Argument Structure in Minimalist Syntax (Fall 2021)

Seminar Announcement

Fall 2021 Announcement: Seminar in Syntax

Argument Structure in Minimalist Syntax (LING-GA 3320)

Nominal Possession in Tongugbe (Collins and Gotah)

 Abstract: Kpoglu 2019 notes that the choice of possessive markers in the Tongugbe dialect of Ewe depends on the plurality of the possessor. Building on his observations, we investigate possessive makers in Tongugbe in the case of plural mismatches, defined as cases where the DP is plural, but does not have a final plural marker. We show that both subject clitic doubling and possessor clitic doubling are obligatory in the case of plural mismatches.

Nominal Possession in Tongugbe

Sasi Videos (with translations into Setswana and English)

As part of my ELDP grant on documenting Sasi, I made the following subtitled videos and posted them to YouTube. The subtitles give the Sasi transcription, and also the English and Setswana translations. 

Enjoy!

Molepolole Origins (Rre Otukile)

Ostrich and Tortoises (Otukile Gababolelwe)

Making Bojalwa (Mma Omphile)

Lion and Fire (Obusitswe Gosiame)

Locusts (Mma Setotonya)

Archiving with ELAR

In this blog post, I will discuss my trials and tribulations with ELDP and ELAR, both the positives and the negatives. My goal is to make it easier for other fieldworkers to archive there, if they decide to do so.

The main take away message is that planning ahead and familiarizing yourself with the nature of the required tasks can save you time in the long run. In my case, planning ahead could have saved me hundreds of hours.

In this post, I will mostly discuss metadata and archiving. See my blog for other posts concerning language documentation. Just use the keyword "fieldwork".

Ordinary Working Grammarian

A Conversation with Noam Chomsky about Formal Semantics

This interview took place by e-mail starting from February 13, 2021 lasting until June 25, 2021. In some minor cases, the text has been edited, and the order of the questions has been changed. I thank Richard Larson for discussions of some of the material from this interview.

Cite as: Collins, Chris. 2021. A Conversation with Noam Chomsky about Formal Semantics. Ordinary Working Grammarian [Blog]. https://ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-conversation-with-noam-chomsky-about.html

A Conversation with Noam Chomsky about Formal Semantics

BOOX Max LUMI 13.3. (by Richard Larson)

In March 2021 I purchased a BOOX Max LUMI 13.3. 

Ewe Cultural Universe on Video

Compiled by Chris Collins, Spring 2021

During my Spring 2021 seminar "Structure of Ewe", I started every class with a five minute cultural video. I thought this would help the students get a flavor for Ewe culture, and that might make them more interested in the linguistic structures we were investigating. I repeated the exercise during my Fall 2021 Field Methods course (on Pekigbe, a dialect of Ewe). 

Here are the results of my efforts.