From gary.marcus at nyu.edu  Wed Dec  1 00:50:22 1999
From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 19:50:22 -0500
Subject: motor impairment and language
Message-ID: <TUE.30.NOV.1999.195022.0500.GARY.MARCUS@NYU.EDU>

Dear Brian and INFO-CHILDES,

Chomsky's suggestion that structure-dependence is innate is a far cry from
claiming that motor-development plays *no* role in language acquisition.

As far as I can tell, Sieratzki and Woll's  interesting results are
primarily about differences in rates of acquiring language-particular
information (which must, in part, rest on sensory information), whereas the
quote from Chomsky is, -- I think, given how he cashes out "the phenomena
of language that demand explanation" in paragraph 2 and his other work --
primarily about linguistic universals (some or all of which could turn out
to develop in the mind of the child prior to womb-external experience).
Interesting to see whether one could find differences in the putative
universals, and if so whether those could be attributed to differences in
experience.

Best wishes,
Gary




At 06:17 PM 11/30/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Peter and Info-CHILDES,
>
>   Here is one quote from Chomsky that is easy enough to find.  It is from
>page 36 of the famous Royaumont debate between Chomsky and Piaget entitled
>"Language and Learning" edited by Piatelli-Palmarini:
>
>"There are, to my knowledge, no substantive proposals involving
>'constructions of sensorimotor intelligence' that offer any hope of account
>for the phenomena of language that demand explanation.  Nor is there any
>initial plausibility to the suggestions, as far as I can see."
>
>In this way, Chomsky dismisses Piagetian constructivism and then proceeds
>with his famous example of the child's obedience to structure-dependency in
>which (page 40) "A person might go through much or all of his life without
>ever having been exposed to relevant evidence, but he will nevertheless
>unerringly employ H2 (structure-dependence) and never H1 (positional
>dependence), on the first relevant occasions.  We cannot, it seems, explain
>the preference for H2 on grands of communicative efficiency or the like."
>
>I think that these passages match up rather well with the Sieratzki-Woll
>interpretation of Chomsky's position, although the full view really emerges
>by examining the whole of the debate in the "Language and Learning" volume.
>
>--Brian MacWhinney
>


From soupbone111 at att.net  Wed Dec  1 03:27:19 1999
From: soupbone111 at att.net (soupbone)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 19:27:19 -0800
Subject: Acquisition
Message-ID: <TUE.30.NOV.1999.192719.0800.SOUPBONE111@ATT.NET>

Post
I'm looking for the current research on the relationship between neglect
and language acquisition.  Please list any citations that may be
helpful.
Thanks,
Tom Schramm


From snowcat at gse.harvard.edu  Wed Dec  1 14:18:25 1999
From: snowcat at gse.harvard.edu (Catherine Snow)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 09:18:25 -0500
Subject: Acquisition
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.091825.0500.SNOWCAT@GSE.HARVARD.EDU>

The literature on this up to about 1996 is reviewed in


Locke, J.L. & Snow, C.E.  (1997).  Social influences on vocal
learning in human and non-human primates.  In C. Snowdon & M.
Hausberger (eds.), Social influences on vocal development, (pp.
274-292). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


On Tue, 30 Nov 1999 19:27:19 -0800 soupbone <soupbone111 at att.net>
wrote:

> Post
> I'm looking for the current research on the relationship between neglect
> and language acquisition.  Please list any citations that may be
> helpful.
> Thanks,
> Tom Schramm
>
>

----------------------------------------
Catherine Snow
Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Larsen 3
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel:  617 - 495 3563
fax:  617 - 495 5771
New email address: Snowcat at gse.harvard.edu
               or: Catherine_Snow at harvard.edu


From pli at richmond.edu  Wed Dec  1 18:18:13 1999
From: pli at richmond.edu (Ping Li)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 13:18:13 -0500
Subject: experience vs. innateness
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.131813.0500.PLI@RICHMOND.EDU>

Dear INFO-CHILDES Colleagues,

In light of this list's recent debate on Chomsky's position on sensorimotor
experience, I'd like to draw your attention to a short article by Charles
Nelson  "Neural Plasticity and Human Development" (Current Directions in
Psychological Science, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1999, pp.42-45). In this article,
Nelson reviews many studies that suggest that the development of neural
tissues and the like could occur at various points in life as a RESULT of
learning experiences, and that such development could occur at anatomical,
neurochemical, or metabolic levels (see also a recent article by my
colleague C. Kinsley here on the interaction between motherhood, neural
growth, and learning and memory; Nature, Vol. 402, 137-138, 1999). Nelson
goes on to argue that the perennial "innate"-versus-"learned" debate in
developmental psychology is fallacious. Because the nervous system changes
in response to the demands of the learning environment, especially early in
life, it is more important, Nelson suggests, for us to examine the
interaction between experience and brain development (e.g, "the role of
experience in sculpting neural systems"), than to argue about whether
aspects of behavior are innate or learned. His example/illustration on face
recognition (p.44) could easily apply to language. Let me quote the last
sentence of his article: "In doing so, we may be able to shed some of the
contentious history that has plagued our discipline for years (e.g., nature
vs. nurture; innate vs. learned), and embrace new theoretical and empirical
approaches to human development and brain function."

Sincerely

Ping Li
***********************************************************************
Ping Li, Ph.D.                          Email: ping at cogsci.richmond.edu
Department of Psychology                http://www.richmond.edu/~pli/
University of Richmond                  Phone: (804) 289-8125 (office)
Richmond, VA 23173                             (804) 287-6039 (lab)
U.S.A.                                  Fax:   (804) 289-1905
***********************************************************************


From macswan at asu.edu  Thu Dec  2 03:56:54 1999
From: macswan at asu.edu (Jeff MacSwan)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 19:56:54 -0800
Subject: Linguistic introduction to language acquisition
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.195654.0800.MACSWAN@ASU.EDU>

Hi. I'm looking for a textbook for a first course in language structure and
acquisition, perhaps something like Helen Goodluck's 1991 Language
Acquisition: A Linguistic Introduction (Blackwell).  I'll post a summary
if/when I get a list of suggestions.  Thanks.

Jeff MacSwan


From gary.marcus at nyu.edu  Thu Dec  2 03:35:05 1999
From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 22:35:05 -0500
Subject: experience vs. innateness
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.223505.0500.GARY.MARCUS@NYU.EDU>

Dear Ping (cc: INFO-CHILDES).,

I agree with your claim that the "' innate'-versus-' learned'" dichotomy is
a false one -- but maybe not for the reasons you suggest.  You seem to want
to abandon the distinction because you think that experience is always
implicated, that "interaction between experience and brain development" is
paramount..

You are undoubtedly right that some of the "development of neural tissues
and the like could occur as .. a result of learning experiences."  But how
could it be otherwise?  Surely whenever we learn something the brain
changes in some way.

The real question is whether the brain is importantly shaped in ways that
may not have anything to do with learning.  The Nelson review that you
mentioned does highlight ways in which experience can play an important
role in shaping the brain, but it leaves out part of the story. For
example, Nelson notes that there are critical periods in the development of
binocular depth perception, but doesn't discuss evidence that at least some
important parts of the visual system are organized prior to experience. The
sorts of visual deprivation studies that Nelson appears to have in mind
(e.g., those of  Hubel & Wiesel) have often been misinterpreted. Though
they do show that visual experience plays a role in development, they do
not show that the initial structure is itself a consequence of learning.
Hubel expressed this point clearly in his 1988 book _Eye, Brain and Vision_
(W. H. Freeman) when he wrote that

>  "the nature-nurture question is whether postnatal development depends on
> experience or goes on even after birth according to a built-in program.
> We still are not sure of the answer, but from the relative normality of
> responses at birth, we can conclude that the unresponsiveness of cortical
> cells after deprivation was mainly due to a deterioration of connections
> that had been present birth, not a failure to form because of a lack of
> experience."

An up-to-the-minute (and cleverly-titled) commentary by Mark Hubener and
Tobias Bonhoeffer ("Eyes wide shut", Nature Neuroscience, December 1999,
volume 2, 1043-1044) goes to making the same point: "ocular dominance
columns and orientation maps can develop almost normally without visual
input". Learning must play some role in fine-tuning things, but the basic
structure seems to be available prior to (womb-external) experience.

The empirical evidence is not yet all in, not in the case of language, and
not even in the case of vision, where we have much more straightforward
animal models. But it is clear that biology is full of mechanisms that can
lead to the development of intricately structured machinery, without
requiring learning.

The reason that we should abandon the "nature-versus-nurture" dichotomy is
not because the distinction is fuzzy, but because the "versus" gets things
wrong. It's not an either-or situation -- there can be no learning without
something being innate. And having more innate machinery typically makes
you a better learner, not a weaker one. Sea slugs can learn, a little. But
only a little, because their innate learning machinery is fairly
impoverished. We humans can probably use the same mechanisms (whatever
mechanisms support conditioning have probably been conserved,
evolutionarily speaking), but lucky for us, we seem to have other
innately-given learning mechanisms as well. It's not nature VERSUS nurture,
it's nature AND nurture. Part of development is about learning, but it part
of it is not; we will need to understand both parts in order to have a
complete account.

Best wishes,
Gary


At 01:18 PM 12/1/99 -0500, Ping Li wrote:
>Dear INFO-CHILDES Colleagues,
>
>In light of this list's recent debate on Chomsky's position on sensorimotor
>experience, I'd like to draw your attention to a short article by Charles
>Nelson  "Neural Plasticity and Human Development" (Current Directions in
>Psychological Science, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1999, pp.42-45). In this article,
>Nelson reviews many studies that suggest that the development of neural
>tissues and the like could occur at various points in life as a RESULT of
>learning experiences, and that such development could occur at anatomical,
>neurochemical, or metabolic levels (see also a recent article by my
>colleague C. Kinsley here on the interaction between motherhood, neural
>growth, and learning and memory; Nature, Vol. 402, 137-138, 1999). Nelson
>goes on to argue that the perennial "innate"-versus-"learned" debate in
>developmental psychology is fallacious. Because the nervous system changes
>in response to the demands of the learning environment, especially early in
>life, it is more important, Nelson suggests, for us to examine the
>interaction between experience and brain development (e.g, "the role of
>experience in sculpting neural systems"), than to argue about whether
>aspects of behavior are innate or learned. His example/illustration on face
>recognition (p.44) could easily apply to language. Let me quote the last
>sentence of his article: "In doing so, we may be able to shed some of the
>contentious history that has plagued our discipline for years (e.g., nature
>vs. nurture; innate vs. learned), and embrace new theoretical and empirical
>approaches to human development and brain function."
>
>Sincerely
>
>Ping Li
>***********************************************************************
>Ping Li, Ph.D.                          Email: ping at cogsci.richmond.edu
>Department of Psychology                http://www.richmond.edu/~pli/
>University of Richmond                  Phone: (804) 289-8125 (office)
>Richmond, VA 23173                             (804) 287-6039 (lab)
>U.S.A.                                  Fax:   (804) 289-1905
>***********************************************************************
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From zukow at ucla.edu  Thu Dec  2 06:19:14 1999
From: zukow at ucla.edu (Patricia Zukow-Goldring)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 22:19:14 -0800
Subject: Sibling research
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.221914.0800.ZUKOW@UCLA.EDU>


Hello All,

I would appreciate receiving any recent (past 5-6 years) p/reprints that
investigate sibling caregiving in agrarian and/or technological cultures as
I'll be revising a review chapter that appeared in Bornstein's _Handbood of
Parenting_.

The topics include (but aren't limited to): who becomes a sib caregiver, who
gives and gets care, the socializing of sibling caregivers, their role in the
language development of younger sibs, effect on cognitive development, play,
conflict or authority, etc.

Thank you in advance,

Pat Zukow-Goldring


Patricia Zukow-Goldring, Ph. D.
Center for the Study of Women
Kinsey 288                             send mail to:
UCLA                                   3835 Ventura Canyon Avenue
405 Hilgard Avenue                     Sherman Oaks CA 91423
Los Angeles CA 90095                   (818) 905-6293
(310) 825-0590                         FAX: (818) 905-8113

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From marinis at ling.uni-potsdam.de  Thu Dec  2 14:53:23 1999
From: marinis at ling.uni-potsdam.de (Theodor Marinis)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 15:53:23 +0100
Subject: frequency database - child directed speech
Message-ID: <THU.2.DEC.1999.155323.0100.MARINIS@LING.UNIPOTSDAM.DE>

Dear INFO-CHILDES Colleagues,

does anybody know, if there is a database which could give frequency of
words in child directed speech for English, German or any other language?

Thank you in advance,

Theodore Marinis
------------------------------------------------------------->
Theodor Marinis
Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
Jägerstraße 10-11
D-10117 Berlin
Tel. +49-30-20192-504
Fax  +49-30-20192-402

Universität Potsdam
Institut für Linguistik/Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Postfach 601553
D-14415 Potsdam
Tel. +49-331-9772631
Fax  +49-331-9772095 (Sekretariat)
URL http://www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/gk/stipendiaten/marinis
------------------------------------------------------------->


From HTagerF at Shriver.org  Thu Dec  2 22:12:04 1999
From: HTagerF at Shriver.org (Helen Tager-Flusberg)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 17:12:04 -0500
Subject: Position Opening
Message-ID: <THU.2.DEC.1999.171204.0500.HTAGERF@SHRIVER.ORG>

RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP POSITION
Psycholinguistics/Languague Disorders
AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY

We are currently seeking to hire a full-time research assistant whose
background is in psycholinguistics and/or communication disorders to work on
a program project on Clinical and Basic Studies in Autism. This
interdisciplinary research program, funded by grants from the National
Institutes of Health, addresses questions about cognitive, linguistic,
social and clinical development and the relationship between genes, brain
and behavior in autism, specific language impairment, and mental retardation. 

Major responsibilities include: 
· Collection of language, cognitive, and experimental theory of mind data
from project participants; 
· Overseeing the preparation, coding, and analyses of natural language
transcripts;
· Coding standardized language and cognitive assessments and all
experimental data;
· Organizing testing of  project participants;
· Maintaining subject, stimulus and data files;
· Data analysis, especially for language data;
· Preparation of literature reviews, and help in manuscript preparation.

Background and skills needed for this position include: 
· Bachelors degree in Psychology or related field, with coursework in
psycholinguistics; 
· Some experience with language testing;
· Strong organizational, interpersonal, and computer skills; 
· Knowledge of Windows 97, Microsoft Office; 
· Research experience in transcription and transcript coding and analysis;
· Interest and background coursework in cognitive psychology or
neuroscience, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, and language/communication
disorders

We are seeking a mature and highly motivated person with strong interest in
the areas of the research program, who would enjoy the experience of being
involved in a large and active interdisciplinary research center.  

This full-time position includes a competitive salary and full benefits
package. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center is a non-profit Biomedical and
Psychological  Sciences Research Center which focuses on mental retardation,
and neurodevelopmental disorders.  It is located about 10 miles from
downtown Boston, and 5 miles from Harvard Square in Cambridge.

For more information, please send a cover letter, resume, and names of 3
references to:
Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D., 
Center for Research on Developmental Disorders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, 
200 Trapelo Road, 
Waltham, MA 02452
Tel:  781-642-0181; 
Fax: 781-642-0185; 
htagerf at shriver.org
_____________________________________________________________________

Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D.

Please contact me at the Shriver Center:
Senior Scientist
Director, Center for Research		On Sabbatical Leave 1999-2000:
  on Developmental Disorders,		Research University Professor 
Psychological Sciences Division		Department of Psychology
Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center		University of Massachusetts
200 Trapelo Road			100 Morrissey Blvd
Waltham, MA 02452			Boston, MA 02125-3393

http://www.shriver.org

email:	htagerf at shriver.org

Tel:	781-642-0181			617-287-6342
Fax:	781-642-0185			617-287-6336

_______________________________________________________________________


From macw at cmu.edu  Thu Dec  2 22:43:33 1999
From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 17:43:33 -0500
Subject: ocular dominance and input
Message-ID: <THU.2.DEC.1999.174333.0500.MACW@CMU.EDU>

Dear Gary, Ping, and Info-CHILDES,

  The Hubener and Bonhoeffer article from Nature Neuroscience that you cite
is the commentary article that interprets the Crowley and Katz article that
appears later in the issue.  The Crowley and Katz works does indeed show that
the ocular dominance columns can form in an almost normal way without visual
input.  Gary says that this work shows that "Learning must play some role in
fine-tuning things, but the basic structure seems to be available prior to
(womb-external) experience."  I would not interpret either Crowley and Katz
or Hubener or Bonhoeffer as saying this.  This is not a debate about
learning.  It was about whether the wiring of V1 is triggered by mere
connectivity or by connectivity plus activation.  In both scenarios, the
foromation of ocular dominance columns is not the responsibility of genetic
mechanisms, but of the topography of connections between V1 and the LGN.

  Hubener and Bonhoeffer state that, "Because so many experiments
demonstrated that visual experience can influence the layout of cortical
maps, it became widely accepted that vision might actually be instrumental in
their establishment." (p. 1043)   What this gloss leaves out is the role of
the interesting neural network simulations of Miller, Stryker and their
students which show that the emergence of the ocular dominance columns can
arise through competition between the two ocular pathways for projection to
uncommitted neural territory in V1.

  So the real question is not about learning vs maturation, but about whether
competition is grounded on connection (Crowley and Katz) or requires
connection and activation (Stryker & Harris and others).  It seems to me that
the Miller and Stryker analysis goes through just fine even with the Hubener
and Bonhoeffer result.  However, it is certainly interesting to know that
mere connectivity alone is enough to organize ocular dominance columns.
Eventually, this work could tell us something about the molecular basis of
competition for connectivity.

  So, like Ping, I take this Crowley and Katz work as a further elaboration
on Chuck Nelson's point.

  Now, for the real question, what does all of this have to do with language
development?

--Brian MacWhinney


From gary.marcus at nyu.edu  Fri Dec  3 02:34:18 1999
From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 21:34:18 -0500
Subject: ocular dominance and input
Message-ID: <THU.2.DEC.1999.213418.0500.GARY.MARCUS@NYU.EDU>

Dear Brian (cc: Ping, and info-CHILDES),

In my view, you are confusing the question of activity-dependence with the
question of learning. In my discussion of Hubener and Bonhoeffer (and
implicitly Crowley & Katz, Nature Neuroscience, 2, 1125-1130),  I wrote
that the "basic structure [of some aspects of V1] seems to be available
prior to (womb-external) experience." You seem to challenge my
interpretation, by saying that it is open question whether
activity-dependence plays an important role in the formation of (the
relevant aspects of) V1.  But while I agree that  it is for now unclear
whether activity-dependence plays an important role in the formation of
(the relevant aspects of) V1, I don't think that lack of clarity has
anything to do with my question of womb-external learning. It could well
turn out that activity plays an important role; but if the
relevant  activity is internally generated (as it would have to be in a
darkened womb or in Crowley  and Katz's ferrets, whose retinas were
surgically removed), we could not attribute the relevant aspects of
development to learning.

As Katz put it in earlier paper with Shatz, in which he and Shatz discussed
internally-generated waves:

>  visual experience alone cannot account for many features of visual
> system development. In nonhuman primates, for example, ocular dominance
> columns in layer 4 begin to form in utero and are fully formed by birth.
> Thus, although visual experience can modify existing columns, initial
> formation of the stripes is independent of visual experience. Other
> features of cortical functional architecture, such as orientation tuning
> and orientation columns, are also present before any visual experience...
> [Katz, L.C., & Shatz, C.J. (1996). Synaptic activity and the construction
> of cortical circuits. Science, 274, 1133-1138].

Now, you may not care about the question of "learning vs. maturation", but
I do. For me, it is interesting to ask whether particular aspects of the
machinery that supports language and cognition arise prior to experience --
I thought that that was how we got into this discussion in the first place.
For me, then it is interesting that the ocular dominance columns can
develop in a darkened womb or in an emulated ferret; I wrote in because I
found Ping's letter (and  Nelson's review) to be unbalanced, emphasizing
the role of (womb-external) experience without making it clear that such
experience is not always required.

I find the question of whether brain development is "interactive" far less
interesting, for I honestly don't see how the answer could be no. If the
development of the stomach or liver is interactive, surely the development
of the brain must be too. Crowely and Katz's work is grist for Nelson's
mill because everything is. In mammalian development, practically
everything is interactive -- cells always communicate with one another,
with any given cell's fate in part dependent on its neighbors. Let us not
confuse interactivity with learning, though -- some interactions are a
consequence of learning, others not. A more nuanced view is the one
championed early on in  Elman, et 's recent book Rethinking Innateness
(1996, MIT Press); as they put (page 22; see also their table 1.2, page 23):

>the term innate refers to changes that arise of interactions that occur
>within the organism itself during ontogeny. That is, interactions between
>the genes and their molecular and cellular environments without recourse
>to information from outside the organism.

Crowely and Katz's work could be taken as showing that the formation of
ocular dominance columns is innate in exactly this sense.

There's no guarantee of course that the mechanisms that shape the ocular
dominance columns in an enucleated ferret have anything to do with the
mechanisms that shape the brain circuitry for language or cognition.  But
it is important to realize that nature's tool kit includes both mechanisms
for sculpting microcircuitry on the basis of experience, and mechanisms for
sculpting microcircuitry in the absence of experience.

Best,
Gary

p.s. The network simulations that you mention go towards showing one way in
which you could in principle use patterns of neural activity to shape the
ocular dominance columns, but they do not prove that such mechanisms are
*actually used*. As Hubener and Bonhoeffer noted "Crowely and Katz have now
cast doubt on this view" -- in this way, Crowely and Katz's work  serves as
a potent reminder that there's more than one way to equip a ferret.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------

At 05:43 PM 12/2/99 -0500, Brian MacWhinney wrote:
>Dear Gary, Ping, and Info-CHILDES,
>
>   The Hubener and Bonhoeffer article from Nature Neuroscience that you cite
>is the commentary article that interprets the Crowley and Katz article that
>appears later in the issue.  The Crowley and Katz works does indeed show that
>the ocular dominance columns can form in an almost normal way without visual
>input.  Gary says that this work shows that "Learning must play some role in
>fine-tuning things, but the basic structure seems to be available prior to
>(womb-external) experience."  I would not interpret either Crowley and Katz
>or Hubener or Bonhoeffer as saying this.  This is not a debate about
>learning.  It was about whether the wiring of V1 is triggered by mere
>connectivity or by connectivity plus activation.  In both scenarios, the
>foromation of ocular dominance columns is not the responsibility of genetic
>mechanisms, but of the topography of connections between V1 and the LGN.
>
>   Hubener and Bonhoeffer state that, "Because so many experiments
>demonstrated that visual experience can influence the layout of cortical
>maps, it became widely accepted that vision might actually be instrumental in
>their establishment." (p. 1043)   What this gloss leaves out is the role of
>the interesting neural network simulations of Miller, Stryker and their
>students which show that the emergence of the ocular dominance columns can
>arise through competition between the two ocular pathways for projection to
>uncommitted neural territory in V1.
>
>   So the real question is not about learning vs maturation, but about whether
>competition is grounded on connection (Crowley and Katz) or requires
>connection and activation (Stryker & Harris and others).  It seems to me that
>the Miller and Stryker analysis goes through just fine even with the Hubener
>and Bonhoeffer result.  However, it is certainly interesting to know that
>mere connectivity alone is enough to organize ocular dominance columns.
>Eventually, this work could tell us something about the molecular basis of
>competition for connectivity.
>
>   So, like Ping, I take this Crowley and Katz work as a further elaboration
>on Chuck Nelson's point.
>
>   Now, for the real question, what does all of this have to do with language
>development?
>
>--Brian MacWhinney


From ioana at ns.itc-cluj.ro  Fri Dec  3 09:47:07 1999
From: ioana at ns.itc-cluj.ro (ioana marian)
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 11:47:07 +0200
Subject: Narrative text comprehension
Message-ID: <FRI.3.DEC.1999.114707.0200.IOANA@NS.ITCCLUJ.RO>

Dear info-childes,
my name is Ioana Marian and I am studying psychology
at Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
One of my teachers is trying to construct and validate
a test for narrative texts comprehension. The test is trying
to reveal problems on reading a narrative text at
children of 9 to 13 years old , and who have a normal vocabulary but
problems to understood the meaning of a text.
We didn't find any similar tests , so we will be grateful
if anyone can give us some theoretical references or
can provide us similar tests.
thank you very much,
ioana marian


From yongta-k at hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp  Fri Dec  3 11:03:36 1999
From: yongta-k at hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp (Kim, Yong-Taek)
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 20:03:36 +0900
Subject: =?iso-2022-jp?B?TGFuZ3VhZ2UgR2FtZRskQiROS1xIViQsPVBNaD5lJCwkaiReJDcbKEI=?=
 =?iso-2022-jp?B?GyRCJD8hIxsoQg==?=
Message-ID: <FRI.3.DEC.1999.200336.0900.YONGTAK@HOFFMAN.CC.SOPHIA.AC.JP>

こんにちは。上智大学院の金と申します。

テレビゲームのような感覚で皆さんの日本語についての勘を
テストしてみませんか。
i
次のところに行けば、楽しむことが出来ます。

http://www.ling.sophia.ac.jp/kimyt/jp/

皆様のご協力を頂ければ幸いです。
宜しくお願い致します。
それでは、失礼致します。

取り急ぎ、お願いまで。


From pli at richmond.edu  Fri Dec  3 20:37:51 1999
From: pli at richmond.edu (Ping Li)
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 15:37:51 -0500
Subject: ocular dominance, input, and language
Message-ID: <FRI.3.DEC.1999.153751.0500.PLI@RICHMOND.EDU>

Dear Gary, Brian, and Info-childes,

There are two points that I'd like to make (briefly) in response to Gary's
messages:

(1) The "interactive" brain development view is interesting because for too
long developmental psycholinguists have been led to believe that it is the
neural structure of the brain that dictates language development (ala
Chomskyan LAD/UG and Fodorian modularity) - but now evidence suggests that
the learning environment (e.g., input, or what you call womb-external
experience) can "dictate" or change the neural structure of the brain and
that's interesting. Perhaps many mechanisms that we previously thought to
be innate are actually due to very early interative brain developments on
the basis of experience.

(2) Like Brian, I would question the relevance of ocular dominance and the
like to language development. A nativist proposal in language involves much
more abstract notions than ocular dominance columns, and the question here
is whether things like the UG parameters exist prior to experience (and
that experience helps only to set the parameter values). Perhaps the
parameters are after all established on the basis of experience, and
answers to such questions require the examination of the infant's
"interactive" brain development from 0;0 on (Gary, your 7-month-old infants
already had a lot of womb-external linguistic experiences; see Elman (1999)
"Generalization, rules, and neural networks: A simulation of Marcus et. al"
for a similar point at
http://crl.ucsd.edu/~elman/Papers/MVRVsimulation.html).

Best wishes,

Ping

> >X-Sender: gfm1 at is7.nyu.edu
> >Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 21:34:18 -0500
> >To: Brian MacWhinney <macw at cmu.edu>
> >From: Gary Marcus <gary.marcus at nyu.edu>
> >Subject: Re: ocular dominance and input
> >Cc: info-childes at childes.psy.cmu.edu, Ping Li <pli at richmond.edu>
> >Mime-Version: 1.0
> >
> >Dear Brian (cc: Ping, and info-CHILDES),
> >
> >In my view, you are confusing the question of activity-dependence with the
> >question of learning. In my discussion of Hubener and Bonhoeffer (and
> >implicitly Crowley & Katz, Nature Neuroscience, 2, 1125-1130),  I wrote
> >that the "basic structure [of some aspects of V1] seems to be available
> >prior to (womb-external) experience." You seem to challenge my
> >interpretation, by saying that it is open question whether
> >activity-dependence plays an important role in the formation of (the
> >relevant aspects of) V1.  But while I agree that  it is for now unclear
> >whether activity-dependence plays an important role in the formation of
> >(the relevant aspects of) V1, I don't think that lack of clarity has
> >anything to do with my question of womb-external learning. It could well
> >turn out that activity plays an important role; but if the
> >relevant  activity is internally generated (as it would have to be in a
> >darkened womb or in Crowley  and Katz's ferrets, whose retinas were
> >surgically removed), we could not attribute the relevant aspects of
> >development to learning.
> >
> >As Katz put it in earlier paper with Shatz, in which he and Shatz discussed
> >internally-generated waves:
> >
> >>  visual experience alone cannot account for many features of visual
> >> system development. In nonhuman primates, for example, ocular dominance
> >> columns in layer 4 begin to form in utero and are fully formed by birth.
> >> Thus, although visual experience can modify existing columns, initial
> >> formation of the stripes is independent of visual experience. Other
> >> features of cortical functional architecture, such as orientation tuning
> >> and orientation columns, are also present before any visual experience...
> >> [Katz, L.C., & Shatz, C.J. (1996). Synaptic activity and the construction
> >> of cortical circuits. Science, 274, 1133-1138].
> >
> >Now, you may not care about the question of "learning vs. maturation", but
> >I do. For me, it is interesting to ask whether particular aspects of the
> >machinery that supports language and cognition arise prior to experience --
> >I thought that that was how we got into this discussion in the first place.
> >For me, then it is interesting that the ocular dominance columns can
> >develop in a darkened womb or in an emulated ferret; I wrote in because I
> >found Ping's letter (and  Nelson's review) to be unbalanced, emphasizing
> >the role of (womb-external) experience without making it clear that such
> >experience is not always required.
> >
> >I find the question of whether brain development is "interactive" far less
> >interesting, for I honestly don't see how the answer could be no. If the
> >development of the stomach or liver is interactive, surely the development
> >of the brain must be too. Crowely and Katz's work is grist for Nelson's
> >mill because everything is. In mammalian development, practically
> >everything is interactive -- cells always communicate with one another,
> >with any given cell's fate in part dependent on its neighbors. Let us not
> >confuse interactivity with learning, though -- some interactions are a
> >consequence of learning, others not. A more nuanced view is the one
> >championed early on in  Elman, et 's recent book Rethinking Innateness
> >(1996, MIT Press); as they put (page 22; see also their table 1.2, page 23):
> >
> >>the term innate refers to changes that arise of interactions that occur
> >>within the organism itself during ontogeny. That is, interactions between
> >>the genes and their molecular and cellular environments without recourse
> >>to information from outside the organism.
> >
> >Crowely and Katz's work could be taken as showing that the formation of
> >ocular dominance columns is innate in exactly this sense.
> >
> >There's no guarantee of course that the mechanisms that shape the ocular
> >dominance columns in an enucleated ferret have anything to do with the
> >mechanisms that shape the brain circuitry for language or cognition.  But
> >it is important to realize that nature's tool kit includes both mechanisms
> >for sculpting microcircuitry on the basis of experience, and mechanisms for
> >sculpting microcircuitry in the absence of experience.
> >
> >Best,
> >Gary
> >
> >p.s. The network simulations that you mention go towards showing one way in
> >which you could in principle use patterns of neural activity to shape the
> >ocular dominance columns, but they do not prove that such mechanisms are
> >*actually used*. As Hubener and Bonhoeffer noted "Crowely and Katz have now
> >cast doubt on this view" -- in this way, Crowely and Katz's work  serves as
> >a potent reminder that there's more than one way to equip a ferret.
> >
> >


From gary.marcus at nyu.edu  Sun Dec  5 20:12:21 1999
From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus)
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 15:12:21 -0500
Subject: ocular dominance, input, and language
Message-ID: <SUN.5.DEC.1999.151221.0500.GARY.MARCUS@NYU.EDU>

Dear Ping, Dear Brian, cc: Info-childes,

1. Ping, you haven't said what would NOT count as interactive brain
development.

2. As I said Thursday, "There's no guarantee of course that the mechanisms
that shape the ocular
dominance columns in an enucleated ferret have anything to do with the
mechanisms that shape the brain circuitry for language or cognition". I
only raised the example because you brought up Nelson's discussion of brain
development, and Nelson himself brought up visual deprivation experiments.
Since his article did a good job of indicating one of the two major
developmental options, but not the other, I thought it would be useful to
illustrate the other.  Clearly, such studies must be interpreted with care
when they are brought to bear on questions about language development.

Still, let me add that I am hardly the first person to consider  visual
development in the context of wondering whether, say, there might be an
innate language acquisition device.  Since animal models and the like make
questions about the neural basis of visual development far more tractable
than questions about the neural basis of linguistic development, other
researchers have frequently considered visual development  as a source of
insight into questions about the developmental origins of language; one
prominent recent example that mentioned ocular dominance columns and
mechanisms that might form them was Elman's et al'a (1996, MIT Press)
Rethinking Innateness.

At that time, the facts that they cited may have seemed to accord with a
more experientially-driven view of visual development, but, as I indicated,
many recent studies (summarized in Hubener and Bonhoeffer's "Eyes wide
shut" article in this month's Nature Neuroscience) now point to at least
some of the basic organization being constructed prior to experience.  It
would, in my view, be a mistake to stop seriously considering visual
development  as a source of insight into questions about language simply
because the facts about visual development no longer seem to fit so nicely
with an experientially-driven view of fundamental brain organization.

3. Although our data from seven-month-olds (Marcus, G.F., Vijayan, S.,
Bandi Rao, S., & Vishton, P.M. (1999). Rule learning in 7-month-old
infants. Science, 283, 77-80)  are consistent with the possibility that the
underlying generalization mechanism is innate, I would not claim that I
have proven that it is.

4. I have discussed the Seidenberg and Elman model elsewhere. For pointers,
and a full list of the 20 or so papers in the professional literature
that  have discussed our infant results, see below. (I will include a full
treatment of these papers, and of the neural developmental issues we have
been discussing, in my forthcoming book _The Algebraic Mind: Integrating
Connectionism and Cognitive Science_, due out in Fall 2000. For excerpts
from an earlier draft and discussion by Elman and others, see my web page.)

5. Brian, I checked with Larry Katz to make sure that he agreed with my
interpretation of his results (""Learning must play some role
in  fine-tuning things, but the basic structure seems to be available prior
to  (womb-external) experience." ). He did in fact agree, writing "What
we've shown, I think, is that ... competition [driven by womb-external
visual experience]  is not  required to initially form the structure, but
can, once it's formed, alter  the fine structure. You've captured that
exactly in your written quote."

Best wishes,
Gary

p.s. Although I have been enjoying this discussion, the end of the semester
is nigh, so I may not be able to post again for a while.

Department of Psychology
New York University
6 Washington Place
NY, NY 10012

o: 212-998-3551
fax: 212-995-4866
e-mail: gary.marcus at nyu.edu

web: http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gary/



                                 Articles that have discussed the Marcus et
al (1999) results

Altmann, G.T.M., & Dienes, Z. (1999). Rule learning by seven-month-old
infants and neural networks. Science, 284, 875a.

