Another successful LASC

On March 10, the Department hosted its annual Linguistics at Santa Cruz (LASC) conference, attended by prospective graduate students and current students, faculty and alumni. The program included presentations by several graduate students and alumnus Rodrigo Gutiérrez Bravo, now Professor at El Colegio de México.

The student presentations showcased recent research going on in the department, and sparked lively and insightful discussion during the Q & A:

• Jonathan Paramore led off the presentations with a talk on “Covert URs: evidence from Pakistani Punjabi”
• Yaqing Cao followed with a talk on “Scope reconstruction in head movements as featural Valuations”
• Matthew Kogan and Niko Webster presented a talk entitled “Subject islands are not reducible to discourse function”

The Distinguished Alumnus speaker was Professor Rodrigo Gutiérrez Bravo, who gave a talk entitled “Not in the complementizer system: Information Structure features in Spanish clefts and pseudo-clefts”, where he argued that structures which have a position that can show multiple informational properties can be particularly insightful for understanding the interaction between information structure and syntax.

The LASC dinner and celebration that followed at the Cowell Provost House featured delightful conversations, excellent food, and stunning views of the forest and ocean.

Thank you to all of the students, staff, and faculty who contributed to making this event a success!