Linguistics Research Seminar (LRS)
The Linguistics Research Seminar series is a CLCS (Linguistics) event organised by Prof Valentina Colasanti. For any information about the seminar series, please email the seminar organiser at valentina.colasanti@tcd.ie. If you want to be added to the mailing list, please subscribe yourself at this link.
This schedule is subject to change; please check back for changes.
Schedule Hilary Term 2024/25
11 March
Speaker: Jim Wood (Yale University)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
18th March
Speaker:Bronagh Ćatibušić ( Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
25 March
Speaker: Giuliana Giusti (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venezia)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
1st April
Speaker: Raffaella Folli (Ulster University, Belfast) )Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
8th April
Speaker: Tom Stephen (Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
Schedule Michaelmas Term 2024/25
24 September
Speaker: Virginia Dawson (Western Washington University)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building *hybrid talk*
1st October
Speaker: Rowland Imperial (Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
8th October
Speaker: Eavan O'Keeffe (Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
15th October
Speaker: Ebru Boynuegri (Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
5th November
Speaker: Joanna Bialek (Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
19th November
Speaker: Xun Gong (Universität Wien)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
26th November
Speaker: Jamal Ouhalla (University College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
Schedule Hilary Term 2023/24
13th February 2024
Speaker: Bassey Antia (University of the Western Cape, Cape Town)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
20th February 2024
Speaker: Jeffrey Kallen (Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
27th February 2024
Speaker: Bruno Spadi (Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
12th March 2024
Speaker: Muhammad Ilyas (Trinity College Dublin)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
19th March 2024
Speaker: Dieter Gunkel (University of Richmond)Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
26th March 2024
Speaker: Jackob Horsch (Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
9th April 2024
Speaker: Martin Worthington (Trinity College Dublin)
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
13th May 2024
Speaker: Michelle Sheehan (Newcastle University)
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
Schedule Michaelmas Term 2023/24
26 September 2023
Speaker: Muhammad Zakaria
Title: The Historical Development of Causative/Applicative and Middle Constructions in Southeastern and Southwestern Kuki-Chin
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
Abstract: This talk argues for the shared origin of two valence-affecting constructions in South Central Tibeto-Burman, specifically Southeastern and Southwestern Kuki-Chin. They propose that these constructions, despite seeming unrelated, may indicate a closer relationship between Southeastern and Southwestern languages within this subgroup. Notably, both regions have similar morphological elements indicating causative and applicative functions. Southeastern Kuki-Chin, exemplified in Hyow, shows similar middle marker morphology. The authors suggest a common origin involving initial causative or comitative applicative elements, evolving into middle markers in Southeastern languages while retaining some applicative semantics. This parallels a situation in West Africa where causative, applicative, and middle semantics have evolved from an original 'co-participation' marker in Wolof. The paper aims to comprehensively explore these linguistic phenomena and their semantic evolution.
10th October 2023
Speaker: Masha Esipova (Bar-Ilan University)
Title: To Q or not to Q?
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building/*hybrid talk* Zoom registration link (register in advance for this meeting): https://tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0vdeGupj0uHtMWjJLfN5np6EcA58dZmpCO
Abstract: Rudin (2018); Rudin & Rudin (2022) discuss a typological generalization that languages in which rising declaratives comprise non-canonical biased yes/no questions (YNQs)—like English and Bulgarian—also allow for rising imperatives, used as polite/friendly/tentative requests or non-committal suggestions, as shown in (1), but languages in which rising declaratives comprise canonical neutral YNQs, like Macedonian, don't allow for such rising imperatives.
(1) a. Did you pour me wine L* H-H%? (syntactically marked canonical question)
b. You poured me wine L* H-H%? (rising declarative as a non-canonical question)
c. Pour me wine L* H-H%? (rising imperative as a request)
d. A: What should I do to help you relax?
B: I don’t know... Pour me wine L* H-H%? Make me a bath L* H-H%? (rising imperative as a suggestion)
In this talk, I will look at another Slavic language, Russian, further expanding and fine-tuning the typology of how languages can realize various discourse-oriented meanings across sentence types. While, like in Macedonian, Russian canonical neutral YNQs are formed via an "intonation-only" strategy, said intonation doesn't involve a rising tune, but rather what I will call the Q-Peak. I will show that, despite marking canonical neutral YNQs, the Q-Peak can also be used in friendly requests like (1c)—but not in non-committal suggestions like (1d). I propose that the Q-Peak doesn't realize an operator that raises an issue, but rather an operator that asks the addressee to respond to an issue—appropriate in (some) questions and requests, but not in non-committal suggestions.
