LINGUIST List 9.1419

Sun Oct 11 1998

FYI: Babel/reporter, SCLC update, Corpus on WWW

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

  • Malcolm Lawrence, Babel seeks multilingual correspondents and translators
  • alan harris, SCLC meeting update: change of venue
  • alan harris, Lang. corpus new on WWW

    Message 1: Babel seeks multilingual correspondents and translators

     Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 13:14:47 -0700
    From: Malcolm Lawrence <malcolmwolfenet.com>
    Subject: Babel seeks multilingual correspondents and translators


    Babel seeks multilingual correspondents and translators

    Babel, the multilingual, multicultural online journal of arts and ideas (http://www.towerofbabel.com) is seeking multilingual correspondents and translators to report on what's happening in your part of the planet for the international stringer "Our Man In Havana" section (http://www.towerofbabel.com/sections/ourmaninhavana)

    No matter where you are on the planet, no matter what languages you speak, no matter what you do, we want to know what's going on around you in as many tongues as you're fluent in. So far we have stringers in or from Moscow, South Korea, Puebla, China, Bombay, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, Singapore, Prague, Arabia, Jamaica, New York City, Tennessee, Raleigh, Louisiana, San Francisco, Oakland, Hawaii, Tacoma, prison, utopia and church. Content is all in English, as well as selected pieces which are also in German, French, Spanish, Tagalog and Russian.

    Preferential consideration for any content submitted in more than just English. Pseudonyms are fine if you are in a delicate situation where discretion is of the utmost importance. Professional writing experience is not necessary, and since we can't pay you yet that should encourage fresh new undiscovered voices.

    So if you have a keen eye for observation, a love of life and education, and a knack for having a deft turn of phrase, please send an email to malcolmwolfenet.com.

    Take care,

    Malcolm Lawrence Editor-in-chief Babel http://www.towerofbabel.com

    Message 2: SCLC meeting update: change of venue

     Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 06:37:44 -0700 (PDT)
    From: alan harris <vcspc005csun.edu>
    Subject: SCLC meeting update: change of venue


    Dear Friends:

    Please note the change of meeting place for the SCLC (date remains the same)

    John Bulger

    ANNOUNCING

    The foundation and first biannual meetings of the Southern California Linguistics Circle

    STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

    Southern California boasts of extensive talent in most if not all areas of linguistic theory and applications. But we don't talk to each other much. SCLC intends to bring us together for two purposes: First, SCLC will provide a forum for specialists to present to the linguistic community at large problems of language analysis they have encountered in their own endeavors. The common denominator will be that the problems involve language structure in some substantive way. We are particularly concerned to hear from individuals and teams whose work builds on natural language analysis but whose purpose is not primarily that of designing theories of language structure.

    Our first meetings will cover areas such as the following: (Note that many of the areas listed below are theoretical rather than applied in nature).

    - Computer applications: Voice recognition, speech synthesis, information retrieval, machine translation

    - Languages of the deaf: Sign language, lip (and face) reading, coding oral information visually

    - Psycholinguistics: Normal and abnormal language acquisition, modeling speech production and comprehension, natural language processing

    - Bilingualism: Evaluating bilingual education

    - Neurolinguistics: Aphasiology, acquired dyslexia, language disorders in autism, Alzheimer's, and dementia, specific language impairment (SLI); New techniques for brain-language research--CT,PET, MEG, MRI, ERP

    It should be rewarding just to tell each other what we're doing, and confronting theory with practice and informing practice with theory should prove exciting. But more specifically we expect that individuals in different areas will discover common interests in terms of problems, methodologies, occasionally even solutions, and that these will generate cooperative research, workshops, joint grant applications, etc. We note that funding agencies today favor cross disciplinary and cross institutional endeavors.

    Second, we'd like to enhance both nationally and internationally the reputation of Southern California as a center of language related research, theoretical as well as applied. This is obviously to our mutual interest in terms of attracting industry, graduate students, grants... To this end SCLC will publish and distribute a biannual brochure describing our activities and meetings. We are currently seeking funding to be able to publish monographs or working papers covering all areas of linguistic research conducted in Southern California.

    SCLC is in its formative stages. For further suggestions, information, contributions, ... please contact any of Edward L. Keenan, Vicki Fromkin, Joseph Aoun at, respectively, ekeenanucla.edu, fromkinucla.edu, aounusc.edu

    *******************

    The first meeting will be held at

    **HERBERT MORRIS HUMANITIES CONFERENCE ROOM** (NOTE THIS CHANGE) (ROYCE 306) November 13, 1998 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

    The second meeting will be at

    USC February 5, 1999 Time and place TBA.

    AGENDA FOR THE FIRST MEETING

    9:00-9:15 Welcome: Introducing SCLC (Edward Keenan)

    9:15-11:45 Presentations and panel discussion:

    Theme: Cognitive and Medical Applications of Linguistic Analysis

    We have invited speakers and panelists in the following areas. We are open to further suggestions both for areas to be covered and for speakers or panelists:

    Linguistic diagnosis of medical conditions; language deficits of Alzheimer's; autism, Williams' syndrome, childhood epilepsy, hemidecorticates, dyslexia and hemispheric specialization, aphasia, language processing, sign language and language representation in the deaf.

    11:45-1:30 Lunch in the Covell Commons Dining Hall

    1:30-2:00 Business meeting (Joseph Aoun)

    2:00-4:45 Presentations and panel discussion

    Theme: Computational Applications of Linguistic Analysis

    Voice recognition, speech synthesis, machine translation, information retrieval, automated parsing, translating oral distinctions to visual and tactile ones.

    ************

    There is limited space available so please secure your place and RSVP as soon as possible. Please register by September 15, 1998 by sending your check (made out to the UC Regents) for $5.00/student or $15.00/faculty or professional to:

    John Bulger UCLA Department of Linguistics 3125 Campbell Hall Box 951543 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543

    Message 3: Lang. corpus new on WWW

     Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 06:35:23 -0700 (PDT)
    From: alan harris <vcspc005csun.edu>
    Subject: Lang. corpus new on WWW


    This message announces a new web site, Community Language Collection: http://www.uncc.edu/english/clc The site presents audio and text clips, graphics, and full transcripts from 40 oral interviews with senior citizens in 1979, illustrating several varieties of American English, with the majority from the Southeastern U.S., and the Charlotte, N.C. region. Speakers self-reported themselves as male and female, black and white, with a range of education and occupations. Narratives may be searched by theme or by speaker birthdates, 1885-1923. To make the site available to the largest number of viewers/visitors, including schoolchildren taking NC history, the site does not use frames and includes a dual track for streaming compressed audio. Although the original tapes were made under less than desirable conditions, a range of regional features is accessible via the audio segments selected for display. Clips from the tapes were selected to present one or more features of pronunciation within a narrative segment of the interview.