KU Linguistics
@kansaslinguistics.bsky.social
The official account of the Linguistics Department at the University of Kansas. ɹɑk̚ ʧʰɔk̚ ʤeɪhɔk̚ <!> https://linguistics.ku.edu/
Please join us this Thursday at 4:00 PM in Stauffer-Flint Hall room 100 as we welcome Dr. Eun Jong Kong of Korea Aerospace University, who will deliver a colloquy talk entitled, "Individual differences in categorical perception: Exploring links to language experience and cognitive ability"! 🌻
November 4, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Please join us this Thursday at 4:00 PM in Stauffer-Flint Hall room 100 as we welcome Dr. Eun Jong Kong of Korea Aerospace University, who will deliver a colloquy talk entitled, "Individual differences in categorical perception: Exploring links to language experience and cognitive ability"! 🌻
Last week our department held our first ever Halloween party! 👻🎃🧛 A special appearance was made by Judge Judy! 👩⚖️🌻
November 4, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Last week our department held our first ever Halloween party! 👻🎃🧛 A special appearance was made by Judge Judy! 👩⚖️🌻
The abstract is available here:
![While non-finite null subjects (PRO) occur in both controlled complement and adjunct clauses, a longstanding generalization regarding differences in its possible antecedent, or "controller," has been established in the previous literature. Unlike complement control structures which can be interpreted as, or controlled by, a matrix subject or object, adjunct control clauses have been observed as only being controlled by the matrix subject (e.g., Hornstein 1999, Landau 2013). However, my research finds that Spanish displays an unexpected pattern: when an object is realized as a preverbal pronominal clitic, object control into temporal adjuncts is attested in several varieties of Spanish (VanDyne 2023, 2024). The goal of this talk is to examine the range of these empirical patterns, drawn from both grammaticality judgments and corpus data, and to explore their theoretical implications not only for the previous work on adjunct control, but also for discussions concerning the size and position of Spanish moved objects. I situate these patterns within three minimalist approaches to adjunct control. First, I show that Landau's (2015, 2021) theory of control as predication is able to accommodate these clitic control patterns. I further argue that within this framework, the adjunct control data also provide a diagnostic for the precise phase edge position of Spanish clitics, as compared to other moved objects, revealing a broader correlation between the size of a moved item and its specifier position. The second approach I examine is the theory of control as movement (e.g., Hornstein 1999, 2001). This theory relies on the economy principle of Merge-Over-Move to exclude in-situ object control, which I argue is incompatible with concurrently allowing for the possibility of control by an object clitic. Finally, I examine a more recent approach to control via the operation Form Copy (e.g., Chomsky 2021, Chomsky et al. 2023). [Alt text truncated due to character limit]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3n6ziztviwk4kl2dukpntitl/bafkreicczghx62tkcmaumkm35cnzfyv7tmkdt72oqewydpxztef5tcjsnu@jpeg)
October 22, 2025 at 2:45 PM
The abstract is available here:
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Katie VanDyne, from Truman State University, who will give a colloquy tomorrow 10/23 at 4:00 pm. Her talk, entitled, "Revisiting object control into adjuncts: Insights from Spanish in a minimalist framework", is open to the public. A zoom link is available on request.
October 22, 2025 at 2:45 PM
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Katie VanDyne, from Truman State University, who will give a colloquy tomorrow 10/23 at 4:00 pm. Her talk, entitled, "Revisiting object control into adjuncts: Insights from Spanish in a minimalist framework", is open to the public. A zoom link is available on request.
They presented two talks: "Polar question prosody in Dzə: A first look" (Peace Benson, Phil Duncan), and "Social meaning of Kinyarwanda morphosyntactic variation" (Adam An).
October 20, 2025 at 8:02 PM
They presented two talks: "Polar question prosody in Dzə: A first look" (Peace Benson, Phil Duncan), and "Social meaning of Kinyarwanda morphosyntactic variation" (Adam An).
