From owner-cse575-fa07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Mon Sep 17 09:12:56 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.buffalo.edu [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l8HDCtVW002877 for ; Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:12:56 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front3.acsu.buffalo.edu (warmfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.6.88]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.8/8.13.6) with SMTP id l8HDCd7C052953 for ; Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:12:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 23197 invoked from network); 17 Sep 2007 13:12:39 -0000 Received: from mailscan7.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.158) by front3.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 17 Sep 2007 13:12:39 -0000 Received: (qmail 8738 invoked from network); 17 Sep 2007 13:12:36 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 17 Sep 2007 13:12:36 -0000 Received: (qmail 1936 invoked from network); 17 Sep 2007 13:12:34 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 17 Sep 2007 13:12:34 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 2360506 for CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:12:34 -0400 Delivered-To: cse575-fa07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu Received: (qmail 9570 invoked from network); 17 Sep 2007 13:12:34 -0000 Received: from mailscan7.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.158) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 17 Sep 2007 13:12:34 -0000 Received: (qmail 1399 invoked from network); 17 Sep 2007 13:12:33 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.buffalo.edu (128.205.32.14) by smtp3.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 17 Sep 2007 13:12:33 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (rapaport@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l8HDCWLW002848; Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:12:32 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from rapaport@localhost) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.9/Submit) id l8HDCWh2002847; Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:12:32 -0400 (EDT) X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <200709171312.l8HDCWh2002847@castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU> Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 09:12:32 -0400 Reply-To: "William J. Rapaport" Sender: Introduction to Cognitive Science From: "William J. Rapaport" Subject: CogSci, 9/19, J.Bohnemeyer, UB/LIN, How to Hammer a Shirt Apart Comments: To: cogsci-local-list@listserv.buffalo.edu To: CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1336; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.8 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.8 (2007-02-13) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.90.2/4308/Mon Sep 17 05:41:19 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: RO X-Status: X-Keywords: NotJunk $NotJunk X-UID: 15987 Content-Length: 3027 ======================================================================== THIS WEEK THIS WEEK THIS WEEK THIS WEEK THIS WEEK THIS WEEK ======================================================================== Center for Cognitive Science, University at Buffalo presents Juergen Bohnemeyer Department of Linguistics, University at Buffalo http://wings.buffalo.edu/linguistics/people/faculty/bohnemeyer/bohnemeyer.htm Wednesday, 19 September 2007; 2:00 p.m.; Park 280 How to Hammer a Shirt Apart (and Talk About It) ABSTRACT We examine the treatment of atypical instrument-theme configurations in events of caused separation in material integrity--i.e., "cutting" and "breaking" (C&B) events--across languages. We focus on four languages which offer an alternative between monomorphemic verb roots and various kinds of complex predicates in the C&B domain: serial verb constructions in Lao and Sranan, compound verb stems in Yucatec Maya, and prefix verbs, particle verbs, resultative constructions, and light verb constructions in German. We test the hypothesis that in accordance with Grice's Manner maxims, across languages, complex predicates are preferred over simplex predicates for reference to atypical instrument-theme configurations. We draw on descriptions of the "Cut and Break Clips" from five speakers per language. We treat the typicality of a scene as the degree to which it matches the prototype of any linguistic description, and rely primarily on inter- speaker variation as a measure of (a-)typicality in this sense. In line with our hypothesis, we found that the higher the amount of inter-speaker variation a scene elicited in a given language, the more likely the speakers of that language were to prefer complex over simplex predicates. However, though highly significant for the other three languages, this correlation is not significant for German. In German, simplex verbs play no more than a marginal role in the C&B domain; we argue that this upsets the division of labor between simplex and complex expressions underlying the relation between Gricean stereotype and manner implicatures. Wednesday, 19 September 2007; 2:00 p.m.; Park 280 Coffee and cookies may be served. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ For further information, please visit: http://www.cogsci.buffalo.edu/ or contact: William J. Rapaport Colloquium Chair, Center for Cognitive Science Associate Professor of Computer Science Affiliated Faculty, Philosophy & Linguistics 201 Bell Hall | (716) 645-3180 x 112 Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering | fax: (716) 645-3464 University at Buffalo (SUNY) | rapaport@cse.buffalo.edu Buffalo, NY 14260-2000 | http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport Buffalo Restaurant Guide: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/restaurant.guide/ Good Things about Buffalo: http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~rapaport/buffalo.html