Judith Aissen and Scott Anderbois in Texas

Judith Aissen and Scott AnderBois (PhD 2011, currently Assistant Professor in Residence at the University of Connecticut) were in Austin, TX last weekend to participate in the fifth CILLA (Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America). Judith spoke on passive and agent focus in Tzotzil (“El pasivo y el enfoque de agente en tzotzil”), Scott on attitude reports in Yucatec Mayan (“Las atribuciones actitudinales en maya yucateco: Sintaxis y semántica”). High points of the conference included a keynote by Roberto Zavala (LRC visitor in Spring 2006), reporting on a newly discovered Zoquean language spoken in Chiapas, Mexico (Jitolteco), and one by Frank Seifart (MPI, Leipzig) on Manguaré, communication by drums among the Bora of the Amazons. CILLA is held every two years, always at UT. Spanish is the preferred language for the conference, with English and Portugese as alternatives.

Jim McCloskey Gives Plenary Lecture at Congress of Celtic Studies

Between August 1st and August 5th this summer, the National University of Ireland, Maynooth hosted the 14th International Congress of Celtic Studies, a global gathering of researchers in various disciplines concerned with Celtic Studies. The Congress takes place every four years. Jim McCloskey gave the first plenary lecture at this year’s Congress and used the occasion to present his joint work on syntax and prosody with Ryan Bennett of UCSC and Emily Elfner of UMass.

Also Presenting…

At the same conference, on Friday August 5th, Jaye Padgett and Máire Ní Chiosáin of University College Dublin presented Irish Palatalization: an Ultrasound Study, a report on their collaborative ultrasound project with Ryan Bennett and Grant McGuire.

Jim McCloskey’s Further Travels

Just as the summer ended, Jim McCloskey travelled first to the University of Tromsø in northern Norway to take part in a thesis defense on September 15th and a
Workshop on Agreement on September 16th, then on to Paris to take part in a Workshop on Impersonal Pronouns at CNRS Pouchet on September 20th and to give an invited talk at CSSP 2011, held at Université Paris 8 in St. Denis. In Tromsø, Jim had a chance to re-connect with alumnus Peter Svenonius, who is Professor and Senior Researcher at CASTL, and in Paris with alumnus Eric Potsdam of the University of Florida, who gave a paper at CSSP on the syntax of comparatives in Malagasy.

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