Inbal Arnon successfully completed her dissertation oral this last Monday, 2 November on “Starting Big – The role of sequences in language learning and use”. Sesquigratulations! And starting in January, she’s leaving us to be a Lecturer at the University of Manchester.
This afternoon we will hear a stirring presentation on “Coherent contexts: Dynamic reasoning with aspectual information” from Alice ter Meulen (U Geneva) in the Semantics and Pragmatics Workshop at 1:15pm in the Greenberg room. Curiously, there is also a Colloquium on precisely the same topic with the same speaker in the same room at the same time. Don’t miss either of these! The abstract for the Semantics and Pragmatics Workshop and the Colloquium is below:
The dynamic semantics of aspectual adverbs first contrasts English, German and Dutch data, using respectively prosody, word order and composition to add subjective information to factual description. It is subsequently applied to dialogue, conditionals and interrogative contexts. The observed linguistic variety in aspectual quantification is analyzed in terms of focus and information structure. The temporal meaning of aspectual adverbs blends into meta-linguistic uses where generic background constraints may support the current context to create coherence, considering apparent counterexamples to be exceptions. This DRT semantics is claimed to provide adequate representational tools to account for the observed inferences, obviating tailor-made default inference or externally characterized ‘normal’ worlds.
Those of you who have stayed tuned at the will have noted that Matthew Adams will be talking there on Monday (7pm, in the Greenberg Room). He will present his recent work on Welsh meter, to wit: “An Optimality-Theoretic account of the cynghanedd lusg and cynghanedd groes.” Pob lwc! See you there!
This Thursday, 12 November, the Stanford Law School will host a panel about robots and the law. Of course, the question I’m wondering about is whether we are giving the robots too much power, but that doesn’t seem to be on the agenda this Thursday at 6:30 in room 190 of the Law School (with a reception at 5:30 in the Student Lounge):
Once relegated to factories and fiction, robots are rapidly entering the
mainstream. Advances in artificial intelligence translate into
ever-broadening functionality and autonomy. Recent years have seen an
explosion in the use of robotics in warfare, medicine, and exploration.
Industry analysts and UN statistics predict equally significant growth in
the market for personal or service robotics over the next few years. What
unique legal challenges will the widespread availability of sophisticated
robots pose? Three panelists with deep and varied expertise discuss the
present, near future, and far future of robotics and the law.Panelists:
* Kenneth Anderson, Professor of Law, American University; Research Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University
* Paul Saffo, Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford University; Visiting Scholar, Stanford Media X; Columnist, ABCNews.com
* F. Daniel Siciliano, Faculty Director, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance; Senior Lecturer in Law and Associate Dean for Executive Education and Special Programs, Stanford Law SchoolModerator: M. Ryan Calo, Residential Fellow, Stanford Center for Internet and Society
Co-Sponsored by the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University and the Stanford Program in Law Science and Technology’s Center for Computers and Law (CodeX). More information please contact tech@law.stanford.edu
The Claire and John Radway Research Workshop on Cognition and Language, a function of the Stanford Humanities Center, will be presenting a conference this upcoming 21 November on Language and Power (unfortunately concurrent with CUSP!). Presentations include:
Kwai Ng (UCSD, Sociology): Legal Formalism as Linguistic Power: Observations from the Bilingual Common Law Courtrooms in Hong Kong
Miyako Inoue (Stanford, Anthropology)
Lev Michael (Berkeley, Linguistics): Power relations in language shift and revitalization: The case of Iquito
David Laitin (Stanford, Political Science): Linguistic Nationalism as a Consumption Item
H. Samy Alim (UCLA, Anthropology)
Check out the Language and Power Conference website for a schedule and abstracts.
And the posters!
Will Leben has clued us in on a fun way to while away the hours: Cheese or Font?. Apparently people only get it right about 56% of the time….
Daffynitions
Heroes: What a guy in a boat does.
Relief: What trees do in the spring.
Baloney: Where some hem lines fall.
Gossip: Mouth to mouth recitation.
Dogmatic: A device for washing your pets.
Alimony: Bounty on the mutiny
Assault: What everyone likes to be taken with a grain of.
Seahorse: An average equine.
Confusion: A hungry baby in a topless bar.
Feline: The queue at the toll booth.
THE LAWS OF LIFE
Law of Mechanical Repair
After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch or you’ll have to pee.
Law of the Workshop
Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.
Law of Probability
The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
Law of the Telephone
If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal.
Law of the Alibi
If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire.
Variation Law
If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will start to move faster than the one you are in now
(works every time).
Law of the Bath
When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.
Law of Close Encounters
The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.
Law of the Result
When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, it will.
Law of Biomechanics
The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
Law of the Theater
At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last.
Law of Coffee
As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.
Murphy’s Law of Lockers
If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.
Law of Rugs/Carpets
The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug.
Law of Logical Argument
Anything is possible if you don’t know what you are talking about.
Brown’s Law
If the shoe fits, it’s ugly.
Wilson’s Law
As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
Doctors’ Law
If you don’t feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor. By the time you get there you’ll feel better. Don’t make an appointment and you’ll stay sick.
The Stanford Blood Center is reporting a shortage of type O- and A+. For an appointment, visit http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/ or call 650-723-7831. It only takes an hour of your time and you get free cookies.