N N L BBBB NN N L B B N N N L BBBB N N N L B B N NN LLLLL BBBB NORDIC LINGUISTIC BULLETIN - ELECTRONIC NEWS _____________________________________________________________________________ September 18, 1998 ISSN 0804 0605 Volume 7: Number 9 _____________________________________________________________________________ <<<<<< CONTENTS >>>>>> * EDITORIAL NOTE * MISCELLANEOUS - NAL: Minutes of the 1998 Business Meeting - Language technology info-desk - PrinParam: A new list for Chomskyan Syntax * JOBS - Reminder: Professor in Linguistics, Aarhus - Ph.D. Trainee Position in Theoretical Phonology * CONFERENCES and COURSES - Språkteknologi på norsk, Lysebu konferansesenter, Oslo - Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies: Empirical Approaches. Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium - Call for Papers: GLOW 1999 Berlin and Potsdam - Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference-5 (GLAC-5). University of Texas at Austin - ESSLLI'99, Utrecht University * FUTURE EVENTS * BOOKS & JOURNALS - New publications on the LFG Archive - TELRI: Proceedings and Report available - New books from MIT Press: Definite Descriptions. A Reader Prosody, Focus, and Word Order Investigations in Universal Grammar. A Guide to Experiments on the Acquisition of Syntax and Semantics - New books from Garland Publishing: Resolving Hiatus Definitions: Implications for Syntax, Semantics, and the Language of Thought Grammatical Case Assignment in Finnish - Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis. Volume 3, Number 1 - Phonological Analysis: A Functional Approach - Atomism and Binding * THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NORDIC ASSOCIATION OF LINGUISTS ============================================================================= <<<<<< EDITORIAL NOTE >>>>>> Dear subscribers, I am sorry that, due to a week's illness, this issue appears later in the month than usual. But I am very happy to report that during the past month we have received a considerable number of requests for subscription, and I would now like to send a hearty welcome to all new subscribers. I hope you will find this newsletter of interest to you. Then, I will once more encourage all subscribers to use NLB more actively than what is presently the case. I would be very happy to receive more information from the audience on linguistic publications, jobs, conferences, etc., occurring in the Nordic countries. In particular, announcements of vacant positions for linguists will be much appreciated, and I will also encourage anyone publishing dissertations to submit information about their work. Contributions to the newsletter should be sent - electronically to nlb@hit.uib.no, or - via regular mail to NLB, HIT-senteret, Allégaten 27, N-5007 Bergen, Norway. With best wishes, The Editor Martha Thunes ============================================================================= <<<<<< MISCELLANEOUS >>>>>> NORDIC ASSOCIATION OF LINGUISTS MINUTES OF THE 1998 BUSINESS MEETING The 1998 Business Meeting of the Association was held in Nyborg, Denmark on August 21, 1998 in conjunction with the 17th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, organized by the Institute of Language and Communication of Odense University. The number of members present was 8 (with outsiders 20). 1. Opening of the meeting The meeting was opened by Helge Dyvik, President of the Association, at 21.10. 2 Election of the meeting officials Helge Dyvik was elected chairman, and Marja Leinonen secretary for the meeting. 3. Agenda The agenda for the meeting was approved. 4. Minutes of the preceding NAL Business meeting The minutes of the business meeting held in Åbo, November 15, 1996, were approved. 5. Information - Scholarships: Helge Dyvik informed the meeting that two student scholarships of NOK 5,000 each had been awarded to Kaja Borthen (Trondheim) and Åshild Næss (Oslo). A special point was made of the fact that all the applicants had been from Norway and Sweden, both in 1998 and 1997, and ways of encouraging application by students of language or linguistics in all Scandinavian countries were discussed. - Membership: The number of members in 1998 was 102, while during the previous period it had been 127. The situation of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics and the decreasing membership were discussed. The membership decrease has been notable for Denmark (10) and Finland (9). The scholarships have led to some new members, but even in Sweden and Norway, the overall membership has fallen (at present Norway 40, Sweden 37). Membership fees have gone up as a result of price increases for the journal, and this may have affected the membership. Various ways of counteracting both trends were discussed: lower membership fee for students or all members without including subscription to the journal, institutional membership, which might inspire students to join, or membership without fee, the latter suggestion not gaining support. 6. Accounts The accounts prepared by Caroline Liberg and presented by Helge Dyvik were approved. The Finnish postal account has been closed. 7) Election of Executive Committee members. Executive Committee members whose terms either expired in 1997 or would expire before the next conference were Helge Dyvik (President), Caroline Liberg (Treasurer) and Elisabeth Ahlsen (Member IV). The election gave the following unanimous results: President: Kersti Börjars, Sweden Treasurer: Gjert Kristoffersen, Norway Member IV: Helena Kangasharju, Finland As new Member III, to replace Kersti Börjars who had held this position, was elected Fred Karlsson, Finland. Hence the election resulted in the following Executive Committee: President Kersti Börjars (1999-2001) Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 0XS, UK Vice-President Lars Heltoft (1997-99) Helmevej 11, DK-2950 Vedbæk, Denmark Secretary Thora Björk Hjartardóttir (1998-2000) Department of Icelandic for Foreign Students University of Iceland IS-101 REYKJAVÍK, Iceland Treasurer Gjert Kristoffersen (1999-2001) Department of Nordic language and literature University of Bergen Sydnesplassen 7 N-5007 Bergen, Norway Member I Marja Leinonen (1997-99) Lappviksgatan 31 D 30, 00180 Helsinki, Finland Member II Hanne Gram Simonsen (1997-99) Department of Linguistics University of Oslo, P.O.Box 1102, Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway Member III Fred Karlsson (1999-2001) Department of