Linguistic Specialties
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richard
Mar 22, 2011, 6:48:56 AM3/22/11
to IALS
Hey everyone!
We have a few members on this group, now, and I figure now is as good
a time as any to ask questions. This list is for any queries you might
have about linguistics that you think other people can answer, or for
any conferences you know of that might be interesting, or for any job
announcements, etc. Think of it as a non-professional version of the
Linguist List (which I hope you're all members of already, because it
is fantastic.)
I've noticed that we have quite a few members from different
universities, and I'm curious as to what your university is famous
for? Are there any particularly good lecturers that you're studying
under?
As for me, I'm at the University of Edinburgh. We're the only
university in the world that has a professor in evolutionary
linguistics, Simon Kirby (who is, incidentally, giving his inaugural
speech tonight). We're pretty strong in that subject, but, seeing as
how Edinburgh is also the best for research in linguistics in the UK,
we have a lot of other strong areas too. Geoff Pullum works here, who
wrote the Cambridge Grammar of English, and we've got Bob Ladd, the
phonologist, and Antonella Sorace, who studies bilingualism. April
McMahon has worked here for a while, but is just about to go to Wales,
but she's a big name in historical linguistics.
What about your uni?
We have a few members on this group, now, and I figure now is as good
a time as any to ask questions. This list is for any queries you might
have about linguistics that you think other people can answer, or for
any conferences you know of that might be interesting, or for any job
announcements, etc. Think of it as a non-professional version of the
Linguist List (which I hope you're all members of already, because it
is fantastic.)
I've noticed that we have quite a few members from different
universities, and I'm curious as to what your university is famous
for? Are there any particularly good lecturers that you're studying
under?
As for me, I'm at the University of Edinburgh. We're the only
university in the world that has a professor in evolutionary
linguistics, Simon Kirby (who is, incidentally, giving his inaugural
speech tonight). We're pretty strong in that subject, but, seeing as
how Edinburgh is also the best for research in linguistics in the UK,
we have a lot of other strong areas too. Geoff Pullum works here, who
wrote the Cambridge Grammar of English, and we've got Bob Ladd, the
phonologist, and Antonella Sorace, who studies bilingualism. April
McMahon has worked here for a while, but is just about to go to Wales,
but she's a big name in historical linguistics.
What about your uni?
Rosina
Mar 22, 2011, 3:01:58 PM3/22/11
to IALS
Hey!
I'll start by going slightly off-topic to introduce myself briefly.
I'm not entirely sure I'm supposed to be on the list as I'm not from a
British university but I did see the word "international" somewhere so
I hope it's okay I joined anyway. I'm just trying to meet other people
with a serious interest in linguistics. If at all possible, I'd like
to come to Great Britain to do a Master's degree in the Evolution of
Language and Cognition at Edinburgh (I adore evolutionary linguistics)
but I know the competition's tough.
Anyway, I'm originally from Estonia but I'm currently doing a
Bachelor's degree in linguistics at Université Nancy 2 in France.
We're not a very well known university but we're quite good at corpus
linguistics, for instance. Frantext, one of the most important French
language corpora, was developed here. And the 2011 AFLS (Association
for French Language Studies) conference will be held in Nancy.
I'll start by going slightly off-topic to introduce myself briefly.
I'm not entirely sure I'm supposed to be on the list as I'm not from a
British university but I did see the word "international" somewhere so
I hope it's okay I joined anyway. I'm just trying to meet other people
with a serious interest in linguistics. If at all possible, I'd like
to come to Great Britain to do a Master's degree in the Evolution of
Language and Cognition at Edinburgh (I adore evolutionary linguistics)
but I know the competition's tough.
Anyway, I'm originally from Estonia but I'm currently doing a
Bachelor's degree in linguistics at Université Nancy 2 in France.
We're not a very well known university but we're quite good at corpus
linguistics, for instance. Frantext, one of the most important French
language corpora, was developed here. And the 2011 AFLS (Association
for French Language Studies) conference will be held in Nancy.
Richard Littauer
Mar 22, 2011, 8:21:52 PM3/22/11
to lingst...@googlegroups.com
Hey Rosina!
