Talk by Ur Shlonsky (University of Geneva) in the Syntax Colloquium

by Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Ur Shlonsky (University of Geneva) in the Syntax Colloquium. The talks will take place in person. Room IG 4.301 Date: February 05, 2024 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Title: "Clause-internal focus - movement and locality: Evidence from some African and some non-African languages” Abstract: I present several arguments in favor of a clause-internal (“vP-peripheral”) FocusP and provide some examples of movement to its specifier. Focus°, I additionally argue, is selected by a head. I discuss the properties of this additional structure and its role in the syntactic computation....
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Talks by Sebastian Walter (Frankfurt/Wuppertal) and Noémi Ecsedi (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium

by Lennart Fritzsche Comment Closed
We are happy to announce talks by Sebastian Walter (Frankfurt/Wuppertal) and Noémi Ecsedi (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium. The talks will take place on campus in IG 4.301. If you wish to participate virtually via Zoom, please contact Lennart Fritzsche for the link.  Date: February 1, 2024 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct   Sebastian Walter Title: Indirect discourse as mixed quotation: Evidence from self pointing Abstract: Indirect discourse, e.g., Peter said he was thirsty, is standardly viewed as a statement of what someone said or thought without quoting them directly. However, there are instances of indexicals which can receive a shifted interpretation in indirect discourse (Plank, 1986; Anderson, 2019), meaning that they are interpreted from the matrix subject’s perspective. This suggests that at least some elements in indirect discourse can be quoted. In a rating study, self pointing gestures aligned with a focalized third-person pronoun in indirect discourse were judged acceptable, cf. (1). (1) Peter complained that [HE] again had to pay the bill for the whole group. + self...
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Talk by Katharina Zahner-Ritter (Trier University)

by Tina Bögel Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Katharina Zahner-Ritter (Trier University) in the Phonology Colloquium. Room: IG 4.301 Date: January 31, 2024 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Title: Accounting for the dynamics in the L2 acquisition of intonation: Cross-linguistic influence, proficiency, and individual variation Abstract: Learning a foreign language (L2) is a challenge for learners, especially when it comes to intonation and timing. Even advanced learners have been shown to differ from native (L1) speakers with respect to pitch accent placement or pitch accent type. Comparatively fewer studies have focused on the fine phonetic detail of intonational patterns in the L2, e.g., alignment, scaling, or the shape of contour. In the talk, I will present data from different experiments that focus on the dynamics in the L2 acquisition of fine phonetic detail. One study targets the acquisition of tonal alignment configurations in L2 German, testing learners of tone- and non-tone languages in an imitation paradigm. Another study concentrates on the...
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Two talks by Kwaku Sasu (GU) / Ateş İsmail Çalışır (GU) in the Syntax Colloquium

by Anke Himmelreich Comment Closed
We are happy to announce two talks by Kwaku Sasu (GU) and by Ateş İsmail Çalışır (GU) in the Syntax Colloquium. The talks will take place in person. Room IG 4.301 Date: January 29, 2024 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Kwaku Sasu: Title: "Negation in Anufo” Abstract: The talk looks at Negation in Anufo, A Niger-Congo language spoken in Northen Ghana. A general overview of negation patterns in the language and other aspects of negation in the language will be discussed. Ateş İsmail Çalışır: Title: “Biased Polar Questions in Turkish” Abstract: Biased Polar Questions are a cross-linguistically observed phenomena, closely related to High and Low negation in polar questions. In this talk, I will try to argue for a biased polar question analysis in Turkish and potential consequences and evidences regarding their syntactic and contextual status....
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Talk by Lennart Fritzsche (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium

by Lennart Fritzsche Comment Closed
We are happy to announce a talk by Lennart Fritzsche (Frankfurt) in the Semantics Colloquium. The talk will take place on campus in IG 4.301. If you wish to participate virtually via Zoom, please contact Lennart Fritzsche for the link.  Date: January 25, 2024 Time: 4 pm – 6 pm ct Title: Ja or Jaaaaa? How Prosodic Modulations Influence the Scalar Interpretation of Adjectives Abstract: The traditional view that language is arbitrary (Hockett, 1960) has become increasingly challenged recently (e.g., Blasi et al., 2016): Iconic mappings between form and meaning are found throughout language, as for example in prosodic modulations of length such as looooong (Fuchs et al., 2019).  In German, it is possible to modulate the length of response particles in responses to polar questions containing a gradable adjective, cf. (1).  (1)   A: Findest du Berlin schön? (‘Do you find Berlin pretty?’)        B: Jaaaaa. (Lengthened German Ja ‘Yes’)  Empirical work on whether these instances of particle lengthening are iconic is lacking. The data presented in this work suggests...
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