, and sorry to those who we could not accommodate.

It will be next week on Wednesday, February 28, at the Napper Tandy in the Mission. Starts at 6pm. They serve food and there are plenty of other eateries nearby. From school, take the M or SFSU shuttle to BART, then make your way to the 24th Street station.

3200 24th Street
@ S. Van Ness
San Francisco, 94110
(415) 550-7510

http://www.nappertandysf.com/

BONUS: Lucky for us, and unlucky for our competition, they also host a pubquiz! You do not have to participate, of course, but it should be fun. Starts at 8 pm. You can talk through it if you don't want to abandon your discussion of optimality theory (thanks Sarah!)

http://www.brainstormer.com/

See you there. All are welcome. Warn them. We are so fun it could kill them.
Diep

Spring 2007 Brown Bag Lecture Series

2007-02-18T12:11:00.001-08:00

The schedule is now in for our brown bag lecture series this semester. Three professors have very kindly agreed to come speak to us, and I think the topics (about which more soon) will prove to be both fascinating and quite wide-ranging, as befits a capacious field like ours. Here it is:

Dr. Michal Brody
Thursday, March 1
1-2:30 in HUM 213

The Alphabet as Political Artifact: The Case of Maaya
Maaya (Maya Yucateco) has been a written language for more than a millennium. It was written with glyphs until Spanish friars arrived and imposed an alphabetic system. Although suppressed and subverted for 500 years, literacy practice was never completely extinguished. The presentation will begin with a brief history of Maaya writing and go on to examine the linguistic ideologies of contemporary Maaya writing, focusing specifically on the graphetic (alphabetic) variation that currently exists. We'll be looking at the ideologies of scientism, traditionalism, and cultural authenticity as they play out in the culturally emblematic atomic particles of writing -- graphs (letters).

Dr. Masahiko Minami
Thursday, March 29th
1-2:30 in HUM 213

How to Tell a Good Story: Bilingual Children’s Styles of Story Construction and Their Linguistic and Educational Implications
This study examines characteristics of effective stories. Analysis of narratives given high ratings by evaluators shows that most stories considered good in Japanese or English are in the past tense. However, the study also demonstrates that literacy has different social and psychological implications in different social and cultural contexts.

Dr. Tom Scovel
Wednesday, April 18th
1-2 in HUM 213

Thai as a Window to Linguistic Analysis
Because of the impact of Global English since World War II, the vast majority of research in both theoretical and applied linguistics has been both in and on the English language, thus skewing, in many ways, our general perceptions about the nature of human language. Using examples from Thai, I will try to redress this situation by reviewing linguistic insights and analyses which are not (or are rarely) illustrated by the structure and use of English. Areas covered will include phonology, orthography, syntax, the lexicon, and sociolinguistic usage.

Many thanks to Drs. Brody, Minami and Scovel for agreeing to come speak to us!

(Note: If you are interested in getting announcements about this and other LGSA events, you can subscribe to our mailing list by going here.)

First Brown Bag Linguistics Meeting - Wed. Feb 21 @ 12pm

2007-02-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce that the first ever (that I know of) Linguistics Brown Bag Meeting will be held next Wednesday, 21 February. They will be held every-other Wednesday in the Graduate Reading Room on the 5th floor, 12-2pm. (We don't have to use the whole 2 hours, I booked extra time in case some people have to come late or leave early -- if you would prefer that the meeting start earlier or later in that time frame, leave a comment here or email me).

As I mentioned before, these meetings are an informal opportunity for students interested in linguistics to get together and discuss a recent article. Next Wednesday we will be reading "A Functionalist Approach to Grammar and Its Evolution" by Joan Bybee (1998). You can download the PDF here.

I have already received a few suggestions for other readings. If you would like to suggest an article for future meetings, please email me at ahogue :at: sfsu :dot: edu.

Details about our brown bag lectures this semester are coming soon.

I hope to see you all there!

Alan H.

Brown Bag Meetings and Lecture Series

2007-02-09T12:37:00.000-08:00

As Diep mentioned I am trying to put together a regular "brown bag" meeting, and I want to make sure it's at a time when everyone can make it.

What I have in mind is this. Every other week, on either Wed or Thurs afternoon, we'd meet somewhere (I'm booking a classroom for us). Three professors from around the campus have so far expressed interest in joining us to talk, present their research, etc. On days when no professors are participating, one of us will nominate a recent linguistic article a week in advance, everyone will read it, and then we can all discuss it at the meeting.

So, the big question is: Wednesday or Thursday? Or either? If you think you might be interested in attending these or other more general LGSA meetings, then please leave a comment on this post and let us know what works best for you.

New Website

2007-02-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

As you may have guessed by now, the LGSA has a new website. It's a little bare at the moment, but a lot of content will be added soon. We'll send out an announcement to the LGSA list as soon as it's all ready.

By the way, if you aren't on the LGSA mailing list (remember, we have moved to an SFSU mailing list and don't use the Yahoo list anymore), and you want to receive occasional announcements about linguistics-related activities at SFSU, why not take a moment to sign up? It takes just a minute if you go here.