Last week a group of KU Linguistics students and faculty attended LASSO 2025, the 54th Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Association of the Southwest, held at Wichita State University. They also took in the local sights, including the world's first Pizza Hut 🍕🌻
October 20, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Last week a group of KU Linguistics students and faculty attended LASSO 2025, the 54th Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Association of the Southwest, held at Wichita State University. They also took in the local sights, including the world's first Pizza Hut 🍕🌻
🎉 Congratulations to Corey McCulloch, who defended his PhD thesis, "Stressing the Suprasegmentals: L2 phonetic training of Spanish stress" last Thursday. He is pictured here with committee members Allard Jongman (advisor), Joan Sereno (via Zoom), Amy Rossomondo, Jeff Holliday, and Jie Zhang 🎉🌻
October 8, 2025 at 7:50 PM
🎉 Congratulations to Corey McCulloch, who defended his PhD thesis, "Stressing the Suprasegmentals: L2 phonetic training of Spanish stress" last Thursday. He is pictured here with committee members Allard Jongman (advisor), Joan Sereno (via Zoom), Amy Rossomondo, Jeff Holliday, and Jie Zhang 🎉🌻
Tomorrow (10/2) at 4:00 pm we are welcoming Dr. Katie Hoemann from the KU Department of Psychology as she gives a colloquy talk entitled, "Around the world and in every day: The contexts that structure our understanding and experience of emotion". The event is open to the public 🌻
October 1, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Tomorrow (10/2) at 4:00 pm we are welcoming Dr. Katie Hoemann from the KU Department of Psychology as she gives a colloquy talk entitled, "Around the world and in every day: The contexts that structure our understanding and experience of emotion". The event is open to the public 🌻
Grad student Xuan Wang was recently at the 17th annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language #SNL2025, where he presented his work w/ Profs. Alison Gabriele and Rob Fiorentino, "Investigating sensitivity to binding constraints in L1 and L2 English using event-related potentials" 👏
September 16, 2025 at 5:02 AM
Grad student Xuan Wang was recently at the 17th annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language #SNL2025, where he presented his work w/ Profs. Alison Gabriele and Rob Fiorentino, "Investigating sensitivity to binding constraints in L1 and L2 English using event-related potentials" 👏
A reminder: Tomorrow (Thursday 9/11) we welcome linguist and Uyghur language educator Abduweli Ayup as he shows the film "All Static and Noise", a documentary on China's Uyghur detention camps, and discusses his work promoting the Uyghur language. All are welcome to attend @ Hall Center 4:00 pm.
September 10, 2025 at 7:24 PM
A reminder: Tomorrow (Thursday 9/11) we welcome linguist and Uyghur language educator Abduweli Ayup as he shows the film "All Static and Noise", a documentary on China's Uyghur detention camps, and discusses his work promoting the Uyghur language. All are welcome to attend @ Hall Center 4:00 pm.
On August 28 we were delighted to welcome Dr. Nozomi Tanaka from the University of Iowa, who delivered this year's Oread Lecture in Linguistics! She gave a talk entitled, "Subject preference in relative clauses: A typological and developmental perspective." We really enjoyed her visit! 😊
September 8, 2025 at 2:30 PM
On August 28 we were delighted to welcome Dr. Nozomi Tanaka from the University of Iowa, who delivered this year's Oread Lecture in Linguistics! She gave a talk entitled, "Subject preference in relative clauses: A typological and developmental perspective." We really enjoyed her visit! 😊
Last weekend, KU linguists (and friends!) visited a local sunflower field, as one does when you are a linguist in Kansas 🌻
September 3, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Last weekend, KU linguists (and friends!) visited a local sunflower field, as one does when you are a linguist in Kansas 🌻
Next Thursday, the Hall Center for the Humanities will welcome linguist and writer Abduweli Ayup, a specialist in Uyghur language education. He will show the film "All Static and Noise", a documentary on China's Uyghur detention camps, and discuss his work promoting the Uyghur language.
