BLING

Attributive Adjectives and the Semantics of Inappropriateness

May 14, 3:30-5pm, Cobb 201

Nick Fleisher, Wayne State University

In this talk I discuss the syntax and semantics of a previously unexamined English attributive adjective construction and its implications for the study of gradable adjectives in the positive degree. The construction, which I call the nominal attributive-with-infinitive construction (nominal AIC), is exemplified by sentences likeMiddlemarch is a long book to assign. I argue that the major semantic characteristic of the nominal AIC—the interpretation of inappropriateness associated with it—arises compositionally from the interaction between the positive degree comparison operator and the modality of the infinitival relative clause, which contributes to the computation of the standard of comparison. Nominal AICs are compared and contrasted with a surface-identical construction I call the clausal AIC (Middlemarch is a bad book to assign), with attributive too (Middlemarch is too long (of) a book to assign), and with attributive comparatives (Middlemarch is a longer book than that); they are shown to exhibit major syntactic and semantic differences from all of these. Finally, I consider what light nominal AICs can shed on recent approaches to the determination of standards of comparison for positives. The standard provided by the infinitival relative can override the default for minimum standard absolute adjectives, but typically not for maximum standard absolutes, suggesting that there may be a difference in the linguistic status of these two types of default standard.

Spring 2009 colloquia are off and running. This full and final season of talks in the 2009 colloquium series began on April 2 with by MIT’s Adam Albright on “Rabbitometry vs. rabbitography: phonetic faithfulness and affix-by-affix differences in derived words.”

Coming up in the following weeks are several other fantastic speakers, including

April 30: Teresa Satterfield, University of Michigan

May 14: Nick Fleisher, Wayne State University

May 21: Ryan Shosted, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

May 28: Shigeto Kawahara, Rutgers University

June 4: Rob Podesva, Georgetown University

Per custom, colloquia are held on Thursday afternoons at 3:30 in Cobb 201. We look forward to these visits, and hope many of you will join us!

University of Chicago Linguistics Colloquium

Keren Rice, University of Toronto

What determines morpheme order in the Athapaskan verb?

March 5, 3:30-5:00pm, Cobb 201

Abstract:

The surface order of morphemes in the verb word of Athapaskan languages has traditionally been considered to be idiosyncratic, stipulated by a template. In Rice 2000 I argued that what I called semantic scope plays an important role in the ordering of morphemes. Here I extend the account of morpheme ordering in the verb word, focusing on a series of problems that arise if scope alone is involved. I argue that if phonological factors are also taken into account, a systematicity to the complexities of morpheme ordering in the verb emerges, with morphemes being segregated by their phonological shapes, and, within these phonologically determined groups, scope plays a major role in the ordering of morphemes. I examine the principles that control the ordering in light of recent claims that functional principles such as parsability are key to morpheme ordering.

For future colloquia, please visit: http://linguistics.uchicago.edu/newsevents/colloquia.shtml

After our holiday hiatus, this year’s colloquium series resumes with the first of four (so far) scheduled talks for the Winter quarter. Tania Ionin of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be presenting on “The scope of English indefinites: an experimental investigation” (abstract here).

As usual, this talk will take place on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Cobb 201, with department tea immediately following. We hope to see many people there as we kick off another quarter!

For our final colloquium of 2008, we are delighted to host Alicia Wassink, associate professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Washington, who will be giving a talk on “The Development of Sociolinguistic Competence in Children” this Thursday, December 4, from 3:30-5:00 p.m. in Cobb 201. (See abstract here.)

If you’re sorry to see the last of the Autumn colloquia, fear not! Here are the remaining scheduled talks for the 2008-2009 series, which will resume on January 15:

January 15: Tania Ionin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

March 5: Keren Rice, University of Toronto

April 2: Adam Albright, MIT

April 30: Teresa Satterfield, University of Michigan,

May 7: Sun-Ah Jun, UCLA

May 14: Nick Fleisher, Wayne State University

May 28: Shigeto Kawahara, Rutgers University

The Department of Linguistics was pleased to host Georgetown University’s Paul Portner last Thursday at our inaugural colloquium of the 2008-2009 series. This week, we will be having Diane Brentari of Purdue University giving a talk on tracking phonological emergence in sign languages.

We eagerly anticipate the scheduled speakers for the Autumn colloquia and invite you to join us for the remaining sessions, which generally commence at 3:30 p.m.

October 23: Paul Portner, Georgetown University

Two Problems about Permission

October 30: Diane Brentari, Purdue University

When does a system become phonological? Grammatical regularities at the interfaces

November 4: Matthias Brenzinger, University of Cologne

Changing roles for African languages in the past, present, and future

*Note special date, time and place: 4-5:30pm, Harper 103

November 13: Duane Watson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

November 20: Luis López Carretero, University of Illinois at Chicago

December 4: Alicia Wassink, University of Washington,

The Development of Sociolinguistic Competence in Children

See you there!