Youri Zabbal has redesigned and updated the Alumni and Alumnae Information page of the department website. Much of the work was done by Kathy and work-study undergraduate Jaime. Thanks to all of them.

From 'Cursing is hardly new, but it's tough to know exactly what was said', Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2004:

"...A real Huckleberry Finn, a lower-class teenaged runaway, would likely have had a dierier mouth than the fictional character does, suggests John J. McCarthy, a linguistics professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Most 19th-century journalism and fiction was cleaned up, either by omitting words, using dashes or substituting euphemisms like 'pshaw!' or 'land's sake!'"

[Thanks to Kathryn Flack]

Witold Marciszewski writing in 1999 in the journal Philosophy of Science on the Polish philosopher Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz: "In [his contribution to the debate among Polish philosophers on universals] Ajdukiewicz shows that when one says that individuals exist, the word exist refers to something different than in the statement that universals exist. In other words, the functor is has a different category in the definition of an individual from that appearing in the definition of a universal; hence there must be two different senses of the word exist."

Or in the words of an American linguistic philospher, "it depends on what is is."

"The Day After Tomorrow" is rated Pg-13. Millions of people die, but nobody swears, copulates, undresses or takes drugs.

[Thanks to Barbara Partee]

The following is at the end of a movie review by A. O. Scott in The New York Times (July 2, 2004):

"Before Sunset" [...] is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). There is nothing but talk, but some of it is fairly explicit.

here's an item of potential interest to WHISC readers: a story about a pretentious french author who out of dislike for verbs (he claims), has written a full-length book without (he claims) using any.

the novel inspired this review in the chronicle of higher education.

South College linguists have begun sending in postcards and greetings from their summer adventures. Click on the picture for more pictures and links to a slide-show.

Keep the images and messages coming!

Hi everybody!

I've returned to Holland safely, and just wanted to thank you all again for the great I've had in UMass! That was how linguistics should be:) If you ever come to Holland, be sure to stop by. Best to you all,

Vincent

Wynn Chao and I and Chris and Gabby went to Hong Kong, end of March beginning of April. Wynn and I did some lectures and such at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. (In between, some family activities with Wynn's HK family. Visiting relatives can be very filling!) My lectures and notes for a workshop are posted on my website: workshop on fieldwork, lectures on "Some First Nations Languages of the Pacific Northwest," and "Word Typology Revisited." I recently got final confirmation on a two year grant from the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project for work (with Pat Shaw, UBC) in Kitamaat Village, BC, on Haisla and Henaaksiala, starting this summer. I'll be going there twice a year for a month or so, and hope to have a chance to stop over in Amherst on the way.

Best for a good summer, Emmon

John McCarthy has been selected to deliver a lecture in the 2004-2005 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series.

Photos from the 2004 UMass Graduation Ceremonies, May 28, 2004:

Ellen Woolford (right) reassures Angelika Kratzer and Lisa Selkirk	Peggy Speas, John McCarthy, Mike Terry, Lisa, and Angelika
Peggy, Ellen, Mike, Lisa, and Angelika	Ellen, Peggy, Mike, and Lisa

Eva Juarros was also there to receive her degree. Other students who were listed in the program because they received PhDs since September 2003 are Maria Gouskova, Nancy Hall, and Caroline Jones.

[Thanks to John McCarthy]

Luis Alonso-Ovalle was awarded a University Fellowship for the upcoming school year. He'll spend the time of the fellowship's support not driving back and forth from Boston. Instead, he'll be working on disjunction, indefinites, free-choice, and whatever this research leads him to.

Angelika Kratzer was an invited speaker at the the 2004 Milan Meeting, which was held at the Università degli Studi di Milano, June 10-12. Mats Rooth (UMass PhD 1985) was also an invited speaker.

Francesca Foppolo, a Fall 2003 South College visitor, sent in some lovely pictures of the conference site and environs. These are viewable at the WHISC 2004 postcards page. Francesca also wrote with thanks to "Sandro Zucchi (UMass PhD 1989) for organizing a really thought-provoking conference with gorgeous people in an amazing place!"

This workshop is the kick-off meeting of an international research collaboration on the acquisition of tense and aspect in normal and impaired L1 acquisition. The 3-year collaboration is made possible by a grant to the University of Groningen from NWO (the Dutch National Council for Scientific Research) and additional funds from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At the workshop work in progress and research plans will be presented and discussed. The workshop is free and open to anybody interested. It will take place at the Faculty of Letters, Harmonie building, room H12.024.

Angeliek van Hout was a visitor at UMass, as is Liane Jeschull. Bart Hollebrandse is a UMass PhD (2000). Janice Jackson is a UMass ComDis grad. Jill deVilliers was also there.

So this was largely an outgrowth of the kind of collaborative work that happens at UMass.

Chris Potts will be in St. Petersburg, Russia, for July, teaching at the The New York Institute of Cognitive and Cultural Studies, "an advanced study program organized every July in St. Petersburg, Russia as a joint project between St. Petersburg State Universuity and the State University of New York at Stony Brook". He'll be teaching two classes: Introduction to Pragmatics and Controlling the Discourse.

The pragmatics course now has a website, with some readings, many pragmatics links, and some course notes (in 1up and 2up PDF). The goal of the notes is to bring students from zero linguistics to intrusive conversational implicatures in just two weeks!