Events

Forum Lectures | Institute Lectures | Conferences | Workshops and Open Meetings | Weekly Calendar

See also our social events web page.

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
Monday 10 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
370 Dwinelle Hall
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
370 Dwinelle Hall
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
87 Dwinelle Hall

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)
87 Dwinelle Hall

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)
87 Dwinelle Hall

Embodied Construction Grammar Tutorial and Workshop
Jerome Feldman (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday 29 July, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
See description above (8 July)
87 Dwinelle Hall

Wakashan Film Night (in conjunction with LSA 236)
Introduced by Emmon Bach and Patricia Shaw
Monday 3 August, 7:00 — 9:30 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall

7:00 — 8:00 pm
Franz Boas (1858-1942) (PBS, 1980, 59 min.): A portrait of "the father of American anthropology," this film intercuts archival photographs and motion pictures, including work by photographer Edward Curtis and film footage shot by Boas himself, with recent film from the Pacific Northwest. It was in the Pacific Northwest that Boas made repeated field trips at the turn of the century, to work among the Kwakiut'l. Reflections and anecdotes by scholars, former students of Boas, and the Kwakiut'l themselves are interwoven with Boas' own words, taken from journals, letters, and other writings, to tell the story of this remarkable man.

8:15 — 9:15 pm
Q'átuw'as: People Gathering Together (NFB, 1997, 58 min.): For thousands of years the great ocean-going canoe sustained the cultural and spiritual traditions of coastal First Nations. Yet the 20th century saw the virtual disappearance of these sacred vessels. In the 1980's, Native people of the Northwest Coast embarked on an emotional voyage of rediscovery. Reclaiming their ancient maritime heritage, they carved majestic canoes from cedars that were living hundreds of years before Europeans arrived in the Pacific Northwest. Crews from 30 First Nations then set out in 1993 on a remarkable journey, paddling hundreds of kilometers along ancient waterways to an historic gathering of more than 3000 people at Bella Bella, British Columbia. This film powerfully documents this rebirth of the ocean-going canoe and celebrates the healing power of tradition and the resurgence of Northwest Coast indigenous culture.

Panel Discussion: E-Discovery — An Emerging Field and its Opportunities for Linguists
(COSWL/LSA Survival Skills Workshop)

Gina Taranto, moderator (H5); Dan Brassil (H5), Svetlana Godjevac (Xerox Litigation Services), Dick Oehrle (Cataphora)
Tuesday 4 August, 7:00 — 8:30 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)
87 Dwinelle Hall

Bay Area Industrial Linguists
Tuesday 11 August, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall
Contact: ba-industrial-linguists@googlegroups.com

Bay Area Industrial Linguists (BAIL) is an informal organization of Industrial Linguists — professional linguists who work on language-related issues and technologies outside of academia. Some of us work in the field of Computational Linguistics or Speech Technology in companies or research organizations. Others work in text-oriented fields as Information Technology specialists or legal or medical discourse analysts. Still others work as translators, legal analysts, applied psycholinguists and so on. While we share with our colleagues in universities a common love of language and passion for linguistic investigation, our daily work lives are very different. While Industrial Linguists may do theoretical research, publish in scholarly journals and present papers at scientific conferences, we also derive deep satisfaction as well as career advancement from the impact we make on problems in the world.

At this meeting, after a brief introduction of the organization, several young linguists recently graduated with degrees in Linguistics will talk about their experiences as Industrial Linguistics, how they came to choose to work outside of academia, what they do on the job and how they envision their careers developing in the future. After the formal meeting, we will have the opportunity to socialize and network with each other. We look forward to meeting you.

Embodied Construction Grammar Tutorial and Workshop
Jerome Feldman (UC Berkeley)
Wednesday 12 August, 7:00 — 9:00 pm
See description above (8 July)
87 Dwinelle Hall

Lunchtime Film: Return to Xinalugh (in Russian and Xinalugh with English subtitles)
Introduced by Johanna Nichols
Thursday 13 August, 12:30 — 1:00 pm
370 Dwinelle Hall

A 23-minute documentary produced in Russia, showing a return trip by Moscow linguists Alexander Kibrik and Sandro Kodzasov to Xinalugh (Azerbaijan), where a one-village, isolate-branch East Caucasian language is spoken. A team description of the Xinalugh language published in 1972 was the first in a series of linguistically sophisticated multi-author field grammars of East Caucasian languages that have come to define the Moscow linguistic school and have made the East Caucasian languages accessible to linguists. Recently Kibrik and Kodzasov have returned to some of their early field sites to expand and update grammar, dictionary, and text coverage. This film depicts one such trip and gives a good feel for what field linguists actually do to produce a description. (You may have seen the film "The Linguists" produced by the National Geographic Society. This Moscow documentary is less sumptuous but probably more revealing about the process of fieldwork.)

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
Wakashan Film Night
4 August
COSWL/LSA Workshop: Taranto
5 August
ECG Tutorial
6 August
Sapir Lecture:
Steriade
7-9 August
RRG 2009
10 August
Collitz Lecture: Ross
11 August
Bay Area Industrial Linguists
12 August
ECG Tutorial
13 August
Lunchtime Film:
Return to Xinalugh
 

Banner design by Laurie Caird | Photo by Anne Pycha