BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:16807-a1568477199b37eee3a260073f710217@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260412T052345Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190201T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190201T103000 SUMMARY:Mike Putnam (Penn State) - Syntactic Theory – Quo Vadis? DESCRIPTION:Syntactic Theory – Quo Vadis?\n\nFormal and explicit descrip tions of natural phenomena are an essential component of any research pr ogram. The absence of such accounts significantly weaken empirical studi es and often results in failure to integrate their findings into a large r cohesive whole. Although formal models of the structure of linguistic representations (i.e.\, syntax) have existed for decades\, their accepta nce and integration into other domains of language science has to date o nly been marginally successful. In this talk\, I take a closer look at t he structural properties of filler-gap dependencies (ex. \;[What]i d id John say that Sarah would like to eat __i?)\, where two elements – he re the filler (what) and the gap (indicated by the open slot) – that go together in meaning can occur arbitrarily far away from each other in sy ntactic structure. I summarize current research on constraints on extrac tion (also known as island phenomena)\, with a particular focus on the p otential of satiation effects\, where continued exposure to particular s tructures can lead to an amelioration of their ill-formedness. This pres entation highlights the central importance of formal approaches to the s tructure of language\, while also exposing shortcomings in current synta ctic theorizing.\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/mi ke-putnam-penn-state-syntactic-theory-quo-vadis/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Syntactic Theory – Quo Vadis?

Formal and explicit descriptions of natural phenomena are an essential component o f any research program. The absence of such accounts significantly weake n empirical studies and often results in failure to integrate their find ings into a larger cohesive whole. Although formal models of the structu re of linguistic representations (i.e., syntax) have existed for decades , their acceptance and integration into other domains of language scienc e has to date only been marginally successful. In this talk, I take a cl oser look at the structural properties of filler-gap dependencies (ex.&n bsp;[What]i did John say that Sarah would like to eat __i?), where two e lements – here the filler (what) and the gap (indicated by the open slot ) – that go together in meaning can occur arbitrarily far away from each other in syntactic structure. I summarize current research on constrain ts on extraction (also known as island phenomena), with a particular foc us on the potential of satiation effects, where continued exposure to pa rticular structures can lead to an amelioration of their ill-formedness. This presentation highlights the central importance of formal approache s to the structure of language, while also exposing shortcomings in curr ent syntactic theorizing.

For more details: h ttps://events.la.psu.edu/event/mike-putnam-penn-state-syntactic-theory-q uo-vadis/

LOCATION:127 Moore Building END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR