Law in Journal of Semantics
Jess Law has recently published a paper in Journal of Semantics, titled “The mereological structure of distributivity: a case study of binomial each.” It can be found at this link.
Eruption in 217!
At 10:15 AM on Thursday 2/10, department members heard a cracking noise and watched as a cloud of smoke poured out from a lighting fixtures in 217. The room was swiftly evacuated and the syntax seminar relocated to the Cave, and soon after, the order came down to keep the lights off in that room until further notice. A riveting experience on a Thursday morning!
Whasc has gathered witness testimony from one of the attendees. Niko Webster, in his second year, writes: “a mildly terrifying experience that thankfully didn’t result in any serious concern- Lightbulb started smoking and making crackling noises. The smell was horrible and definitely toxic (hurray for wearing masks?). Luckily Sarah knew what to do – thanks Sarah!”
Hats off to Hofmann!
Lisa Hofmann defended her dissertation on Thursday, January 20th. Her dissertation is titled “Anaphora and Negation” and her committee consisted of Adrian Brasoveanu (chair), Jess Law, and Amanda Rysling.
Congratulations, Lisa!
WHASC’s White House Correspondent
We recently received an update from recent grad Karen Lowe, who was a double major in Linguistics and History. Karen spenther final quarter on the UCDC program in Washington, D.C., before graduating in December.
There she completed an internship with the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). She writes, “It’s amazing being able to work at the Federal level and see how the “sausage” gets made with environmental policy.”
In the new year, Karen plans to complete another internship, at the Georgetown Law Center.
Whasc Profile: Rachel Walker
1) Coming to Santa Cruz represents a return for you, as well. How have things changed since you were last here?
In the department, the biggest change has been the people. There are many faculty who arrived since I was a student here, and the staff have changed, and, of course, the students. It’s a great opportunity to get to know new people and learn about new threads of research. There also seems to be a lot of new wildlife on campus: a lot more deer and coyotes than I remember, and way more turkeys.
2) In light of the times, how has it been to adjust to life back in the department?
It’s been an adventure! Things have of course been limited by the pandemic, but it was terrific to be able to teach in person in the fall and to resume again just recently this quarter. Teaching in person has helped me to get to know a lot of the students in the department, both the graduates and the undergraduates. I’m delighted about the reopening of the Stevenson Coffee Shop, because it’s a great meeting place nestled among the redwoods and I really missed it when it was closed.
3) What’s on the horizon for the coming year – be it plans for research, for travel, or anything else?
On the research front, I’m working on analyzing acoustic data we collected for Ladin, a minority Romance language spoken in the Italian Alps. This research will help us to understand properties of the syllable structure of Ladin and pave the way for our future investigation of stress in the language. I’m also planning to continue investigating the temporal structure of liquids in syllable rhymes in different languages. On the recreational side, I’ve got lots of hikes and exploring around the area in mind when I get some free time!
WHASC Profile: Sarah Amador
Last August, Sarah Arantza Amador joined Linguistics as our new Department Manager. Sarah came to us most immediately from Community Studies, but she’s brought us over a decade of experience from her career here at UCSC, with roles in Stevenson, Merrill, Politics, LALS, MCD Bio and EEB, spanning undergraduate teaching, graduate advising and program management.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Sarah and pose to her the WHASC Questionnaire (which, the Editors aver, ranks somewhere below Andy Warhol’s but probably above James Lipton’s).
Joining Linguistics, in the Humanities Division, represents a kind of homecoming for you. (Before completing the M.A. at NYU, Sarah earned the B.A. at UCSC in 2005, in Literature and in Philosophy, with Honors). What has changed or surprised you?
I’m a UCSC Humanities alumna and Stevensonian (Maria has a pretty good view of my old dorm room from her office window!), and when I joined Linguistics last August, I was surprised by how good it felt to come back to Stevenson. Stevenson Academic feels like home, and everyone in our department and division has been so welcoming. A nice change: I’m happy to see that the “smokers’ bench” at the southeast corner of our building has been replaced with a patch of wildflowers.
In the Fall Quarter, you made a pretty special journey to Iceland. What took you there, and what did you do?
I went to Iceland for a writing retreat with fellow flash fiction writers who I’d only had the pleasure of working with online previously – it was wonderful! Afterwards, my partner Richard and I spent another week eating cinnamon buns, stocking up on Icelandic novels and wool, and chasing sheep and the aurora. We drove six hours through snow and black ice to visit the Icelandic Museum of Sorcery and Witchcraft in a remote corner of the island — it was a dream!
What’s on your horizon in 2022? Any more trips, special projects, or things you’d like to try?
Knitting sweaters, finishing my novel by the end of the year, and visiting my family and friends in Spain, if COVID allows.
She did go chasing waterfalls: Öxarárfoss, in Þingvellir National Park
Antipodean Tidings, Really (ATR)
Just before the break, Jaye Padgett and colleagues had their joint work appear at the annual conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, on December 8:
An acoustic study of ATR vowels in Tima
Marija Tabain, Gertrud Schneider-Blum, Adele Gregory and Jaye Padgett
It was presented by co-author Marija Tabain (former UCSC postdoc and current Professor at La Trobe University).