“The focus is on the description of patterns in African American English (AAE). In addition to taking courses on the linguistic description of AAE, participants will gain research experience by exploring current issues in the study of AAE. The focus will be on methods for describing patterns in the use of AAE and analyzing data. Research will be conducted in laboratory settings on databases of adult and child AAE language samples. The descriptions of the data will characterize the differences between AAE and mainstream English. The linguistic description based on this research will be shown to have practical application in fields such as education and communication sciences.

Participants will receive a taxable stipend of $600 plus free room and board on campus, and travel fees up to $600 will be paid.”

Research assistant position for grant-funded project investigating preschool language

A full-time position is available working on a project in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Montclair State University in New Jersey. The project is funded by NIH/NIDCD and focuses on preschool children who are typically developing and children with language disorder. Responsibilities include participant recruitment and scheduling, preliminary evaluations of participants for eligibility and classification, eliciting language samples from young children, transcribing audio-taped and video-taped language samples, transcript coding, and data analysis.

Minimum qualifications are a bachelors degree in linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, speech-language pathology, or a related discipline with experience in the conduct of research involving human subjects. The ideal candidate would have prior experience working with young children and their families; experience with computerized language transcription and analysis; excellent interpersonal skills for interacting with adults and young children; excellent organizational skills; will be independent in carrying out responsibilities and willing to make a 14-month commitment to the position. A recent college graduate looking for additional research experience before going on to graduate school would be ideal.

Interested applicants should send a letter that includes a description of previous experience and a curriculum vitae, and arrange to have three letters of recommendation sent to: Dr. Sarita Eisenberg, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, 1515 Broad Street, Bloomfield, New Jersey 07003; eisenbergs::AT::mail::DOT::montclair::DOT::edu.
Review of applications will begin immediately. The anticipated start date is July 1, 2010.

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Research assistant job in Michael Frank’s lab at Stanford University

Interested in language, cognition, and development? The Department of Psychology is looking for a full time Research Assistant. This is a one year fixed term position with possibility of renewal. RA will assist with empirical work on language learning, social development, and cross-cultural cognition. Duties will include assisting in designing, creating, running, and analyzing experiments with infants, children, and adults (including experiments delivered using web-based platforms); coordinating and recruiting undergraduate research
assistants; coordinate participant recruitment; and assisting in planning lab events and meetings.

Other optional opportunities: RA may have opportunities for scientific creativity on conference presentations and journal articles. There may also be opportunities for international travel to collaboration sites in India, Brazil, or Indonesia.

Qualifications: RA should have working knowledge of MS Office and good organizational and communication skills. Frequent email and phone communication will be necessary, and keeping organized (scheduling and record-keeping) is an essential part of the job. Previous research experience is strongly preferred. A good candidate will have additional technical skills such as programming (Flash, Matlab, and R especially, but shell scripting, Perl, or Java also useful), statistical knowledge, and graphic design (Photoshop/Illustrator/Dreamweaver). Must be a quick learner, able to work independently, and show initiative. The position is ideal for individuals who wish to further their research training.

To apply, go to http://jobs.stanford.edu/, type 37792 in “Keyword
Search” box, and click “Search.” Please email mcfrank – AT – stanford – DOT -edu with any questions.

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TEMPLE UNIVERSITY
PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT

SUMMER INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY!!!

Are you interested in exploring psychology beyond mere class work? Do you want to go to graduate school? Do you want hands-on experience with cutting-edge research?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then the Temple University Infant Lab or the Temple University Research in Spatial Cognition Lab might be a great place for you to spend your summer vacation!

These labs, directed by Professors Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Nora Newcombe, conduct research on language acquisition, parent-child play interactions, spatial development, memory development, and spatial learning both in theory and application. We are currently looking for bright, energetic students who are hungry to peer into the world of children and spatial intelligence. In addition to the spectacular experience, we may be able to offer an honorarium. This is also a specific recruitment effort for underrepresented minority students.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send the following to our lab coordinator, Katrina Ferrara, (katrina ::DOT:: ferrara ::AT:: gmail ::DOT:: com):

(1) A resume indicating your academic and volunteer experiences
(2) Your availability during the summer (e.g., number of hours per week)

The abstract of the talk follows.

On extended nominal projections in Japanese
Masao Ochi
Osaka University/Harvard University

The issue of whether or not languages vary with respect to the presence/absence of functional projections in the nominal domain has been an issue of interest from both syntactic and semantic points of view. In this talk, I will investigate the syntactic structure of nominal expressions in Japanese. I will approach this issue by highlighting an abstract functional head within the nominal domain which is relevant for specificity, thereby supporting the view that specificity is syntactically encoded in the nominal structure (Borer 2005 and Muromatsu 1998 among others).

The primary domain of investigation for this talk is the syntactic status of numeral classifiers (NCs).

(1) a. Taro-wa 10-ko-no gyooza-o tabe-ta.
Taro-Top 10-CL-Gen dumpling-Acc eat-Past
‘Taro ate 10 dumplings.’ (pre-nominal NC)
b. Taro-wa gyooza 10-ko-o tabe-ta.
Taro-Top dumpling 10-CL-Acc eat-Past
‘Taro ate 10 dumplings.’ (post-nominal NC)
c. Taro-wa gyooza-o (kinoo) 10-ko tabe-ta.
Taro-Top dumpling-Acc yesterday 10-CL eat-Past
‘Taro ate 10 dumplings.’ (‘stranded’ NC)

Based on new (and old) observations about specificity, scope, and ellipsis, I will advance a non-uniform analysis of the pre-nominal NC and the post-nominal NC: the post-nominal classifier is a head (Watanabe 2006 among many others) while the pre-nominal NC is a phrasal adjunct at the NP level (Saito et al. 2008 among others). It is further proposed that while the pre-nominal NC construction optionally comes with the functional projection under investigation, the post-nominal NC construction always possesses this extra layer to accommodate the NP movement internal to the nominal phrase. I will also discuss how this line of analysis allows us to approach the floating/stranded NC construction from a new perspective. In particular, I will entertain the idea that the stranded NC and the post-nominal NC essentially share the same underlying structure although they have slightly different numerations, and that stranding is in fact obligatory, not optional.

Consider submitting a paper you’ve written for a linguistics class!

Call for Papers
for the 4th annual Cornell Undergraduate Linguistics Colloquium

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

April 3-4, 2010

UnderLings, the Cornell University undergraduate linguistics association, requests abstract submissions for the fourth annual Cornell Undergraduate Linguistics Colloquium. Student submissions at all levels are encouraged in a variety of subfields of linguistics, including but not limited to phonetics, phonology, syntax, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and language acquisition. Applicants pursuing a B.A., B.S., or equivalent degree are invited to submit a one-page abstract for a talk of no more than twenty minutes in length or for a poster presentation at our poster session. Abstracts should be submitted to culc2010 – AT – gmail.com by Friday, March 5th, 2010. Please indicate whether you would like to be considered for a talk or for the poster session or both. There is a probability that the conference proceedings will be published afterward, most likely in an online, widely-accessible format.

More information about the colloquium and online pre-registration will be available soon online.

Please direct any questions to culc2010 – AT – gmail.com.