Linguistics

Linguistics alum Kathryn Flack Potts ('00) will present a public talk, 'Avoiding Ambiguity in Japanese and ASL,' on Friday, 16 May, at 4pm, in Goodsell 03. A reception will follow.

On April 24-26 2008, eight linguistics students traveled to Chicago to attend the 44th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society at the University of Chicago. There, they were regaled with much syntactic and phonological theory, heard talks by such luminaries as Carol Padden and Tecumseh Fitch, and had a generally great time.

The Linguistics Program announces two upcoming public talks. Sara Mackenzie (University of Toronto) will present a talk titled ‘Contrast and Similarity in Harmony Systems.’ This talk will be given on Wednesday, 7 May, 4:00-5:30pm, in Goodsell 03. Chiara Frigeni (University of Toronto) will present a talk titled ‘Tales of Language Endangerment: the Speaker, the Linguist, and the Media.’ This talk will be given on Monday, 12 May, 4:00-5:30 pm, in Goodsell 03. A reception in Goodsell 03 follows both talks.

Rosalind Brayfield ('09) will present a paper entitled '"I like your ponytail, but I have a ponytail, too!': The acquisition of the logical properties of because and but' at McGill's Canadian Conference for Linguistics Undergraduates (McCCLU) 2008. McCCLU will be held at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, 28-30 March, 2008.

The TA for Ling 110 in Spring 08 is Rosalind Brayfield (brayfier).

We are very happy to announce that Catherine Fortin will be joining the Carleton Linguistics Program as a full time member of the faculty, beginning this coming fall term. Professor Fortin earned her undergraduate degree from Tufts University, where she majored in French Language and Literature, with a minor in Economics. She earned a master’s degree in Linguistics, with a Certificate in American Indian Languages, from the University of Pittsburgh. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Michigan, where she worked primarily in the areas of syntax and semantics. Her dissertation is titled Indonesian Sluicing and Verb Phrase Ellipsis: Description and Explanation in a Minimalist Framework. In addition to her dissertation work on Indonesian, Professor Fortin has also worked on Moroccan Arabic and Minangkabau, a language which is spoken by members of a large matrilineal society in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Last year at the University of Michigan, she was awarded the prestigious Rackham Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. She will teach two courses in the fall of 2007: Ling 275 Language Acquisition (5a, Ling 110 prerequisite) and the newly opened Ling 115 Introduction to the Theory of Syntax (3a, no prerequisites).

We have added a new section of Linguistics 115: Introduction to the Theory of Syntax for the fall term of 2007. The class will meet MWF 11:10 to 12:20, and will be taught by Professor Fortin. We hope especially to interest students in the classes of 2009 and 2010.

The TA for Ling 115 in the fall is Katherine Wingert, wingertk at carleton.edu

We here in the Linguistics Program are very pleased that Rosalind Brayfield has agreed to be our SDA. In addition to being a great source of information about the program, she is also the primary organizer of events, in addition to being the TA for Ling 110. She’s happy to respond to inquiries of all kinds at brayfier at carleton.edu

The Linguistics Program will be proposing a new Linguistics Concentration this coming fall. It will be evaluated by Education and Curriculum Committee and (we hope) submitted to the entire faculty during the fall term. Watch this space for further developments

We are excited to announce that a (special) major in Linguistics is available for members of all classes currently at Carleton, that is, including the class of 2011.