Berent, I. (1999). Infant rule-learning and the obligatory contour
principle: Submitted manuscript, Florida Atlantic University.

Christiansen, M.H., & Curtin, S.L. (1999). The power of statistical
learning: No need for algebraic rules. In M. Hahn & S.C. Stoness (Eds.),
Proceedings of the Twenty first Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science
Society (pp. 114-119). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Christiansen, M.H., & Curtin, S.L. (1999). Transfer of Learning: Rule
acquisition or statistical learning? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 289-290.

Dominey, P.F., & Ramus, F. (in press). Neural network processing of natural
language: I. Sensitivity to Serial, Temporal and Abstract Structure of
language in the Infant. Language and Cognitive Processes.

Eimas, P. (1999). Do infants learn grammar with algebra or statistics?
Science, 284, 435-436.

Gasser, M., & Colunga, E. (1999). Babies, Variables, and Connectionist
Networks. In M. Hahn & S.C. Stoness (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty first
Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 794). Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.

Kuehne, S.E., Gentner, D., & Forbus, K.D. (1999). Modeling rule learning by
seven-month-old infants: A symbolic approach. Manuscript in preparation:
Northwestern University.

Marcus, G.F. (1999a). Connectionism: with or without rules? Response to
J.L. McClelland and D.C. Plaut. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,, 3, 168-170.

Marcus, G.F. (1999b). Do infants learn grammar with algebra or statistics?
Response to Seidenberg & Elman, Eimas, and Negishi. Science, 284, 436-437.

Marcus, G.F. (1999c). Reply to Christiansen & Curtin. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 3, 290-291.

Marcus, G.F. (1999d). Reply to Seidenberg & Elman. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 3, 289.

Marcus, G.F. (1999e). Rule learning by seven-month-old infants and neural
networks: Response to Altmann and Dienes. Science, 284, 875a.

Marcus, G.F., Vijayan, S., Bandi Rao, S., & Vishton, P.M. (1999). Rule
learning in 7-month-old infants. Science, 283, 77-80.

McClelland, J.L., & Plaut, D.C. (1999). Does generalization in infant
learning implicate abstract algebra-like rules? Trends in Cognitive
Sciences,, 3, 166-168.

Negishi, M. (1999). Do infants learn grammar with algebra or statistics?
Science, 284, 435.

Seidenberg, M.S., & Elman, J.L. (1999a). Do infants learn grammar with
algebra or statistics? Science, 284, 435-436.

Seidenberg, M.S., & Elman, J.L. (1999b). Networks are not 'hidden rules'.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 288-289.

Shastri, L. (1999). Infants learning algebraic rules. Science, 285, 1673-1674.

Shastri, L., & Chang, S. (1999). A connectionist recreation of
rule-learning in infants. Submitted manuscript: University of California,
Berkeley.

Shultz, T.R. (1999). Rule learning by habituation can be simulated in
neural networks. In M. Hahn & S.C. Stoness (Eds.), Proceedings of the
Twenty first Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp.
665-670). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.


From yongta-k at hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp  Mon Dec  6 08:12:10 1999
From: yongta-k at hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp (Kim, Yong-Taek)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 17:12:10 +0900
Subject: I don't know how I could apologize to all of you.
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.1999.171210.0900.YONGTAK@HOFFMAN.CC.SOPHIA.AC.JP>

Dear CHILDES Members

I was trying to send an email written by Japanese to Japanese CHILDESMailing
list,
but by mistake I sent it to this Mailing list.
That's why iyou have an illegible emai.
I'm very sorry about this careless mistake.
Please delete the email I sent on 3 Dec.


From szasa at nytud.hu  Mon Dec  6 11:56:45 1999
From: szasa at nytud.hu (Jarovinszkij Alekszandr)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 12:56:45 +0100
Subject: Frustration-toleration in bilinguals
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.1999.125645.0100.SZASA@NYTUD.HU>

Hi, Brian,
Hi, info-childes,
I conduct a new project concerning socio-and psycholinguistic aspects of
Hungarian-Slovakian bilingual adolescents. The study includes, partly,
the measuring of their frustration-toleration level. For this, we use
the modification of Picture Frustration Test (PFT), proposed by
Rosenzweig.
Can anybody help us with a literature concerning bilinguals in this
topic? I mean not only the frustration-toleration phenomenon, but an
emotional state or an emotional reactions, such as, for example, an
anxiety, an aggression in bilinguals.
My second question. Does anybody know the code, address or name of the
listserv, which associating with psychologists or clinical
psychologists? (Three weeks ago I wrote about my problems to
BILING at ASU.EDU, but I did not  receive answer.)
Thanks in advance.
Alexandr Jarovinskij (Sasha) from Budapest.


From jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu  Wed Dec  8 17:34:20 1999
From: jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu (Judith Becker Bryant)
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 12:34:20 -0500
Subject: Faculty position
Message-ID: <WED.8.DEC.1999.123420.0500.JBRYANT@LUNA.CAS.USF.EDU>

I hope that there is a a senior scholar out there who
may wish to consider this position.

         		Judith Becker Bryant, Ph.D.
	 		Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Center
				for Communication Sciences
            		Department of Psychology, BEH 339
		 	University of South Florida
		 	Tampa, FL  33620-8200

		 	(813) 974-0475     fax (813) 974-4617
-------------- next part --------------
Judy,

Sending attachment.

I am placing your leave record on your chair for your signature.  No rush.
Thanks.

Florencia

-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Becker Bryant [mailto:jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 3:09 PM
To: Florencia Stanley (PSY)
Subject: ad


Florencia:  I inadvertantly erased the latest copy
of the ad for our position.  Could you please send
it to me again so that I might forward it to one
of my listservs?  Thanks.
   Judy

         		Judith Becker Bryant, Ph.D.
	 		Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Center
				for Communication Sciences
         		Associate Professor
            		Department of Psychology, BEH 339
		 	University of South Florida
		 	Tampa, FL  33620-8200

		 	(813) 974-0475     fax (813) 974-4617


From jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu  Wed Dec  8 20:59:00 1999
From: jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu (Judith Becker Bryant)
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 15:59:00 -0500
Subject: senior faculty position
Message-ID: <WED.8.DEC.1999.155900.0500.JBRYANT@LUNA.CAS.USF.EDU>

Below please find the announcement I had
attempted to send earlier.

         		Judith Becker Bryant, Ph.D.
	 		Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Center
				for Communication Sciences
            		Department of Psychology, BEH 339
		 	University of South Florida
		 	Tampa, FL  33620-8200

		 	(813) 974-0475     fax (813) 974-4617

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

Department of Psychology

FULL PROFESSOR OR ADVANCED ASSOCIATE.  The Psychology Department at the
University of South Florida seeks a distinguished scientist to join its
faculty.  Although candidates at the senior rank are preferred,
exceptional candidates at the rank of associate professor will be
considered.  The primary criteria for this position are an exceptional
record of scholarly productivity, a history of extramural support,
capacity to attract and successfully train graduate students, and a
commitment to advancing the department's educational mission at both the
graduate and undergraduate level.  Area of specialization is open, but the
candidate's research interests should complement and extend one or more of
the three departmental Ph.D. program areas: Clinical, Cognitive and Neural
Sciences, and Industrial-Organizational.  Excellence in the criteria
listed above supercedes the importance of area of specialization.  USF is
a comprehensive, metropolitan state university, serving more than 34,000
students in nine colleges on four campuses in Tampa, Lakeland, St.
Petersburg, and Sarasota. Among the top research universities in the
state, USF offers degree programs in 79 undergraduate disciplines, 889
master's and specialist programs and 26 doctoral programs, including the
MD.  The faculty numbers more than 2,000 members.  The Department of
Psychology, which continues to advance in excellence and stature, has 32
full-time faculty and will be moving into a new, state of the art research
facility during the summer of 2000.  Our department is firmly committed to
advancing scientific knowledge and the application of scientifically
validated procedures to human psychological problems. The Clinical program
is APA-accredited and a Member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical
Sciences. For more information about our department and faculty, please go
to http://www.cas.usf.edu/psychology/.  The Tampa Bay area offers many
cultural and recreational pursuits, and has earned a high rating in a
survey of "The Best Cities in Which to Work".  Applications from women and
members of ethnic minorities are particularly encouraged.  This is a full
time (nine months) tenure earning position and salary is negotiable.  A
Ph.D., or equivalent degree is required.  The deadline for applications is
February 15, 2000.  Interested candidates should send a vita, a statement
of research interests, and may arrange for letters to be sent or submit
contact information for three references to:  Michael D. Coovert, Chair,
Search Committee, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida,
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, BEH 339, Tampa, FL 33620-8200.  For further
information contact Dr. Coovert by email at coovert at luna.cas.usf.edu.
The University of South Florida is an affirmative action, equal
opportunity, equal access employer.  For disability accommodations, please
call Ms. Florencia Stanley (813-974-0359).  According to Florida law,
applications and meetings regarding them are open to the public.


From dodorico at ux1.unipd.it  Thu Dec  9 13:35:29 1999
From: dodorico at ux1.unipd.it (Laura D'Odorico)
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 14:35:29 +0100
Subject: vocabulary spurt
Message-ID: <THU.9.DEC.1999.143529.0100.DODORICO@UX1.UNIPD.IT>

I am looking forward studies which specifically investigate the
applicability of "referential-expressive distinction" to infants acquiring
languages other than English. I found only one study (Camaioni &
Longobardi, 1995) which is about Italian children. Has anyone other
suggestion? Thank you. Laura D'odorico

Prof. Laura D'Odorico
Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione
Via Venezia 8
35141 PADOVA

e-mail: dodorico at psico.unipd.it
tel:(49) 8276523
FAX:(49) 8276511


From sherrill at falcon.cc.ukans.edu  Thu Dec  9 18:42:53 1999
From: sherrill at falcon.cc.ukans.edu (Sherrill R Morris)
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 12:42:53 -0600
Subject: Faculty position
Message-ID: <THU.9.DEC.1999.124253.0600.SHERRILL@FALCON.CC.UKANS.EDU>

ROCKHURST UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND DISORDERS

Rockhurst University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty
position, at the assistant or associate level, in its Communication
Sciences and Disorders program.  This is a nine-month position, beginning
August 2000, with the possibility of summer teaching.  Requirements
include an earned doctorate (preferred ;master's considered) in
speech-language pathology or speech and hearing science; CCC-SLP;
eligibility for licensure in Missouri; a record of excellence in teaching
in higher education; evidence of scholarship and research; and a
familiarity with state and national certification requirements.  Rank
commensurate with experience.

Preference will be given to individuals with expertise in one or more of
the following areas: adult neurogenic speech-language disorders, motor
speech disorders, and voice disorders.  Specific teaching responsibilities
will be determined by the areas of specialization of the incumbent.
Teaching will be at the graduate and undergraduate levels.  Other
responsibilities include student advising and directing student research.
Some clinical supervision is possible.  We are seeking an individual
interested in assisting in the continued development of this new program
in accord with the University's Catholic and Jesuit mission and commitment
to excellence in graduate education in the health sciences.

Rockhurst University's Master of Science program in Communication Sciences
and Disorders was conferred candidacy status by the Council on Academic
Accreditation (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
(ASHA) on March 1, 1999.   	


Rockhurst University, one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the
U.S., is located in the cultural and artistic center of the racially and
ethnically diverse Kansas City metropolitan area.  The University enrolls
2,900 students in four academic divisions.  The Department of
Communication Sciences and Disorders is housed in the College of Arts and
Sciences together with graduate programs in Occupational Therapy and
Physical Therapy.   For more information, visit our Web site:
www.rockhurst.edu.

Applications must include:  1) a letter expressing interest and indicating
qualifications for the position; 2) vita; 3) evidence of excellence in
teaching or clinical supervision; and 4) names, addresses, and phone
numbers of three references who may be contacted.  Applications will be
reviewed beginning Feb. 15, 2000, and will be accepted until the position
is filled.  Applications should be sent to:	Dr. Shelly Chabon
			Chair, Department of Communication Sciences and
				Disorders
			Rockhurst University
			1100 Rockhurst Road
			Kansas City, MO  64110
			Email:  Shelly.Chabon at rockhurst.edu

Rockhurst University is an equal opportunity employer and encourages
applications from women and minorities.


From macw at cmu.edu  Thu Dec 16 01:59:43 1999
From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 20:59:43 -0500
Subject: mail problems
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.1999.205943.0500.MACW@CMU.EDU>

Dear Info-CHILDES,
  I was updating the mail server Monday and Tuesday and it appears that a few
messages came in during that period that were not then sent out.  There are
at least four messages that I can identify and I will send them out again by
hand.  If you mailed a message that didn't get posted in the last few days,
please repost it.  Sorry about this problem.

--Brian MacWhinney


From macw at cmu.edu  Thu Dec 16 02:13:59 1999
From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 21:13:59 -0500
Subject: apical trills
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.1999.211359.0500.MACW@CMU.EDU>

First possibly lost message:

From: mj.ball at ulst.ac.uk


Has anyone any information on first language acquisition of apical trills
(e.g. in languages such as Italian, Spanish etc etc). I'm particulary
interested in age by when these become established AND commonest
substitutions for the trills before they're established.

Please reply directly to me: I'll post a summary if there's sufficient
information.

Martin J Ball, PhD
Professor of Phonetics & Linguistics
University of Ulster at Jordanstown
Northern Ireland
Email: mj.ball at ulst.ac.uk


From macw at cmu.edu  Thu Dec 16 02:15:35 1999
From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 21:15:35 -0500
Subject: Workshop on the Acquisition of Auxiliaries
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.1999.211535.0500.MACW@CMU.EDU>

Actually, I have only identified two possibly lost messages.  Here is the
other one:

Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 22:52:28 -0800
Message-Id: <v0313030ab47b989c0c01@[128.97.208.91]>
From: Misha Becker <mbecker at ucla.edu>


Workshop on the Acquisition of Auxiliaries

held in conjunction with WCCFL 19
(West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics)

February 4, 2000

University of California, Los Angeles

Program:

2:00-2:45	Auxiliary Insertion in Child Dutch
Shalom Zuckerman, Roelien Bastiaanse and Ron van Zonneveld
University of Groningen

2:45-3:30 Auxiliaries, Features and the Grammar of Inversion in the
Acquisition of English Yes/No Questions
Lynn Santelmann, Stephanie Berk, and Barbara Lust
Portland State University, University of Connecticut, and Cornell University

3:30-3:45 break

3:45-4:30 Auxiliaries and Topic Drop in Child English
Ken Wexler and Jenny Ganger
MIT and University of Pittsburgh

4:30-5:00	general question and discussion period

For registration information and the program of the main session, please
visit our website at http://www.wccfl.org

Or send e-mail to wccfl at humnet.ucla.edu.

********************************************************
Misha Becker
UCLA Department of Linguistics
Box 951543
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543
(310) 825-0634
mbecker at ucla.edu
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/linguistics/people/grads/becker/becker.htm
********************************************************


From michav at post.tau.ac.il  Thu Dec 16 06:39:41 1999
From: michav at post.tau.ac.il (Michal Avivi)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 08:39:41 +0200
Subject: Teletubbies: + or - ?!
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.1999.083941.0200.MICHAV@POST.TAU.AC.IL>

Dear Childes,
I am an MA student of Dr. Etti Dromi's, at Tel-Aviv University. I am
writing you as she told me you might be able to help me.
According to Dr. Dromi, a few months ago there was a Childes convention,
in which an internet chat discussion about the Teletubbies took place. I
would be very much obliged if you could let me know how can I get info.
about that discussion.
Thank you very much,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Century, Millennium,
Yours,
Michal Avivi


From velleman at comdis.umass.edu  Thu Dec 16 17:28:07 1999
From: velleman at comdis.umass.edu (Shelley L. Velleman)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 13:28:07 -0400
Subject: Teletubbies: + or - ?!
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.1999.132807.0400.VELLEMAN@COMDIS.UMASS.EDU>

You can access "old" (recent) CHILDES messages at the LinguistList
mirror, which is at this address:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/info-childes.html

I just searched for "teletubbies", and found 19 messages archived from
last May.

An undergrad student of mine, Sarah Schmit, just presented some research
at ASHA that we did together on the phonology of the Teletubbies.  We
hope to write it up this spring.

Has the show been dubbed into Hebrew?  If so, I'd love your impression
of the tubbies' phonologies in that language.  (We're just looking at
Spanish, in which their speech appears to be totally adult-like
phonologically and syntactically; quite different from English!)

Shelley Velleman
Communication Disorders
Univ. of Mass.
Amherst, MA  010030410
USA


From bpearson at comdis.umass.edu  Thu Dec 16 20:50:05 1999
From: bpearson at comdis.umass.edu (Barbara Zurer Pearson)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 15:50:05 -0500
Subject: Vocabulary Spurt (lost message, from last week)
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.1999.155005.0500.BPEARSON@COMDIS.UMASS.EDU>

Dear Laura (and Infochildes),

I worked from a mention in Bates, Bretherton, and Snyder, 1988,
that Bates' daughter Julia was referential in English and
appeared more expressive in her Italian.  We analyzed early
MacArthur data for this distinction from 18 English-and-Spanish
learning children.  There's a table about 12 of them and a
small discussion in Pearson, B. Z. & Fernandez, S. C., 1994,
"Patterns of Interaction in the Lexical Growth in Two
Languages of Bilingual Infants and Toddlers."
_Language Learning_ 44, pp 617-653.  I review there, too,
how we counted a child as one or the other.

