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Department News

  • A warm, but belated Sesquipediwelcome to our new phonetician: Meghan Sumner.
    Meghan S.
    Meghan received her PhD in Linguistics from Stony Brook University in 2003. After that, she was an NRSA Fellow with Arthur Samuel for three years. During her post-doc, she examined the accommodation of phonetic variation in spoken word recognition and the types of units (lexical vs. sublexical) used during recognition. Since coming to Stanford, she has been busy getting the Phonetics Lab up and running for its many users and starting new projects examining the use of acoustic cues in new environments (new words, new speakers, new languages), the mapping of acoustic information onto lexical forms, and the acoustic differences between two schwas in r-dropping languages.



  • Congratulations to Vivienne Fong on her new job at the UAR! No, that's not the United Arab Republic (for those of you still clueless about the Middle East, Syria seceded from the UAR in 1961 and Egypt hasn't used that name since 1971). Vivienne is now an Academic Advisor at the Undergraduate Advising and Research (which, for those of you still clueless about Stanford bureaucracy, resulted from the recent merger of Undergraduate Advising Programs (UAP) and Undergraduate Research Programs (URP).

    But don't worry. Viv will still be teaching 130B for Linguistics in the Winter Quarter!
  • Barbara Hemforth and Hal Tily were in town last week for a work session on the project Barbara and Tom Wasow are heading up.
  • Tom Wasow frames the future of Stanford Athletics (and more...). Really! Read about it HERE.
  • And last, but certainly not least: Arto Anttila was named by the School of Humanities and Sciences as a Hellman Faculty Scholar for 2007-08. This is a prestigious honor for outstanding junior faculty. Congratulations, Arto!
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    Look Who's Talking

  • Both Alex Jaker and Yuan Zhao recently gave talks in the Berkeley Phonetics and Phonology Phorum. Alex on `Gemination and Tonal Feet in Yellowknife Dogrib' and Yuan on `The effect of lexical frequency on tone space dispersion: Evidence from Cantonese tone production'.
  • Both Meghan Sumner and Daniel Casasanto are off to Long Beach next week to present at the annual Psychonomics conference.


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    Caught in the Act

    Laura Staum tells all!
    Laura Staum tells all!


    Here's Laura Staum Casasanto after her dissertation proposal, which was jointly sponsored this Thursday by Sociorap and SPLaT. Laura's dissertation will show beyond any shadow of a doubt (no pressure, Laura) that people use sociolinguistic information in real-time language processing. Sociopsycholinguistics (or, if you prefer, Experimental Sociolinguistics) will soon be an obligatory component of every linguistics department!

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    Linguistic Levity

  • A man was walking home alone late one foggy night, when behind him he hears:

    BUMP...

    BUMP...

    BUMP...

    Walking faster, he looks back and through the fog he makes out the image of an upright casket banging its way down the middle of the street toward him.

    BUMP...,


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  • From the Mouths of Babes

    A first grade school teacher in Virginia had twenty-five students in her class. She presented each child in her classroom the first half of a well-known proverb and asked them to come up with the remainder of the proverb. It's hard to believe these were actually done by first graders. Their insight may surprise you. While reading, keep in mind that these are 1st graders, 6-year-olds, because the last one is a classic!
    • Don't change horses...........until they stop running.
    • Strike while the............................bug is close.
    • It's always darkest before..............Daylight Saving Time.
    • Never underestimate the power of ...................termites.
    • You can lead a horse to water but........................how?
    • Don't bite the hand that..........................looks dirty.
    • No news is.........................................impossible.
    • A miss is as good as a....................................Mr.
    • You can't teach an old dog new...........................math.
    • If you lie down with dogs, you'll .....stink in the morning.
    • Love all,trust................................ me.
    • The pen is mightier than the...................... ......pigs.
    • An idle mind is........................the best way to relax.
    • Where there's smoke there's.......................pollution.
    • Happy the bride who.....................gets all the presents.
    • A penny saved is ..................................not much.
    • Two's company, three's ...................the Musketeers
    • Don't put off till tomorrow what ...... tastes good.
    • Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and..... You have to blow your nose.
    • There are none so blind as.......................Stevie Wonder.
    • Children should be seen and not.....spanked or grounded.
    • If at first you don't succeed................get new batteries.
    • You get out of something only what you ...............see in the picture on the box.
    • When the blind lead the blind................get out of the way.
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    Goings-On

    For events farther in the future consult the Upcoming Events Page.

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    Blood needed!

    The Stanford Blood Center is reporting a shortage of O-, O+, A-, A+, B-, and AB-. For an appointment: http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/ or call 650-723-7831. It only takes an hour of your time and you get free cookies. The Blood Center is also raising money for a new bloodmobile.

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    9 November 2007
    Vol. 4, Issue 7



    IN THIS ISSUE:
    Sesquipedalian Staff

    Editor in Chief:
    Ivan A. Sag
    .
    Reporter:
    Beth Levin

    Humor Consultants:
    Susan D. Fischer, Tom Wasow

    Assistant Editor:
    Richard Futrell

    Inspiration:
    Melanie Levin and Kyle Wohlmut