Events
Information about social events will be posted on a separate web page soon.
Forum Lectures
Michael Tomasello (MPI-EVA Leipzig)
"Where does grammar come from?"
Thursday 9 July, 7:30 pm
2050 Valley Life Sciences Building
Natalie Schilling-Estes (Georgetown University)
"Linguistic artistry, artifice, and authenticity:
The 'naturalness' of 'unnatural' speech"
Thursday 16 July, 7:30 pm
2050 Valley Life Sciences Building
Mark Baker (Rutgers University)
"Formal generative typology: A little vision and a little example"
Thursday 23 July, 7:30 pm
2050 Valley Life Sciences Building
This Forum Lecture is supported through a generous grant awarded to the 8th Biennial Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology by the National Science Foundation.
Institute Lectures
Stephen C. Levinson (MPI Nijmegen)
"Linguistic diversity and its implications for the language sciences"
Ken Hale Lecture
Thursday 30 July, 7:30 pm
2050 Valley Life Sciences Building
The Ken Hale Chair is supported through a generous matching grant awarded to the Linguistic Society of America by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Donca Steriade (MIT)
"Units of representation for linguistic rhythm"
Edward Sapir Lecture
Thursday 6 August, 7:30 pm
2050 Valley Life Sciences Building
Malcolm Ross (Australian National University)
"Understanding the history of Oceanic possessive constructions"
Hermann and Klara H. Collitz Lecture
Sunday 9 August, 7:30 pm
2050 Valley Life Sciences Building
Conferences
Dene Conference
Friday 10 July — Sunday 12 July
Contact Amy Campbell or Lindsey Newbold:
or
Website: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/alc/
33rd Stanford Child Language Research Forum: Experience and Variation in Learning a First Language (CLRF 33)
Friday 10 July — Sunday 12 July
Contact Inbal Arnon:
Website: http://www.stanford.edu/~mcdm/CLRF
Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas
Friday 17 July — Saturday 18 July
Contact Ivy Doak:
Website: http://www.ssila.org/
Cyberling 2009: Towards a Cyberinfrastructure for Linguistics
Friday 17 July — Sunday 19 July
Contact Emily Bender:
Website: http://elanguage.net/cyberling09/
Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT 8)
Thursday 23 July — Sunday 26 July
Contact Larry M. Hyman or Johanna Nichols:
Website: http://lsa2009.berkeley.edu/alt8/
International Cognitive Linguistics Conference
CANCELLED
Frames and Constructions: A Conference in Honor of Charles J. Fillmore
Friday 31 July — Sunday 2 August
Contact Eve Sweetser:
Website: http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~fillmorefest/
2009 International Conference on Role and Reference Grammar
Friday 7 August — Sunday 9 August
Contact Robert D. Van Valin:
Website: http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/RRGCONF09/
Workshops and Open Meetings
Introduction to Logistic Regression in R
(with case studies on the phonological organization of mental lexicon)
T. Florian Jaeger and Peter Graff (MIT)
Wednesday 8 July, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall
Website: http://hlplab.wordpress.com/lsa09regression
Maximum likelihood fitted logistic regression provide a statistical framework for theory-driven investigation of multiple effects on a binary outcome (such as whether a subject answers a question correctly; whether a speaker chooses a passive or an active realization of a transitive event; or whether a theoretically possible phonological word exists in the actual lexicon of a given language). If handled appropriately, logistic regression can simultaneously assess the partial effects of multiple input variable (a.k.a. independent variables, predictors) onto this outcome. Model comparison between different logistic regression models provides a systematic way to compare hypotheses (theories) given their data coverage and given the theories' complexity (cf. Occam's razor). Logistic regression also provides ways to compare effect sizes to assess the relative contributions of multiple effects on the overall data pattern. For more information on the case studies and prerequisites, and to register, see the website above.
Embodied Construction Grammar Tutorial and Workshop
Jerome Feldman (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday 8 July, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
This weekly tutorial will complement, but not depend upon, George Lakoff's course on "Semantics, grammar, and political linguistics in NTL" (LSA 127). The Neural Theory of Language (NTL) is concerned with the question of how the brain, a biological structure that evolved to run a body, can give rise to meaningful thought and language. The tutorial will explore Embodied Construction Grammar (ECG), a form of computational linguistics whose notational system links directly to models of neural computation and cognitive linguistics. This will include practical exercises with the ECG workbench and analyzer (http://ecgweb.pbworks.com). Background text: Jerome Feldman, From Molecule to Metaphor (2006).
Navigating a Linguistic Career in Higher Education
(COSWL/LSA Survival Skills Workshop)
John Baugh (Washington University in St. Louis)
Tuesday 14 July, 7:00 — 8:30 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall
Introduction to Mixed Linear Models in R
(with case studies on phonetic reduction in spontaneous speech)
T. Florian Jaeger; others (TBA) may join for a Q&A on mixed model issues
Wednesday 15 July, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall
Website: http://hlplab.wordpress.com/lsa09regression
Multilevel (or mixed) linear models provide efficient ways to model or analyze continuous data (durations, reaction times, gradient acceptability, looking times, formant ratios, etc.) while controlling for random effects (e.g. subject, speakers, items). If appropriately applied, they can even be used to analyze highly unbalanced data such as from corpora, which is typical in linguistic analyses. These models (along with multilevel logit models for categorical outcomes) are also of interest to sociolinguists (failure to account for random subject effects when investigating between-speaker [e.g. social] differences is problematic; see also Johnson 2009). I will use a large database of word duration measures from spontaneous speech to show how linear mixed models can be used to assess the partial effect of of multiple variables on a continuous outcome (word duration) while dealing with common challenges to regression models (collinearity, outliers, overfitting), and while accounting for individual speaker differences via random effect modeling (different speakers speak differently fast). The primary goal is to show what can be done with mixed models and how to do it (e.g. residualization, effect comparison, modeling of non-linearities) and what it means to make certain decisions during the modeling. For more information on the case studies and prerequisites, and to register, see the website above.
Embodied Construction Grammar Tutorial and Workshop
Jerome Feldman (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday 15 July, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
See description above (8 July)
LSA Student Lunch and Feedback Session
David Robinson (Linguistic Society of America, Director of Membership and Meetings)
Friday 17 July, 12 noon — 1:30 pm
3401 Dwinelle Hall
RSVP by July 13 to
Provide feedback on your experiences with the Linguistic Institute; share your thoughts about the LSA; and find out more about the LSA and its activities. Students at the Linguistic Institute are invited to join David Robinson, the LSA's Director of Membership and Meetings, for pizza, salad, and beverages.
Human Subjects Clinic
Monday 20 July, 7:00 — 10:00 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall
Contact Penny Eckert:
Website: http://www.stanford.edu/~eckert/irb.html
Writing Successful Grant and Fellowship Proposals
(COSWL/LSA Survival Skills Workshop)
Mary Bucholtz (UC Santa Barbara)
Tuesday 21 July, 7:00 — 8:30 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall
Embodied Construction Grammar Tutorial and Workshop
Jerome Feldman (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday 22 July, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
See description above (8 July)
Embodied Construction Grammar Tutorial and Workshop
Jerome Feldman (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday 29 July, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
See description above (8 July)
Panel Discussion: E-Discovery — An Emerging Field and its
Opportunities for Linguists
(COSWL/LSA Survival Skills Workshop)
Gina Taranto (H5)
Tuesday 4 August, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall
Embodied Construction Grammar Tutorial and Workshop
Jerome Feldman (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday 5 August, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
See description above (8 July)
Embodied Construction Grammar Tutorial and Workshop
Jerome Feldman (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday 12 August, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
See description above (8 July)
Weekly Calendar
Events on Monday through Thursday are in the evenings; events on Friday through Sunday are at various times. A google calendar of our events has been created by LGSA fledgelings.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday – Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 July | 7 July | 8 July Statistics Workshop; ECG Tutorial |
9 July Forum Lecture: Tomasello |
10-12 July Dene Conference; CLRF 33 |
| 13 July | 14 July COSWL/LSA Workshop: Baugh |
15 July Statistics Workshop; ECG Tutorial |
16 July Forum Lecture: Schilling-Estes |
17-19 July LSA Student Lunch; SSILA; Cyberling 2009 |
| 20 July Human Subjects Clinic |
21 July COSWL/LSA Workshop: Bucholtz |
22 July ECG Tutorial |
23 July Forum Lecture: Baker |
24-26 July ALT8 |
| 27 July | 28 July | 29 July ECG Tutorial |
30 July Hale Lecture: Levinson |
31 July – 2 August Frames & Constructions |
| 3 August | 4 August COSWL/LSA Workshop: Taranto |
5 August ECG Tutorial |
6 August Sapir Lecture: Steriade |
7-9 August RRG 2009; Collitz Lecture: Ross |
| 10 August | 11 August | 12 August ECG Tutorial |
13 August |
Banner design by Laurie Caird | Photo by Anne Pycha