Yes, this is the list for you, don't worry. This isn't supposed to be tied to Britain. :) And yes, this is here primarily to facilitate communication and networking.
The ELC is a great course. I'm considering doing it, as well. If you're interested in evolutionary linguistics, then, really, I don't think you have a choice. Go for it, if you can!
France seems to be pretty good at corpus. I hadn't heard of the Nancy uni, good to know about. We don't often deal with continental linguistics departments in Britain, sadly. At least, not that I know of, not including the MPIs or UvA.
Richard
Yes, this is the list for you, don't worry. This isn't supposed to be tied to Britain. :) And yes, this is here primarily to facilitate communication and networking.
The ELC is a great course. I'm considering doing it, as well. If you're interested in evolutionary linguistics, then, really, I don't think you have a choice. Go for it, if you can!
France seems to be pretty good at corpus. I hadn't heard of the Nancy uni, good to know about. We don't often deal with continental linguistics departments in Britain, sadly. At least, not that I know of, not including the MPIs or UvA.
Richard
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Douglas Rees
Mar 23, 2011, 3:39:32 AM3/23/11
to lingst...@googlegroups.com
Hi there,
I'm a 2nd year arts student from Sydney university.
I guess Sydney University's pretty well known for functional linguistics, especially as Michael Halliday was there from 1976 till retirement (ahh, wikipedia, so useful). A large chunk of the units run are 'functional' ones...though personally I'm not particularly sold on the idea.
Ricarda Scherschel
Mar 23, 2011, 3:50:53 AM3/23/11
to IALS
Hi,
I'm a student of Celtic Studies in Marburg. We have a shared
department of Celtic Studies and historical linguistics focusing on
Hittitology. Celtic Studies comprises both literary studies and
linguistics, though most are more interested in the literature.
However, I quite like gerneral lingusitics and the idea of applying
concepts to the mediaevial Celtic languages. Philipps university
Marburg is also well know for German dialectology and
neurolinguistics. Great job starting this website!
I'm a student of Celtic Studies in Marburg. We have a shared
department of Celtic Studies and historical linguistics focusing on
Hittitology. Celtic Studies comprises both literary studies and
linguistics, though most are more interested in the literature.
However, I quite like gerneral lingusitics and the idea of applying
concepts to the mediaevial Celtic languages. Philipps university
Marburg is also well know for German dialectology and
neurolinguistics. Great job starting this website!
Gina Kleinbruckner
Mar 23, 2011, 4:04:41 AM3/23/11
to lingst...@googlegroups.com
Good morning everyone,
I'm studying at the university of Edinburgh, like Richard, so there's not much left to say I guess (Did you know that Pullum was in a band when he was younger? And Antonella Sorace is brilliant!)
I'm particularly interested in Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguisitcs, (Second) Language acquisition, Evolutionary, Historical and Anthropological linguistics.
I've been doing the German and French translations on the website - if you find any mistakes or whatsoever, feel free to let me know :)
Gina
I'm studying at the university of Edinburgh, like Richard, so there's not much left to say I guess (Did you know that Pullum was in a band when he was younger? And Antonella Sorace is brilliant!)
I'm particularly interested in Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguisitcs, (Second) Language acquisition, Evolutionary, Historical and Anthropological linguistics.
I've been doing the German and French translations on the website - if you find any mistakes or whatsoever, feel free to let me know :)
Gina
Rosina
Mar 23, 2011, 4:38:58 AM3/23/11
to IALS
Hi,
I do believe the young and absolutely brilliant Ina Bornkessel-
Schlesewsky is at Marburg (in addition to Mac Planck)? You're awfully
lucky.
I do believe the young and absolutely brilliant Ina Bornkessel-
Schlesewsky is at Marburg (in addition to Mac Planck)? You're awfully
lucky.
Rosina
Mar 23, 2011, 4:40:41 AM3/23/11
to IALS
This last message was adressed mainly to Ricarda. Sorry for the spam,
I'm only starting to get the hang of the inner workings of this
marvelous invention they call Google groups.
I'm only starting to get the hang of the inner workings of this
marvelous invention they call Google groups.