August 20, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Next Thursday, the Hall Center for the Humanities will welcome linguist and writer Abduweli Ayup, a specialist in Uyghur language education. He will show the film "All Static and Noise", a documentary on China's Uyghur detention camps, and discuss his work promoting the Uyghur language.
Yesterday, Profs. John Gluckman, Utako Minai, and Steve Politzer-Ahles along with grad student Brakson Ping helped welcome new students to KU at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences's "College Carnival", where they got to talk to new students about why KU is a great place to study linguistics!
August 18, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Yesterday, Profs. John Gluckman, Utako Minai, and Steve Politzer-Ahles along with grad student Brakson Ping helped welcome new students to KU at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences's "College Carnival", where they got to talk to new students about why KU is a great place to study linguistics!
Congratulations to Dr. Ayumi Nobuki, who successfully defended her dissertation today! Her dissertation was titled "Comprehension of an Implied Meaning in Children: Investigating a Role of Contrastive Particle in the Felicity Judgment of Sentences", and she was advised by Prof. Utako Minai. 🎉
July 17, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Congratulations to Dr. Ayumi Nobuki, who successfully defended her dissertation today! Her dissertation was titled "Comprehension of an Implied Meaning in Children: Investigating a Role of Contrastive Particle in the Felicity Judgment of Sentences", and she was advised by Prof. Utako Minai. 🎉
Current and former KU folks reunited at the 56th Annual Conf on African Linguistics (ACAL), held last weekend at U. of Minnesota! (L to R): Peace Benson, Esther Acheampong, Jamie Hudson (BA '25), Brakson Ping (BA '24), Dr. John Gluckman, Dr. Harold Torrence, Adam An, and Dr. Aron Finholt (PhD '24).
May 20, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Current and former KU folks reunited at the 56th Annual Conf on African Linguistics (ACAL), held last weekend at U. of Minnesota! (L to R): Peace Benson, Esther Acheampong, Jamie Hudson (BA '25), Brakson Ping (BA '24), Dr. John Gluckman, Dr. Harold Torrence, Adam An, and Dr. Aron Finholt (PhD '24).
This Thursday, April 3, we will be hosting our inaugural Oread Lecture in Linguistics, featuring Dr. Karthik Durvasula from Michigan State University! His talk is entitled: "Deriving incomplete neutralisation through abstract representations". It will be held at 4:00 pm CDT in DHDC (Dole) 2092 🌻
April 1, 2025 at 8:01 PM
This Thursday, April 3, we will be hosting our inaugural Oread Lecture in Linguistics, featuring Dr. Karthik Durvasula from Michigan State University! His talk is entitled: "Deriving incomplete neutralisation through abstract representations". It will be held at 4:00 pm CDT in DHDC (Dole) 2092 🌻
KU Linguistics PhD candidate Ayumi Nobuki will be giving a colloquy this week: "Comprehension of pragmatic meaning in Japanese-speaking children: Investigation of a linguistic factor in the felicity of negation". It will be held this Thursday, March 27 at 4:00 PM in Dole 2092.
![A flyer with a photo of the speaker, Ayumi Nobuki. Title: Comprehension of pragmatic meaning in Japanese-speaking children: Investigating a linguistic factor in the felicity of negation. Department of Linguistics, University of Kansas. Thursday, March 27, 4:00 pm Central Daylight Time, 2092 DHDC (Dole). Zoom link available upon request to: linguistics@ku.edu.
