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The following Language Studies students passed the Linguistics Comprehensive Examination in Fall 2002:
Rikki Garcia
Sophie Krich-Brinton
Martina McGuire
Jenny Nadaner
Romy Narayan
Gillian Ostrowsky
Carolyn Ward
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DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS RECEIVES AAA AWARD
The American Anthropological Association will honor 10 scholars during its annual meeting, being held this week in New Orleans. One of the honorees is John R. Rickford (B.A., UCSC), a professor of linguistics at Stanford University, who will receive the Anthropology in Media Award for his efforts to inform the general public about the cultural, historical, and linguistic background of African-American vernacular English.
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DECEMBER WORKSHOP
Gerhard Jaeger from the University of Potsdam, Germany will present a Workshop entitled "Evolutionary Optimality Theory" on Wednesday, December 4, 2002 at 3:30 p.m. in the Linguistics Graduate Building ("the cave").
Abstract: In the talk I will propose a variant of Boersma's Gradual
Learning Algorithm for Stochastic Optimality Theory. While in the
original version the learner is always (or tries to become) a speaker, I
assume that the learner is both speaker and hearer. This learning theory
is applied to the OT system from Aissen (2000), which was developed to
explain the typology of differential case marking. It can be shown that
the constraint sub-hierarchies that Aissen assumes to be universal
follow from the statistical patterns of language use that have been
uncovered in several corpus studies, if one adopts the bidirectional
learning approach.
Not all case marking patterns are learnable by the Bidirectional Gradual
Learning Algorithm (BiGLA), and some patterns are easier to learn than
others. If learning with limited resources is repeated over several
generations, one can distinguish stable and instable language types, and
certain tendencies for language change emerge. In the second part of the
talk I will present and discuss some experimental findings on the basis
of this evolutionary approach
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UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
UC Day Undergraduate Research Poster Presentation
March 3-4, 2003
Sacramento, California
Contact: Dianne.Wright@ADM.UCSC.edu for an application. The deadline to apply is December 13, 2002. Those selected will be announced after December 18, 2002. For more information see http://www.ucday.org
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VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ANNOUNCEMENT
The Department announces the opening of a one-year visiting position in semantics for 2003-2004, with the possibility of renewal for a second year. Applicants should have a Ph.D. degree in Linguistics and a research and teaching specialization in formal semantics. A secondary specialization in syntax will be viewed favorably. The Closing Date to apply is March 10, 2003. For more information, see http://www2.ucsc.edu/ahr/employment/
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NEWS ITEMS NEEDED FOR WHASC
Next week is a short week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Please submit any news items for WHASC by 12 noon on Wednesday November 27.
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IMPORTANT DATES
Instruction Ends: Wed. Nov. 27
Final Exams: Mon.-Thurs. Dec 2-5
Winter Break: Dec. 6 - Jan. 1
Campus Closure: The campus is closed from Tuesday, December 24, 2002 through Wednesday, January 1, 2003.
Winter Quarter begins Thurs. Jan 2
Winter Qtr Instruction begins Fri. Jan 3