Alexander Stanley
Mar 23, 2011, 4:57:53 AM3/23/11
to lingst...@googlegroups.com
Hi all,
Formerly of the University of Sydney, and presently annoying various universities for (eventual) postgraduate placement; I 'have' my BA(Hons) -- technically I don't have it yet as I graduate in May. Technically I'm "between 'studentships'", drowning in a world of applications and proposals ;)
In regards to what Doug said:
I thought the majority still lies with the non-functionalists, though I suppose it depends what's running at the time.
My interests are Systemic Functional Linguistics (though I'm not entirely sold on SFG), HPSG (Head-driven phrase structure grammar), and computational linguistics (though more in computing tools for aid normal linguists (as if normal can be used in such a way...)). Looking back, I've primarily studied SFL, but I've also done an undergraduate level introduction to most things (minor amount of research on historical, no evolutionary!), and some more (relatively general) syntax on the side. I'm more attached to 'syntax' below the clause (or up to the clause) and SFL above (I use that generally because aside from HPSG I'm not really theory-bound, but like the concept). As I continue to study, I'm trending towards caring about meaning more than structure, which is why HPSG has been of interest since I was first introduced to it in my second year.
I've done some partially guided research (i.e. through reading courses and Honours) on conversation (SFL-oriented, very little elsewhere), Twitter (again, SFL), and genre (again SFL ;)), and have collected a large about of data from Twitter for the purposes ofreducing myself to tears study ... but I should probably clarify 'partially guided'.
My understanding is that Honours is different everywhere, so for those overseas: generally speaking, in Australia, the Honours year is an additional/optional year added to the end of a BA (other degrees can still incorporate it), which is contingent on marks from previous years. In that year, you're more or less left to your own devices and prodded in the right direction. I think my supervisor best described it as a "mini-PhD". We get 20,000 words, and have to do two coursework subjects to boot -- loads of fun. I only add this because my sister is in Manchester (UK) doing a PhD in another field and the notion of a 20,000 word paper for Honours is a strange notion to many of her fellow postgraduates. At the University of Sydney (I can't speak for anywhere else), some lecturers also run reading courses for undergraduates (we did one for Honours, I did one the year before too), which is more or less the same thing as Honours, but only one semester (~13 weeks) and 4,000-6,000 words of semi-guided research. (So when I say I've done partially guided research on the above, I mean I blindly flailed through books and journals only to be told three days before handing up that I'd missed something that should be obvious, but I couldn't see through the last 50 years of papers I was trying to process ;)) Though I mean not to speak badly of my supervisors -- they were excellent; they stressed that they wanted me to learn to walk on my own two feet, which is a terrifying experience as they can't really catch you if you roger it...
Oh, and I write long e-mails ... and am generally considered a 'geek', which is a silly notion, as I have no idea what these new fangled shiny computer things are about, nor any other technology ...
Regards,
Alex.
Formerly of the University of Sydney, and presently annoying various universities for (eventual) postgraduate placement; I 'have' my BA(Hons) -- technically I don't have it yet as I graduate in May. Technically I'm "between 'studentships'", drowning in a world of applications and proposals ;)
In regards to what Doug said:
A large chunk of the units run are 'functional' ones...though personally I'm not particularly sold on the idea.
I thought the majority still lies with the non-functionalists, though I suppose it depends what's running at the time.
My interests are Systemic Functional Linguistics (though I'm not entirely sold on SFG), HPSG (Head-driven phrase structure grammar), and computational linguistics (though more in computing tools for aid normal linguists (as if normal can be used in such a way...)). Looking back, I've primarily studied SFL, but I've also done an undergraduate level introduction to most things (minor amount of research on historical, no evolutionary!), and some more (relatively general) syntax on the side. I'm more attached to 'syntax' below the clause (or up to the clause) and SFL above (I use that generally because aside from HPSG I'm not really theory-bound, but like the concept). As I continue to study, I'm trending towards caring about meaning more than structure, which is why HPSG has been of interest since I was first introduced to it in my second year.