Linguistics University of Helsinki, Finland Member IV Helena Kangasharju (1999-2001) Dept. of Languages and Communication Helsinki School of Economics P. O. Box 12 10 FIN-00101 Helsinki, Finland Editor, Nordic Journal of Linguistics: Urpo Nikanne, University of Oslo, Dept. of East European and Oriental Studies, P.O.Box 1030 Blindern, N-0315 Oslo, Norway. Editor, Nordic Linguistic Bulletin: Martha Thunes, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Literature, Section for Linguistic Studies, Univ. of Bergen, Sydnesplass 7, N-5007 Bergen, Norway 8. NAL activities The following activities were discussed: - Nordic Journal of Linguistics - Nordic Linguistic Bulletin - Nordlingnet - Student scholarships Stig Eliasson had pointed out that the Editorial Board of NJL had not been re- appointed within the regulated 3-year intervals, and suggested that one might also consider reducing its size to less than 18. The Executive Committee and the Editor of NJL took note of Eliasson's reminder. The Editor, Urpo Nikanne, informed the meeting about the current situation with the volumes in print and in preparation (Volume 1 for 1999). Possibilities of changes to decrease the costs were discussed: cheaper paper, changing the publishers, no special thematic issue. However, with only one issue per year, the time lag for the aspiring authors might become unacceptable, and the two-number policy continues. At the moment, the percentage of accepted papers is 30%. The Nordic Linguistic Bulletin was presented by the editor Martha Thunes. The division of labour between the paper and the electronic versions of NLB and Nordlingnet, which was founded as a discussion forum, was clarified. As for student scholarships, there was a suggestion to increase interest by giving a substantial sum to "the best MA thesis of the year", or continuing with the two scholarships and adding this innovation. No decision was made. 9. The conferences The screening of both abstracts and papers in the proceedings of NAL conferences was discussed, again. The screening principles of the recent Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics in Reykjavík had raised the question for some members whether restrictions on the total number of papers in addition to quality constituted legitimate grounds for rejection. The meeting agreed to recommend to continue mild screening for the abstracts, and more serious screening for the papers published in the proceedings. Like previous business meetings, the meeting also agreed that within these limits the ultimate decisions about screening must be left to the local organizers, and that screening principles should be described in the information on the conferences. It was suggested that a member of the NAL Executive Committee should be included in the local organizing committees of future conferences to facilitate the flow of information. The question of conference languages was raised: should conference organisers insist on the use of a Nordic language? Since it is desirable to keep the conferences open for participants from outside Scandinavia, the meeting agreed that papers in any of the four languages Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and English would be acceptable. The formulation of instructions for conference organizers was left to the Executive Committee. 10. The next conferences The 18th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics will be held in Lund, Sweden, early in 2000, and the 11th Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2002. 11. Further business Fred Karlsson thanked Helge Dyvik for his selfless and persevering work as the President of the Association. The meeting was closed at 22.20. Helge Dyvik Marja Leinonen Chair Secretary of the meeting _____________________________________________________________________________ LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY INFO-DESK I would like to announce the info-desk "KNUTPUNKTEN". This is the Swedish website of the project EUROMAP. EUROMAP is a European Commision-supported project dedicated to promoting greater awareness of LANGUAGE TECHNOLOGY in the emerging Information and Communication Society. The goal is to help researchers, developers, suppliers and users of language technology to prepare for the forthcoming European Commision's new Framework Programme for Research and Development. This wide-ranging research and technology development agenda will provide significant funding opportunities for innovative new projects in language technology over the next four years.EUROMAP's task is to ensure that the right technology partners come together to propose the most innovative and effective projects. In each country, the local EUROMAP office will: - offer a unique language technology helpdesk - publish information about language technology - organise workshops and seminars - provide EC Framework Programme information and tutorials - provide a partner-search facility for those who wish to participate in cross-border projects in Europe. You can find us at: http://www.viktoria.informatik.gu.se/~euromap FEEL FREE TO LINK TO THIS SITE Thank you and Best Regards Karin Söderberg ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ euromap@viktoria.informatik.gu.se http://www.viktoria.informatik.gu.se/~euromap ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ National Focal Point Sweden: Viktoria Research Institute site manager name: Jan Ljungberg e-mail: janl@informatik.gu.se tel: 031-773 27 46 liaison officer, seminar organization officer name: Stefan Olsson e-mail: steffe@informatik.gu.se tel: 031-773 55 37 info-desk manager, contact database manager, web master, publications officer, news monitoring name: Karin Söderberg e-mail: karin@informatik.gu.se tel: 031-773 55 64 _____________________________________________________________________________ PRINPARAM: A NEW LIST FOR CHOMSKYAN SYNTAX This is to announce PrinParam, a new electronic list for discussions in Chomskyan syntax. PrinParam is a list for discussions of Chomskyan syntax and issues in linguistics in the Principles and Parameters tradition. Messages are welcome on any topic related to these issues and may be in the form of squibs, queries, book reviews, conference announcements, and, especially, ongoing, back-and-forth discussions of issues in Chomskyan syntax. It is expected that many list members who are engaged in an active reading of the works of Noam Chomsky and his leading