Events this week (4/26 – 4/30)

This week is jam-packed with linguistic goodness! A quick synopsis: Wednesday, 4/28 8pm, 716 Philosophy Hall: Come discuss, debate, and meet new people at an open forum on Daniel Everett’s controversial research on the Piraha language, presented in conjunction with the Philosophy Forum. More information here. Thursday, 4/29 4pm, 1512 SIPA: NYU’s David Poeppel on [...]

This week: Ann Senghas on Nicaraguan Sign Language

“Workshop on Meaning: Language and Socio-cultural Processes” co-organizers Harrison White and Corinne Kirchner are pleased to announce: Ann Senghas, PhD Associate Professor of Psychology Barnard College, New York “Social Scaffolding for Language Genesis: Why Nicaraguan Sign Language Emerged When, Where and How it Did” *** Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs – Room [...]

This week: Julia Hirschberg and Trace Foundation lectures

This week is just packed with linguistics goodness: Julia Hirschberg will be speaking this Friday, 3/26, and there is a series of lectures at the Trace Foundation downtown, starting on Friday and continuing on Saturday. First, Professor Hirschberg’s lecture: Friday, 3/26 3pm Hamilton 709 Knowing When to Speak: Turn Management in Spoken Dialogue Systems Julia [...]

3/31: Ann Senghas on Nicaraguan Sign Language

Co-organizers Harrison White and Corinne Kirchner are pleased to announce the latest Workshop on Meaning: Language and Socio-cultural Processes. Ann Senghas, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, Barnard College, New York: “Social Scaffolding for Language Genesis: Why Nicaraguan Sign Language Emerged When, Where and How it Did” *** Nicaraguan sign language was spontaneously developed by deaf children [...]

Spring 2010 course list

The deadline to add a class for the Spring 2010 semester is looming (it’s this Friday, January 29)! If you’re still looking for that last awesome class to take, here is a list of the linguistics courses (and courses of interest to linguists) being offered this semester. This list is also posted on the Program [...]

Columbia Undergraduate Journal of Anthropology: call for submissions!

Do you have an anthropology-flavored essay, poem, or piece of original artwork burning a hole in your hard drive? Submit it to CUJA by December 24! The Columbia Undergraduate Journal of Anthropology is seeking submissions for the Spring 2010 issue. CUJA is an annually published, inter-disciplinary journal written and edited by undergraduates from many academic [...]

Language families, human families

Razib Khan over at ScienceBlogs has an excellent post today on the relationship between population genetics and the spread of languages around the globe. He gives a wide background of the anthropological, linguistic and biological research behind what we know about the evolution of the world’s languages. Razib quotes a 1997 paper by L. L. [...]