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For information on linguistics events in the greater Montréal area, subscribe to Lingmont. Lingmont is an e-mail forum where local linguistics departments can exchange information on upcoming events such as talks, workshops and conferences. To subscribe to this list send a message with "subscribe lingmont your_email_address" in the message body to majordomo [at] concordia [dot] ca.

2012 Phonology Job Talks:

2011-2012 Colloquium Series Schedule:

Fall 2011

 

Winter 2012

  • Speaker: Tanya Slavin (McGill)
    Date & Time: Friday, March 23 at 3:30 pm
    Place: Leacock Building, room 14
    Title: Deriving Object Experiencer verbs in Ojicree

    • Abstract: In this talk I look at the meaning and distribution of the Ojicree verbal suffix ishkaw in the contexts where it acts as a causative head. I argue that ishkaw is different from the more common causative morpheme ih in that it forms Object Experiencer verbs. Presenting a range of new data and observations, I demonstrate that causatives formed with ishkaw exhibit two essential semantic properties of Object Experiencer verbs (cf. Belletti and Rizzi 1988, Arad 2002, Pesetsky 1995, Landau 2009): non-volitional subject and psychologically affected object. I argue that despite the initial impression, the special Object Experiencer semantics is not inherent to this morpheme but follows directly from structure. Specifically I propose that -ishkaw is a causative head that introduces a causing event rather than an animate causer (cf. Pylkkanen 2008). The interpretation of the causee as an experiencer is a result of a selectional restriction of this morpheme: -ishkaw selects a vP but not a VoiceP. This study contributes to the long-standing debate on the interaction of meaning and structure in Object Experiencer verbs, lending support to the idea that the Object Experiencer interpretation is derived structurally. Finally, I offer some thoughts on the correlation between non-agentivity and the Object Experiencer interpretation and, more generally, on the correlation between (non-)agentivity of the subject and the properties of the object in causative constructions.
  • Speaker: Jason Merchant (Chicago)
    Date & Time: Friday, March 30 at 3:30 pm
    Place: Education Building, room 433
    Title: More comparatives than you can shake a stick at: The case of Greek

    • Abstract: The syntax and semantics of comparatives are perennial topics of investigation not least because of the challenges they pose to usual assumptions about the syntax-semantics interface; more recently, their cross-linguistic properties have also begun to be the focus of attention. In this talk, I present the case of comparison in modern Greek, which has a richer set of comparative morphemes and standard-marking morphemes than any other language so far described in the literature: it has a synthetic comparative morpheme like English -er (-ter-), two analytic comparative morphemes (pjo and perisotero), and five different markers of the standard (Eng "than"; Greek "apo", "apoti", "para", "ap'os-AGR", and a genitive of comparison). Building on earlier work, I show that Greek has both fully and reduced clausal comparatives, necessitating a 2-place -er, as well as two phrasal comparatives: one marked by the preposition "apo", and one by the genitive. These, I show, have different distributions, but can both be accommodated by a 3-place -er (derivable from the 2-place one): while the prepositional marker has an expected distribution, the genitive is curiously restricted: I argue that its properties follow if the genitive must be interpreted in situ, while the PP can undergo scopal displacement.

Recent and upcoming conferences and workshops

ETAP 2: Prosody in Context  September 23–25, 2011

Phonology in the 21st Century  May 7–9, 2011

Ling-Tea talks

McGill's Ling-Tea series provides a forum for students, professors, and visitors to present current research and work in progress in an informal setting. If you are interested in presenting, please contact this year's Ling-Lunch organizers, rachel [dot] borden [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Rachel Borden) and galit [dot] agmon [at] mail [dot] mcgill [dot] ca (Galit Agmon) to sign up for a slot. You can see a list of current and past talks on the McLing blog.

All talks take place in the linguistics department room 117, Wednesdays from 3:00–4:00, unless otherwise noted. Cookies will be provided, bring your own tea.

Winter 2012:

Speaker: Michael Hamilton
Date & Time: Wednesday 2/8 at 3:00pm
Title: Prosody-syntax mapping in Japanese

Film screening: Âs Nutayuneân: We Still Live Here
Date & Time: Wednesday 2/15 at 3:00pm

Speaker: Gretchen McCulloch
Date & Time: Wednesday 2/29 at 3:00pm
Title: Integrating Mi'gmaq into a Typology of Indefinite Pronouns

Speaker: Galit Agmon and Isabelle Deshchamps
Date & Time: Wednesday 3/7 at 3:00pm
Title: Quantifers and Numerosity: “less than half”, “more than half” and number perception 

Speaker: Rachel Borden and Jeff Klassen
Date & Time: Wednesday 3/14 at 3:00pm
Title: TBA

Speaker: Conor Quinn
Date & Time: Wednesday 3/21 at 3:00pm
Title: TBA

Speaker: Tanya Slavin
Date & Time: Wednesday 3/28 at 3:00pm
Title: Possession on Ojibwe

Speaker: Sasha Simonenko
Date & Time: Wednesday 4/4 at 3:00pm
Title: Clitic-hood as a phonological correlate of phase-hood: Evidence from the North Germanic DP

Speaker: Jozina Vander Klok
Date & Time: Wednesday 4/11 at 3:00pm
Title: Predicate-fronting in an SVO Austronesian language

 

Reading groups

McGill's Department of Linguistics regularly organizes informal reading groups on particular areas. All members of Montréal's linguistics community are invited to participate. The department is currently hosting the following reading groups:

 

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Updated on Tue, 2012-04-10 13:51
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