colleagues will approach the list with questions for clarification, and this is highly encouraged. Subscribe to PrinParam by pointing your browser to: ; and follow the simple instructions. Please share this information with interested colleagues and students. Thank you. - Tony Wright ============================================================================= <<<<<< JOBS >>>>>> Reminder: PROFESSOR IN LINGUISTICS, Aarhus, Denmark Applications are invited for a position as full professor of Linguistics, at the Department of Linguistics, University of Aarhus, tenable from August 1, 1999, or as soon as possible thereafter. Applicants are expected to be oriented broadly within modern linguistic theory and analysis, to have experience with work on different languages, and to have undertaken original international-standard research work within one or more fields, particularly research that links empirical studies and theory development. Applicants who are willing to participate in the development of a small but growing department, will be particularly appreciated. Closing date: Monday 21 September 1998, 12 o'clock, midday. For further information about the post or the department, please contact Hans Arndt, Head of Department, Department of Linguistics, Aarhus University. Tel. (45) 8942 2146. Fax (45) 8942 2175. E-mail LINHA@HUM.AAU.DK. Cf. also http://www.au.dk/uk/hum/lingvist/index.html _____________________________________________________________________________ PH.D. TRAINEE POSITION IN THEORETICAL PHONOLOGY The Zentrum fuer Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung in Berlin, Germany, and the Research Institute of Language and Speech of Utrecht University, the Netherlands, have available a jointly funded 3-year Ph.D. trainee position (with the possibility of a 1- year extension) in THEORETICAL PHONOLOGY, starting 1 January 1999. Applicants should fulfil the following requirements: - an internationally recognized M.A. or similar degree - sophistication in Generative Theoretical Phonology. - a strong background in Phonetics is recommended - a willingness to be alternately affiliated to the Z.A.S. in Berlin and Utrecht Funding sources allow non-Dutch applicants only. The monthly fee will be appr. US$ 900. The Ph.D. degree will be taken at Utrecht University, under the joint supervision of Dr. T.A. Hall (Berlin) and prof. Wim Zonneveld (Utrecht). Before 26 September, send 3 copies of a CV and a 5-page project proposal and dissertation plan to each of the following addresses: Dr. T.A. Hall Zentrum fr Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Jaegerstrasse 10-11 10117 Berlin, Germany e-mail: hall@zas.gwz-berlin.de Prof. Wim Zonneveld Research Institute for Language and Speech Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, the Netherlands e-mail: wim.zonneveld@let.uu.nl ____________________________________ Utrecht institute of Linguistics OTS UiL OTS uil-ots@let.UU.nl voice: #31 (0)30-2536006 fax: #31 (0)30-2536000 postal adress: Trans 10, 3512 JK, Utrecht, The Netherlands ============================================================================= <<<<<< CONFERENCES and COURSES >>>>>> Norsk infrastruktur for språkteknologi (NIFST) og Norsk språkråd har gleden av å invitere til konferansen: SPRÅKTEKNOLOGI PÅ NORSK 12-13. oktober 1998 Lysebu konferansesenter http://www.hit.uib.no/spraaktek98 mailto:spraaktek98@hit.uib.no Språkteknologi på norsk skal være en strategikonferanse for norsk språkteknologi og en møteplass for alle som arbeider med, og er opptatt av, språkteknologi i Norge. HVA ER SPRÅKTEKNOLOGI? Språkteknologien utvikler elektroniske verktøy for automatisk språkbehandling, fra datamaskinelle ordbøker og korrekturprogrammer til systemer for informasjonssøking, maskinoversettelse, talegjenkjenning og kunstig tale. Kombinasjonen av elektronikk, informatikk og språkvitenskap bringer ingeniøren, realisten og humanisten til et unikt samarbeid. Sammen utvikler de produkter som vil prege vår hverdag i fremtiden, der vi kan kommunisere med datamaskinen ved hjelp av vårt mest naturlige verktøy, - menneskets eget språk. HVORFOR EN KONFERANSE OM SPRÅKTEKNOLOGI NÅ? Internasjonalt blir det utviklet språkteknologiske produkter som ikke er tilgjengelige for norsk, som dikteringssystemer, programmer for automatisk sammendrag av store tekster, og moduler for styring av forbrukerelektronikk med muntlige kommandoer. Siden norsk er et lite språksamfunn og marked, er det ikke sikkert at slike produkter vil bli utviklet for norsk uten spesiell innsats og planlegging. Konferansen vil ta for seg hvordan produktene kommer til å påvirke vår språklige og teknologiske hverdag, og hvordan vi kan og bør sikre at slike systemer vil bli utviklet for norsk. Konferansen har også bakgrunn i at språkteknologi er et av satsningsområdene i regjeringens IT- plan. For nærmere informasjon om program, påmelding m.m. se: http://www.hit.uib.no/spraaktek98 Påmeldingsfrist 22. september. PROGRAMKOMITE: Forsker Tore Burheim, Telenor forskning og utvikling, (Nå: ISI AS), leder. Forsker Lars G. Johnsen, Forskningsprogram for humanistisk informasjonsteknologi, Universitetet i Bergen, sekretær. Professor Koenraad de Smedt, Seksjon for lingvistiske fag, Universitetet i Bergen. Informasjonskonsulent Jon Grepstad, Norsk språkråd. Førsteamanuensis Janne Bondi Johannessen, Tekstlaboratoriet, Universitetet i Oslo. Forsker Knut Kvale, Telenor forskning og utvikling. Professor Torbjørn Nordgård, Lingvistisk institutt, Norges teknisk- naturvitenskaplige universitet. Førsteamanuensis Christian-Emil Smith Ore, Dokumentasjonsprosjektet, Universitetet i Oslo. Konferansesekretariat: "Språkteknologi på norsk" HIT-senteret, Allégt. 