I've done some partially guided research (i.e. through reading courses and Honours) on conversation (SFL-oriented, very little elsewhere), Twitter (again, SFL), and genre (again SFL ;)), and have collected a large about of data from Twitter for the purposes of
My understanding is that Honours is different everywhere, so for those overseas: generally speaking, in Australia, the Honours year is an additional/optional year added to the end of a BA (other degrees can still incorporate it), which is contingent on marks from previous years. In that year, you're more or less left to your own devices and prodded in the right direction. I think my supervisor best described it as a "mini-PhD". We get 20,000 words, and have to do two coursework subjects to boot -- loads of fun. I only add this because my sister is in Manchester (UK) doing a PhD in another field and the notion of a 20,000 word paper for Honours is a strange notion to many of her fellow postgraduates. At the University of Sydney (I can't speak for anywhere else), some lecturers also run reading courses for undergraduates (we did one for Honours, I did one the year before too), which is more or less the same thing as Honours, but only one semester (~13 weeks) and 4,000-6,000 words of semi-guided research. (So when I say I've done partially guided research on the above, I mean I blindly flailed through books and journals only to be told three days before handing up that I'd missed something that should be obvious, but I couldn't see through the last 50 years of papers I was trying to process ;)) Though I mean not to speak badly of my supervisors -- they were excellent; they stressed that they wanted me to learn to walk on my own two feet, which is a terrifying experience as they can't really catch you if you roger it...
Oh, and I write long e-mails ... and am generally considered a 'geek', which is a silly notion, as I have no idea what these new fangled shiny computer things are about, nor any other technology ...
Regards,
Alex.
amiefairs
Mar 30, 2011, 4:59:57 AM3/30/11
to IALS
Hi everyone,
I am at the University of Edinburgh, much like some others here - and
I don't think I have anything left to say about the uni that hasn't
already been said! About me: I am a second-year undergrad student, and
next year I will be in Tromsø, Norway, so hopefully I can get the
message about IALS out around there. I still have a few years left
before I will properly specialise, but at the moment, I like anything
to do with neurolinguistics, syntax, and oddly (as it doesn't really
fit), I quite like different areas of sociolinguistics.
Amie
On Mar 23, 9:57 am, Alexander Stanley <alexanderwstan...@gmail.com>
wrote:
I am at the University of Edinburgh, much like some others here - and
I don't think I have anything left to say about the uni that hasn't
already been said! About me: I am a second-year undergrad student, and
next year I will be in Tromsø, Norway, so hopefully I can get the
message about IALS out around there. I still have a few years left
before I will properly specialise, but at the moment, I like anything
to do with neurolinguistics, syntax, and oddly (as it doesn't really
fit), I quite like different areas of sociolinguistics.
Amie
On Mar 23, 9:57 am, Alexander Stanley <alexanderwstan...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Formerly of the University of Sydney, and presently annoying various
> universities for (eventual) postgraduate placement; I 'have' my BA(Hons) --
> technically I don't have it yet as I graduate in May. Technically I'm
> "between 'studentships'", drowning in a world of applications and proposals
> ;)
>
> In regards to what Doug said:
>
> > A large chunk of the units run are 'functional' ones...though personally
> > I'm not particularly sold on the idea.
>
> I thought the majority still lies with the non-functionalists, though I
> suppose it depends what's running at the time.
>
> My interests are Systemic Functional Linguistics (though I'm not entirely
> sold on SFG), HPSG (Head-driven phrase structure grammar), and computational
> linguistics (though more in computing tools for aid *normal* linguists (as
>
> Formerly of the University of Sydney, and presently annoying various
> universities for (eventual) postgraduate placement; I 'have' my BA(Hons) --
> technically I don't have it yet as I graduate in May. Technically I'm
> "between 'studentships'", drowning in a world of applications and proposals
> ;)
>
> In regards to what Doug said:
>
> > A large chunk of the units run are 'functional' ones...though personally
> > I'm not particularly sold on the idea.
>
> I thought the majority still lies with the non-functionalists, though I
> suppose it depends what's running at the time.
>
> My interests are Systemic Functional Linguistics (though I'm not entirely
> sold on SFG), HPSG (Head-driven phrase structure grammar), and computational
framhitogtil
May 8, 2011, 11:36:31 AM5/8/11
to IALS
Howdy, mates!
I' m a student at the University of Potsdam >> www. uni-potsdam.de --
www.ling.uni-potsdam.de
I guess that we do not have such an "Only-Thing" in resarch, but we
have some specialities, too. First, we work on enhancing the empirical
foundations of linguistics, following the objections of e.g. Schütze
(1996) and Featherston (2005). Gisbert Fanselow is leading this work
here at Potsdam; another scientist, whose name you may know from a
quite popular paper of hers in this field, is Jana Häussler;
essentially, she isn't a lecturer, though. G. Fanselow is a great
syntactician.
What we are actually famous for is maybe the research in Information
Structure, in close collaboration with the Humbold University
(Berlin). Especially the work of Malte Zimmermann needs mentioning
here (means of Focus). I just notice how I lose interest in describing
all that, becuase I will probably end up doing injustice to those
inproperly mentioned... No really, there just so many excellent
researchers here at the UP, that it would be best, you just checked
them all out yourselves.
But there are a few more things which are essential to mentioned.
First, the Computational Linguistics here at the UP. By the
interdisciplanary connection of Linguistics, Comp. Linguistics,
Clinical Linguistics, Psychology, Neurophysiology, Computer Sciences,
Human Biology, and further, into the cluster of excellence "Cognitive
Sciences", outstanding research is facillitated.
For those of you, who still do search for a place to make their
Masters Degree at, but who rather want to specialize in Clinical
Linguistics, have a look at that page:
www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/index.php/en/study/graduate-programmes.html
Well, as you can tell, the University of Potsdam was the University of
my choice, and I am very glad to be studying here. Potsdam in it's own
right is just that worthful a city to be living in.
@ amiefairs: Maybe we'll meet there, because I am applying for an
internship at Tromsoe: Kanskje vi sjaas, kem ska' vet ;-) -- I just
love their work on prepositional semantics and do really like to meet
Peter Svenonius...
Best,
Andreas
I' m a student at the University of Potsdam >> www. uni-potsdam.de --
www.ling.uni-potsdam.de
I guess that we do not have such an "Only-Thing" in resarch, but we
have some specialities, too. First, we work on enhancing the empirical
foundations of linguistics, following the objections of e.g. Schütze
(1996) and Featherston (2005). Gisbert Fanselow is leading this work
here at Potsdam; another scientist, whose name you may know from a
quite popular paper of hers in this field, is Jana Häussler;
essentially, she isn't a lecturer, though. G. Fanselow is a great
syntactician.
What we are actually famous for is maybe the research in Information
Structure, in close collaboration with the Humbold University
(Berlin). Especially the work of Malte Zimmermann needs mentioning
here (means of Focus). I just notice how I lose interest in describing
all that, becuase I will probably end up doing injustice to those
inproperly mentioned... No really, there just so many excellent
researchers here at the UP, that it would be best, you just checked
them all out yourselves.
But there are a few more things which are essential to mentioned.
First, the Computational Linguistics here at the UP. By the
interdisciplanary connection of Linguistics, Comp. Linguistics,
Clinical Linguistics, Psychology, Neurophysiology, Computer Sciences,
Human Biology, and further, into the cluster of excellence "Cognitive
Sciences", outstanding research is facillitated.
For those of you, who still do search for a place to make their
Masters Degree at, but who rather want to specialize in Clinical
Linguistics, have a look at that page:
www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/index.php/en/study/graduate-programmes.html
Well, as you can tell, the University of Potsdam was the University of
my choice, and I am very glad to be studying here. Potsdam in it's own
right is just that worthful a city to be living in.
@ amiefairs: Maybe we'll meet there, because I am applying for an
internship at Tromsoe: Kanskje vi sjaas, kem ska' vet ;-) -- I just
love their work on prepositional semantics and do really like to meet
Peter Svenonius...
Best,
Andreas
Joel Prokopchuk
May 18, 2011, 8:49:03 AM5/18/11
to IALS
Hm, I guess I'll add something too >_>
Hi there from my side as well
I'm a BA student at the University of Zürich. Not sure about our
specializations. If I had to choose between generative or not, I'd say
not, for starters. I guess one of the subjects that come up quite
often is language contact. We only have one professor who just arrived
recently, so I'm not sure what his focus will be, but of the remaining
(4 or 5?) teachers 2 specialize in Southeast Asia, last year we hosted
SEALS, so maybe one could call that some sort of focus too.
