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NEWS

Anne Sturgeon emailed to say that she will be presenting a paper at the Formal Description of Slavic Languages conference in Leipzig, Germany over the Thanksgiving holiday. Her talk is titled "Asymmetries in ditransitive constructions: Focus and demonstrative pronouns in Czech." Anne is currently in Prague, where she'll be for two months, and is really enjoying it.

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Dylan Herrick has a position as Assistant Professor at Mie University in Japan. He teaches in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, within the European and Mediterranean Group. His email address is dylan@human.mie-u.ac.jp.

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More praise for Geoff Pullum: In the September 2003 issue of Language (Vol. 79:3), editor Brian D. Joseph lists Geoff's article "Cliticization vs. inflection: English n't" (Language Vol. 59: 502-13) as one of the journal's most influential and important papers. Joseph calls it "a paper that I consider to be as clear a demonstration of precise and compelling linguistic argumentation as there is." ("Editor's Department," pg. 462.)

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The UCSC Office of International Education presents International Education Week, November 17-21, 2003. This event will offer research seminars, films, workshops, gallery showings and more to raise the profile and importance of international education and exchange. All are invited to participate. For more information, visit their website at http://oie.ucsc.edu/iew.

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The Office of the President requests that our campus participate in UC Day in Sacramento on March 8-9, 2004 to highlight undergraduate research. Dean Lynda Goff is soliciting applications from students who have a research project that can be presented as a poster presentation at the event. Chosen students will have the opportunity to interact with UC officials, alumni and government representatives.

If you know of students who may be interested in applying and who would be able to provide a 250-word abstract of their project, plus a paragraph about the value of undergraduate research, please have them contact Norma Ray in the Humanities Division (nray@cats.ucsc.edu) for application materials. Students must submit abstracts and applications to Dean Goff's office by November 28th, 2003.

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The Japanese government is again offering university graduates the chance to spend a year or more living and working in Japan through the Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) Program. Positions are available team-teaching in Japanese public schools as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs,) or assisting local governments as Coordinators for International Relations (CIRs). All majors and educational specialties are welcome to apply, and no prior Japanese language ability is required for the ALT position. Applicants must hold or expect to obtain a Bachelor's degree by July 1, 2004, and must hold US citizenship by December 5, 2003. The ability to adapt to life in a Japanese community is essential to succeed on this program, as is an interest in Japan and a flexible and enthusiastic attitude. This year's application deadline will be Friday, December 5, 2003.
Successful applicants will depart for Japan in July 2004, and round-trip airfare from designated points in the US will be provided. The length of the contract is for at least one year and the annual remuneration will be ¥3,600,000 Japanese yen per year. Further information and a downloadable application packet for the JET Program are also available from our Consulate's JET website at http://www.cgjsf.org/jet, by phone at (415) 356-2462, or by e-mail to jet@cgjsf.org.

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COLLOQUIA

There is no Linguistics Department colloquium this week. However, the Philosophy Department is hosting a colloquium with Fiona Cowie of the California Institute of Technology. Cowie, who is the author of What's Within?, a very interesting critique of linguistic nativism, will be speaking on "Modules and Quasi-Mechanisms: Kicking Back in Cognitive Science."

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CALL FOR PAPERS

The Arabic Linguistics Society and the University of Oklahoma announce the Seventeenth Annual Symposium on Arabic Languages to be held at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK, March 19-20, 2004. Papers are invited on topics that deal with the application of current linguistic theories and analyses to Arabic. Persons interested in presenting papers are requested to submit a one-page abstract giving the title of the paper, a brief statement of the topic, and a summary clearly stating how the topic will be developed. For more information and submission guidelines, visit http://www.umich.edu/~aos/ALS04.html. Abstracts must be submitted by November 15, 2003.