27 5007 Bergen _____________________________________________________________________________ CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS AND TRANSLATION STUDIES. EMPIRICAL APPROACHES Symposium to be held in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), 5-6 February, 1999 The call for papers and details about participating were posted over the summer. But if you missed them and want to know more about the symposium, please consult the following website: http://www.fltr.ucl.ac.be/FLTR/GERM/ContraEngl.htm ***************************************************** Professor Sylviane Granger Université Catholique de Louvain Centre for English Corpus Linguistics Collège Erasme Place Blaise Pascal 1 B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve Belgium http://www.fltr.ucl.ac.be/FLTR/GERM/ETAN/CECL/cecl.html _____________________________________________________________________________ CALL FOR PAPERS: GLOW 1999 The GLOW 99 colloquium (Generative Linguistics in the Old World) will be organized by the Research Center for General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin from 29th to 31st March 1999. The conference will then continue in Potsdam on 1st April with parallel workshops organized by the Potsdam University and LOT (Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics). Themes of the Conference: - Main colloquium: Universals - Workshops: Phonetics in Phonology Sources for Universals Technical Aspects of Movement Deadline for submission of abstracts: December 1, 1998 Submission by fax or e-mail will not be accepted. More information at http://www.fas.ag-berlin.mpg.de/events/glow/index.htm (Main colloquium) http://www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/ik/glow.html (Workshops) _____________________________________________________________________________ GERMANIC LINGUISTICS ANNUAL CONFERENCE-5 (GLAC-5) will take place at the University of Texas at Austin, April 16-18, 1999. We invite colleagues at all levels (faculty and graduate students) to submit abstracts for 30-minute papers on any linguistic or philological aspect of any historic or modern Germanic language or dialect, including English (to 1500) and the extraterritorial varieties. Papers from a range of linguistic subfields, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, language acquisition, contact, and change, as well as differing theoretical approaches, are especially welcome. Please send to the address below a one-page, 12-point font abstract that is headed only by the title of your paper, as well as a separate 3" x 5" index card with your name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, phone/fax numbers, e-mail address, and the title of your paper. Submissions must be received by January 2, 1999. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by February 1, 1999. GLAC-5 Department of Germanic Studies E. P. Schoch 3.102 University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 78712 For more information, e-mail Prof. Mark L. Louden (louden@mail.utexas.edu) or Prof. Mark R. V. Southern (m.southern@mail.utexas.edu). As of October 1, 1998, you may also consult the GLAC-5 website via the UT Germanic Studies departmental website at www.utexas.edu/depts/german/main.html. _____________________________________________________________________________ ESSLLI'99 11th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information 9-20 August, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Program and general information is now available: ftp://ftp.let.uu.nl/pub/colibri/esslli99/programma.37-1998 The ESSLLI'99 web page will be launched as soon as the course/workshop descriptions available. You can already bookmark the URL: http://esslli.let.uu.nl See also: http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/ For all communication about ESSLLI'99, use the following e-mail and postal address: ESSLLI'99 Utrecht Institute of Linguistics, OTS Trans 10 3512 JK Utrecht The Netherlands e-mail: esslli99@let.uu.nl ============================================================================= <<<<<< FUTURE EVENTS >>>>>> Our list of future conferences now includes references to web-sites for several of the conferences. This practice then takes over the mail-based information retrieval service which has been offered for some time by the Norwegian Computing Centre for the Humanities. Meanwhile, it is still possible to retrieve information on specific conferences from the NCCH server nora.hd.uib.no. References to the available files are included in the conference list below, where the file names are entered in parentheses under the specific conference entries. To retrieve a file send an e-mail analogous to the following example: To: FILESERV@hd.uib.no Subj: whatever send konferanser endang.kon 98-09-21 Minority Languages in Context: Diversity and Standardisation 'Colloque 1998 de la VALS/ASLA', Chur, Switzerland http://www.romsem.unibas.ch/vals_asla/Colloque98/colloque98eng.htm 98-09-23 Workshop on Text, Speech and Dialog (TSD'98) Brno, Czech Republic http://www.fi.muni.cz/tsd98/ 98-09-24 SPoSS Workshop on Sound Patterns of Spontaneous Speech: Production and Perception, Aix en Provence www.lpl.univ-aix.fr/sposs 98-09-25 The Future of the Humanities in the Digital Age: Problems and perspectives for humanities education and research, Bergen http://www.futurehum.uib.no/ 98-09-25 Workshop on Endangered Languages - Edinburgh, 25-27 Sept 98 (ENDANG.KON) http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Philosophy/CTLL/FEL/ 98-09-25 The Fourth International Conference on Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition IV Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA http://verb.linguist.pitt.edu/~gasla/ 98-10-02 Translation and Cognition Savonlinna School of Translation Studies, University of Joensuu http://www.hd.uib.no/nordlingnet/1996-3/0103.html 98-10-02 Workshop on Ellipsis in Conjunction Zentrum fur Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) Berlinn http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de 98-10-05 KONVENS 98: Computers, Linguistics, and Phonetics between Language and Speech 4th Conference on Natural Language Processing http://www.ikp.uni-bonn.de/Konvens98 98-10-10 4th conference on Conceptual Structure, Discourse, and Language (CSDL-4) Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/LINGUISTICS/CSDL/ 98-10-12 Språkteknologi på norsk, Lysebu konferansesenter, Oslo http://www.hit.uib.no/spraaktek98 98-10-16 AiML'98 Advances in Modal Logic'98 Uppsala, Sweden Email enquiries: Krister.Segerberg@filosofi.uu.se http://www.wins.uva.nl/~mdr/AiML 98-10-16 NELS 29 Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Linguistic Society University of Delaware, Newark, DE http://sun.ling.udel.edu/nels-29 nels-29@udel.edu 98-10-19 The Utrecht Congress on "Storage and Computation in Linguistics" http://www-uilots.let.ruu.nl/UiL-OTS/Conferences/sc_home.htm 98-10-28 Association for Machine Translation in the Americas AMTA-98 Conference, Langhorne, Pennsylvania http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/AMTA98.html 98-11-09 Vilem Mathesius Lecture Series 13 November 9-20, 1998 The Vilem Mathesius Centre for Research and Education in Semiotics and Linguistics, Prague, Czech Republic http://kwetal.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~gj/vmc/ 98-11-12 TISLR 6 The Sixth International Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research http://www.gallaudet.edu/~aslweb/tislr98/ 98-11-12 Translating and the Computer 20 - Conference and Exhibition London http://www.aslib.co.uk/conferences/index.html 98-11-26 1998 NIC Symposium on Intercultural Communication, Gothenburg, Sweden. (NIC98.KON) http://www.ling.gu.se/events/icc98.html 98-11-26 Nordisk Språknormeringskonferanse, Høgskolen i Agder, Kristiansand, Norway http://www.krs.hia.no/~sprak98/ 98-11-30 The 5th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing Sydney http://cslab.anu.edu.au/icslp98 98-12-04 Fifth Meeting of the ADL (Atelier des Doctorants de Linguistique) University of Paris 7 - Denis Diderot http://www.linguist.jussieu.fr/~leglise/adlp7/adlp7.htm 98-12-09 ConSOLE 7 at the University of Bergen http://www.ling.uib.no/ConSOLE-7 98-12-10 Going Romance 1998 Twelfth Symposium on Romance Linguistics Utrecht University http://www-uilots.let.ruu.nl/ 98-12-11 Modal verbs in Germanic and Romance languages International Conference of the Linguistic Society of Belgium http://rom-www.uia.ac.be/u/pdendale/colleng.html 98-12-11 Sinn und Bedeutung 1998 3rd annual meeting of the Gesellschaft fuer Semantik, University of Leipzig http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~asw/sinn98/index_eg.htm 98-12-12 Using and Acquiring the Lexicon (workshop during Going Romance, Dec. 10-12) Utrecht University http://www-uilots.let.ruu.nl/Conferences 98-12-14 International Symposium on Computer Learner Corpora, Second Language Acquisition and Foreign Language Teaching, Hong Kong http://www.fltr.ucl.ac.be/FLTR/GERM/ETAN/CECL/cecl.html 98-12-14 LACL98 Logical Aspects of Computational Linguistics, Grenoble http://www-bshm.upmf-grenoble.fr/LACL98/ 99-01-08 14th Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop. Lund, Sweden Enquiries: christer.platzack@nordlund.lu.se http://www.nordlund.lu.se/cgs.html 99-01-13 Third International Workshop on Computational Semantics IWCS-3 Tilburg, The Netherlands http://cwis.kub.nl/~fdl/research/ti/Docs/IWCS/iwcs.htm 99-01-28 The Fourth HIL Phonology Conference (HILP 4), Leiden http://www.leidenuniv.nl/hil/confs/hilp4 99-02-05 Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies: Empirical Approaches Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium granger@lige.ucl.ac.be http://www.fltr.ucl.ac.be/FLTR/GERM/ContraEngl.htm 99-02-24 21st annual meeting of the German Society of Linguistics (DGfS) Konstanz, Germany http://dgfs99.uni-konstanz.de/ 99-02-24 Workshop 'Change in Prosodic Systems', Konstanz, Germany http://www.sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de/linguist/issues/9/9-799.html 99-02-24 Workshop 'Meaning Change - Meaning Variation', Konstanz, Germany http://dgfs99.uni-konstanz.de 99-03-29 GLOW 99 (Generative Linguistics in the Old World), Research Center for General Linguistics (ZAS), Berlin, and Potsdam University. http://www.fas.ag-berlin.mpg.de/events/glow/index.htm http://www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/ik/glow.html 99-04-08 LSRL 29 The XXIX Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages University of Michigan http://www.umich.edu/~lsrl 99-04-14 2nd International Symposium on Bilingualism, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK http://www.ncl.ac/~nspeech 99-04-15 XIth international conference "Acquisition of a foreign language: perspectives and research". Pragmatic Uses & Acquisition of Foreign Languages. Universite de la Sorbonne nouvelle-Paris III. http://www.sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de/linguist/issues/9/9-640.html 99-04-16 44th Annual Conference, International Linguistic Association New York University deakins@frontier.wilpaterson.edu 99-06-13 PRAGMA99 International Pragmatics Conference on Pragmatics and Negotiation. Tel Aviv University & Hebrew University of Jerusalem http://www.sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de/linguist/issues/9/9-835.html http://www.sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de/linguist/issues/9/9-1266.html#2 99-06-17 New Reflections on Grammaticalization An International Symposium at Potsdam University http://www.sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de/linguist/issues/9/9-637.html 99-06-21 The Summer Linguistic Institute 1999, Illinois. "Linguistics for the 21st Century: Form and Function from Western and Nonwestern Perspectives" http://cogsci.uiuc.edu/~linginst/1999/page.html. 99-07-10 ICLC'99 International Conference of Cognitive Linguistics http://www.iclc99.su.se./iclc99 Stockholm University 99-07-12 International Congress for the Study of Child Language University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain http://www.vc.ehu.es/iascl99/iascl.htm 99-07-12 Sixth Conference on Natural Language Processing (TALN99), Corsica, France http://talana.linguist.jussieu.fr/taln99 99-08-09 Eleventh European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information August 9-20, 1999, Utrecht, The Netherlands ftp://ftp.let.uu.nl/pub/colibri/esslli99/programma.37-1998 http://esslli.let.uu.nl 99-09-09 The Second International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Modeling and Using Context (CONTEXT'99) Trento, Italy http://www-sysdef.lip6.fr/CONTEXT-99/ 99-09-13 Machine Translation Summit VII, National University of Singapore http://www.krdl.org.sg ============================================================================= <<<<<< BOOKS & JOURNALS >>>>>> New publications on the LFG Archive These can be collected from: http://www-lfg.stanford.edu/lfg/archive/new.html http://www-lfg.stanford.edu/lfg/archive/archive.html o Ackerman, Farrell and John Moore (1998) "Syntagmatic and paradigmatic Dimensions of Causee Encoding" [ackerman-1998-0000] (ps) o Bodomo, Adams (1998) A lexical semantic analysis of faa complex predicates in Norwegian [bodomo-1998-0622] (rtf) o Joan Bresnan (1998) The Emergence of the Unmarked Pronoun II. [bresnan-1998-0712]. Revision (ps) o Joan Bresnan (1998) Pidgin Genesis in Optimality Theory [bresnan-1998-0714]. Revision. (ps) o Broeker, Norbert (1998) A Projection Architecture for Dependency Grammar and How it Compares to LFG [broeker-1998-0729] (ps) o Louisa Sadler (1998) Syntactic Clitics, the structure-function mapping and morphological blocking [sadler-1998-0415] o Louisa Sadler (1998) Welsh NPs without Head Movement [sadler-1998-0815] o Williford, Sean Michael (1997) Two issues in the syntax of Welsh noun phrases: an LFG approach [williford-1997-1026] - Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au _____________________________________________________________________________ TELRI: PROCEEDINGS AND REPORT AVAILABLE TELRI, the Trans-European Language Resource Infrastructure, funded by the EU (COPERNICUS), is happy to announce that free copies of the following are available on a first come, first served basis to anyone interested. Please reply to lawson@ids-mannheim.de and specify which (or both) you would like. Please include a full postal address: 1) Proceedings of the TELRI Third Seminar on "Translation Equivalence", October 1997 (271 pages) 26 contributions from international experts in the field, heavily corpus-based/computationally oriented. 