Joel
Hi there from my side as well
I'm a BA student at the University of Zürich. Not sure about our
specializations. If I had to choose between generative or not, I'd say
not, for starters. I guess one of the subjects that come up quite
often is language contact. We only have one professor who just arrived
recently, so I'm not sure what his focus will be, but of the remaining
(4 or 5?) teachers 2 specialize in Southeast Asia, last year we hosted
SEALS, so maybe one could call that some sort of focus too.
Joel
Nancy
May 18, 2011, 2:39:02 PM5/18/11
to IALS
Again from the University of Zurich - hello Joel, dear all. :-)
After reading Joel's message I'd like to add some things:
1.) The specialization of our department is typology and the
documentation of endangered languages.
2.) Our "new" professor (since Apr. 2011) is specialized on
typological profile (especially: Himalaya and Caucasus). Looking at
his previous work I assume that he'll focus on statistics, too.
3.) It's true that we have "just" one professor right now. But that we
get another one in Jan. 2012 whose specialization is typology as well
(morphosyntactic clause alignment and bene/malefaction). So looking at
the increasing number of professors, assistents, PHDs and
undergraduate students, one might say that the Department of General
Linguistics in Zurich is growing. :-)
Best,
Nancy
After reading Joel's message I'd like to add some things:
1.) The specialization of our department is typology and the
documentation of endangered languages.
2.) Our "new" professor (since Apr. 2011) is specialized on
typological profile (especially: Himalaya and Caucasus). Looking at
his previous work I assume that he'll focus on statistics, too.
3.) It's true that we have "just" one professor right now. But that we
get another one in Jan. 2012 whose specialization is typology as well
(morphosyntactic clause alignment and bene/malefaction). So looking at
the increasing number of professors, assistents, PHDs and
undergraduate students, one might say that the Department of General
Linguistics in Zurich is growing. :-)
Best,
Nancy
Richard Littauer
May 19, 2011, 5:46:35 AM5/19/11
to lingst...@googlegroups.com
Hey Nancy!
Hmm. Who are your professors? Typology and endangered languages are my main interests, you see.
You're pretty near to Leipzig, aren't you?
Richard
Hmm. Who are your professors? Typology and endangered languages are my main interests, you see.
You're pretty near to Leipzig, aren't you?
Richard
framhitogtil
May 19, 2011, 9:42:46 AM5/19/11
to IALS
> You're pretty near to Leipzig, aren't you?
About seven hundred kilometers; on an US-Scale that was indeed to be
called "close".
Richard Littauer
May 19, 2011, 10:01:41 AM5/19/11
to lingst...@googlegroups.com
Ha! My bad. I wasn't thinking, I guess (at all.)
Cool.
R
Cool.
R
--
Nancy
May 19, 2011, 10:17:57 AM5/19/11
to IALS
Hello Richard,
our "new" professor (Bickel) was working in Leipzig before. So, our
focus is not just quiet near to that of Leipzig, it is actually the
same. The other professor we get next year is specialist for
endangered languages, too. But he does not focus that much on
statistics (although he would have the knowledge to do so). He
documented Mapuche (mainly spoken in Chile) for example.
Best,
Nancy
On May 19, 4:01 pm, Richard Littauer <richard.litta...@gmail.com>
wrote:
our "new" professor (Bickel) was working in Leipzig before. So, our
focus is not just quiet near to that of Leipzig, it is actually the
same. The other professor we get next year is specialist for
endangered languages, too. But he does not focus that much on
statistics (although he would have the knowledge to do so). He
documented Mapuche (mainly spoken in Chile) for example.
Best,
Nancy
On May 19, 4:01 pm, Richard Littauer <richard.litta...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Ha! My bad. I wasn't thinking, I guess (at all.)
>
> Cool.
>
> R
>
>
> Cool.
>
> R
>
> On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 2:42 PM, framhitogtil <andre...@uni-potsdam.de>wrote:
>
>
>
> > > You're pretty near to Leipzig, aren't you?
>
> >http://maps.google.de/maps?hl=de&q=z%C3%BCrich&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw....
>
>
>
> > > You're pretty near to Leipzig, aren't you?
>
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