Syntax and Semantics

Berkeley to host workshop on "Phonological Domains and What Conditions Them"

August 27, 2024

On September 13-14, 2024 there will be a workshop on "Phonological Domains and What Conditions Them", co-hosted by Hannah Sande (UC Berkeley) and Martin Krämer (Tromsø), held in the UC Berkeley Linguistics Department (in Dwinelle 370). The schedule for the workshop, along with a list of presenters and talk titles, can be found on the website (click here). Many current and past UC Berkeley Linguists will be speaking, along with other prominent members of the field. If you would like to attend, please register (link here) by no later than September 1.

Profs Sande and Jenks publish paper on Guébie definiteness

August 19, 2024

Professors Hannah Sande and Peter Jenks published a paper, co-authored with Malte Zimmermann (Potsdam) and Guébie community member Badiba Olivier Agodio, on definiteness in Guébie in the TripleA proceedings. The full citation information and link to the paper are as follows: Agodio, Badiba Olivier, Peter Jenks, Hannah Sande, and Malte Zimmermann. 2024. Indexed definiteness without demonstratives in GuébieIn Lecavelier, Jeanne, Niklas Geick, Mira Grubic, Prarthanaa Bharadwaj, Malte Zimmermann, eds. Proceedings of TripleA 10: Fieldwork perspectives on the semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian languages.

The cross-linguistic semantics of intentionality: Causation event descriptions of native Castilian Spanish and British English speakers

Rickard Nilsson
2021

This semantic typology study investigates the intentionality of causation event descriptions of ten native British English speakers (NBES) and ten native Castilian Spanish speakers (NCSS). Through a methodology that implements a picture story as non-verbal stimuli and verbal event descriptions, statistical data are gathered on the form and function of the participants’ descriptions. Inferred and inscribed characteristics of constructions are collected through a description task, a narration task, and a post-task interview. The results show that the NBES participants consistently were more...

Young gamers in the digital wilds: Implications of gaming preferences on L2 English vocabulary learning and teaching

Rickard Nilsson
2022

This study involves young learners of English as a foreign/second language (L2) in Sweden. The aim is to see whether there is a relation between their online gaming habits on the one hand and L2 English vocabulary knowledge and listening comprehension on the other, and to investigate known words more closely in relation to their gaming preferences. We collected data with the help of a questionnaire, a vocabulary test, and a listening comprehension test, and analyzed data using a mixed method. The results showed positive correlations between gaming frequency and vocabulary knowledge...

Integrating commercial-off-the-shelf games in L2 English vocabulary instruction

Rickard Nilsson
2024

Research has shown that playing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games can have a positive influence on L2 English vocabulary learning. COTS games are commercially available digital games, either for computer or console, which are designed for entertainment (Reinhardt, Gameful second and foreign language teaching and learning: Theory, research, and practice. Palgrave Macmillan/Springer International Publishing, 2019). Thus, such games constitute a resource for vocabulary learning, but one that appears largely unexplored in the field. In this chapter, we focus on how...

dos Santos publishes in IJAL

September 22, 2023

Wesley dos Santos published a paper on "Asymmetries among Person Indexes in Kawahíva"in the International Journal of American Linguistics. You can find the paper here: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/726149?fbclid=IwAR3N6v...

Jenks presents at Definiteness across Domains

September 6, 2023

Peter Jenks is giving a talk (via Zoom) at the 4th meeting of the Definiteness across Domains DFG network this Sunday at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The talk is entitled "Anaphoric bare nouns without indices". The program is available here: https://www.definiteness-across-domains.org/4th-meeting/.

Bossi files dissertation

August 16, 2023
Congrats to Madeline Bossi, who has just filed her dissertation Epistemic modality across syntactic catergories in Kipsigis! Starting in mid August, Maddy will be working as the Programs Data Manager for DREAM Charter School in New York City. She'll be running data collection and analysis for all of the school’s extracurricular programs, as well as leading UX research on the products that the data team uses and creates to make sure they’re working as user-friendly as possible.