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| Vol. 18, No. 8 | Oct. 22, 1998 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 8 | Oct. 22, 1998 |
Mark Baker, professor of linguistics at Rutgers University and an expert on
the syntax of African and Native American languages, speaks at the conference.
Last weekend, 130 participants heard presentations on the phonology, syntax and semantics of languages as diverse as English, Japanese, Zapotec, Icelandic, Russian, Dutch, Inuktitut, Bulgarian Bamileke-Dschang, Spanish, Malagasy, Greek, Nuadm, Edo and Igbo.
U.S. participants came from such institutions as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the universities of Massachusetts, Michigan, Illinois and Delaware and Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, Stanford and Georgetown universities.
Foreign institutions were represented by participants from the Max Planck Institute in Holland, McGill University in Toronto and the Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of Crete, the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan, as well as from Brussels, Korea, Germany, Norway and Italy.
Thirty talks were selected from around 250 abstract submissions. Ki-Suk Lee, a graduate student in linguistics at UD, presented results from his forthcoming Ph.D. thesis, and Christina Tortora, who received a Ph.D. from UD in 1997 and is now assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan, presented work on Italian dialects, which extends the research in her dissertation.
Five UD graduate students in linguistics organized the conference: Ted Eastwick, Ken Hyde, Jason Lilley, Eric Raimy and David Schneider.
Colin Phillips, the UD faculty member on the organizing committee, said, "The dedication of these students over the past few months was incredible. From the beginning of the abstract review process to the last day of the conference, they made everything run smoothly. Many of the conference attendees commented on how impressed they were with the conference, describing it as 'flawless.'"
William Frawley, UD linguistics chairperson, said, "This is a very important meeting, probably the premier conference on theoretical linguistics. The conference is known for its cutting edge research and for attracting participants from all over the world. We are flattered to have been chosen to sponsor the conference, which has been held over the past few years at the top places in linguistics, including MIT, the University of Pennsylvania and University of Massachusetts.
"The work at the conference is integral to the direction of the department and our program in cognitive science. I am pleased that the work of our faculty and graduate students has withstood the rigorous review of papers for NELS and that Delaware is not only an organizer but an active participant in the conference."
Photo by Robert Cohen