Do you have a specific hypothesis you want to test for
other languages?

Barbara


>I am looking forward studies which specifically investigate the
>applicability of "referential-expressive distinction" to infants acquiring
>languages other than English. I found only one study (Camaioni &
>Longobardi, 1995) which is about Italian children. Has anyone other
>suggestion? Thank you. Laura D'odorico
>
>Prof. Laura D'Odorico
>Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione
>Via Venezia 8
>35141 PADOVA
>
>e-mail: dodorico at psico.unipd.it
>tel:(49) 8276523
>FAX:(49) 8276511


****************************************
Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D.
Research Associate, Project Manager
NIH Working Group on AAE
University of Massachusetts
Dept. of Communication Disorders
117 Arnold House
Amherst, MA 01003

413-545-5023
fax 545-0803

bpearson at comdis.umass.edu
http://www.umass.edu/aae/


From gawron at vonneumann.cog.jhu.edu  Fri Dec 17 13:19:29 1999
From: gawron at vonneumann.cog.jhu.edu (Rachel Gawron)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 08:19:29 -0500
Subject: Post
Message-ID: <FRI.17.DEC.1999.081929.0500.GAWRON@VONNEUMANN.COG.JHU.EDU>

  POSTDOCTORAL TRAINEESHIPS AT JOHNS HOPKINS: Integrating Formal and
  Empirical Methods in the Cognitive Science of Language

The Department of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University is
offering Postdoctoral Traineeships in a problem-centered language
research program encompassing psycholinguistics, theoretical
linguistics, cognitive neuropsychology (especially neuroimaging and
cognitive neuropsychology of language), language acquisition, and
computational linguistics.  Ideal trainees will have previous
experience in one or more of these disciplines and will possess strong
motivation for training in the other areas.  Trainees must be able to
work independently, demonstrating high levels of initiative. Applicants
are required to submit a brief (approx. 3-page) proposal, indicating
(1) what courses or other academic resources they wish to take
advantage of in order to augment their doctoral education; (2) how they
expect to contribute to the training environment; (3) what research
activities they are interested in pursuing during their post-doctoral
appointment; and (4) how their proposed research fits in with existing
research in Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins.  Applicants are
referred to our website (www.cogsci.jhu.edu) for further information on
the training program.  The interactive training environment for these
positions includes the facilities of the Cognitive Science Department
and other related units at Johns Hopkins, including the Center for
Language and Speech Processing, the Psychology and Neurology
Departments and the Mind/Brain Institute, along with access to a
research-dedicated fMRI facility providing extensive technical support
(the Kirby Center).  The Traineeships are part of the department's
NSF-supported Integrated Graduate Education and Research Training
(IGERT) Program in the Cognitive Science of Language, and are also
supported through a group NSF Learning and Intelligent Systems (LIS)
grant on Optimization in Language and Language Learning.  Traineeships
will begin on September 1; awards are for a period of one year and may
be renewable.  Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of
the US.  The deadline for applications is January 31, 1999, but
applications will be accepted after that time until the positions are
filled.  Please send CV, proposal, and three letters of reference to:
IGERT Postdoctoral Traineeships, Department of Cognitive Science, Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218-2685.

The Johns Hopkins University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
Employer.  Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply.


From bill.wells at ucl.ac.uk  Fri Dec 17 18:24:43 1999
From: bill.wells at ucl.ac.uk (Bill Wells)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 18:24:43 +0000
Subject: Clare Tarplee
Message-ID: <FRI.17.DEC.1999.182443.0000.BILL.WELLS@UCL.AC.UK>

Dear CHILDES members

With deepest sadness I am writing to inform you that our colleague Clare
Tarplee died on Tuesday 16th November, at the age of 36. Clare collapsed at
work on the previous Monday, as the result of a brain haemorrhage, and
never regained consciousness.

In her doctorate and her subsequent research, Clare used the techniques of
Conversation Analysis to study interactions involving children with normal
and atypical language development.

Clare had been a lecturer here since 1992.  She will be greatly missed as
researcher, teacher, colleague and friend.


Bill Wells




Bill Wells, MA, DPhil
Professor of Clinical Linguistics / ESRC Senior Research Fellow
Department of Human Communication Science
University College London
Chandler House
2 Wakefield Street
London WC1N 1PG, U.K.

Tel. 44 (0)20 7679 4242
E-mail:bill.wells at ucl.ac.uk
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/HCS/


From michav at post.tau.ac.il  Sun Dec 19 08:33:49 1999
From: michav at post.tau.ac.il (Michal Avivi)
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 10:33:49 +0200
Subject: Teletubbies in Israel
Message-ID: <SUN.19.DEC.1999.103349.0200.MICHAV@POST.TAU.AC.IL>

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, the TT have been dubbed into Hebrew. Like in every other country,
it's a huge success among kids (and not so very young, too!).
I am not a very keen viewer, I've watched it a few times with my 13 months
old daughter, but to your question -
To my impression, the phonology is adult-like, though there are some
supra-segmental variations (Po's talk is whisperish). BUT - syntactically
it is totally not adult-like. It's some sort of telegraphic talk, but
inconsistent. Sometimes they omit some of the syntax parts, at other times
(rarely) they chose to use them. I don't think the syntax of the
Hebrew-speaking TT resembles that of Israeli toddlers.

Michal Avivi
School of Education
Tel-Aviv University
Tel-Aviv 69978
Israel


From aad784 at agora.ulaval.ca  Tue Dec 21 19:03:55 1999
From: aad784 at agora.ulaval.ca (Antonella Conte)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:03:55 -0500
Subject: "not"
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.1999.140355.0500.AAD784@AGORA.ULAVAL.CA>

Hi there fellow researchers,

I am presently doing some morphological and syntactical (if this is a
word?) utterance analysis and was wondering how to classify the word "not".
 If I were to follow traditional grammar and parts of speech, "not" would
be classified as an adverb (Ex.: I do not eat fish; I don't speak Greek)...
at least as it is stated in a bilingual Eng/Fr dictionary.  However, does
the nature change when one analyzes syntax.  I know syntax means "order" in
an utterance, but to establish order, one needs to code and assign codes to
all the words in an utterance (especially if there are many utterances).
My Collins Cobuild "English Grammar" (1196:207) calls words like "not"
"negative words".

Another question, is the category "negative" one that is used in
traditional grammar (ie noun, verb, adjective, etc.)?

Thanks very much,
Antonella Conte
Laval University
Quebec Canada


From aad784 at agora.ulaval.ca  Tue Dec 21 19:10:22 1999
From: aad784 at agora.ulaval.ca (Antonella Conte)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:10:22 -0500
Subject: auxiliaries
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.1999.141022.0500.AAD784@AGORA.ULAVAL.CA>

HI there listeros,

I have another question except this time it concerns auxiliaries...  When
you have a sentence like the following:
"I do not eat" it is composed of
"(subject pro)noun + auxiliary verb 'do' + negative marker + main verb".

However, when you have something like:
"I don't"... what does the 'do' represent?  Is it still an auxiliary verb?

Thanks for you input,
Antonella Conte
Laval University
Quebec Canada


From tomas at eva.mpg.de  Wed Dec 22 06:48:22 1999
From: tomas at eva.mpg.de (Michael Tomasello)
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 07:48:22 +0100
Subject: "not"
Message-ID: <WED.22.DEC.1999.074822.0100.TOMAS@EVA.MPG.DE>

Antonella Conte,

Perhaps you should consider the possibility that "not" does not fall
into a category at all but is simply a unique lexical item with its own
unique grammatical distribution - as are many other of the so-called
closed class words of English and other languages.

Mike Tomasello


From sirai at sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp  Sat Dec 25 06:39:23 1999
From: sirai at sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp (Hidetosi SIRAI)
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 15:39:23 +0900
Subject: JSLS 2000 --- Call for Papers
Message-ID: <SAT.25.DEC.1999.153923.0900.SIRAI@SCCS.CHUKYOU.AC.JP>

The Second Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences (2000)
                                Call for Papers

Conference Dates/ Location
  The Second Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences will
  be held as follows:
        Date:  August 4 (Fri.)- 5 (Sat.), 2000
        Location:  CO-OP Inn Kyoto (Kyoto, Japan)

Submissions
  We would like to encourage submissions on research pertaining to
language sciences, including topics such as language acquisition,
psycholinguistics, psychology of language, discourse analysis,
conversational analysis and sociolinguistics.  Our main purpose is to
highlight research which focuses on Japanese language and the language
acquisition of  Japanese speakers (L1, L2), however, we also encourage
submissions on other language-related topics, from diverse theoretical
perspectives and on different languages. Furthermore, we would also like
to invite submissions pertaining to the development of computer research
tools for language research.

Qualifications for Presenters
   All presenters must be members of JSLS by the first day of the
conference (August 4, 2000).  (This applies only to the person giving
the presentation.  This does not apply to co-authors.) The membership
year of JSLS starts on July 1, and the membership fee is 3,000 yen, or
$25.00 for overseas members.  Please refer to the following website for
membership information:
 http://jchat.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp/JSLS

   All presenters must pre-register for the JSLS 2000 conference by July
15, 2000.  Papers which have been presented at other conferences or
which have been published previously may not be submitted.  You may only
submit one abstract as first author.

The length of each paper presentation will be thirty minutes (20 minutes
for paper presentation, 10 minutes for questions).  Paper presentations
may be given in Japanese or English.

Symposium
    We are planning a symposium for the last day of the conference.  We
would like interested individuals to submit proposals for the symposium
(i.e., topic, panelists).  Individuals planning to submit symposium
proposals must submit their proposals by email to the conference
organizing committee at JSLSconf at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp (Subject:
Symposium Proposal) by March 4, 2000 on Form #3.  There will be some
travel funding for panelists who are non-members.  For further
information, please contact the conference organizing committee.

   The symposium will be selected from among the submitted symposium
proposals by the conference organizing committee.  Individuals
submitting symposium proposals will be contacted regarding acceptance or
non-acceptance by the end of May, 2000.

Submission Guidelines & Review Process
   All submissions should be mailed and postmarked by March 4, 2000
(Saturday).  Please send Forms #1, #2 and #3 to the conference
chairperson, Hidetosi Sirai.

Necessary forms
  (1) Form #1
Presentation title, name of author(s), affiliation, mailing address,
etc. on A4 or letter-size paper
  (2) 3 copies of abstract (on A4 or letter-size paper, in 12 pt,
double-spaced, maximum 4 pages, including title, table, figures & references)
Do not include information which may reveal your identity.  Abstracts
will be accepted
in Japanese or English.  If the language in which you would like to give
your presentation differs from the language of your written abstract,
please let us know.
   (3) 2 self-addressed mailing labels (with your name, address)
[This is unnecessary for those submitting abstracts by email.]

    Please mail your submissions to the following address (please write
"JSLS paper" in red ink on the envelope):
 Prof. Hidetosi Sirai
 Department of Information Sciences
 Chukyo University
 101
 Toyota-shi, Aichi Prefecture 470-0393 JAPAN

    We will also accept submissions made by email.  Please address email
submissions to the following address, in the following manner:
 jsls2000-submit at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp
Please send your abstract as a text file in MS-WORD, Ichitaro, TEX, PDF
or PostScript format.  We can only accept compressed files in Lha or Zip
format.

    Each abstract will be reviewed anonymously by several reviewers.
Individuals submitting abstracts will be notified of
acceptance/non-acceptance by April 30.  Individuals whose abstracts are
accepted will be requested to send in a copy of their papers on floppy
disc (A4 or letter-size paper, 6 pages maximum) by June 30, 2000, to
appear in the conference program.

    Furthermore, we plan to publish selected papers in the conference
proceedings, following the conference.

Conference Registration
(all presenters must register for the conference)
   All conference participants must submit Form #2 (Registration Form) and
email this form to the conference organizing committee.  All presenters
must register for the conference, although registration is not mandatory
for other co-authors.  Discounted pre-registration fees will be offered
until July 15, 2000.  The registration fee must be paid in one of the
following ways:

   Please send the registration form (Form #2) to
                jsls2000 at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp.
You can also apply by mail or fax (address to JSLS Sirai):
 Prof. Hidetosi Sirai
 Department of Information Sciences
 Chukyo University
 101 Tokodate, Kaizu-cho, Toyota, Aichi, 470-0393 JAPAN
 Fax number: 0565-46-1299(address to JSLS Sirai)
  +81-565-46-1299 (from overseas)

   Conference registration fees, conference program & reception
participation fees should be paid:
 Postal deposit:
 Name of account: JCHAT Gengo Kagaku Kenkyuukai
 Account number: 00850-7-33033

 Bank deposit:
 Name of account: JCHAT Gengo Kagaku Kenkyuukai
    Daihyoo Miyata Susanne
 Account type/number: Futsuu 1082733
 Account branch: Kamiyashiro branch (Branch number: 231)
 Bank name: Chukyo Bank

   Overseas participants: Please either (1) pay your registration fee at
the conference site on the day of the conference, or (2) send a check to
Keiko Nakamura (please refer to Form #4: Registration fee payment for
overseas participants).  Those who choose on-site registration will be
charged the full registration fee.  Those who pre-register and deposit
registration fees by July 15, 2000 will qualify for the discounted
registration fee.

Housing
    It is also possible to stay at the conference site, the Co-op in Kyoto.
Their website is http://www.univcoop.or.jp/faculty/kyoto.html.  Their
address is: Yanaginobaba-dori, North of Takoyakushi, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto,
604, JAPAN. Phone number: 075-256-6600; fax number 075-251-0120.
The price of a single room starts at 6,000 yen per night.
Unfortunately, we cannot make reservations for conference
participants.  Please contact the hotel directly.

    Conference programs and handbooks will not be mailed in advance.  The
conference program will be sent out through the JSLS mailing list and
through the JSLS homepage. The contents of the conference handbook will
also be made available through the JSLS website.  The JSLS website is:
 http://jchat.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp/JSLS/

    Conference Registration Fee, Conference Handbook, Reception Fee
Individuals who apply for membership on the first day of the conference
will be considered to be JSLS members.

Domestic participants
 Registration fee                  Member     Non-member
 Pre-registration                  3,000 yen  5,000 yen
 (paid in full by July 15, 2000)

 Late registration/on-site         4,000 yen  6,000 yen
 registration (after July 16, 2000)

 Conference handbook               2,000 yen  3,000 yen
 Reception                         3,000 yen  3,000 yen

Overseas participants
  Registration fee                 Member    Non-member
 Pre-registration (paid in full    US$25.00  US$45.00
 by July 15, 2000)

 Late registration/on-site         US$33.00  US$50.00
 registration (after July 16, 2000)

 Conference handbook               US$17.00  US$25.00
 Reception                         US$25.00  US$25.00

   Individuals giving paper presentations who will be attending from
overseas may apply for a registration fee waiver (US$25.00).  Please
indicate if you would like to be considered for this waiver on your
submissions form.

The reception has been scheduled for the evening of August 4, Friday,
2000.

   We strongly encourage you to purchase the conference handbook, as it
will contain copies of each paper which will be given at the conference,
with tables, figures and references.  Additional handouts will not be
distributed at the conference, unless prepared by individual presenters.

Student Volunteers
    We are currently recruiting 10 student volunteers to help at the
reception desk and manage the audiovisual equipment.  Each student
volunteer will be expected to work approximately 4 hours. Student
volunteers will be free to attend conference presentations during other
hours.  Student volunteers will not have to pay the registration fee,
and will also receive a free copy of the conference handbook.
Conditions will be the same for student volunteers who are scheduled to
give paper presentations. All volunteers must be student members or
student non-members.  Those interested in being a student volunteer must
apply to the following address by June 15, 2000:

 Prof. Hidetosi Sirai
 Department of Information Sciences
 Chukyo University
 101 Tokodate, Kaizu-cho, Toyota, Aichi, 470-0393 JAPAN
 email: jsls2000-request at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp
  (Subject: student volunteer)

  Fax number: 0565-46-1299 (please address to Pro. Sirai, clearly marked
as "student volunteer")

   When applying, please specify what languages you are capable of
communicating in.  We particularly need volunteers with fluency in
English and Japanese.  We will inform you of your status
(acceptance/non-acceptance) by July 1, 2000.

All questions regarding the JSLS 2000 conference should be addressed to:
 Prof. Hidetosi Sirai
 Department of Information Sciences
 Chukyo University
 101 Tokodate, Kaizu-cho, Toyota, Aichi 470-0393 JAPAN
 email: jsls2000-request at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp
 Fax number: 0565-46-1299 (please address to Prof. Sirai)

Inquiries by phone will not be accepted.

--------------------------------------------------
Form #1: Application form for submissions
Note: Those applying via email should put "JSLS Submission" in the
subject header.

Title (Japanese):
Title (English):
Name of first author:

Name of co-author (1):
Name of co-author (2):
Name of co-author (3):
If the number of authors exceeds 4, please add the necessary
information).

Affiliation:
Mailing address:  home     work   (please choose one)
Mailing address, with zip code:

Telephone number:

Email address:

Language to be used during paper presentation:     English  Japanese
(please choose one)

JSLS membership status (please choose one):

Already have applied for membership

    Will apply for membership by August 4, 2000

If you are applying from overseas, please indicate if you would like a
registration fee waiver:
(please choose one):

    Yes, I would like a waiver.

    No, I do not need a waiver.

    Not applicable


Form #2: Registration Form
Note: (1) Conference presenters also need to submit this form.
(2) Those registering by email: please put "JSLS Registration" in the
subject header.

