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Sesquipedalian, Volume III, Number 10
The SESQUIPEDALIAN WEEKLY HERALD Volume III, Number 10
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Smash 10th Issue! December 3, 1992
FINNISH: A WORLD LANGUAGE?
Part Two of Three
Original text: Richard Lewis. Swedish translation: Gunnel Stenberg.
Translated back from Swedish by Tomas Riad. Post-editing: Kyle
Wohlmut. Additional Finnish consulting: Arto Anttila.
NOUNS AND THEIR CASES
Remember, self-confidence is the key to success. Never hesitate.
When you are about to use a noun, always reflect according to the
following pattern:
-- which is the corresponding noun in Finnish?
-- singular or plural?
-- what case? Nominative, accusative, genitive, essive, partitive,
translative, inessive, elative, illative, adessive, ablative,
allative, abessive, comitative or instructive?
-- is it possible to avoid using the noun?
After you have contemplated this during the proverbial
fraction of a second, take a deep breath and pronounce the first half
of the noun in a huge, booming voice. Then gradually weaken the voice
so that by the time you pronounce the case ending, it is only in a
hoarse whisper. This method of demonstrating your mastery of case
usage is completely safe since, although you cannot prove that you
were right, nobody, Finn or otherwise, can ever prove that you were
wrong. Above all, look confident.
NUMERALS
Superficially, there are few similarities between the Finnish and
English systems. For example:
yksi -- one
kaksi -- two
kolme -- three
neljae -- four
viisi -- five
kuusi -- six
seitsemaen -- seven
kahdeksan -- eight
yhdeksaen -- nine
kymmenen -- ten
A closer inspection, however, reveals the following facts that are
useful to the beginner: (a) 'kolme' and 'three' each have five
letters; (b) 'viisi' and 'five' are both formed around the letter 'v';
(c) 'seitsemaen' and 'seven' seem to share a common root (apparently a
word beginning with 's').
Other cues for the acquisition of numerals:
1) Forget the English numerals altogether. This done, you will have
to learn the Finnish ones in order to tell the time. If you should
run into problems when using English at a later stage you can consult
a Finnish-English dictionary, or, when you need numerals up to twenty,
make use of fingers and toes.
2) Do not waste time learning numerals higher than 20,000,000. It is
unlikely that you will ever have that much money, even in Finnmarks.
Months and Days: Say 'the first day,' 'the third day,' 'the
second month,' 'the next-to-last month,' etc. This will save you the
two years it takes to learn these names and shifts the burden of
labour over to the person you are talking to.
(NEXT WEEK: The direct object, verbs.)
-/-/-/ JOINT WORKSHOP /-/-/-
Tomas Riad, the Knut and Alice Wollenberg Foundation Postdoctoral
Fellow, and noted scholar of Finnish, will be the speaker at this
joint meeting of the Historical and Phonology workshops. We will
(all) meet in the usual place at the usual time:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3 at 7.30 pm, in VENTURA 17.
The History of Germanic Main Stress
Main stress in Germanic goes on the root-initial syllable, no matter
the weight of that syllable. Otherwise the Germanic stress system is
quantity sensitive, stressing heavy syllables and alternating light
ones. It has been observed that there is a "preference" for the
mainstress syllable to be heavy (bimoraic) already in the early
dialects (Gothic, Old English, Proto-Nordic, Old High German). The
nature of this preference is not clear. However, one can see that the
historical development favours the heavy syllable, as light syllables
are being eliminated by processes like syncope and (later) vowel
lengthening in open syllables. The later type of processes are often
referred to as the quantity shift. In the Nordic dialects (except
Danish) the final stage of this development is one where the main
stress syllable is obligatorily heavy.
In my talk I shall try to make sense of whatever the
preference for the main stress syllable to be heavy means. Gothic
vowel glide alternations (of which Sievers' law is an aspect) provides
us with some insight to the nature of Germanic main stress, and I will
propose that main stress assignment in fact interacts with (primary)
syllabification. This typologically unusual situation is later
subject to various reinterpretations, whereby main stress assignment
and syllabification become disentangled, and a more canonical type of
stress system emerges.