7th November 2023
Speaker: Jingqi Ying (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: The Old Chinese sound change *-ps > *-ts > *-jH: Insights from Zhou Excavated Documents
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
21st November 2023
Speaker: Adam Ledgeway (University of Cambridge)
Title: Parameters of Variation in the Clausal Domain: A Pan-Romance View
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
28nd November 2023
Speaker: Chiara Marchetiello (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: TBC
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: TRiSS seminar room, Arts Building
Schedule Hilary Term 2022/23
1st February 2023
Speaker: Zihan Wang (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: The Perceptual Effect of Aliasing Distortion in Voice Source Modelling
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Banking Hall, Foster Place
8th February 2023
Speaker: Tim Fernando (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: BS and Finite Automata
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Banking Hall, Foster Place
15th February 2023
Speaker: Caitríona O' Brien (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: Parents of deaf children in Ireland. Language and identities in transformation
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Banking Hall, Foster Place
22 February 2023
Speaker: Carl Vogel (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: Computational Methods of Analyzing Dialogue
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Galbraith room, Trinity Long Room Hub / Please note, this is an hybrid talk, Zoom link: https://tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUld-qtpj4rGNDIAOqTp57KeRxcAt0RN44h
1st March 2023
Speaker: Paolo Acquaviva (University College Dublin)
Title: Concepts and lexical knowledge: What's special about thinking through words
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Banking Hall, Foster Place
15th March 2023
Speaker: Craig Sailor (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: From restructuring verbs to exhortative particles: a Scots case study (in collaboration with Gary Thoms, NYU)
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Banking Hall, Foster Place
(1) a. Wantae leave me alane.
‘Leave me alone.’
b. Gonnae drop it right now.
‘Drop it right now.’
This talk is concerned with the synchronic and diachronic syntax of these Gonnae/Wantae Clauses (henceforth GWCs).
Synchronically, we argue that gonnae/wantae are innovative modal verbs expressing exhortative force. We present evidence from a variety of GWCs – those involving negation, overt subjects, and predicate ellipsis – to show that gonnae/wantae occupy an especially high position in the clause, having undergone inversion with the subject (akin to that found in Standard English interrogatives, albeit here with exhortative force).
Diachronically, we propose that GWCs derive from reduced questions functioning as ‘concealed imperatives’ (e.g. (Are you) goin’ tae leave me alane, cf. Standard English Will you leave me alone?). In brief, GWCs underwent reanalysis from a biclausal structure into a monoclausal one. Specifically, we present diatopic and diagenerational evidence from the Scots Syntax Atlas suggesting that the initial innovation began with gonnae, which underwent grammaticalization from an infinitive-embedding lexical verb into a restructuring verb, and then into an exhortative modal auxiliary. Subsequently, and by analogy with this change, wantae has recently begun to follow the same pathway of reanalysis; this is very much still a change-in-progress, as we will show. This study in Scots GWCs therefore provides further evidence of Roberts & Roussou’s (2003) notion of ‘upward reanalysis’, from lexical verbs into functional elements within the periphery of the clause.
22nd March 2023
Speaker: Nathaniel Sims (Centre national de la recherche scientifique & Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales)
Title: A roadmap to reconstructing proto-Rma
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: room 4073, Arts Building
The purpose of this talk is to discuss issues related to historical reconstruction of proto-Rma in light of recent advancements in the documentation of the language, and to discuss what this can tell us about the relationship between Rma and other languages of the family. To date, the most comprehensive treatment of Rma historical linguistics is Evans (2001). Evans etymologized over one thousand Rma forms and proposed reconstructions for certain southern varieties. Since Evans’ study, there have been many publications on previously undocumented varieties which broaden the empirical basis for studies of the history of the language: Ronghong (LaPolla & Huang 2003), Qugu (LaPolla & Poa 2003, Huang & Zhou 2006), Hongyan (Evans 2006), Puxi (Huang 2007), Yonghe (Sims 2014), Xiaoxing (Huang et al. 2019). Thus, the time is ripe for work on historical reconstruction of which incorporates these publications.
This talk will discuss the reconstruction of the segmental phonology, including consonants and vowels, syllable structure, as well as suprasegmental phonology such as tonal distinctions. It will also discuss the development of the verb-complex, and other larger constructions in Rma. This talk will present a ‘recipe’ for reconstructing a form in proto-Rma and discuss cover some of the insights that can be gained by internal reconstruction, loanwords from other languages, as well as loanwords from Rma into other languages, and some of the methodological issues in historical reconstruction of a language without a long written tradition.
29th March 2023
Speaker: Caroline Jagoe (Trinity College Dublin)
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Banking Hall, Foster Place
5th April 2023
Speaker: Lorna Carson (Trinity College Dublin)
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Banking Hall, Foster Place
12th April 2023
Speaker: Lingzi Zhuang (University of Toronto Mississauga)
Time: 16:00-18:00
Location: Galbraith room, Trinity Long Room Hub (hybrid talk)
Previous Seminars
Schedule Michaelmas Term 2022/23
21st September 2022
Speaker: Nathan Hill (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: The syntax of subordination with verba dicendi matrix verbs in the Old Tibetan Ramayana
Time: 12:30-2pm Neill Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub
28th September 2022
Speaker: Caitriona O’Brien (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: Parents of deaf children in Ireland: Language and identities in transformation
Time: 12:30-2pm TRISS seminar room, Arts Building
5th October 2022
Speaker: Connor McCabe (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: Exploring prosody in Munster Irish - why and how?
Time: 12:30-2pm Neill, Trinity Long Room Hub
12th October 2022
Zhu Honghui (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: Multilingualism and language policy in Sino-foreign tertiary education
Time: 12:30-2pm Neill, Trinity Long Room Hub
19th October 2022
Speaker: Isabelle Heyerick (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: The strategic nature of (signed language) interpreting
Time: 12:30-2pm Neill, Trinity Long Room Hub
2nd November 2022
Speaker: Linda Badan (Ghent University)
Title: Information Structure and beyond: A comparison between Italian and Chinese
Time: 12:30-2pm TRISS seminar room, Arts Building *Hybrid meeting*
Zoom Link: https://tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAudemqqjoiH9f2b7UuWyXR9JFQ8NCjM4FZ
9th November 2022
Speaker: Anna Giovannini (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: Exploring the prosody of affective speech
Time: 12:30-2pm Neill, Trinity Long Room Hub
16th November 2022
Speaker: Maria Dimitropoulou (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: Bi-/multilingual parenting in Europe: exploring speaker identities in a foreign and a minority language context
Time: 12:30-2pm Neill, Trinity Long Room Hub
23rd November 2022
Speaker: Yunfan Lai (Trinity College Dublin)
Time: 12:30-2pm Neill, Trinity Long Room Hub
30th November 2022
Speaker: Shihua Li (Trinity College Dublin)
Time: 12:30-2pm Neill, Trinity Long Room Hub
Hilary Term 2021/22
Wednesday 9 February 2022
Speaker: Nathan Hill (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: Changes to Old Tibetan compound internal sandhi
Time: 14:15-15:30 (online)
Abstract:
Previous discussions of Tibetan phonology do not distinguish between prescript and superscript consonants. In fact, the use of prescripts and superscripts may show a different sandhi behavior. This behavior can be summarized in two rules, a pre script rule and a superscript rule. According to the prescript rule, a prescript consonant falls out in the following syllable if a preceding syllable ends in a consonant, and the superscript elision rule, where (1) if the final consonant of a preceding syllable is acute, and the consonant of the word in question would be deleted according to the superscript rule, a following superscript would also be deleted, then the superscript is also deleted, and (2) in the anlaut, the superscript is also deleted, although the prescript remains.
Registration link: https://tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMuc-upqz0uH9f1Hfx5zIjEP1HS1b9A1WQ5
Wednesday 23 February 2022
Speaker: Breffni O’Rourke (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: What does it mean to be engaged in a discussion?
Time: 14:15-15:30 (online)
Abstract:
Discussion plays a key role in education, not least in the language classroom. In this talk I will define and characterise the term engagement as it relates to discussion, and outline a discourse-analytic framework for exploring engagement in discussion. Key characteristics of “engaged discussion” are proposed, emphasising the roles of good faith, contribution focus, and, based primarily on the work of Van Lier, contingency.
Registration link: https://tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMlf-2orzkrGNVI-wLUGoJ-B9I9VIHYKjJk
Wednesday 16 March 2022
Speaker: Liam Lonergan (Trinity College Dublin)
Title: TBA
Time: 14:15-15:30 (online)
Registration link: https://tcd-ie.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcqd-CtrT0qEtx4DtGenq8Wb049eksL9lMy