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Linguistics

9/1/21

Support for research on constraints on movement, and on exceptive constructions.

Congratulations to Adam Liter and to Maria Polinsky, whose work has earned new support from the National Science Foundation. Adam has received a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant for work with his supervisor, Jeff Lidz, on “Subjacency, the Empty Category Principle, and the nature of constraints on phrase movement.” Masha is the recipient of a Collaborative Research Award on “Variation in exceptive structures,” on how languages express thoughts like ‘everybody laughed except you,' a project on which Hisao Kurokami has already begun to work. See the abstracts below.

Adam Liter and Jeffrey Lidz, BCS #2116270, Subjacency, the Empty Category Principle, and the nature of constraints on phrase movement

In general, it is possible to form a question by 'moving' a wh-phrase like "who” or "which boy" out of a seemingly arbitrary number of clauses, as in "Who did Allie say that Amy saw?", "Who did Alicia hear that Allie said that Amy saw?", and so on. In these questions, "who" is the logical object of "saw" yet appears at the beginning of the sentence. However, there are certain syntactic environments, commonly called 'islands,' in which question formation is not possible. A question like "Who did the book by delight everyone?"--whose intended meaning is 'who is the person such that the book by that person delighted everyone'--sounds unnatural to speakers of English, suggesting that it is not a possible question despite having a reasonable meaning. Some linguists have claimed that these constraints disappear when the offending structure is elided, such as in a sentence like "Amy said that the book by someone delighted everyone, but I don't remember who". Such sentences sound a bit more natural to speakers of English, but their status isn't entirely clear. This dissertation project will advance linguistic theory by using recent experimental techniques to ascertain whether such sentences are grammatical. In advancing the field, this project will also support education and diversity by training an undergraduate research assistant in these experimental techniques, scientific thinking, and statistical analysis.

Using behavioral methods, this doctoral dissertation project probes the link between speakers' reported judgments and their sensitivity to structure in questions with and without ellipsis. The goal is to determine whether the same principles apply to dependencies involving ellipsis as those that do not, with the longer term goal of identifying the computational principles governing syntactic locality. More generally, the project addresses the consequences of mismatches between reported acceptability and subliminal sensitivity to structure in acceptability judgments.

Maria Polinsky, BCS #2116344, Variation in exceptive structures

All languages are able to express universal statements, even though we realize that they are seldom literally true. Consequently, languages also have means of expressing exceptions to such generalizations, via exceptive constructions. English examples include "Everybody but Sandy laughed" and "Everybody laughed except Sandy". Linguistic means of expressing exclusion have received modest attention from philosophers of language and semanticists, whose focus has been primarily on English. Beyond that small body of work, little is known about exceptive constructions across the world's languages: how they are built, what their distribution is within individual languages and across languages, and how they compare to other constructions expressing comparison or contrast. This research project fills this gap as the first cross-linguistic investigation of lexical, morphological, and syntactic properties of the construction. Understanding exceptive constructions allows linguists to create better theories of language structure and to predict the range of variation in natural languages; it helps computer scientists build better parsing models; it gives language educators new dimensions that should be emphasized in language teaching, and it provides cultural anthropologists with additional tools to study societal (dis)similarities in the concept of exclusion. 

This research project employs methodologies from linguistic typology, theoretical syntax, and formal semantics to carry out in-depth investigations of exceptive constructions in a wide range of the world's languages. The project aims for maximum linguistic coverage by using sampling techniques of modern linguistic typology. Theoretically, the project addresses a range of questions that arise from the empirical findings. In particular, it analyzes the contrast between free and connected exceptives, phrasal and clausal exceptives, and coordinated and subordinated exceptives. The project develops diagnostics that reliably identify the different types of exceptives and identifies independent linguistic properties that correlate with these different types of exceptives in a language. Therefore, it allows researchers to predict the type of exceptive constructions in an individual language. Beyond developing a picture of exceptive structure cross-linguistically, the project has notable implications for current theories of ellipsis. The project provides data on low-resource and endangered languages and highlights the importance of linguistic diversity for a complete understanding of the human language system.

 

4/28/21

Congratulations to Philip Resnik, one of 101 scientists to receive an Amazon Research Award for 2020, his in the area of Natural Language Processing. The award goes towards Philip's work on "Advanced topic modeling to support the understanding of COVID-19 and its effects," and gives him "access to more than 200 Amazon public datasets, [...] AWS AI/ML services and tools," as well as "an Amazon research contact who offers consultation and advice along with opportunities to participate in Amazon events and training sessions." This is not Philip's first award from Amazon: in 2018, he received an Amazon Machine Learning Research Award on "Tackling the AI Mental Health Data Crisis."

VIDEO: Noam Chomsky "Crisis and hope: Theirs and Ours"

Noam Chomsky speaks about politics and the occupy movement as part of the Dean's Lecture Series.
 

VIDEO: Noam Chomsky "Grammar, Mind and Body: A Personal View"

Noam Chomsky speaks about language and philosophy as part of the Dean's Lecture Series.

Colin Phillips Video

In the sixth installment of the WORLDWISE Arts & Humanities Insights Videos, Professor Colin Phillips provides insights on how we seem to understand language so effortlessly even t...