I would like to register for the Second Conference of JSLS.

Name:
Affiliation:
Mailing address:  home work (please indicate which)
Mailing address, with zip code:

Telephone number:

Email address:

Conference handbook (please select one):
    Yes, I would like a conference handbook.

    No, I would not like a conference handbook.

Reception (please select one):
    Yes, I would like to attend the reception.

    No, I do not plan to attend the reception.

Amount deposited, with relevant sums:
 (e.g., total: 8,000 yen, registration fee: 3,000 yen, conference
handbook: 3,000 yen;
  reception fee: 3,000 yen)

Overseas participants, please indicate the method by which you will be
paying your
 registration fee:

 On-site registration

 I will mail a check to K. Nakamura

If you are an overseas presenter, please indicate if you would like to
apply for a registration fee waiver:

 Yes, I would like a waiver.

 No, I do not need a waiver.

 Not applicable


Form #3: Application for Symposium
Note: Please list "symposium proposal" in the subject header if you are
applying by email.

Title (Japanese):
Title (English):
Name of symposium organizer/representative:
Affiliation of symposium organizer:
Mailing address:  home work (please indicate which)
Mailing address, with zip code:

Telephone number:

Email address:

Language to be used during presentation:     English   Japanese (please
choose one)

Symposium abstract: Please include the names and affiliations of your
panelists, with a 500-1000 word abstract including the purpose and goals
of your symposium.  Please also indicate if you already have the
commitment of your panelists, and whether (in the case that they are
non-members) they would like to be considered for travel funding.


Form #4: Deposit method for overseas participants

Please send a check or money order in the following manner:
 To: Keiko Nakamura
 Re: JSLS2000
 4-14-18-5 Himonya
 Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-0003 JAPAN

We can only accept checks or money orders in US dollars.  Please send a
check for the appropriate sum, with a copy of your registration form
(Form #2) with the following information:

Name:
Affiliation:
Mailing address:  home work (please indicate which)
Mailing address, with zip code:

Fax number:

Email address:

Conference handbook (please select one):
    Yes, I would like a conference handbook.

    No, I would not like a conference handbook.

Reception (please select one):
    Yes, I would like to attend the reception.

    No, I do not plan to attend the reception.

Amount deposited, with relevant sums in US$:
 (e.g., total: US$67, registration fee: US$25, conference handbook:
US$17;
  reception fee: US$25)

Please indicate whether you are paying by:   check  money order

Membership status:
 I am a JSLS member.

 I plan to apply for membership at the conference site.

 I am not a JSLS member.

If you are an overseas presenter, please indicate if you would like to
apply for a registration fee waiver:

 Yes, I would like a waiver.

 No, I do not need a waiver.

 Not applicable

The registration fee will be US$25.00 for members (US$45.00 for
non-members) who pre-register by July 15, 2000 (i.e., submit
registration forms, deposit registration fee).  After July 16, 2000, the
registration fee will be US$33.00 for members, and US$50.00 for
non-members.  The conference handbook (with full text of papers) will be
US$17.00 for members and US$25.00 for non-members.  The reception fee is
US$25.00.


From ABBEDUTO at Waisman.Wisc.Edu  Tue Dec 28 16:45:10 1999
From: ABBEDUTO at Waisman.Wisc.Edu (Len J. Abbeduto)
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 10:45:10 -0600
Subject: post-doctoral positions
Message-ID: <TUE.28.DEC.1999.104510.0600.ABBEDUTO@WAISMAN.WISC.EDU>

			    Post-Doctoral Training in Mental Retardation Research
				Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Post-Doctoral Training Program in Mental Retardation Research at the
Waisman Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is recruiting for
four two-year post-doctoral fellowship positions beginning in July or
September, 2000.  The program provides multidisciplinary training in
research on the social and communicative behavior of persons with mental
retardation and in the functioning of their families.  Applicants should
have a Ph.D. in a discipline related to human behavior or social policy,
including child and family studies, communicative disorders, educational
psychology, psychology, social work, or sociology.  The Waisman Center is a
NICHD-funded Mental Retardation Research Center.  The Training Program has
a faculty of 16 who serve as mentors to post-doctoral fellows.

Review of applications will begin January 15, 2000 and will continue until
all positions are filled.  Eligibility is restricted by Federal guidelines
to US citizens and permanent residents. All appointments are contingent on
federal funding. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an equal
opportunity employer.  Women and minorities are especially encouraged to
apply.

For more information, contact Dr. Leonard Abbeduto, Waisman Center,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Highland Ave, Madison, WI  53705.
Phone:  608/263-1737.  E-mail:  abbeduto at waisman.wisc.edu, or visit our
website at http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/postdoc.html.

Leonard Abbeduto, Ph.D.
Professor of Educational Psychology
Waisman Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53705
(608) 263-1737


From gary.marcus at nyu.edu  Wed Dec  1 00:50:22 1999
From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 19:50:22 -0500
Subject: motor impairment and language
Message-ID: <TUE.30.NOV.1999.195022.0500.GARY.MARCUS@NYU.EDU>

Dear Brian and INFO-CHILDES,

Chomsky's suggestion that structure-dependence is innate is a far cry from
claiming that motor-development plays *no* role in language acquisition.

As far as I can tell, Sieratzki and Woll's  interesting results are
primarily about differences in rates of acquiring language-particular
information (which must, in part, rest on sensory information), whereas the
quote from Chomsky is, -- I think, given how he cashes out "the phenomena
of language that demand explanation" in paragraph 2 and his other work --
primarily about linguistic universals (some or all of which could turn out
to develop in the mind of the child prior to womb-external experience).
Interesting to see whether one could find differences in the putative
universals, and if so whether those could be attributed to differences in
experience.

Best wishes,
Gary




At 06:17 PM 11/30/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Peter and Info-CHILDES,
>
>   Here is one quote from Chomsky that is easy enough to find.  It is from
>page 36 of the famous Royaumont debate between Chomsky and Piaget entitled
>"Language and Learning" edited by Piatelli-Palmarini:
>
>"There are, to my knowledge, no substantive proposals involving
>'constructions of sensorimotor intelligence' that offer any hope of account
>for the phenomena of language that demand explanation.  Nor is there any
>initial plausibility to the suggestions, as far as I can see."
>
>In this way, Chomsky dismisses Piagetian constructivism and then proceeds
>with his famous example of the child's obedience to structure-dependency in
>which (page 40) "A person might go through much or all of his life without
>ever having been exposed to relevant evidence, but he will nevertheless
>unerringly employ H2 (structure-dependence) and never H1 (positional
>dependence), on the first relevant occasions.  We cannot, it seems, explain
>the preference for H2 on grands of communicative efficiency or the like."
>
>I think that these passages match up rather well with the Sieratzki-Woll
>interpretation of Chomsky's position, although the full view really emerges
>by examining the whole of the debate in the "Language and Learning" volume.
>
>--Brian MacWhinney
>


From soupbone111 at att.net  Wed Dec  1 03:27:19 1999
From: soupbone111 at att.net (soupbone)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 19:27:19 -0800
Subject: Acquisition
Message-ID: <TUE.30.NOV.1999.192719.0800.SOUPBONE111@ATT.NET>

Post
I'm looking for the current research on the relationship between neglect
and language acquisition.  Please list any citations that may be
helpful.
Thanks,
Tom Schramm


From snowcat at gse.harvard.edu  Wed Dec  1 14:18:25 1999
From: snowcat at gse.harvard.edu (Catherine Snow)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 09:18:25 -0500
Subject: Acquisition
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.091825.0500.SNOWCAT@GSE.HARVARD.EDU>

The literature on this up to about 1996 is reviewed in


Locke, J.L. & Snow, C.E.  (1997).  Social influences on vocal
learning in human and non-human primates.  In C. Snowdon & M.
Hausberger (eds.), Social influences on vocal development, (pp.
274-292). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


On Tue, 30 Nov 1999 19:27:19 -0800 soupbone <soupbone111 at att.net>
wrote:

> Post
> I'm looking for the current research on the relationship between neglect
> and language acquisition.  Please list any citations that may be
> helpful.
> Thanks,
> Tom Schramm
>
>

----------------------------------------
Catherine Snow
Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Larsen 3
Cambridge, MA 02138
tel:  617 - 495 3563
fax:  617 - 495 5771
New email address: Snowcat at gse.harvard.edu
               or: Catherine_Snow at harvard.edu


From pli at richmond.edu  Wed Dec  1 18:18:13 1999
From: pli at richmond.edu (Ping Li)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 13:18:13 -0500
Subject: experience vs. innateness
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.131813.0500.PLI@RICHMOND.EDU>

Dear INFO-CHILDES Colleagues,

In light of this list's recent debate on Chomsky's position on sensorimotor
experience, I'd like to draw your attention to a short article by Charles
Nelson  "Neural Plasticity and Human Development" (Current Directions in
Psychological Science, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1999, pp.42-45). In this article,
Nelson reviews many studies that suggest that the development of neural
tissues and the like could occur at various points in life as a RESULT of
learning experiences, and that such development could occur at anatomical,
neurochemical, or metabolic levels (see also a recent article by my
colleague C. Kinsley here on the interaction between motherhood, neural
growth, and learning and memory; Nature, Vol. 402, 137-138, 1999). Nelson
goes on to argue that the perennial "innate"-versus-"learned" debate in
developmental psychology is fallacious. Because the nervous system changes
in response to the demands of the learning environment, especially early in
life, it is more important, Nelson suggests, for us to examine the
interaction between experience and brain development (e.g, "the role of
experience in sculpting neural systems"), than to argue about whether
aspects of behavior are innate or learned. His example/illustration on face
recognition (p.44) could easily apply to language. Let me quote the last
sentence of his article: "In doing so, we may be able to shed some of the
contentious history that has plagued our discipline for years (e.g., nature
vs. nurture; innate vs. learned), and embrace new theoretical and empirical
approaches to human development and brain function."

Sincerely

Ping Li
***********************************************************************
Ping Li, Ph.D.                          Email: ping at cogsci.richmond.edu
Department of Psychology                http://www.richmond.edu/~pli/
University of Richmond                  Phone: (804) 289-8125 (office)
Richmond, VA 23173                             (804) 287-6039 (lab)
U.S.A.                                  Fax:   (804) 289-1905
***********************************************************************


From macswan at asu.edu  Thu Dec  2 03:56:54 1999
From: macswan at asu.edu (Jeff MacSwan)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 19:56:54 -0800
Subject: Linguistic introduction to language acquisition
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.195654.0800.MACSWAN@ASU.EDU>

Hi. I'm looking for a textbook for a first course in language structure and
acquisition, perhaps something like Helen Goodluck's 1991 Language
Acquisition: A Linguistic Introduction (Blackwell).  I'll post a summary
if/when I get a list of suggestions.  Thanks.

Jeff MacSwan


From gary.marcus at nyu.edu  Thu Dec  2 03:35:05 1999
From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 22:35:05 -0500
Subject: experience vs. innateness
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.223505.0500.GARY.MARCUS@NYU.EDU>

Dear Ping (cc: INFO-CHILDES).,

I agree with your claim that the "' innate'-versus-' learned'" dichotomy is
a false one -- but maybe not for the reasons you suggest.  You seem to want
to abandon the distinction because you think that experience is always
implicated, that "interaction between experience and brain development" is
paramount..

You are undoubtedly right that some of the "development of neural tissues
and the like could occur as .. a result of learning experiences."  But how
could it be otherwise?  Surely whenever we learn something the brain
changes in some way.

The real question is whether the brain is importantly shaped in ways that
may not have anything to do with learning.  The Nelson review that you
mentioned does highlight ways in which experience can play an important
role in shaping the brain, but it leaves out part of the story. For
example, Nelson notes that there are critical periods in the development of
binocular depth perception, but doesn't discuss evidence that at least some
important parts of the visual system are organized prior to experience. The
sorts of visual deprivation studies that Nelson appears to have in mind
(e.g., those of  Hubel & Wiesel) have often been misinterpreted. Though
they do show that visual experience plays a role in development, they do
not show that the initial structure is itself a consequence of learning.
Hubel expressed this point clearly in his 1988 book _Eye, Brain and Vision_
(W. H. Freeman) when he wrote that

>  "the nature-nurture question is whether postnatal development depends on
> experience or goes on even after birth according to a built-in program.
> We still are not sure of the answer, but from the relative normality of
> responses at birth, we can conclude that the unresponsiveness of cortical
> cells after deprivation was mainly due to a deterioration of connections
> that had been present birth, not a failure to form because of a lack of
> experience."

An up-to-the-minute (and cleverly-titled) commentary by Mark Hubener and
Tobias Bonhoeffer ("Eyes wide shut", Nature Neuroscience, December 1999,
volume 2, 1043-1044) goes to making the same point: "ocular dominance
columns and orientation maps can develop almost normally without visual
input". Learning must play some role in fine-tuning things, but the basic
structure seems to be available prior to (womb-external) experience.

The empirical evidence is not yet all in, not in the case of language, and
not even in the case of vision, where we have much more straightforward
animal models. But it is clear that biology is full of mechanisms that can
lead to the development of intricately structured machinery, without
requiring learning.

The reason that we should abandon the "nature-versus-nurture" dichotomy is
not because the distinction is fuzzy, but because the "versus" gets things
wrong. It's not an either-or situation -- there can be no learning without
something being innate. And having more innate machinery typically makes
you a better learner, not a weaker one. Sea slugs can learn, a little. But
only a little, because their innate learning machinery is fairly
impoverished. We humans can probably use the same mechanisms (whatever
mechanisms support conditioning have probably been conserved,
evolutionarily speaking), but lucky for us, we seem to have other
innately-given learning mechanisms as well. It's not nature VERSUS nurture,
it's nature AND nurture. Part of development is about learning, but it part
of it is not; we will need to understand both parts in order to have a
complete account.

Best wishes,
Gary


At 01:18 PM 12/1/99 -0500, Ping Li wrote:
>Dear INFO-CHILDES Colleagues,
>
>In light of this list's recent debate on Chomsky's position on sensorimotor
>experience, I'd like to draw your attention to a short article by Charles
>Nelson  "Neural Plasticity and Human Development" (Current Directions in
>Psychological Science, Vol. 8, No. 2, 1999, pp.42-45). In this article,
>Nelson reviews many studies that suggest that the development of neural
>tissues and the like could occur at various points in life as a RESULT of
>learning experiences, and that such development could occur at anatomical,
>neurochemical, or metabolic levels (see also a recent article by my
>colleague C. Kinsley here on the interaction between motherhood, neural
>growth, and learning and memory; Nature, Vol. 402, 137-138, 1999). Nelson
>goes on to argue that the perennial "innate"-versus-"learned" debate in
>developmental psychology is fallacious. Because the nervous system changes
>in response to the demands of the learning environment, especially early in
>life, it is more important, Nelson suggests, for us to examine the
>interaction between experience and brain development (e.g, "the role of
>experience in sculpting neural systems"), than to argue about whether
>aspects of behavior are innate or learned. His example/illustration on face
>recognition (p.44) could easily apply to language. Let me quote the last
>sentence of his article: "In doing so, we may be able to shed some of the
>contentious history that has plagued our discipline for years (e.g., nature
>vs. nurture; innate vs. learned), and embrace new theoretical and empirical
>approaches to human development and brain function."
>
>Sincerely
>
>Ping Li
>***********************************************************************
>Ping Li, Ph.D.                          Email: ping at cogsci.richmond.edu
>Department of Psychology                http://www.richmond.edu/~pli/
>University of Richmond                  Phone: (804) 289-8125 (office)
>Richmond, VA 23173                             (804) 287-6039 (lab)
>U.S.A.                                  Fax:   (804) 289-1905
>***********************************************************************
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From zukow at ucla.edu  Thu Dec  2 06:19:14 1999
From: zukow at ucla.edu (Patricia Zukow-Goldring)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 22:19:14 -0800
Subject: Sibling research
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.1999.221914.0800.ZUKOW@UCLA.EDU>


Hello All,

I would appreciate receiving any recent (past 5-6 years) p/reprints that
investigate sibling caregiving in agrarian and/or technological cultures as
I'll be revising a review chapter that appeared in Bornstein's _Handbood of
Parenting_.

The topics include (but aren't limited to): who becomes a sib caregiver, who
gives and gets care, the socializing of sibling caregivers, their role in the
language development of younger sibs, effect on cognitive development, play,
conflict or authority, etc.

Thank you in advance,

Pat Zukow-Goldring


Patricia Zukow-Goldring, Ph. D.
Center for the Study of Women
Kinsey 288                             send mail to:
UCLA                                   3835 Ventura Canyon Avenue
405 Hilgard Avenue                     Sherman Oaks CA 91423
Los Angeles CA 90095                   (818) 905-6293
(310) 825-0590                         FAX: (818) 905-8113

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From marinis at ling.uni-potsdam.de  Thu Dec  2 14:53:23 1999
From: marinis at ling.uni-potsdam.de (Theodor Marinis)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 15:53:23 +0100
Subject: frequency database - child directed speech
Message-ID: <THU.2.DEC.1999.155323.0100.MARINIS@LING.UNIPOTSDAM.DE>

Dear INFO-CHILDES Colleagues,

does anybody know, if there is a database which could give frequency of
words in child directed speech for English, German or any other language?

Thank you in advance,

Theodore Marinis
------------------------------------------------------------->
Theodor Marinis
Zentrum f?r Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
J?gerstra?e 10-11
D-10117 Berlin
Tel. +49-30-20192-504
Fax  +49-30-20192-402

Universit?t Potsdam
Institut f?r Linguistik/Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft
Postfach 601553
D-14415 Potsdam
Tel. +49-331-9772631
Fax  +49-331-9772095 (Sekretariat)
URL http://www.ling.uni-potsdam.de/gk/stipendiaten/marinis
------------------------------------------------------------->


From HTagerF at Shriver.org  Thu Dec  2 22:12:04 1999
From: HTagerF at Shriver.org (Helen Tager-Flusberg)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 17:12:04 -0500
Subject: Position Opening
Message-ID: <THU.2.DEC.1999.171204.0500.HTAGERF@SHRIVER.ORG>

RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP POSITION
Psycholinguistics/Languague Disorders
AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY

We are currently seeking to hire a full-time research assistant whose
background is in psycholinguistics and/or communication disorders to work on
a program project on Clinical and Basic Studies in Autism. This
interdisciplinary research program, funded by grants from the National
Institutes of Health, addresses questions about cognitive, linguistic,
social and clinical development and the relationship between genes, brain
and behavior in autism, specific language impairment, and mental retardation. 

Major responsibilities include: 
? Collection of language, cognitive, and experimental theory of mind data
from project participants; 
? Overseeing the preparation, coding, and analyses of natural language
transcripts;
? Coding standardized language and cognitive assessments and all
experimental data;
? Organizing testing of  project participants;
? Maintaining subject, stimulus and data files;
? Data analysis, especially for language data;
? Preparation of literature reviews, and help in manuscript preparation.

Background and skills needed for this position include: 
? Bachelors degree in Psychology or related field, with coursework in
psycholinguistics; 
? Some experience with language testing;
? Strong organizational, interpersonal, and computer skills; 
? Knowledge of Windows 97, Microsoft Office; 
? Research experience in transcription and transcript coding and analysis;
? Interest and background coursework in cognitive psychology or
neuroscience, psycholinguistics, neuropsychology, and language/communication
disorders

We are seeking a mature and highly motivated person with strong interest in
the areas of the research program, who would enjoy the experience of being
involved in a large and active interdisciplinary research center.  

This full-time position includes a competitive salary and full benefits
package. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center is a non-profit Biomedical and
Psychological  Sciences Research Center which focuses on mental retardation,
and neurodevelopmental disorders.  It is located about 10 miles from
downtown Boston, and 5 miles from Harvard Square in Cambridge.

For more information, please send a cover letter, resume, and names of 3
references to:
Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D., 
Center for Research on Developmental Disorders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, 
200 Trapelo Road, 
Waltham, MA 02452
Tel:  781-642-0181; 
Fax: 781-642-0185; 
htagerf at shriver.org
_____________________________________________________________________

Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D.

Please contact me at the Shriver Center:
Senior Scientist
Director, Center for Research		On Sabbatical Leave 1999-2000:
  on Developmental Disorders,		Research University Professor 
Psychological Sciences Division		Department of Psychology
Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center		University of Massachusetts
200 Trapelo Road			100 Morrissey Blvd
Waltham, MA 02452			Boston, MA 02125-3393

http://www.shriver.org

email:	htagerf at shriver.org

Tel:	781-642-0181			617-287-6342
Fax:	781-642-0185			617-287-6336

_______________________________________________________________________


From macw at cmu.edu  Thu Dec  2 22:43:33 1999
From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 17:43:33 -0500
Subject: ocular dominance and input
Message-ID: <THU.2.DEC.1999.174333.0500.MACW@CMU.EDU>

Dear Gary, Ping, and Info-CHILDES,

  The Hubener and Bonhoeffer article from Nature Neuroscience that you cite
is the commentary article that interprets the Crowley and Katz article that
appears later in the issue.  The Crowley and Katz works does indeed show that
the ocular dominance columns can form in an almost normal way without visual
input.  Gary says that this work shows that "Learning must play some role in
fine-tuning things, but the basic structure seems to be available prior to
(womb-external) experience."  I would not interpret either Crowley and Katz
or Hubener or Bonhoeffer as saying this.  This is not a debate about
learning.  It was about whether the wiring of V1 is triggered by mere
connectivity or by connectivity plus activation.  In both scenarios, the
foromation of ocular dominance columns is not the responsibility of genetic
mechanisms, but of the topography of connections between V1 and the LGN.

  Hubener and Bonhoeffer state that, "Because so many experiments
demonstrated that visual experience can influence the layout of cortical
maps, it became widely accepted that vision might actually be instrumental in
their establishment." (p. 1043)   What this gloss leaves out is the role of
the interesting neural network simulations of Miller, Stryker and their
students which show that the emergence of the ocular dominance columns can
arise through competition between the two ocular pathways for projection to
uncommitted neural territory in V1.

  So the real question is not about learning vs maturation, but about whether
competition is grounded on connection (Crowley and Katz) or requires
connection and activation (Stryker & Harris and others).  It seems to me that
the Miller and Stryker analysis goes through just fine even with the Hubener
and Bonhoeffer result.  However, it is certainly interesting to know that
mere connectivity alone is enough to organize ocular dominance columns.
Eventually, this work could tell us something about the molecular basis of
competition for connectivity.

  So, like Ping, I take this Crowley and Katz work as a further elaboration
on Chuck Nelson's point.

  Now, for the real question, what does all of this have to do with language
development?

--Brian MacWhinney


From gary.marcus at nyu.edu  Fri Dec  3 02:34:18 1999
From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus)
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 1999 21:34:18 -0500
Subject: ocular dominance and input
Message-ID: <THU.2.DEC.1999.213418.0500.GARY.MARCUS@NYU.EDU>

Dear Brian (cc: Ping, and info-CHILDES),

In my view, you are confusing the question of activity-dependence with the
question of learning. In my discussion of Hubener and Bonhoeffer (and
implicitly Crowley & Katz, Nature Neuroscience, 2, 1125-1130),  I wrote
that the "basic structure [of some aspects of V1] seems to be available
prior to (womb-external) experience." You seem to challenge my
interpretation, by saying that it is open question whether
activity-dependence plays an important role in the formation of (the
relevant aspects of) V1.  But while I agree that  it is for now unclear
whether activity-dependence plays an important role in the formation of
(the relevant aspects of) V1, I don't think that lack of clarity has
anything to do with my question of womb-external learning. It could well
turn out that activity plays an important role; but if the
relevant  activity is internally generated (as it would have to be in a
darkened womb or in Crowley  and Katz's ferrets, whose retinas were
surgically removed), we could not attribute the relevant aspects of
development to learning.

As Katz put it in earlier paper with Shatz, in which he and Shatz discussed
internally-generated waves:

>  visual experience alone cannot account for many features of visual
> system development. In nonhuman primates, for example, ocular dominance
> columns in layer 4 begin to form in utero and are fully formed by birth.
> Thus, although visual experience can modify existing columns, initial
> formation of the stripes is independent of visual experience. Other
> features of cortical functional architecture, such as orientation tuning
> and orientation columns, are also present before any visual experience...
> [Katz, L.C., & Shatz, C.J. (1996). Synaptic activity and the construction
> of cortical circuits. Science, 274, 1133-1138].

Now, you may not care about the question of "learning vs. maturation", but
I do. For me, it is interesting to ask whether particular aspects of the
machinery that supports language and cognition arise prior to experience --
I thought that that was how we got into this discussion in the first place.
For me, then it is interesting that the ocular dominance columns can
develop in a darkened womb or in an emulated ferret; I wrote in because I
found Ping's letter (and  Nelson's review) to be unbalanced, emphasizing
the role of (womb-external) experience without making it clear that such
experience is not always required.

I find the question of whether brain development is "interactive" far less
interesting, for I honestly don't see how the answer could be no. If the
development of the stomach or liver is interactive, surely the development
of the brain must be too. Crowely and Katz's work is grist for Nelson's
mill because everything is. In mammalian development, practically
everything is interactive -- cells always communicate with one another,
with any given cell's fate in part dependent on its neighbors. Let us not
confuse interactivity with learning, though -- some interactions are a
consequence of learning, others not. A more nuanced view is the one
championed early on in  Elman, et 's recent book Rethinking Innateness
(1996, MIT Press); as they put (page 22; see also their table 1.2, page 23):

>the term innate refers to changes that arise of interactions that occur
>within the organism itself during ontogeny. That is, interactions between
>the genes and their molecular and cellular environments without recourse
>to information from outside the organism.

Crowely and Katz's work could be taken as showing that the formation of
ocular dominance columns is innate in exactly this sense.

There's no guarantee of course that the mechanisms that shape the ocular
dominance columns in an enucleated ferret have anything to do with the
mechanisms that shape the brain circuitry for language or cognition.  But
it is important to realize that nature's tool kit includes both mechanisms
for sculpting microcircuitry on the basis of experience, and mechanisms for
sculpting microcircuitry in the absence of experience.

Best,
Gary

p.s. The network simulations that you mention go towards showing one way in
which you could in principle use patterns of neural activity to shape the
ocular dominance columns, but they do not prove that such mechanisms are
*actually used*. As Hubener and Bonhoeffer noted "Crowely and Katz have now
cast doubt on this view" -- in this way, Crowely and Katz's work  serves as
a potent reminder that there's more than one way to equip a ferret.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------

At 05:43 PM 12/2/99 -0500, Brian MacWhinney wrote:
>Dear Gary, Ping, and Info-CHILDES,
>
>   The Hubener and Bonhoeffer article from Nature Neuroscience that you cite
>is the commentary article that interprets the Crowley and Katz article that
>appears later in the issue.  The Crowley and Katz works does indeed show that
>the ocular dominance columns can form in an almost normal way without visual
>input.  Gary says that this work shows that "Learning must play some role in
>fine-tuning things, but the basic structure seems to be available prior to
>(womb-external) experience."  I would not interpret either Crowley and Katz
>or Hubener or Bonhoeffer as saying this.  This is not a debate about
>learning.  It was about whether the wiring of V1 is triggered by mere
>connectivity or by connectivity plus activation.  In both scenarios, the
>foromation of ocular dominance columns is not the responsibility of genetic
>mechanisms, but of the topography of connections between V1 and the LGN.
>
>   Hubener and Bonhoeffer state that, "Because so many experiments
>demonstrated that visual experience can influence the layout of cortical
>maps, it became widely accepted that vision might actually be instrumental in
>their establishment." (p. 1043)   What this gloss leaves out is the role of
>the interesting neural network simulations of Miller, Stryker and their
>students which show that the emergence of the ocular dominance columns can
>arise through competition between the two ocular pathways for projection to
>uncommitted neural territory in V1.
>
>   So the real question is not about learning vs maturation, but about whether
>competition is grounded on connection (Crowley and Katz) or requires
>connection and activation (Stryker & Harris and others).  It seems to me that
>the Miller and Stryker analysis goes through just fine even with the Hubener
>and Bonhoeffer result.  However, it is certainly interesting to know that
>mere connectivity alone is enough to organize ocular dominance columns.
>Eventually, this work could tell us something about the molecular basis of
>competition for connectivity.
>
>   So, like Ping, I take this Crowley and Katz work as a further elaboration
>on Chuck Nelson's point.
>
>   Now, for the real question, what does all of this have to do with language
>development?
>
>--Brian MacWhinney


From ioana at ns.itc-cluj.ro  Fri Dec  3 09:47:07 1999
From: ioana at ns.itc-cluj.ro (ioana marian)
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 11:47:07 +0200
Subject: Narrative text comprehension
Message-ID: <FRI.3.DEC.1999.114707.0200.IOANA@NS.ITCCLUJ.RO>

Dear info-childes,
my name is Ioana Marian and I am studying psychology
at Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
One of my teachers is trying to construct and validate
a test for narrative texts comprehension. The test is trying
to reveal problems on reading a narrative text at
children of 9 to 13 years old , and who have a normal vocabulary but
problems to understood the meaning of a text.
We didn't find any similar tests , so we will be grateful
if anyone can give us some theoretical references or
can provide us similar tests.
thank you very much,
ioana marian


From yongta-k at hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp  Fri Dec  3 11:03:36 1999
From: yongta-k at hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp (Kim, Yong-Taek)
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 20:03:36 +0900
Subject: =?iso-2022-jp?B?TGFuZ3VhZ2UgR2FtZRskQiROS1xIViQsPVBNaD5lJCwkaiReJDcbKEI=?=
 =?iso-2022-jp?B?GyRCJD8hIxsoQg==?=
Message-ID: <FRI.3.DEC.1999.200336.0900.YONGTAK@HOFFMAN.CC.SOPHIA.AC.JP>

???????????????????

???????????????????????????
???????????
i
?????????????????????

http://www.ling.sophia.ac.jp/kimyt/jp/

????????????????
???????????
????????????

???????????


From pli at richmond.edu  Fri Dec  3 20:37:51 1999
From: pli at richmond.edu (Ping Li)
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 15:37:51 -0500
Subject: ocular dominance, input, and language
Message-ID: <FRI.3.DEC.1999.153751.0500.PLI@RICHMOND.EDU>

Dear Gary, Brian, and Info-childes,

There are two points that I'd like to make (briefly) in response to Gary's
messages:

(1) The "interactive" brain development view is interesting because for too
long developmental psycholinguists have been led to believe that it is the
neural structure of the brain that dictates language development (ala
Chomskyan LAD/UG and Fodorian modularity) - but now evidence suggests that
the learning environment (e.g., input, or what you call womb-external
experience) can "dictate" or change the neural structure of the brain and
that's interesting. Perhaps many mechanisms that we previously thought to
be innate are actually due to very early interative brain developments on
the basis of experience.

(2) Like Brian, I would question the relevance of ocular dominance and the
like to language development. A nativist proposal in language involves much
more abstract notions than ocular dominance columns, and the question here
is whether things like the UG parameters exist prior to experience (and
that experience helps only to set the parameter values). Perhaps the
parameters are after all established on the basis of experience, and
answers to such questions require the examination of the infant's
"interactive" brain development from 0;0 on (Gary, your 7-month-old infants
already had a lot of womb-external linguistic experiences; see Elman (1999)
"Generalization, rules, and neural networks: A simulation of Marcus et. al"
for a similar point at
http://crl.ucsd.edu/~elman/Papers/MVRVsimulation.html).

Best wishes,

Ping

> >X-Sender: gfm1 at is7.nyu.edu
> >Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 21:34:18 -0500
> >To: Brian MacWhinney <macw at cmu.edu>
> >From: Gary Marcus <gary.marcus at nyu.edu>
> >Subject: Re: ocular dominance and input
> >Cc: info-childes at childes.psy.cmu.edu, Ping Li <pli at richmond.edu>
> >Mime-Version: 1.0
> >
> >Dear Brian (cc: Ping, and info-CHILDES),
> >
> >In my view, you are confusing the question of activity-dependence with the
> >question of learning. In my discussion of Hubener and Bonhoeffer (and
> >implicitly Crowley & Katz, Nature Neuroscience, 2, 1125-1130),  I wrote
> >that the "basic structure [of some aspects of V1] seems to be available
> >prior to (womb-external) experience." You seem to challenge my
> >interpretation, by saying that it is open question whether
> >activity-dependence plays an important role in the formation of (the
> >relevant aspects of) V1.  But while I agree that  it is for now unclear
> >whether activity-dependence plays an important role in the formation of
> >(the relevant aspects of) V1, I don't think that lack of clarity has
> >anything to do with my question of womb-external learning. It could well
> >turn out that activity plays an important role; but if the
> >relevant  activity is internally generated (as it would have to be in a
> >darkened womb or in Crowley  and Katz's ferrets, whose retinas were
> >surgically removed), we could not attribute the relevant aspects of
> >development to learning.
> >
> >As Katz put it in earlier paper with Shatz, in which he and Shatz discussed
> >internally-generated waves:
> >
> >>  visual experience alone cannot account for many features of visual
> >> system development. In nonhuman primates, for example, ocular dominance
> >> columns in layer 4 begin to form in utero and are fully formed by birth.
> >> Thus, although visual experience can modify existing columns, initial
> >> formation of the stripes is independent of visual experience. Other
> >> features of cortical functional architecture, such as orientation tuning
> >> and orientation columns, are also present before any visual experience...
> >> [Katz, L.C., & Shatz, C.J. (1996). Synaptic activity and the construction
> >> of cortical circuits. Science, 274, 1133-1138].
> >
> >Now, you may not care about the question of "learning vs. maturation", but
> >I do. For me, it is interesting to ask whether particular aspects of the
> >machinery that supports language and cognition arise prior to experience --
> >I thought that that was how we got into this discussion in the first place.
> >For me, then it is interesting that the ocular dominance columns can
> >develop in a darkened womb or in an emulated ferret; I wrote in because I
> >found Ping's letter (and  Nelson's review) to be unbalanced, emphasizing
> >the role of (womb-external) experience without making it clear that such
> >experience is not always required.
> >
> >I find the question of whether brain development is "interactive" far less
> >interesting, for I honestly don't see how the answer could be no. If the
> >development of the stomach or liver is interactive, surely the development
> >of the brain must be too. Crowely and Katz's work is grist for Nelson's
> >mill because everything is. In mammalian development, practically
> >everything is interactive -- cells always communicate with one another,
> >with any given cell's fate in part dependent on its neighbors. Let us not
> >confuse interactivity with learning, though -- some interactions are a
> >consequence of learning, others not. A more nuanced view is the one
> >championed early on in  Elman, et 's recent book Rethinking Innateness
> >(1996, MIT Press); as they put (page 22; see also their table 1.2, page 23):
> >
> >>the term innate refers to changes that arise of interactions that occur
> >>within the organism itself during ontogeny. That is, interactions between
> >>the genes and their molecular and cellular environments without recourse
> >>to information from outside the organism.
> >
> >Crowely and Katz's work could be taken as showing that the formation of
> >ocular dominance columns is innate in exactly this sense.
> >
> >There's no guarantee of course that the mechanisms that shape the ocular
> >dominance columns in an enucleated ferret have anything to do with the
> >mechanisms that shape the brain circuitry for language or cognition.  But
> >it is important to realize that nature's tool kit includes both mechanisms
> >for sculpting microcircuitry on the basis of experience, and mechanisms for
> >sculpting microcircuitry in the absence of experience.
> >
> >Best,
> >Gary
> >
> >p.s. The network simulations that you mention go towards showing one way in
> >which you could in principle use patterns of neural activity to shape the
> >ocular dominance columns, but they do not prove that such mechanisms are
> >*actually used*. As Hubener and Bonhoeffer noted "Crowely and Katz have now
> >cast doubt on this view" -- in this way, Crowely and Katz's work  serves as
> >a potent reminder that there's more than one way to equip a ferret.
> >
> >


From gary.marcus at nyu.edu  Sun Dec  5 20:12:21 1999
From: gary.marcus at nyu.edu (Gary Marcus)
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1999 15:12:21 -0500
Subject: ocular dominance, input, and language
Message-ID: <SUN.5.DEC.1999.151221.0500.GARY.MARCUS@NYU.EDU>

Dear Ping, Dear Brian, cc: Info-childes,

1. Ping, you haven't said what would NOT count as interactive brain
development.

2. As I said Thursday, "There's no guarantee of course that the mechanisms
that shape the ocular
dominance columns in an enucleated ferret have anything to do with the
mechanisms that shape the brain circuitry for language or cognition". I
only raised the example because you brought up Nelson's discussion of brain
development, and Nelson himself brought up visual deprivation experiments.
Since his article did a good job of indicating one of the two major
developmental options, but not the other, I thought it would be useful to
illustrate the other.  Clearly, such studies must be interpreted with care
when they are brought to bear on questions about language development.

Still, let me add that I am hardly the first person to consider  visual
development in the context of wondering whether, say, there might be an
innate language acquisition device.  Since animal models and the like make
questions about the neural basis of visual development far more tractable
than questions about the neural basis of linguistic development, other
researchers have frequently considered visual development  as a source of
insight into questions about the developmental origins of language; one
prominent recent example that mentioned ocular dominance columns and
mechanisms that might form them was Elman's et al'a (1996, MIT Press)
Rethinking Innateness.

At that time, the facts that they cited may have seemed to accord with a
more experientially-driven view of visual development, but, as I indicated,
many recent studies (summarized in Hubener and Bonhoeffer's "Eyes wide
shut" article in this month's Nature Neuroscience) now point to at least
some of the basic organization being constructed prior to experience.  It
would, in my view, be a mistake to stop seriously considering visual
development  as a source of insight into questions about language simply
because the facts about visual development no longer seem to fit so nicely
with an experientially-driven view of fundamental brain organization.

3. Although our data from seven-month-olds (Marcus, G.F., Vijayan, S.,
Bandi Rao, S., & Vishton, P.M. (1999). Rule learning in 7-month-old
infants. Science, 283, 77-80)  are consistent with the possibility that the
underlying generalization mechanism is innate, I would not claim that I
have proven that it is.

4. I have discussed the Seidenberg and Elman model elsewhere. For pointers,
and a full list of the 20 or so papers in the professional literature
that  have discussed our infant results, see below. (I will include a full
treatment of these papers, and of the neural developmental issues we have
been discussing, in my forthcoming book _The Algebraic Mind: Integrating
Connectionism and Cognitive Science_, due out in Fall 2000. For excerpts
from an earlier draft and discussion by Elman and others, see my web page.)

5. Brian, I checked with Larry Katz to make sure that he agreed with my
interpretation of his results (""Learning must play some role
in  fine-tuning things, but the basic structure seems to be available prior
to  (womb-external) experience." ). He did in fact agree, writing "What
we've shown, I think, is that ... competition [driven by womb-external
visual experience]  is not  required to initially form the structure, but
can, once it's formed, alter  the fine structure. You've captured that
exactly in your written quote."

Best wishes,
Gary

p.s. Although I have been enjoying this discussion, the end of the semester
is nigh, so I may not be able to post again for a while.

Department of Psychology
New York University
6 Washington Place
NY, NY 10012

o: 212-998-3551
fax: 212-995-4866
e-mail: gary.marcus at nyu.edu

web: http://www.psych.nyu.edu/gary/



                                 Articles that have discussed the Marcus et
al (1999) results

Altmann, G.T.M., & Dienes, Z. (1999). Rule learning by seven-month-old
infants and neural networks. Science, 284, 875a.

Berent, I. (1999). Infant rule-learning and the obligatory contour
principle: Submitted manuscript, Florida Atlantic University.

Christiansen, M.H., & Curtin, S.L. (1999). The power of statistical
learning: No need for algebraic rules. In M. Hahn & S.C. Stoness (Eds.),
Proceedings of the Twenty first Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science
Society (pp. 114-119). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Christiansen, M.H., & Curtin, S.L. (1999). Transfer of Learning: Rule
acquisition or statistical learning? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 289-290.

Dominey, P.F., & Ramus, F. (in press). Neural network processing of natural
language: I. Sensitivity to Serial, Temporal and Abstract Structure of
language in the Infant. Language and Cognitive Processes.

Eimas, P. (1999). Do infants learn grammar with algebra or statistics?
Science, 284, 435-436.

Gasser, M., & Colunga, E. (1999). Babies, Variables, and Connectionist
Networks. In M. Hahn & S.C. Stoness (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty first
Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 794). Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.

Kuehne, S.E., Gentner, D., & Forbus, K.D. (1999). Modeling rule learning by
seven-month-old infants: A symbolic approach. Manuscript in preparation:
Northwestern University.

Marcus, G.F. (1999a). Connectionism: with or without rules? Response to
J.L. McClelland and D.C. Plaut. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,, 3, 168-170.

Marcus, G.F. (1999b). Do infants learn grammar with algebra or statistics?
Response to Seidenberg & Elman, Eimas, and Negishi. Science, 284, 436-437.

Marcus, G.F. (1999c). Reply to Christiansen & Curtin. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 3, 290-291.

Marcus, G.F. (1999d). Reply to Seidenberg & Elman. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 3, 289.

Marcus, G.F. (1999e). Rule learning by seven-month-old infants and neural
networks: Response to Altmann and Dienes. Science, 284, 875a.

Marcus, G.F., Vijayan, S., Bandi Rao, S., & Vishton, P.M. (1999). Rule
learning in 7-month-old infants. Science, 283, 77-80.

McClelland, J.L., & Plaut, D.C. (1999). Does generalization in infant
learning implicate abstract algebra-like rules? Trends in Cognitive
Sciences,, 3, 166-168.

Negishi, M. (1999). Do infants learn grammar with algebra or statistics?
Science, 284, 435.

Seidenberg, M.S., & Elman, J.L. (1999a). Do infants learn grammar with
algebra or statistics? Science, 284, 435-436.

Seidenberg, M.S., & Elman, J.L. (1999b). Networks are not 'hidden rules'.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 288-289.

Shastri, L. (1999). Infants learning algebraic rules. Science, 285, 1673-1674.

Shastri, L., & Chang, S. (1999). A connectionist recreation of
rule-learning in infants. Submitted manuscript: University of California,
Berkeley.

Shultz, T.R. (1999). Rule learning by habituation can be simulated in
neural networks. In M. Hahn & S.C. Stoness (Eds.), Proceedings of the
Twenty first Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp.
665-670). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.


From yongta-k at hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp  Mon Dec  6 08:12:10 1999
From: yongta-k at hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp (Kim, Yong-Taek)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 17:12:10 +0900
Subject: I don't know how I could apologize to all of you.
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.1999.171210.0900.YONGTAK@HOFFMAN.CC.SOPHIA.AC.JP>

Dear CHILDES Members

I was trying to send an email written by Japanese to Japanese CHILDESMailing
list,
but by mistake I sent it to this Mailing list.
That's why iyou have an illegible emai.
I'm very sorry about this careless mistake.
Please delete the email I sent on 3 Dec.


From szasa at nytud.hu  Mon Dec  6 11:56:45 1999
From: szasa at nytud.hu (Jarovinszkij Alekszandr)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 12:56:45 +0100
Subject: Frustration-toleration in bilinguals
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.1999.125645.0100.SZASA@NYTUD.HU>

Hi, Brian,
Hi, info-childes,
I conduct a new project concerning socio-and psycholinguistic aspects of
Hungarian-Slovakian bilingual adolescents. The study includes, partly,
the measuring of their frustration-toleration level. For this, we use
the modification of Picture Frustration Test (PFT), proposed by
Rosenzweig.
Can anybody help us with a literature concerning bilinguals in this
topic? I mean not only the frustration-toleration phenomenon, but an
emotional state or an emotional reactions, such as, for example, an
anxiety, an aggression in bilinguals.
My second question. Does anybody know the code, address or name of the
listserv, which associating with psychologists or clinical
psychologists? (Three weeks ago I wrote about my problems to
BILING at ASU.EDU, but I did not  receive answer.)
Thanks in advance.
Alexandr Jarovinskij (Sasha) from Budapest.


From jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu  Wed Dec  8 17:34:20 1999
From: jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu (Judith Becker Bryant)
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 12:34:20 -0500
Subject: Faculty position
Message-ID: <WED.8.DEC.1999.123420.0500.JBRYANT@LUNA.CAS.USF.EDU>

I hope that there is a a senior scholar out there who
may wish to consider this position.

         		Judith Becker Bryant, Ph.D.
	 		Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Center
				for Communication Sciences
            		Department of Psychology, BEH 339
		 	University of South Florida
		 	Tampa, FL  33620-8200

		 	(813) 974-0475     fax (813) 974-4617
-------------- next part --------------
Judy,

Sending attachment.

I am placing your leave record on your chair for your signature.  No rush.
Thanks.

Florencia

-----Original Message-----
From: Judith Becker Bryant [mailto:jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 1999 3:09 PM
To: Florencia Stanley (PSY)
Subject: ad


Florencia:  I inadvertantly erased the latest copy
of the ad for our position.  Could you please send
it to me again so that I might forward it to one
of my listservs?  Thanks.
   Judy

         		Judith Becker Bryant, Ph.D.
	 		Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Center
				for Communication Sciences
         		Associate Professor
            		Department of Psychology, BEH 339
		 	University of South Florida
		 	Tampa, FL  33620-8200

		 	(813) 974-0475     fax (813) 974-4617


From jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu  Wed Dec  8 20:59:00 1999
From: jbryant at luna.cas.usf.edu (Judith Becker Bryant)
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 15:59:00 -0500
Subject: senior faculty position
Message-ID: <WED.8.DEC.1999.155900.0500.JBRYANT@LUNA.CAS.USF.EDU>

Below please find the announcement I had
attempted to send earlier.

         		Judith Becker Bryant, Ph.D.
	 		Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Center
				for Communication Sciences
            		Department of Psychology, BEH 339
		 	University of South Florida
		 	Tampa, FL  33620-8200

		 	(813) 974-0475     fax (813) 974-4617

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

Department of Psychology

FULL PROFESSOR OR ADVANCED ASSOCIATE.  The Psychology Department at the
University of South Florida seeks a distinguished scientist to join its
faculty.  Although candidates at the senior rank are preferred,
exceptional candidates at the rank of associate professor will be
considered.  The primary criteria for this position are an exceptional
record of scholarly productivity, a history of extramural support,
capacity to attract and successfully train graduate students, and a
commitment to advancing the department's educational mission at both the
graduate and undergraduate level.  Area of specialization is open, but the
candidate's research interests should complement and extend one or more of
the three departmental Ph.D. program areas: Clinical, Cognitive and Neural
Sciences, and Industrial-Organizational.  Excellence in the criteria
listed above supercedes the importance of area of specialization.  USF is
a comprehensive, metropolitan state university, serving more than 34,000
students in nine colleges on four campuses in Tampa, Lakeland, St.
Petersburg, and Sarasota. Among the top research universities in the
state, USF offers degree programs in 79 undergraduate disciplines, 889
master's and specialist programs and 26 doctoral programs, including the
MD.  The faculty numbers more than 2,000 members.  The Department of
Psychology, which continues to advance in excellence and stature, has 32
full-time faculty and will be moving into a new, state of the art research
facility during the summer of 2000.  Our department is firmly committed to
advancing scientific knowledge and the application of scientifically
validated procedures to human psychological problems. The Clinical program
is APA-accredited and a Member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical
Sciences. For more information about our department and faculty, please go
to http://www.cas.usf.edu/psychology/.  The Tampa Bay area offers many
cultural and recreational pursuits, and has earned a high rating in a
survey of "The Best Cities in Which to Work".  Applications from women and
members of ethnic minorities are particularly encouraged.  This is a full
time (nine months) tenure earning position and salary is negotiable.  A
Ph.D., or equivalent degree is required.  The deadline for applications is
February 15, 2000.  Interested candidates should send a vita, a statement
of research interests, and may arrange for letters to be sent or submit
contact information for three references to:  Michael D. Coovert, Chair,
Search Committee, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida,
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, BEH 339, Tampa, FL 33620-8200.  For further
information contact Dr. Coovert by email at coovert at luna.cas.usf.edu.
The University of South Florida is an affirmative action, equal
opportunity, equal access employer.  For disability accommodations, please
call Ms. Florencia Stanley (813-974-0359).  According to Florida law,
applications and meetings regarding them are open to the public.


From dodorico at ux1.unipd.it  Thu Dec  9 13:35:29 1999
From: dodorico at ux1.unipd.it (Laura D'Odorico)
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 14:35:29 +0100
Subject: vocabulary spurt
Message-ID: <THU.9.DEC.1999.143529.0100.DODORICO@UX1.UNIPD.IT>

I am looking forward studies which specifically investigate the
applicability of "referential-expressive distinction" to infants acquiring
languages other than English. I found only one study (Camaioni &
Longobardi, 1995) which is about Italian children. Has anyone other
suggestion? Thank you. Laura D'odorico

Prof. Laura D'Odorico
Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione
Via Venezia 8
35141 PADOVA

e-mail: dodorico at psico.unipd.it
tel:(49) 8276523
FAX:(49) 8276511


From sherrill at falcon.cc.ukans.edu  Thu Dec  9 18:42:53 1999
From: sherrill at falcon.cc.ukans.edu (Sherrill R Morris)
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 12:42:53 -0600
Subject: Faculty position
Message-ID: <THU.9.DEC.1999.124253.0600.SHERRILL@FALCON.CC.UKANS.EDU>

ROCKHURST UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND DISORDERS

Rockhurst University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty
position, at the assistant or associate level, in its Communication
Sciences and Disorders program.  This is a nine-month position, beginning
August 2000, with the possibility of summer teaching.  Requirements
include an earned doctorate (preferred ;master's considered) in
speech-language pathology or speech and hearing science; CCC-SLP;
eligibility for licensure in Missouri; a record of excellence in teaching
in higher education; evidence of scholarship and research; and a
familiarity with state and national certification requirements.  Rank
commensurate with experience.

Preference will be given to individuals with expertise in one or more of
the following areas: adult neurogenic speech-language disorders, motor
speech disorders, and voice disorders.  Specific teaching responsibilities
will be determined by the areas of specialization of the incumbent.
Teaching will be at the graduate and undergraduate levels.  Other
responsibilities include student advising and directing student research.
Some clinical supervision is possible.  We are seeking an individual
interested in assisting in the continued development of this new program
in accord with the University's Catholic and Jesuit mission and commitment
to excellence in graduate education in the health sciences.

Rockhurst University's Master of Science program in Communication Sciences
and Disorders was conferred candidacy status by the Council on Academic
Accreditation (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
(ASHA) on March 1, 1999.   	


Rockhurst University, one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the
U.S., is located in the cultural and artistic center of the racially and
ethnically diverse Kansas City metropolitan area.  The University enrolls
2,900 students in four academic divisions.  The Department of
Communication Sciences and Disorders is housed in the College of Arts and
Sciences together with graduate programs in Occupational Therapy and
Physical Therapy.   For more information, visit our Web site:
www.rockhurst.edu.

Applications must include:  1) a letter expressing interest and indicating
qualifications for the position; 2) vita; 3) evidence of excellence in
teaching or clinical supervision; and 4) names, addresses, and phone
numbers of three references who may be contacted.  Applications will be
reviewed beginning Feb. 15, 2000, and will be accepted until the position
is filled.  Applications should be sent to:	Dr. Shelly Chabon
			Chair, Department of Communication Sciences and
				Disorders
			Rockhurst University
			1100 Rockhurst Road
			Kansas City, MO  64110
			Email:  Shelly.Chabon at rockhurst.edu

Rockhurst University is an equal opportunity employer and encourages
applications from women and minorities.


From macw at cmu.edu  Thu Dec 16 01:59:43 1999
From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 20:59:43 -0500
Subject: mail problems
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.1999.205943.0500.MACW@CMU.EDU>

Dear Info-CHILDES,
  I was updating the mail server Monday and Tuesday and it appears that a few
messages came in during that period that were not then sent out.  There are
at least four messages that I can identify and I will send them out again by
hand.  If you mailed a message that didn't get posted in the last few days,
please repost it.  Sorry about this problem.

