Diane Massam in Berlin for a Workshop on Multi Verb Constructions

Diane Massam (Professor Emeritus) was invited to speak on Niuean complex predicates at a Workshop on Multi Verb Constructions in December 2017, organized by the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft and the Research Unit on experimental syntax and heritage languages (Humboldt University, Berlin). These pictures show the (rather intimidating!) conference venue at Humboldt University, and the great Christmas Market atmosphere of Berlin in December.

Linguistic Variation (17:2): Register Variation and Syntactic Theory

A special issue of Linguistic Variation (17:2) has just been published, on Register Variation and Syntactic Theory, edited by Diane Massam (Professor Emeritus) and Tim Stowell (MA: 1977, now at UCLA). It includes an introduction by Tim and Diane, and a paper co-authored by Diane and two of our PhD students Kazuya Bamba and Patrick Murphy. The volume includes papers on the syntax used in special registers such as diaries, text messages, newspaper headlines, and recipes, across a range of languages. Diane, Kaz and Patrick’s paper is on null objects in recipes and in radical null argument languages.

https://benjamins.com/#catalog/journals/lv.17.2/main

‘A Newfoundland Treasury of Terms for Ice and Snow’ (Canadian Language Museum exhibit opening, Feb. 1st, 2018)

A message from Elaine Gold and the Canadian Language Museum:

You are all invited to attend the opening of the exhibit ‘A Newfoundland Treasury of Terms for Ice and Snow’ at the Canadian Language Museum’s gallery, in Glendon Gallery, Glendon College. This is an award-winning exhibit of photographs and videos by Newfoundland artist, Marlene Creates. U of T’s Linguistics band F-Zero will be playing Newfoundland tunes, Prof. Jack Chambers will speak about English in Newfoundland, the artist will Skype in from Fogo Island, and there will be some Newfoundland treats!

You can get here by TTC, but if you drive you’ll have to pay for parking in Lot A (see map below #4); you can park there, or drive around to Lot B (#5).  You can also park in the ravine (Lots #1, 2) (and pay there)  and hike back up!

Click here for the map.

Yu-Leng Lin to Feng Chia University (Taiwan)

Yu-Leng Lin (PhD 2016) has been offered a tenure-track Assistant Professorship in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at Feng Chia University in Taiwan. She will start her new position in February. She has spent the past year as a post-doc in Hong Kong. Congratulations, Yu-Leng!

Jessica Denniss invited to contribute to a handbook on Australian languages

Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics (TWPL) recently published a special issue on Indigenous languages. The volume focused mainly on languages of Canada, but also included an article on languages of Australia – specifically, from the Pama-Nyungan and Tangic family – written by University of Toronto PhD student Jessica Denniss. As a result of this paper, Jessica has now been asked by Claire Bowern to contribute a chapter to a handbook on Australian languages. Congratulations to Jessica on this exciting achievement!

New Year 2018

A festive member of the department left some treats for our faculty and students coming back after the New Year: