the LINC Network

English determiners and the concept of 'selection'

We will be holding an informal LinC event on Thursday October 27th at 11.15 am in room 3.66. It will be an informal lunch-time discussion of English determiners and the concept of 'selection'. We will be discussing/debating Fawcett's (2007) paper entitled: Modelling ‘selection’ between referents in the English nominal group: an essay in scientific inquiry in linguistics. I've copied the abstract for the paper below. If anyone is interested in joining us, please let me know and I'll send you a copy of the paper so that it can be read in advance of the meeting. If you do want to join us, bring your own lunch!

Modelling ‘selection’ between referents in the English nominal group: an essay in scientific inquiry in linguistics
In Butler, C.S., Hidalgo Downing, R., and Lavid, J., (eds.) 2007. Functional Perspectives on Grammar and Discourse: In Honour of Angela Downing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
This paper addresses two issues, one descriptive and one methodological. It offers a description of part of the English nominal group (aka noun phrase) that greatly extends the traditional concept of the ‘determiner’. More specifically, it describes an integrated semantics and functional syntax for the quantifying and deictic determiners, based on the concept of ‘selection’. This approach has the advantage over standard representations that, when analyzing (1) five books, (2) those books and (3) five of those books, the words five, those and books expound the same element in each case. The paper then shows how this approach can be extended to eight other determiners and their associated uses of of (and, incidentally, the structure for its remaining uses). But there is equal emphasis on the methodology used to establish which of three possible types of structures should be used to model such examples, and the paper concludes by suggesting that the ultimate criteria are those of elegance in the operation of the grammar.

This new magazine looks great!
Popular Linguistics Magazine

I've copied the editor's introduction to the magazine here (taken from here):

Welcome to the first issue of Popular Linguistics Magazine, everyone!

written by DS Bigham, Editor

Over the last few years, I’ve been thinking a lot about the public perception of linguistics and language research. I’ve often been frustrated at the abuse and misunderstanding of basic linguistic concepts in the popular media (for example, this summer’s debacle over President Obama’s speech-style reported on “The Global Language Monitor”, see CNN’s coverage here), or even at the lack of widespread response from linguists on public policy issues, such as the Arizona immigration law or, reaching back, the Ebonics school funding debates. Why isn’t the public better educated about linguistics? I fear that it’s because we, as linguists, haven’t done the best job of getting the word out. We haven’t yet provided the public with a single non-specialist standard for linguistics-based reporting.

Oh, there are exceptions, certainly. Blogs like Language Log and Language Hat, Ben Zimmer’s “On Language” column for the New York Times, and occasional pieces here and there in this magazine or that newspaper. But a single trusted source, a regular, dedicated place where people can go and read about all aspects of our research, with articles written by true experts of the field… that’s what linguistics has been lacking.

If physics could bring quantum entanglement to the masses in Scientific American, if psychology could bring cognitive dissonance to the world outside of academia in Psychology Today, if my 90 year old grandmother could read about nanotube technology in Popular Science, why couldn’t we bring linguistics out into the wider world? That was the kernel that popped in my head way back in the late summer of 2007. Linguistics didn’t just need our own PR machine; we needed a magazine.

With that in mind, I’d like to present the first issue of Popular Linguistics Magazine, a monthly online publication where we aim to bring linguistics and language research to anyone who’s interested, regardless of whether they’re a linguist or not. Our goal here at Popular Linguistics is to present to you, dear readers, all aspects of linguistics, from breaking news in language technologies to stories from intrepid documentary fieldworkers, from research detailing how language works in the brain to stories showing how language works in society. Linguistics for everyone, finally.

3rd UK Cognitive Linguistics Conference

Just came back from the UK cognitive linguistics conference. It was my first cognitive linguistics conference. There were many parallel sessions so unfortunately it was impossible to attend everything that looked interesting but what I did attend was very good. Michelle and I had a relatively small turn out for our paper on Keystroke logging and electronic language but the paper was well received and there was lots of discussion afterward which was nice. Hopefully we've made contacts with people that will develop into collaborations or network building. There was no SFL presence so that was interesting too!

AHRC RESEARCH PREPARATION MASTERS STUDENTSHIP IN LINGUISTICS

We are pleased to invite applications for the above studentship in Linguistics, to start in September 2010.

This AHRC-funded studentship covering tuition fees for British and EU students, plus a generous stipend, is available for students applying for the MA in Applied Linguistics.

The studentship is intended as a research preparation MA for applicants wanting to pursue PhD research in this area. We would therefore also welcome expressions of interest for a three year PhD AHRC funded studentship to start in September 2011.

Please visit our webpages, clicking on ‘prospective students’, ‘postgraduate’, for further details and information about eligibility for these awards. The specific site for Linguistics can be found directly at http://courses.cardiff.ac.uk/funding/P348.html

In order to be considered for a studentship, in the first instance you need to apply for postgraduate study at Cardiff University. We are advising prospective applicants to apply for the MA programme as soon as possible, and in any case before 31st January 2010.

Information about the research interests and publications of all CLCR staff, details of past and current research projects, and our preferred themes for PhD research can be found on our website at:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/research/clcr/index.html

You can also contact any of the following staff for advice on how to apply:

Professor Nik Coupland, PhD Admissions, coupland@cardiff.ac.uk)
Dr Tom Bartlett, Director MA in Applied Linguistics, bartlettT@cardiff.ac.uk
Dr Joanna Thornborrow, Director PGR Studies, thornborrowj1@cardiff.ac.uk
Mrs Dawn Harrington, CLCR PGR Administrator, harringtond@cardiff.ac.uk

To download this announcement, please visit:
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/fontaine/AHRC.doc