The conference, Discourse Constraints on Anaphora, organized by Ezra Keshet (Department of Linguistics) and Eric Swanson (Department of Philosophy) will take place at the University of Michigan April 6-7.

Details on the conference, including a schedule and registration information, are available at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ericsw/anaphora/. Below is the conference description from the website:

Much recent work in linguistics, philosophy of language, cognitive psychology and computer science focuses on questions about anaphora and discourse. However, some major questions about the structure of discourse and its interaction with anaphors remain unanswered. To this end, the majority of the Discourse Constraints on Anaphora Conference will consist of roundtable discussions of the following four questions:

• What is the structure of discourse?
• How does the structure of discourse constrain the referents of pronouns?
• What do discourse constraints on anaphora teach us about reference?
• What do discourse constraints on anaphora teach us about the structure of the mind?

The resulting conversations, between scholars with a diverse range of approaches, will serve as a snapshots of current thought on anaphora and discourse. We hope that they will also mark the next step towards answering these questions. Roundtable participants include Barbara Abbott, Alan Garnham, Hans Kamp, Craige Roberts, Hannah Rohde, Jason Stanley, and Matthew Stone.

Andries Coetzee  presented a keynote address at the VI Congresso Internacional da ABRALIN (6th International Congress of ABRALIN) entitled”Grammar and non-grammar: an integrated model of phonological variation”.

In the talk, he develops an Harmonic Grammar model of phonological variation that simultaneously allows for grammatical and non-grammatical factors to impact variation. Over 3000 people from all over Brazil attended the conference, and it therefore felt like attending the LSA Annual Meeting.

John Swales gave a plenary address at the Conference on Academic Discourse on Dec. 11 in Jato, Spain.

John also gave two lectures at Pampeu Fabra: “The L2 junior researcher in a globalizing research world” and “Telling a research story–Writing a literature review.”

Miki Obata and Sam Epstein presented their paper, “Building (Proper) Improper Movement Structures,” at the Ways of Building Structure conference held at the University of Basque Country, Nov. 13-14.

Abstract (.pdf)

Marlyse Baptista and Miki Obata presented their paper, “The Vacuous Movement Hypothesis:  On Complementizers and Extraction Patterns in Creoles” at the Formal Approaches to Creole Studies conference in Tromsoe, Norway.

Abstract

This paper focuses on the lack of ‘that-trace’ effects in creoles and non-creoles in an attempt to fine-tune minimalist accounts that rely on the Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC) and the Vacuous Movement Hypothesis (VMH), (i.e., Ishii, 2004).  We argue against the VMH and propose that in some of the languages under consideration, we have empirical evidence that in subject wh-extractions, the subject does not remain in situ but raises to Spec of C.  If correct, this is a challenge to theory-internal considerations such as the economy condition that stipulates that simpler operations are more optimal, thus chosen over more complex ones.  The implications are also important for creole languages, as those under study are clearly opting for more complex operations involving both Agree and Move over Agree alone.   We study extraction patterns and complementizer behavior in both matrix and embedded wh-questions, as shown in (1) and (2).  For the latter, assuming that derivations are evaluated locally, our analysis that the subject wh-phrase raises to Spec-C entails that it is the edge of C in the embedded phase and accessible to operations at the matrix vP phase and higher.  This analysis makes the correct prediction that in the languages under study, the complementizer may be overt in the case of subject extraction. Our proposal for languages such as Cape Verdean Creole (CVC) in which no that-trace effects are observed, we argue that several steps in the derivation must be stipulated:  First, we stipulate that the P-feature of C in such languages are specific and that both the C probe and the wh-phrase goal are specified with a topic feature that upon agreeing, match.  This operation accounts for the Agree phase of the derivation.  To account for the fact that the wh-subject phrase does not remain in situ in Spec of T but raises, we propose that the wh-phrase being the edge of CP, it is accessible to operations at the matrix vP phase.  This allows us to predict that the type of utterances exemplified in (2) are acceptable in CVC.
Given the empirical evidence laid out above, what we argue for CVC is that in this particular language as well as in a number of other creole and non-creole languages, the Q-feature and EPP feature of C and the wh-feature of the wh-phrase are both strong: We assume that that C[Q] obligatorily carries a strong [uwh] feature which checks with the wh-expression it c-commands.  Since [uwh] on C is strong, the wh-phrase must move to a local position with C and given the phrasal nature of who, this local position is Spec of C.  Ki could be argued to be a reflex of the Move operation and to be a non-defective P feature.
This paper is organized as follows: In the first section, we review the pre-minimalist accounts of the ECP approach to that-trace effects.  In the second section, we present the recent minimalist proposals based on the PIC and VMH.  In the third section, we introduce empirical evidence from several creole and non-creole languages against VMH. In the fourth section, we offer a parametric model of extraction variation observable in the languages under study that is reducible to the presence versus absence of overt complementizers.  The fifth and last section synthesizes our findings.
Examples:

(1)    a. Kuze ki bu   odja?  (Cape Verdean Creole)
what  ki you saw
‘What did you see?’
b. Kuze ki maria-bu?
what  ki upset+you
‘What upset you?’

(2)    Kenhi ki bu   kuda  ki kaza   ku    Maria?
who    ki you  think ki marry with Maria
‘Who do you think married Maria?’

Perspectives on English Language Studies:
A Symposium in Honor of Richard W. Bailey

Saturday, December 6th, 9:15-4:15
3222 Angell Hall

The Department of English Language and Literature is pleased to host a
symposium in honor of Richard W. Bailey, Fred Newton Scott Professor of
English Language and Literature in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

For more information, see the symposium schedule below and visit our website:
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/english/bailey/. All events are open to the public.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

PANEL 1 
(9:15-10:30)
Lessons Learned: Perspectives on the Past Forty Years in English Language Studies
Chair: Joshua Miller

Amy Devitt, “Studying Writing”
William A. Kretzschmar, Jr., “Forty Years of English Dialects”
John Smith, “The Computer as a Catalyst for Scholarship”

PANEL 2 
(10:45 – 12:15)
Puzzles that Remain: Perspectives on the Questions that Face English Language Scholars
Chair: Robin Queen

Sonja Lanehart, “Diversity and Intersectionality”
Colette Moore, “Renewed Philology”
Anne Curzan, “Does Prescriptivism Really Fail?”
Dennis Preston, “What Will English Be Next?”

ROUNDTABLE 
(2:00 – 3:15)
Getting the Message Out: English Language Scholars Talking with the Public
Chair: David W. Brown

Dennis Baron, “Let’s Go to the Phones”
Susanmarie Harrington, “Everyday Language Scholars”
Erin McKean, “Keeping it Simple (and Interesting)”

INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD W. BAILEY 
(3:30 – 4:15)
Interviewer: Michael Adams

The event is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Humanities, the Language
and Rhetorical Studies Interdisciplinary Workshop, the Office of the Vice
President for Research, Rackham Graduate School, and the College of LSA.

The annual University of Michigan Workshop in Philosophy and Linguistics will be held Nov. 21-23.  This year’s topic is implicature.

Friday sessions (which begin at 4 pm) will be held in 2271 Angell Hall

Saturday and Sunday sessions will be held in Conference D Room of the Michigan League

Robin Queen and Chris Odato attended the 37th annual meeting of New Ways of Analyzing Variation sponsored by Rice University in Houston, TX, Nov. 6-9.

Chris Odato and Deborah Keller-Cohen presented Relevance in the eye of the beholder: How, and when, does age matter in evaluating speech?

Robin Queen presented What voicing non-human animals reveals about the connection between linguistic variation and social meaning.

The Michigan Linguistics Society will hold its 38th Annual Meeting on Oct. 25th at Wayne State University.

UM Linguists presenting include:

Yufen Hsieh and Julie Boland:  Incremental Processing of Empty Categories in Chinese

Chao-Ting Chou:  Syntax-Pragmatics Interface, Syntactic Analyticity and the Point of View Operator

Miki Obata:  Deriving Argument-Adjunct Aymmetries from Multiple-Agree

San Duanmu:  Constraints on Syllable Inventory:  A Comparison between Middle Chinese and Modern Chinese

Three UM linguists will present papers at the 14th Annual Mid-Continental Workshop on Phonology being held Oct. 17-19 at the University of Minnesota.

Kevin McGowan is presenting “Gradient lexical frequency reflexes of the Syllable Contact Law.”

San Duanmu and Xinting Zhang are presenting “The phonetics and phonology of vowel duration in Hungarian”