Eighteenth Century English Grammars Project

A new project website has been launched for colleague Nuria Yáñez-Bouza’s British Academy project with María Esther Rodríguez-Gil on Eighteenth Century English Grammars.  Check out the details here.

Manchester University’s RAE results

Smashing!

Wegener PhD defense!

Eva reports that postdoc colleague Claudia Wegener successfully defended her PhD on 15 December in Nijmegen.  Details:

She very calmly (or so it seemed from the outside at least) answered questions from the “corona” of examiners which included Leon Stassen, Bernard Comrie, Nikolaus Himmelmann, Laurence de Vries, and Kees Hengeveld, and was awarded a “cum laude” i.e. a distinction, which is relatively rare in the Netherlands, for her Grammar of Savosavo. And we had a great party too.

Well done, Claudia!

Eisenbeiss in seminar

The final seminar of the term features Sonja Eisenbeiss (Essex) on “Morphological contrasts in child language and child-directed speech.”  Join us at 4 for the talk and afterwards for drinks!

Trousdale in Language Sandwidge tomorrow

Via David:

Dear all,

Just a reminder that the last Langwidge Sandwidge of term takes place tomorrow,
Tuesday 16th:

Graeme Trousdale (Edinburgh) – referenced in Eva Berlage’s seminar last week -
will be talking on Constructionalization.

Usual venue (S.1.5, 1-2 pm).  All welcome.

best
David and Nuria

Bermúdez-Otero and Luís on tour

Department colleague Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero will be giving two joint talks with Ana R. Luís (University of Coimbra) on “Cyclic domains and prosodic spans in the phonology of European Portuguese functional morphs” in the coming months. They will present it first in mid January at the Workshop on the Division of Labour between Morphology and Phonology, Meertens Instituut, Amsterdam, and later on 24 January 2009 at the Old World Conference in Phonology 6, Edinburgh.

The “Temple of Convenience” in the Guardian

An article in today’s Guardian lists “The Temple” (just a hop, skip, and a jump north from the department on Oxford Road) as one of Britain’s top ten pubs.  They write:

7. The Temple, Manchester

“There’s a hole in my neighbourhood/ Down which of late I cannot help but fall” goes Elbow’s paean to the wonders of school night drinking, Grounds For Divorce. If the neighbourhood is Deansgate, then that would make the hole The Temple. Formerly one of the city centre’s most notorious cottaging hot-spots (it’s a converted Victorian toilet in the middle of Great Bridgewater Street), The Temple is now a bar with just enough room for a spot of impromptu cat swinging. The loos are decorated with 1950s erotica, there’s a no-nonsense jukebox and bottled beers from the four corners of the world. Unpretentious and intimate, with great music and forgiving lighting. What more could you ask for?

• Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester, M1 5JW

Manchet couldn’t agree more!

Berlage in Seminar

This week’s seminar featured visiting lecturer in linguistics Eva Berlage (Manchester/Paderborn) on “Changing complements in English.”  The very interesting talk was followed by drinks and lively discussion (much of which centered around the contrast between more than one person being “elected minister*s* of parliament” but not “*elected prime ministers.)  Tune in next week (same time, same place) for Sonja Eisenbeiss (Essex) on “Morphological contrasts in child language and child-directed speech.”

Vincent in Cyprus

Colleague Nigel Vincent is one of the invited speakers at the 7th Mediterranean Morphology Meeting that will be held in Cyprus between 10-13 September 2009.  Check out the call for papers here.

Matras lecture online

Colleague Yaron Matras’s lecture on ‘Cultural hybridity, contact, and contrast: The cases of Romani and Domari’ at the Workshop on Ecology and Language Evolution (CNRS Paris, October 2008) is now online and can be viewed here.