REMINDER: Next week (December 10), Young-Mee Yu Cho will present
'Directionality in Labial Disharmony in Chinese.'
-/-/-/ PARTY UPDATE /-/-/-
Due to a vast global conspiracy of which we have only begun to suspect
the tip of the iceberg, the department Christmas party has been moved
to Friday, December 11, immediately following the Ray Jackendoff
colloquium. This makes that happy hour a very happy one indeed. Come
for the talk, stay for the company... relax and don't hurry, the party
will continue as long as there are partiers. Live music will be
provided by real live linguists! (Well, one's not even a real
linguist, if that makes any difference.)
-/-/-/ CALL FOR PAPERS /-/-/-
FLSM-IV: The Fourth Annual Meeting of the Formal Linguistics Society
of Mid-America meets April 16-18, 1992, at the University of Iowa,
Iowa City. Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks in all areas of
linguistic theory. Papers presented will be published in FLSM-IV
proceedings. Please submit 10 (ten) copies of a one-page abstract
suitable for reproduction (an additional page with examples and
references may be included). Authors should identify themselves on a
separate 3x5 card. The card should contain the following information:
title of paper, name of author, address/affiliation
(student/non-student), e-mail address and phone number (optional).
Abstracts must be received by January 15, 1993.
Abstracts: FLSM-IV
Department of Linguistics
University of Iowa
570 EPB
Iowa City IA 52242
phone: 319/335-0216
email: linguistics-flsm@uiowa.edu
-/-/-/ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM /-/-/-
Friday, December 4, in Cordura 100, at 3:30:
ASPECT AND ARGUMENT STRUCTURE IN MODERN SCOTTISH GAELIC
A Dissertation Proposal
Gillian Catriona Ramchand
My dissertation focuses on the interface between syntactic
representations and semantic interpretation. I argue that there are
important constraints and systematicities to be found in the
relationship between these two domains. In particular I show that the
data from Modern Scottish Gaelic argues compellingly for the primacy
of aspect and event structure as the main conduit between the two
systems.
In the dissertation generally, I examine syntactic
representations of predicational structures which vary in their
aspectual properties. However, in this talk I will focus on one
particular class of predications: perfective and imperfective
constructions. One of the differences between the perfective and
imperfective in this language is the particular semantic
interpretation of the direct object argument. These semantic facts
correlate with differences in phrase structure configuration, and
differences in the nature of the aspectual particles in the language
which I argue head their own functional projection AspP within the VP.
I give a formal representation of the relevant semantics in terms of
the formalism of Verkuyl (1992), and argue that a theory which
represents the formal relationship between the verb and its direct
object argument (like Verkuyl, and like Krifka (1990)) is necessary to
capture the systematicities in aspectual composition in natural
language.
NEXT WEEK: Ray Jackendoff, '"Something Else" for the Binding Theory'
-/-/-/ WORD OF THE WEEK /-/-/-
For this week's word, we think we've found the highest incidence of a
consecutive repeated consonant in any word. It happens to be in what
we think is the longest place-name in any language. What we are
referring to are the four consecutive L's in the name of the Welsh
village Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllanysiliogogogoch
(usually abbreviated to Llanfairpwllgwyngyll). Strictly translated it
means, 'St. Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near the
rapid whirlpool of Llandysilio of the red cave.' No, we don't expect
you to make use of this word over the next week (but the inhabitants
of Llanfairpwyllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllanysiliogogogoch would be
thrilled if you did).
-/-/-/ FELLOWSHIPS/ASSISTANTSHIPS /-/-/-
-- STANFORD CENTER ON CONFLICT AND NEGOTIATION announces graduate
student research support for the study of conflict and negotiation.
If you are a Stanford graduate student and the study of conflict and
negotiation is a priority for you, you are eligible to become a
Fellow. Each Fellow will receive a $500 honorarium and be invited to
participate in SCCN events. The Fellows must complete the
interdisciplinary seminar on Conflict & Negotiation and complete at
least one research project related to the field during the year of
their fellowship. Application deadline: December 4, 1992.
SCCN is also accepting applications from all Stanford graduate
students for small research grants to defray direct research costs for
projects related to conflict and negotiation. Funds may be used for
paying subjects, transcribing data, travel for field work, etc. but
not for living expenses. The maximum grant is $2500. All levels of
research are welcome, but preference is given to proposals addressing
barriers to the negoitated resolution of conflict or means to avoid
them. Application deadlines: Round one- December 4, 1992. Round two-
February 12, 1993. Please submit a resume, cover letter, and brief
description of your proposed research to
SCCN
Room 207 Law School
Stanford CA 94305-8610
For more information call Richard Birke, SCCN Associate Director, 723-2574.
-- FLAS: Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships provide tuition
and stipend to students undergoing advanced training in designated
foreign languages in combination with either area studies,
international studies, or international aspects of professional
studies. Stanford petitions the Department of Education annually for
allocations of FLAS funds in these four areas: African Studies, East
Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Russian and East European
Studies. Academic year fellowships are for full tuition plus an
$8,000 stipend. The selection for these fellowships is decided once a
year by a committee form each Area Studies Center. The term of
fellowship is for one year only. Applciants must be a citizen or
permanent resident of the US or permanent resident of the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands, and be enrolled in or accepted to an
advanced degree program at Stanford. Applications are due January 16,
1993, and all letters of recommendation must be received by January
23. For more information contact
FLAS Fellowship Coordinator
Rm 14, Littlefield Center
Stanford CA 94305-5013
phone: 415/723-2178
fax: 415/725-6119
-- MABELLE McLEOD LEWIS MEMORIAL FUND: The Mabelle McLeod Lewis
Memorial Fund provides grants directly to advanced doctoral candidates
affiliated during the grant period with Northern California
universities and colleges for study and research in the humanistic
disciplines. Grants are awarded to bring about the completion of a
scholarly dissertation project upon which very significant work has
already been accomplished. Preference will be given to applicants who
have not held similar grants for the completion of a dissertation.
Applications will not be entertained for the purpose of publishing
dissertation research. Grants are available only to applicants who
demonstrate financial need as determined by the Trustees upon review
of the applications. The Trustees expect that requests will be only
for reasonable and necessary amounts not foreseeably available from
any other source. Award funds not appropriately expended in the
completion of the project shall be returned to Trustee. Grantees may
not hold any other award or other fellowship simultaneously with the
Mabelle McLeod Lewis Grant. The application must be supported by
recommendations from three recognized scholars, the applicant's
dissertation director and two other scholars. Each grantee will
report to the Trustees in writing the work completed during the award
period. Copies of the application may be obtained from
Mabelle McLeod Lewis Memorial Fund
Box 3730
Stanford CA 94309-3730
MORE HUMANITIES FELLOWSHIPS: The Stanford Humanities and Sciences
Deanery will be coordinating applications and appointments for the
following dissertation fellowships for the 1993-94 academic year.
Applicants must be US citizens or permanent residents, have completed
all Ph.D. requirements other than the dissertation, have an approved
dissertation proposal, and have at least one quarter of teaching
experience. These fellowships are: The Dorothy Danforth Compton
Dissertation Fellowship (American Indian/Alaskan, African American,
Chicano/Mexican and Puerto Rican students), the Humanities Center
Dissertation Prize Fellowship, the Goerges Lurcy Educational and
Charitable Trust Fund (full-time graduate study in France), and the
Whiting Fellowship (humanities students only). Information and
applications are available from
Jennifer Cairns
H&S Dean's Office
Building 310
Stanford CA 94305-2070
phone 415/725-1572
-/-/-/ TRUE LINGUISTS /-/-/-
We are currently taking nominations and votes for the 1992 'Block that
Metaphor!' award. Current nominees include:
'Anderson said he inherited many problems when he took over the
county's tax office, adding, "When you take the bull by the horns, you
will stir up a few feathers."' (From the El Paso Times)
'"The competition is great, it's stimulating," Dork said. "We can't
sit on our duffs and rest on our laurels anymore."' (From USA TODAY)
'"The worm has turned and our ship has come in," says James Hardy,
operating chieftan of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum-Sports Arena
Complex.' (From Variety)
'In the highway Rorschach that is Florida, the lunge toward nostalgia
charts a boomerang course against progress.' (From the Boston Globe)
Send all nominees and votes to kyle@csli... polls close at midnight,
December 31....
-/-/-/ JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS /-/-/-
(NOTE ON REDUNDANCY: For fuller listings of these and other jobs,
don't forget to check the Jobs binder in the Greenberg Room, and the
file 'jobslist.txt' on the CSLI directory /user/linguistics.)
-- The Department of Linguistics at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison anticipates a position at the assistant-professor
(tenure-track) level with a primary specialization in
syntax/linguistic theory beginning academic year 1993-94. Send
application and three letters of recommendation by January 30, 1993, to
Manindra K. Verma, Chair
Department of Linguistics
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1168 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Drive
Madison WI 53706
phone: 608/262-2292
fax: 608/262-4747
Unless confidentiality is requested in writing, information regarding
the applicants must be released upon request. Finalists cannot be
guaranteed confidentiality.
-- BALL STATE UNIVERSITY: The Department of English is seeking a
sociolinguist for a tenure-track position at the assistant-professor
level beginning Fall 1993 to teach graduate and undergraduate courses
in a program offering MA degrees in TESOL and Linguistics and Ph.D. in
Applied Linguistics. Minimum qualifications: doctorate in linguistics
or related area by August 19, 1993; ability to teach graduate
sociolinguistics courses, including courses with emphasis on topics
pertinent to TESOL/applied linguistics; ability to teach other
graduate and undergraduate linguistics courses; research interest in
areas of sociolinguistics relevant to TESOL/applied linguistics
program. Send a letter of application, CV, two publications or
examples of current research, official graduate studies transcripts,
and at least three original letters of recommendation with addresses
and telephone numbers to
Dr. Linda K. Hanson, Chair
Department of English
Ball State University
Muncie IN 47306
Deadline for applications is January 25, 1993. Screening begins
immediately.
-- EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE: ETS has begun a research project
investigating methods for automatically scoring natural language
responses to test questions as a means for moving away from
multiple-choice questions, and seeks to hire a computational linguist
as a member of the project team. Position title: Associate
Development Scientist in the Cognitive and Instructional Science
Division. Basic function: Provide design-oriented, technical and
management skills, generally as a junior member of a team, in
conceptualizing, designing, obtaining support for, conducting,
managing, and disseminating results of integrated research development
programs in the domain of computational linguistics as relevant to
improved learning and opportunity through innovative and effective
products that link assessment and instruction. Relevant education and
experience: Ph.D. in computational linguistics with emphasis on the
computational aspects of linguistics. Minor work in instructional
design, instructional science, or other design-oriented discipline is
extremely desireable. Coursework equivalent to a B.S. in computer
science or equivalent experience, and evidence of excellence in
research and implementation as shown by prototype systems, research
projects, etc. Please contact
Mary Dee Harris, Ph.D.
Language Technology Inc.
2153 California Street NW
Washington DC 20008
phone: 202/387-0626
fax: 202/387-0625
email: mdharris@guvax.georgetown.edu
-- CATERPILLAR, INC: Caterpillar, Inc. seeks a senior language
specialist in their Marketing Support Department (Technical
Information Division). This position works with translation editors
and translators, technical editors and technical writers, worldwide
dealer personnel, and an outside supplier specializing in development
of natural language processing systems. Participates with technical
supplier in development of grammars, lexicons, and semantic rules for
English and various other languages for a computational language
processing system designed for automatic translation of technical
documentation. Coordinates requests for system and language changes
to Caterpillar Technical English (CTE) and Automated Machine
Translation System. Formulates solutions and negotiates solutions
with division personnel, dealers and customers while maintaining
corporate and EEC terminology standards. Maintains system
documentation for users. Requires an advanced degree in Computational
Linguistics, Linguistics, or Computer Science, or in a language field
with substantial work on computational applications. Must have
demonstrated ability to perform linguistic fieldwork and analysis on
more than one language, knowledge engineering for problem definition,
and problem-solving skills; native or near-native command of English
and at least one European language; excellent interpersonal
communication skills to interact with dealers, customers and suppliers
in problem identification and solution negotiation. Preference will
be given to candidates who have in-depth product line knowledge,
extensive experience in translation and knowledge of translation
industry and dealer/customer business and their technical information
needs. Contact
Linda Schmandt
Carnegie Group
phone: 412/642-6900
email: schmandt@cgi.com
-- NATIONAL TAIWAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY: The Department of English at
National Taiwan Normal University has two openings at the instructor,
associate professor, or full professor levels beginning August, 1993.
Applicants need hold a Ph.D. with a major in (1) Linguistics or TESOL
(2) British or American Literature. Responsibilities include
directing MA theses/Ph.D. dissertations and teaching courses at the
graduate and undergraduate levels. Annual salary range is from
NT$530,000 (for instructor with recently acquired Ph.D.) to NT$840,000
(for first-year full professor). Applicants should send a letter of
application, transcripts, CV, samples of work and two letters of
recommendation to
Dr. Yu-hwei E. Lii-Shih
Chair, Department of English
National Taiwan Normal University
162, Hoping East Road, Section 1
Taipei, Taiwan ROC.
phone: 886.2.363.2664
fax: 886.2.363.4793
Selection of applicants will begin April and continue until the
positions are filled. US$1.00 is approximately NT$25.38.
-- UC BERKELEY: The Department of East Asian Languages of the
University of California at Berkeley is receiving applications for a
tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of a tenured position as
Associate Professor or Professor in Japanese literature for
appointment in Fass 1993. All specializations and historical periods
will be considered. Candidates should be fluent in modern Japanese.
Applications with CV, names of references, and other relevant
materials should be sent by January 15, 1993, to
Professor Jeffrey Riegel, Chair
Department of East Asian Languages
104 Durant Hall
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley CA 94720
phone: 510/642-3480
-- NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: The Department of Linguistics at
Northwestern University announces the opening of a new tenure-track
Assistant Professor position in phonology beginning September 1, 1993.
Candidates must hold a Ph.D. in linguistics or a related field by the
starting date of the position. We are seeking candidates with a
primary specialization in PHONOLOGY as well as additional expertise in
one or more of the following areas: morphology, language typology,
language change, language acquisition, and computational linguistics.
Preference will be given to candidates with publications beyond the
dissertation and/or teaching experience of demonstrably high quality.
Applications are due at Northwestern by January 22, 1993. The
application should include CV, a brief statement of current and
projected research interests, teaching evaluations (if available), and
three letters of reference. Send materials to
Phonology Search Committee
Department of Linguistics
Northwestern University
2016 Sheridan Road
Evanston IL 60208-4090
phone: 708/491-7020
A departmental representative will be at the LSA Annual Meeting in Los
Angeles to discuss the position and answer questions.
(NOTE ON REDUNDANCY: For fuller listings of these and other jobs,
don't forget to check the Jobs binder in the Greenberg Room, and the
file 'jobslist.txt' on the CSLI directory /user/linguistics.)
-/-/-/ INSTA-PRIZE /-/-/-
To instantly claim your free goodie this week, just identify the
literary opus that begins thusly:
'My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Phillip,
my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more
explicit than Pip.'
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-/-/-/ CONSERVE DISK SPACE /-/-/-
So you may delete your copy after you've read it (or better yet,
before you've read it), the Sesquipedalian Weekly Herald is stored
online both at Stanford (in directory /user/linguistics/Sesquip), and
at Berkeley (in the directory /usr/pub.) The most current issue of
the Herald can be found by typing 'help quip'.
Neither Stanford University nor the Linguistics Department or any of
their employees, makes any warranty, whatsoever, implied, or assumes
any legal liability or responsibility regarding any information,
disclosed, in this publication, or represents that its use would not
infringe privately owned rights. No specific reference constitutes or
implies endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by Stanford
University or the Linguistics Department. The views and opinions
expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Stanford
University or the Linguistics Department, and shall not be used for
advertising or product endorsement purposes.
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