WHISC 3:25 --- October 6, 2005
Noam Chomsky
MIT
Biolinguisic explorations:
Design, Development, Evolution
Tuesday, October 11, 3:30 pm, Student Union Ballroom
A gathering with linguistics faculty, graduate students, and undergrads from
2:45-3:15 pm, in Campus Center 101.
Undergrads should obtain a ticket for the event from the Linguistics Department office. (The ticket also ensures access to reserved seating at the lecture.)
There will be treats, but the main purpose of the event is to permit students to ask Chomsky questions, in particular about topics not covered in his lecture. Time is short, so the questions will be preselected.
To submit a question:
- Type your question on a sheet of paper. Indicate on that paper whether you are undergrad or grad student
- Do not put your name on that paper, rather select an obscure "password" and include it on that paper too.
- Put the question, supplied with this information, in Rajesh Bhatt's mailbox by 3:00 pm on Friday of this week (in the Linguistics office).
- Put a second piece of paper including your name, your password and your e-mail address in Lisa Selkirk's box at the same time (also in the Linguistics office).
We will be selecting two questions from undergraduates and two from graduate students. Students whose questions have been selected will be informed of this on Friday night.
We apologize for this rather arcane process, but it seems that this will ensure we get the most out of our short time with Chomsky. We'll look forward to your questions!!!
[Thanks Lisa!]
Want to prepare for Chomsky's visit by finding out a bit more about the man and his ideas? There is a wealth of stuff at his official website. Here are some less standard links:
- [ChomskyBot] The key to his inimitable style
- [Ali G] How many words does Norman Chomsky know? (To obtain the password, fill in the blank as only a Chomskian would:
"a ____ conceptual necessity" (all lowercase)]
- [Populist leader?] Should Chomsky rule the world?
DISTINGUISHED LECTURER SERIES
Michael A. Arbib
University of Southern California
Computer Science, Biological Sciences, Psychology, Neuroscience,
Biomedical Engineering and Electrical Engineering
Embodying Neurolinguistics
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Computer Science Building, Rooms 150 & 151,
4:00 pm
Faculty Host: Andrew Barto
Refreshments at 3:40 pm in the atrium, outside the presentation room.
Tom Roeper has received a
2005 President's Public Service Award at the University of Massachusetts.
Tom sent us some thoughts on this award, in the form of a self-interview:
Tom: Are you pleased to get this award?
Tom: Sure, it is a great honor but I think every intellectual
can make his knowledge relevant to the public.
Tom: Do you think you deserve it?
Tom: Not really, I think they should have given it to
Harry Seymour. He was the real
leader of the DELV project
Tom: How did you contribute?
Tom: Well, a major feature of the DELV was
two levels of cooperation, between
theoretical and applied people, and
between business, academe, and the government.
Tom: So what did you do?
Tom: Well I am proud to say
that half the linguistics department (Lisa Selkirk,
Peggy Speas, Angelika Kratzer, Joe Pater, and John
Kingston) contributed to the DELV, as well as
a dozen students. I opened the door for everyone.
Tom: What was that stuff about another level?
Tom: To my surprise, I learned recently that NIH had never before had a project
where both the theoretical contingent and the corporate
team were co-operating from the outset, with the
applied scholars as well. It was Harry’s
brainchild to bring Harcourt Brace into the project
right away. The pattern may be a model for others.
Tom: Does it have any special impact?
Tom: Well, yes, apparently the lobbying of Senator Kennedy’s
committee on school standards by Harcourt has been enhanced by the authority
brought to the DELV instrument through its
academic connections.
Tom: I see --- there is more room for cooperation than one first
supposes.
Tom: Indeed!
Tom: Well, thanks for your time.
Tom: My pleasure.
The folks at the UMass Amherst Physical Plant promise something like a Rolling Stones concert starting tomorrow (October 7) at 8:00 am. The short "concerts" will last about five minutes and will happen sporadically over perhaps twelve hours! Hubbub levels are expected to be so great that police will stop traffic in the area around the "stage" --- which is right in South College's backyard! Be sure to get to campus early so that you can try to work during the show!
The Undergrad Linguistics Club has settled on a name for itself: Undergraduate DARLings: Undergraduate Discussions of Academic Research in Linguistics. They put most of the department's groups to shame with this clever acronymish title.
The Undergrad DARLings meet today (October 6) at 6:30 pm (note the time change) in the
Partee Room. David Fiske and Ryan O'Mara will discuss fake mass nouns.
Today (October 6) at 4:00, in the Partee Room, Matt Wolf will talk about his recent work:
Prenasals and stop nasalization in nasal harmony
SRG will meet today (October 6) at 8:00 pm, at Jan and AMT's place. There will be two practice talks for
Sinn und Bedeuting 10.
Continuing the too-theme from last time, Florian Schwarz will present some
of his psycholinguistic work on German auch ('too') in the form of a practice talk
for Sinn und Bedeutung 10.
Anna Verbuk will present her Sinn und Bedeutung 10 talk 'Russian predicate clefts: Tensions between semantics and pragmatics'.
[Thanks Florian!]
SPRIG's revival starts today at 5:00 pm in the Partee room. Michael Becker
will discuss server technology. Bring a laptop if you've got one, and download
the latest version of the free Apache 2 (2.0.54 at present).
- Henrietta Yang: October 10
- Masashi Hashimoto: October 10
- Masako Hirotani: October 13