4/28/16

WHAT: 

Future STEM Leaders is an event that will bring together national experts from academia, government and industry to discuss the future of graduate training in STEM fields (and beyond). The focus of this meeting, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the University of Maryland, is on the changing demands of STEM research and careers, the most promising innovations in training that have emerged in leading programs around the country, and the challenges of scaling up these innovations to transform graduate education across institutions and disciplines.

AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS:
Future STEM Leaders will take place on Wednesday, May 4th, from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.

  • 9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Building the Perfect PhD: What is needed, and why?
  • 10:30 a.m. - noon State-of-the-Science: Innovators and innovations in STEM graduate training
  • Noon - 1:30 p.m. Lunch and showcase of initiatives and programs
  • 1:30 - 3 p.m. What are we Waiting for: Removing barriers to change
  • 3 - 4:30 p.m. Taking Action: Translating good ideas into policy and best practices
  • For more details on sessions and speakers as well as information on directions and parking, please visit our website futurestemleaders.com.

FEATURED PANELISTS:

Greg Ball, Dean, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Maryland

Mark Connolly, Associate Research Scientist & Principal Investigator, Wisconsin Center for Education Research

Bonnie Thornton Dill, Dean, College of Arts & Humanities, University of Maryland

Dean Evasius, Senior Advisor for Science/Head of Multidisciplinary Activities, MPS, National Science Foundation

Jessica Faupel-Badger, Director, NIGMS Postdoctoral Research Associate (PRAT) Program, NIH

Norberto Grzywacz, Dean, Graduate School, Georgetown University

Rebecca Haacker, Director of Advanced Study Program, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Wolfgang Losert, Interim Associate Dean for Research, College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, University of Maryland

Aisha Morris, Program Director, RESESS Internship, UNAVCO

Thomas Rudin, Director, Board on Higher Education and Workforce (BHEW), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Dahlia Sokolov, Director, Subcommittee on Research & Technology, U.S. House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology

Richard Spinrad, Senior Scientist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Richard Tankersley, Program Director, NSF Research Traineeship (NRT), National Science Foundation

Lois Trautvetter, Director, Higher Education Administration and Policy Program , Northwestern University

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS:

American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association of Medical Colleges
American Educational Research Association
American Mathematical Society
American Psychological Association
Association of American Universities
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
Coalition for National Science Funding
Colorado State University
Computing Research Association
Council of Graduate Schools
Duke University
Elsevier
Georgetown University
George Washington University
Georgia Tech
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
U.S. House Science Committee
Iowa State University
Linguistic Society of America
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The National Academies
National Center for Atmospheric Research
National Institutes of Health
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Science Foundation
Northwestern University
The Ohio State University
Oregon State University
Penn State University
Society for Neuroscience
STEM Education Coalition
Syracuse University
Texas A&M University
UNAVCO
University Industry Demonstration Partnership
University of California, Berkeley
University of Connecticut
University of Georgia
University of Maryland
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
University of Oklahoma
University of Rochester
University of Southern Mississippi
University of Wisconsin
U.S. Department of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Transportation
Virginia Tech

MEDIA:

Media coverage of the event and all sessions is welcome. Please email Colin Phillips, director of the Maryland Language Science Center at the University of Maryland, at colin@umd.edu.

Twitter:

●       Future STEM Leaders: #futureSTEM

●       Maryland Language Science Center: @UMD_LSC

●       National Science Foundation: @NSF

●       University of Maryland: @UofMaryland

ABOUT THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION:
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" NSF fulfills its mission mainly through grants awarded to fund specific research proposals from individuals or small groups of investigators to support research centers, instruments, and facilities that allow scientists, engineers, and students to work at the outermost frontiers of knowledge.

NSF's goals--discovery, learning, research infrastructure and stewardship--provide an integrated strategy to advance the frontiers of knowledge and cultivate a world-class, broadly inclusive science and engineering workforce. It aims to expand the scientific literacy of all citizens, build the nation's research capability through investments in advanced instrumentation and facilities, and support excellence in science and engineering research and education through a capable and responsive organization. NSF is "where discoveries begin."

ABOUT THE MARYLAND LANGUAGE SCIENCE CENTER:
Established in 2013, the University of Maryland’s Language Science Center (LSC) is the home of a university-wide initiative to advance language science. LSC aims to raise the profile of language as a critical research area, build connections between researchers, disciplines and institutions that support innovation in research and education, and to improve awareness and public understanding of language issues and the need for language-related policy decisions to be scientifically informed.

The Maryland Language Science Center connects expertise, ideas and creativity in fields ranging from social and biological sciences, computer science and engineering, to humanities, education, and clinical fields such as hearing science and speech pathology. Our research addresses broad questions connecting fundamental science to applications in education, technology, and health.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND:
The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes three Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, 47 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.8 billion operating budget, secures $500 million annually in external research funding and recently completed a $1 billion fundraising campaign. For more information about the University of Maryland, visit www.umd.edu.

 

Bioscience Research Building 1103
Thursday, September 18, 2014 - 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM

Robert Kurzban will present evidence for the view that people adopt moral positions based on calculations of their self-interest.

1115 Skinner Hall
Monday, September 15, 2014 - 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM

Come hear Quinn Harr discuss epistemic models, counterfactual data, and embedding data.

Marie Mount Hall 1108B
Thursday, September 11, 2014 - 4:30 PM

For more information, please visit the Linguistics Department website:

Stamp Student Union
Friday, September 19, 2014 - 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Language Science Day (LSD) is the flagship event of the year’s language science activities and gives students and fac

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