Text of abstract: Research to date has argued that negative sentences are more challenging to comprehend than affirmative sentences. However, a number of recent studies revealed that both children and adults are sensitive to the felicity of negative sentences, and they can comprehend the sentences more easily when they are used felicitously in a given context. In the literature of child language acquisition, what factors determine the felicity of negative sentences is under discussion. In my project, I focused on Japanese because it has a morpheme called Contrastive-marking particle wa, which affects the felicity of negative sentences in a particular context. For example, a negative sentence with Contrastive -wa on the object noun, ringo 'apple,' inu-wa ringo-wa motte-nai-yo, means "The dog doesn't have an apple"; however, it also means that "the dog has something other than an apple." Thus, the sentence with Contrastive -wa is more felicitous when a dog has something other than an apple than when it has nothing. On the other hand, without Contrastive -wa, the sentence simply means that the dog doesn't have an apple, and no implied meaning arises. Crucially, empirical data regarding whether/how much Japanese native speakers (especially children) are aware of the contribution of Contrastive -wa to the felicity of negative sentences remained sparse. Therefore, I addressed this issue by testing the comprehension of negative sentences with this particle in Japanese-speaking adults, preschool-age children, and school- age children. [Text truncated due to character limit]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3n6ziztviwk4kl2dukpntitl/bafkreifmjmduf6n7tflzjugplrsxgkm7o5wq4rhwbw3kfapbiruqpql7ie@jpeg)
March 26, 2025 at 3:45 AM
KU Linguistics PhD candidate Ayumi Nobuki will be giving a colloquy this week: "Comprehension of pragmatic meaning in Japanese-speaking children: Investigation of a linguistic factor in the felicity of negation". It will be held this Thursday, March 27 at 4:00 PM in Dole 2092.
Join us this Friday for our annual Ingemann Lecture! This annual talk honors our department's founder, Dr. Frances Ingemann, by inviting a leading scholar in linguistics to present their research. This year, we are hosting Dr. Rajesh Bhatt of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
March 6, 2025 at 4:56 AM
Join us this Friday for our annual Ingemann Lecture! This annual talk honors our department's founder, Dr. Frances Ingemann, by inviting a leading scholar in linguistics to present their research. This year, we are hosting Dr. Rajesh Bhatt of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The KU Linguistics Colloquy Series is back for the spring semester! Join us for a lineup of exciting talks by renowned linguists, exploring the latest research and advancements in our field. All talks are free and open to the public. We look forward to seeing you there!
February 25, 2025 at 7:00 AM
The KU Linguistics Colloquy Series is back for the spring semester! Join us for a lineup of exciting talks by renowned linguists, exploring the latest research and advancements in our field. All talks are free and open to the public. We look forward to seeing you there!
This week, the Linguistics Department invites you to our undergraduate Research Symposium, where some of our students are presenting original research. Lila Church is giving a talk featuring her honors thesis on storytelling in indigenous language education. /1
December 10, 2024 at 2:20 PM
This week, the Linguistics Department invites you to our undergraduate Research Symposium, where some of our students are presenting original research. Lila Church is giving a talk featuring her honors thesis on storytelling in indigenous language education. /1
KU Linguistics was represented at NWAV 52 in Miami this weekend by Prof. Lacey Wade (center) and 4th year student Tyler Hausthor (right), who gave a talk entitled, "What makes a speaker sound Kansan?" 🌻 They also caught up with KU Linguistics BA alum Griffin Lowry (left)!
November 10, 2024 at 4:40 AM
KU Linguistics was represented at NWAV 52 in Miami this weekend by Prof. Lacey Wade (center) and 4th year student Tyler Hausthor (right), who gave a talk entitled, "What makes a speaker sound Kansan?" 🌻 They also caught up with KU Linguistics BA alum Griffin Lowry (left)!
Our professors Dr. Joan Sereno and Dr. Allard Jongman, fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, celebrated the 150th anniversary of the AAAS last week. They joined other KU fellows at a gala in Washington, DC.
October 4, 2024 at 1:51 AM
Our professors Dr. Joan Sereno and Dr. Allard Jongman, fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, celebrated the 150th anniversary of the AAAS last week. They joined other KU fellows at a gala in Washington, DC.