2) Final Report of the TELRI Project (122 pages) with CD-ROM Information about the first stage of the project, reports and documentation. For more info on the project, please see the homepage (will be updated soon!) http://www.ids-mannheim.de/telri/ Best wishes, The TELRI Team Dr Ann Lawson Abteilung LEXIK lawson@ids-mannheim.de Institut fuer deutsche Sprache Tel: +49 621 1581 427 R5, 6-13 Fax: +49 621 1581 415 D-68161 Mannheim _____________________________________________________________________________ NEW BOOKS FROM MIT PRESS DEFINITE DESCRIPTIONS. A READER Edited by Gary Ostertag Bertrand Russell's theory of definite descriptions sparked an ongoing debate concerning the proper logical and linguistic analysis of definite descriptions. While it is now widely acknowledged that, like the indexical expressions 'I', 'here', and 'now', definite descriptions in natural language are context-sensitive, there is significant disagreement as to the ultimate challenge this context-sensitivity poses to Russell's theory. This reader is intended both to introduce students to the philosophy of language via the theory of descriptions, and to provide scholars in analytic philosophy with ready access to some of the central contributions in this area. It includes classic works by Russell, Carnap, Strawson, Lambert, Donnellan, Grice, Peacocke, Kripke, Wettstein, Soames, Neale, and Schiffer. Gary Ostertag is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Philosophy at New York University. A Bradford Book August 1998. 6 x 9, 448 pp. paper ISBN 0-262-65049-5 More information at http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/OSTDPS98 PROSODY, FOCUS, AND WORD ORDER Maria Luisa Zubizarreta This monograph exemplifies a new trend in grammatical theory in which researchers combine findings from more than one area of linguistics. Specifically, the author looks at the relationship between phrasal prominence and focus in Romance and Germanic languages to provide new insights into how these properties are grammatically articulated. Building upon previous results in the field, she argues that phrasal prominence (nuclear stress) reflects syntactic ordering. There are two varieties of syntactic ordering. The first is the standard asymmetric c-command ordering. The second is the ordering derived from the primitive relation of selection holding between a head and its associated argument. Part of the difference between Germanic and Romance languages stems from a difference in the way the two syntactic orderings interact in the mapping onto phrasal prominence. The author shows that the symmetry between syntactic ordering and phrasal prominence so defined may be broken because of the independent requirement that a focused constituent must contain the most prominent element in the sentence. Two kinds of processes come into play to repair the broken symmetry. One is a process of deaccenting. The other is a process of movement, called "p-movement." The author shows that a proper understanding of the properties of p-movement can be attained within the framework of the Minimalist Program. Maria Luisa Zubizarreta is Associate Professor at the University of Southern California. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 33 August 1998. 6 x 9, 232 pp., 4 illus. paper ISBN 0-262-74021-4 cloth ISBN 0-262-24041-6 More information at http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/ZUBPPS98 INVESTIGATIONS IN UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR A GUIDE TO EXPERIMENTS ON THE ACQUISITION OF SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS Stephen Crain and Rosalind Thornton This introductory guide to language acquisition research is presented within the framework of Universal Grammar, a theory of the human faculty for language. The authors focus on two experimental techniques for assessing children's linguistic competence: the Elicited Production task, a production task, and the Truth Value Judgment task, a comprehension task. Their methodologies are designed to overcome the numerous obstacles to empirical investigation of children's language competence. They produce research results that are more reproducible and less likely to be dismissed as an artifact of improper experimental procedure. In the first section of the book, the authors examine the fundamental assumptions that guide research in this area; they present both a theory of linguistic competence and a model of language processing. In the following two sections, they discuss in detail their two experimental techniques. Stephen Crain is Professor of Linguistics and Rosalind Thornton is Assistant Professor of Linguistics, both at the University of Maryland at College Park. Language, Speech, and Communication Series A Bradford Book May 1998. 7 x 10, 368 pp., 46 illus. cloth ISBN 0-262-03250-3 More information at http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/CRAIHS98 Jud Wolfskill Associate Publicist Phone: (617) 253-2079 MIT Press Fax: (617) 253-1709 Five Cambridge Center E-mail: wolfskil@mit.edu Cambridge, MA 02142-1493 http://mitpress.mit.edu _____________________________________________________________________________ NEW BOOKS FROM GARLAND PUBLISHING E-mail: info@garland.com RESOLVING HIATUS Casali, Roderic F. Garland Publishing; Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics 0-8153-3149-5, cloth; $59 This study investigates two alternative ways in which languages resolve sequences of adjacent vowels (hiatus): deletion of one of the vowels, or coalescence of the adjacent vowels to form a third vowel that combines features of both the originals. Although existing phonological theories predict relatively few restrictions on the behavior of either process, a survey of 92 languages reveals a number of surprising and previously unreported limitations on their behavior. For example, although deletion of the first of two vowels is extremely common and can apply in any position, deletion of the second vowel is restricted to certain well-defined morpho- syntactic contexts, such as the boundary between a root and a suffix. These restrictions, are explained in terms of functionally-motivated constraints that favor preservation of phonological material in certain prominent positions, such as in root morphemes. In the case of coalescence, the study reveals a surprising correlation between the structure of a language's vowel inventory and the result of merging high and a non-high vowels. This correlation is explained in terms of a novel theory of acoustic height features whose detailed specification is determined by functionally-motivated constraints sensitive to the number of vowel heights within a particular language. DEFINITIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR SYNTAX, SEMANTICS, AND THE LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT Cormack, Annabel Garland Publishing; Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics 0-8153-3131-2, cloth; $83 The answer to the question "How can we understand and use a definition?" provides new constraints on natural language and on the internal language in which meaning is mentally represented. Most syntax takes the sentence as the basic unit for well-formedness, but definitions force us to focus on words and phrases, and hence to focus on compositional syntax in parallel with compositional semantics. This study examines both dictionary definitions and definitions from textbooks from the points of view of their syntax, semantics, and use for learning word meaning. The tools used throughout are Principles and Parameters syntax, Relevance theoretic pragmatics, Model theoretic semantics, and the formal theory of definitions. The analyses argue that because phrases can be understood in isolation, some standard syntactic analyses must be modified. 'NP movement' has to be reanalysed as transmission of theta roles. These ideas are then applied to a variety of adjectives which take propositional complements. The final chapter argues that for definitions to be understood, the syntax of the Language of Thought must be close to that of Natural Language in specifiable ways. For example, semantic types must be common to the two languages. The book will be of interest to linguists concerned with syntax, semantics and pragmatics; philosophers of mind and of language; and lexicographers. GRAMMATICAL CASE ASSIGNMENT IN FINNISH Nelson, Diane Carlita Garland Publishing; Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics 0-8153-3180-0, cloth; $65 This study presents an analysis of patterns of morphological case in Finnish within the Principles and Parameters framework. Finnish has a rich system of inflection for both case and agreement, making it an important language for testing hypotheses about the relationships between morphological case and abstract Case, and Case/case and agreement. The focus of the study is a set of syntactic environments where internal DP arguments appear in nominative case, but alternate with accusative pronouns. In the same contexts, internal arguments may also receive partitive case to encode features related to aspect or indefiniteness. Because these environments lack an external argument coindexed with agreement, the data is particularly relevant to predictions made by Burzio's Generalization. By testing Burzio's hypothesis systematically against a range of sentence types, Finnish is shown to contain an ergative case subsystem within a nominative-accusative main system. The assignment of the objective cases is linked with the licensing of aspectual roles at D-structure, and finite Tense is posited as a bi-unique Case assigner. The case split then arises as the result of two case features being assigned simultaneously to an internal argument, objective Case at D-structure associated with aspect, and nominative Case at S-structure associated with finite Tense where an external argument is not available. Morphological spell- out rules for particular argument types are proposed which determine the surface case realization of doubly-case assigned nominals. _____________________________________________________________________________ INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL FOR GERMANIC LINGUISTICS AND SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS Volume 3, Number 1 (Spring 1998) Contents: Farronato, Christina: Holbein's "Dead Christ" and the Horror of the Broken Narrative Liberman, Anatoly: Toward a Theory of West Germanic Breakings Nth, Winfried: Symmetry in Signs and Semiotic Systems Page, Richard: A Gestural Approach to Lexical Diffusion and Neogrammarian Sound Change in Common Scandinavian Penzl, Herbert and Thomas F. Shannon: Shakespeare's Stage Pronunciation: Part of "Proto-American English"? Sanjins, Jos: Baroque-Shores of Eco's "The Island of the Day Before" Reviews Subscription (2 issues per year): students $15; individuals $20; institutions $30 Subscribe to: irauch@socrates.berkeley.edu Back issues available at $10 per issue or full year at subscription cost. _____________________________________________________________________________ PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS: A FUNCTIONAL APPROACH Burquest, Donald A. Pb; ISBN: 1-55671-067-4; x+314 pp., 1998, 2nd ed., $29.00. Summer Institute of Linguistics. Human language is a remarkable phenomenon. Its study continues to be a source of fascination and delight. Dr. Donald Burquest, professor of linguistics at the University of Texas at Arlington, developed this foundational textbook during years of helping students overcome the feelings of dismay that new phonology students experience when confronted by a mass of raw phonetic data. While working through the material, the student is led through the steps of organizing data and is introduced to particular theories for later in-depth specialization. The author expands on the previous edition of this text by adding introductions to Autosegmental Phonology and Metrical Phonology. He has also included a series of problems at the end of most chapters that provide an opportunity for the student to apply the information in that chapter. This textbook is intended for use in an upper division introductory course in phonology, preparing the student to further study aspects of current theory. _____________________________________________________________________________ ATOMISM AND BINDING Edited by Hans Bennis, Pierre Pica and Johan Rooryck The state of the art in binding: everything on reference, coreference, nonreference and disjoint reference, and more on boundedness and freedom. The sixteen papers in this new volume provide a representative overview of the broad range of issues relevant to the study of binding phenomena in the generative framework. Since the inception of the theoretical interest in co- referential relations in generative grammar, there has been a debate with respect to the question as to whether and how (co)-reference should be represented in the grammar. Notions such as "(co)-indexation", "disjoint reference", "free" and "bound" play an important role in this discussion. Their relevance is explicitly analyzed in many articles of this volume. The role of thematic information in Binding Theory constitutes another important line of inquiry elaborated on in this book. Various contributors to this volume argue that thematic information largely influences binding phenomena, although the specific proposals expressing this relation differ quite substantially. Another issue pursued here is related to the discussion whether Binding Theory is a component of sentence grammar. Many papers address this issue quite explicitly and delineate the respective roles of sentence and discourse grammar in novel and intriguing ways. The volume contains the following contributions: Stephen Berman & Arild Hestvik: "Split antecedents, noncoreference and DRT" George Aaron Broadwell: "Binding theory and switch-reference" Hamida Demirdache: "Condition C" Robert Fiengo & Robert May: "The semantic significance of syntactic identity" Zygmunt Frajzyngier: "Pronouns and agreement: Systems interaction in the coding of reference" Robert Freidin: "Binding theory on Minimalist assumptions" Jeff Gruber: "A configurational approach to thematic binding" James Higginbotham: "A plea for implicit anaphors" Hajime Hoji: "Sloppy identity and Principle B" Jan Koster: "Anaphora and the uniformity of grammar" Howard Lasnik: "Levels of representation and the elements of anaphora" Seth Minkoff: "On the syntax of local and logophoric control" Gertjan Postma: "Logical entailment and the possessive nature of reflexive pronouns" Eric Reuland & Sigridur Sigurjonsdottir: "Long distance 'binding' in Icelandic: Syntax or discourse?" Ken Safir: "Symmetry and unity in the theory of anaphora" Christopher Tancredi: "Pronouns and perspectives" And a very informative introduction by the editors. xx+412 pp. isbn 90 6765 535 x. Paperback. Price: NLG 61,32 (excl. VAT and P&P) Holland Academic Graphics, The Hague ; Rint Sybesma Holland Academic Graphics PO Box 53292 2505 AG The Hague The Netherlands fax: +31 70 448 0177 ============================================================================= <<<<< THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE NORDIC ASSOCIATION OF LINGUISTS >>>>> ( President Helge Dyvik (1996-98) Department of Linguistics and Comparative Literature, Section for Linguistic Studies Univ. of Bergen, Sydnesplass 7, N-5007 Bergen, Norway ) President Kersti Börjars (1999-2001) Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 0XS, UK Vice-President Lars Heltoft (1997-99) Helmevej 11, DK-2950 Vedbæk, Denmark Secretary Thora Björk Hjartardóttir (1998-2000) Department of Icelandic for Foreign Students University of Iceland IS-101 REYKJAVIK Iceland Treasurer Gjert Kristoffersen (1999-2001) Department of Nordic language and literature University of Bergen Sydnesplassen 7 N-5007 Bergen, Norway Member I Marja Leinonen (1997-99) Lappviksgatan 31 D 30, 00180 Helsinki Member II Hanne Gram Simonsen (1997-99) Department of Linguistics University of Oslo, P.O.Box 1102, Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway ( Member III Kersti Börjars (1998-2000) Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 0XS, UK ) Member III Fred Karlsson (1999-2001) Department of Linguistics University of Helsinki, Finland ( Member IV Elisabeth Ahlsén (1996-98) Department of Linguistics, Univ. of Göteborg, S-412 98 Göteborg, Sweden ) Member IV Helena Kangasharju (1999-2001) Dept. of Languages and Communication Helsinki School of Economics P. O. Box 12 10 FIN-00101 Helsinki, Finland Editor, Nordic Journal of Linguistics: Urpo Nikanne, University of Oslo, Dept. of East European and Oriental Studies, P.O.Box 1030 Blindern, N-0315 Oslo, Norway. Editor, Nordic Linguistic Bulletin: Martha Thunes, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Literature, Section for Linguistic Studies, Univ. of Bergen, Sydnesplass 7, N-5007 Bergen, Norway Martha.Thunes@lili.uib.no Legally responsible publisher Helge Dyvik (address above) Editor Martha Thunes (address above) --------------------------------------------------- MEMBERSHIP IN THE NORDIC ASSOCIATION OF LINGUISTS Membership in the Nordic Association of Linguists (NAL) is open to any individual concerned with the field of linguistics or related areas of research. Members of the Association receive both the scientific journal Nordic Journal of Linguistics (NJL) and the information bulletin Nordic Linguistic Bulletin (NLB). 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However, these individuals must express their interest in continuing their membership each year to the editor of the Bulletin. ---------------------------- NORDIC LINGUISTIC BULLETIN Information to this newsletter, the NLB, should be sent to nlb@hit.uib.no or NLB, HIT-senteret, Allégaten 27, N-5007 Bergen, Norway. ----------------------------- CHAIRMAN OF THE ASSOCIATION Correspondence relating to other matters should be sent to: Helge Dyvik, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Literature, Section for Linguistic Studies, University of Bergen, Sydnesplass 7, N-5007 Bergen, Norway. Send requests for subscription to NLB Electronic News to: nlb@hit.uib.no with your name, e-mail address, and postal address. ****************************************************************************** END NLB ELECTRONIC NEWS 7(9), 1998