--Brian MacWhinney


From macw at cmu.edu  Thu Dec 16 02:13:59 1999
From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 21:13:59 -0500
Subject: apical trills
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.1999.211359.0500.MACW@CMU.EDU>

First possibly lost message:

From: mj.ball at ulst.ac.uk


Has anyone any information on first language acquisition of apical trills
(e.g. in languages such as Italian, Spanish etc etc). I'm particulary
interested in age by when these become established AND commonest
substitutions for the trills before they're established.

Please reply directly to me: I'll post a summary if there's sufficient
information.

Martin J Ball, PhD
Professor of Phonetics & Linguistics
University of Ulster at Jordanstown
Northern Ireland
Email: mj.ball at ulst.ac.uk


From macw at cmu.edu  Thu Dec 16 02:15:35 1999
From: macw at cmu.edu (Brian MacWhinney)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 21:15:35 -0500
Subject: Workshop on the Acquisition of Auxiliaries
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.1999.211535.0500.MACW@CMU.EDU>

Actually, I have only identified two possibly lost messages.  Here is the
other one:

Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1999 22:52:28 -0800
Message-Id: <v0313030ab47b989c0c01@[128.97.208.91]>
From: Misha Becker <mbecker at ucla.edu>


Workshop on the Acquisition of Auxiliaries

held in conjunction with WCCFL 19
(West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics)

February 4, 2000

University of California, Los Angeles

Program:

2:00-2:45	Auxiliary Insertion in Child Dutch
Shalom Zuckerman, Roelien Bastiaanse and Ron van Zonneveld
University of Groningen

2:45-3:30 Auxiliaries, Features and the Grammar of Inversion in the
Acquisition of English Yes/No Questions
Lynn Santelmann, Stephanie Berk, and Barbara Lust
Portland State University, University of Connecticut, and Cornell University

3:30-3:45 break

3:45-4:30 Auxiliaries and Topic Drop in Child English
Ken Wexler and Jenny Ganger
MIT and University of Pittsburgh

4:30-5:00	general question and discussion period

For registration information and the program of the main session, please
visit our website at http://www.wccfl.org

Or send e-mail to wccfl at humnet.ucla.edu.

********************************************************
Misha Becker
UCLA Department of Linguistics
Box 951543
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1543
(310) 825-0634
mbecker at ucla.edu
http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/linguistics/people/grads/becker/becker.htm
********************************************************


From michav at post.tau.ac.il  Thu Dec 16 06:39:41 1999
From: michav at post.tau.ac.il (Michal Avivi)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 08:39:41 +0200
Subject: Teletubbies: + or - ?!
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.1999.083941.0200.MICHAV@POST.TAU.AC.IL>

Dear Childes,
I am an MA student of Dr. Etti Dromi's, at Tel-Aviv University. I am
writing you as she told me you might be able to help me.
According to Dr. Dromi, a few months ago there was a Childes convention,
in which an internet chat discussion about the Teletubbies took place. I
would be very much obliged if you could let me know how can I get info.
about that discussion.
Thank you very much,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Century, Millennium,
Yours,
Michal Avivi


From velleman at comdis.umass.edu  Thu Dec 16 17:28:07 1999
From: velleman at comdis.umass.edu (Shelley L. Velleman)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 13:28:07 -0400
Subject: Teletubbies: + or - ?!
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.1999.132807.0400.VELLEMAN@COMDIS.UMASS.EDU>

You can access "old" (recent) CHILDES messages at the LinguistList
mirror, which is at this address:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/info-childes.html

I just searched for "teletubbies", and found 19 messages archived from
last May.

An undergrad student of mine, Sarah Schmit, just presented some research
at ASHA that we did together on the phonology of the Teletubbies.  We
hope to write it up this spring.

Has the show been dubbed into Hebrew?  If so, I'd love your impression
of the tubbies' phonologies in that language.  (We're just looking at
Spanish, in which their speech appears to be totally adult-like
phonologically and syntactically; quite different from English!)

Shelley Velleman
Communication Disorders
Univ. of Mass.
Amherst, MA  010030410
USA


From bpearson at comdis.umass.edu  Thu Dec 16 20:50:05 1999
From: bpearson at comdis.umass.edu (Barbara Zurer Pearson)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 15:50:05 -0500
Subject: Vocabulary Spurt (lost message, from last week)
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.1999.155005.0500.BPEARSON@COMDIS.UMASS.EDU>

Dear Laura (and Infochildes),

I worked from a mention in Bates, Bretherton, and Snyder, 1988,
that Bates' daughter Julia was referential in English and
appeared more expressive in her Italian.  We analyzed early
MacArthur data for this distinction from 18 English-and-Spanish
learning children.  There's a table about 12 of them and a
small discussion in Pearson, B. Z. & Fernandez, S. C., 1994,
"Patterns of Interaction in the Lexical Growth in Two
Languages of Bilingual Infants and Toddlers."
_Language Learning_ 44, pp 617-653.  I review there, too,
how we counted a child as one or the other.

Do you have a specific hypothesis you want to test for
other languages?

Barbara


>I am looking forward studies which specifically investigate the
>applicability of "referential-expressive distinction" to infants acquiring
>languages other than English. I found only one study (Camaioni &
>Longobardi, 1995) which is about Italian children. Has anyone other
>suggestion? Thank you. Laura D'odorico
>
>Prof. Laura D'Odorico
>Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione
>Via Venezia 8
>35141 PADOVA
>
>e-mail: dodorico at psico.unipd.it
>tel:(49) 8276523
>FAX:(49) 8276511


****************************************
Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D.
Research Associate, Project Manager
NIH Working Group on AAE
University of Massachusetts
Dept. of Communication Disorders
117 Arnold House
Amherst, MA 01003

413-545-5023
fax 545-0803

bpearson at comdis.umass.edu
http://www.umass.edu/aae/


From gawron at vonneumann.cog.jhu.edu  Fri Dec 17 13:19:29 1999
From: gawron at vonneumann.cog.jhu.edu (Rachel Gawron)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 08:19:29 -0500
Subject: Post
Message-ID: <FRI.17.DEC.1999.081929.0500.GAWRON@VONNEUMANN.COG.JHU.EDU>

  POSTDOCTORAL TRAINEESHIPS AT JOHNS HOPKINS: Integrating Formal and
  Empirical Methods in the Cognitive Science of Language

The Department of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University is
offering Postdoctoral Traineeships in a problem-centered language
research program encompassing psycholinguistics, theoretical
linguistics, cognitive neuropsychology (especially neuroimaging and
cognitive neuropsychology of language), language acquisition, and
computational linguistics.  Ideal trainees will have previous
experience in one or more of these disciplines and will possess strong
motivation for training in the other areas.  Trainees must be able to
work independently, demonstrating high levels of initiative. Applicants
are required to submit a brief (approx. 3-page) proposal, indicating
(1) what courses or other academic resources they wish to take
advantage of in order to augment their doctoral education; (2) how they
expect to contribute to the training environment; (3) what research
activities they are interested in pursuing during their post-doctoral
appointment; and (4) how their proposed research fits in with existing
research in Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins.  Applicants are
referred to our website (www.cogsci.jhu.edu) for further information on
the training program.  The interactive training environment for these
positions includes the facilities of the Cognitive Science Department
and other related units at Johns Hopkins, including the Center for
Language and Speech Processing, the Psychology and Neurology
Departments and the Mind/Brain Institute, along with access to a
research-dedicated fMRI facility providing extensive technical support
(the Kirby Center).  The Traineeships are part of the department's
NSF-supported Integrated Graduate Education and Research Training
(IGERT) Program in the Cognitive Science of Language, and are also
supported through a group NSF Learning and Intelligent Systems (LIS)
grant on Optimization in Language and Language Learning.  Traineeships
will begin on September 1; awards are for a period of one year and may
be renewable.  Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of
the US.  The deadline for applications is January 31, 1999, but
applications will be accepted after that time until the positions are
filled.  Please send CV, proposal, and three letters of reference to:
IGERT Postdoctoral Traineeships, Department of Cognitive Science, Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218-2685.

The Johns Hopkins University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
Employer.  Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply.


From bill.wells at ucl.ac.uk  Fri Dec 17 18:24:43 1999
From: bill.wells at ucl.ac.uk (Bill Wells)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 18:24:43 +0000
Subject: Clare Tarplee
Message-ID: <FRI.17.DEC.1999.182443.0000.BILL.WELLS@UCL.AC.UK>

Dear CHILDES members

With deepest sadness I am writing to inform you that our colleague Clare
Tarplee died on Tuesday 16th November, at the age of 36. Clare collapsed at
work on the previous Monday, as the result of a brain haemorrhage, and
never regained consciousness.

In her doctorate and her subsequent research, Clare used the techniques of
Conversation Analysis to study interactions involving children with normal
and atypical language development.

Clare had been a lecturer here since 1992.  She will be greatly missed as
researcher, teacher, colleague and friend.


Bill Wells




Bill Wells, MA, DPhil
Professor of Clinical Linguistics / ESRC Senior Research Fellow
Department of Human Communication Science
University College London
Chandler House
2 Wakefield Street
London WC1N 1PG, U.K.

Tel. 44 (0)20 7679 4242
E-mail:bill.wells at ucl.ac.uk
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/HCS/


From michav at post.tau.ac.il  Sun Dec 19 08:33:49 1999
From: michav at post.tau.ac.il (Michal Avivi)
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 10:33:49 +0200
Subject: Teletubbies in Israel
Message-ID: <SUN.19.DEC.1999.103349.0200.MICHAV@POST.TAU.AC.IL>

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, the TT have been dubbed into Hebrew. Like in every other country,
it's a huge success among kids (and not so very young, too!).
I am not a very keen viewer, I've watched it a few times with my 13 months
old daughter, but to your question -
To my impression, the phonology is adult-like, though there are some
supra-segmental variations (Po's talk is whisperish). BUT - syntactically
it is totally not adult-like. It's some sort of telegraphic talk, but
inconsistent. Sometimes they omit some of the syntax parts, at other times
(rarely) they chose to use them. I don't think the syntax of the
Hebrew-speaking TT resembles that of Israeli toddlers.

Michal Avivi
School of Education
Tel-Aviv University
Tel-Aviv 69978
Israel


From aad784 at agora.ulaval.ca  Tue Dec 21 19:03:55 1999
From: aad784 at agora.ulaval.ca (Antonella Conte)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:03:55 -0500
Subject: "not"
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.1999.140355.0500.AAD784@AGORA.ULAVAL.CA>

Hi there fellow researchers,

I am presently doing some morphological and syntactical (if this is a
word?) utterance analysis and was wondering how to classify the word "not".
 If I were to follow traditional grammar and parts of speech, "not" would
be classified as an adverb (Ex.: I do not eat fish; I don't speak Greek)...
at least as it is stated in a bilingual Eng/Fr dictionary.  However, does
the nature change when one analyzes syntax.  I know syntax means "order" in
an utterance, but to establish order, one needs to code and assign codes to
all the words in an utterance (especially if there are many utterances).
My Collins Cobuild "English Grammar" (1196:207) calls words like "not"
"negative words".

Another question, is the category "negative" one that is used in
traditional grammar (ie noun, verb, adjective, etc.)?

Thanks very much,
Antonella Conte
Laval University
Quebec Canada


From aad784 at agora.ulaval.ca  Tue Dec 21 19:10:22 1999
From: aad784 at agora.ulaval.ca (Antonella Conte)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 14:10:22 -0500
Subject: auxiliaries
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.1999.141022.0500.AAD784@AGORA.ULAVAL.CA>

HI there listeros,

I have another question except this time it concerns auxiliaries...  When
you have a sentence like the following:
"I do not eat" it is composed of
"(subject pro)noun + auxiliary verb 'do' + negative marker + main verb".

However, when you have something like:
"I don't"... what does the 'do' represent?  Is it still an auxiliary verb?

Thanks for you input,
Antonella Conte
Laval University
Quebec Canada


From tomas at eva.mpg.de  Wed Dec 22 06:48:22 1999
From: tomas at eva.mpg.de (Michael Tomasello)
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 07:48:22 +0100
Subject: "not"
Message-ID: <WED.22.DEC.1999.074822.0100.TOMAS@EVA.MPG.DE>

Antonella Conte,

Perhaps you should consider the possibility that "not" does not fall
into a category at all but is simply a unique lexical item with its own
unique grammatical distribution - as are many other of the so-called
closed class words of English and other languages.

Mike Tomasello


From sirai at sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp  Sat Dec 25 06:39:23 1999
From: sirai at sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp (Hidetosi SIRAI)
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 15:39:23 +0900
Subject: JSLS 2000 --- Call for Papers
Message-ID: <SAT.25.DEC.1999.153923.0900.SIRAI@SCCS.CHUKYOU.AC.JP>

The Second Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences (2000)
                                Call for Papers

Conference Dates/ Location
  The Second Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences will
  be held as follows:
        Date:  August 4 (Fri.)- 5 (Sat.), 2000
        Location:  CO-OP Inn Kyoto (Kyoto, Japan)

Submissions
  We would like to encourage submissions on research pertaining to
language sciences, including topics such as language acquisition,
psycholinguistics, psychology of language, discourse analysis,
conversational analysis and sociolinguistics.  Our main purpose is to
highlight research which focuses on Japanese language and the language
acquisition of  Japanese speakers (L1, L2), however, we also encourage
submissions on other language-related topics, from diverse theoretical
perspectives and on different languages. Furthermore, we would also like
to invite submissions pertaining to the development of computer research
tools for language research.

Qualifications for Presenters
   All presenters must be members of JSLS by the first day of the
conference (August 4, 2000).  (This applies only to the person giving
the presentation.  This does not apply to co-authors.) The membership
year of JSLS starts on July 1, and the membership fee is 3,000 yen, or
$25.00 for overseas members.  Please refer to the following website for
membership information:
 http://jchat.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp/JSLS

   All presenters must pre-register for the JSLS 2000 conference by July
15, 2000.  Papers which have been presented at other conferences or
which have been published previously may not be submitted.  You may only
submit one abstract as first author.

The length of each paper presentation will be thirty minutes (20 minutes
for paper presentation, 10 minutes for questions).  Paper presentations
may be given in Japanese or English.

Symposium
    We are planning a symposium for the last day of the conference.  We
would like interested individuals to submit proposals for the symposium
(i.e., topic, panelists).  Individuals planning to submit symposium
proposals must submit their proposals by email to the conference
organizing committee at JSLSconf at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp (Subject:
Symposium Proposal) by March 4, 2000 on Form #3.  There will be some
travel funding for panelists who are non-members.  For further
information, please contact the conference organizing committee.

   The symposium will be selected from among the submitted symposium
proposals by the conference organizing committee.  Individuals
submitting symposium proposals will be contacted regarding acceptance or
non-acceptance by the end of May, 2000.

Submission Guidelines & Review Process
   All submissions should be mailed and postmarked by March 4, 2000
(Saturday).  Please send Forms #1, #2 and #3 to the conference
chairperson, Hidetosi Sirai.

Necessary forms
  (1) Form #1
Presentation title, name of author(s), affiliation, mailing address,
etc. on A4 or letter-size paper
  (2) 3 copies of abstract (on A4 or letter-size paper, in 12 pt,
double-spaced, maximum 4 pages, including title, table, figures & references)
Do not include information which may reveal your identity.  Abstracts
will be accepted
in Japanese or English.  If the language in which you would like to give
your presentation differs from the language of your written abstract,
please let us know.
   (3) 2 self-addressed mailing labels (with your name, address)
[This is unnecessary for those submitting abstracts by email.]

    Please mail your submissions to the following address (please write
"JSLS paper" in red ink on the envelope):
 Prof. Hidetosi Sirai
 Department of Information Sciences
 Chukyo University
 101
 Toyota-shi, Aichi Prefecture 470-0393 JAPAN

    We will also accept submissions made by email.  Please address email
submissions to the following address, in the following manner:
 jsls2000-submit at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp
Please send your abstract as a text file in MS-WORD, Ichitaro, TEX, PDF
or PostScript format.  We can only accept compressed files in Lha or Zip
format.

    Each abstract will be reviewed anonymously by several reviewers.
Individuals submitting abstracts will be notified of
acceptance/non-acceptance by April 30.  Individuals whose abstracts are
accepted will be requested to send in a copy of their papers on floppy
disc (A4 or letter-size paper, 6 pages maximum) by June 30, 2000, to
appear in the conference program.

    Furthermore, we plan to publish selected papers in the conference
proceedings, following the conference.

Conference Registration
(all presenters must register for the conference)
   All conference participants must submit Form #2 (Registration Form) and
email this form to the conference organizing committee.  All presenters
must register for the conference, although registration is not mandatory
for other co-authors.  Discounted pre-registration fees will be offered
until July 15, 2000.  The registration fee must be paid in one of the
following ways:

   Please send the registration form (Form #2) to
                jsls2000 at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp.
You can also apply by mail or fax (address to JSLS Sirai):
 Prof. Hidetosi Sirai
 Department of Information Sciences
 Chukyo University
 101 Tokodate, Kaizu-cho, Toyota, Aichi, 470-0393 JAPAN
 Fax number: 0565-46-1299(address to JSLS Sirai)
  +81-565-46-1299 (from overseas)

   Conference registration fees, conference program & reception
participation fees should be paid:
 Postal deposit:
 Name of account: JCHAT Gengo Kagaku Kenkyuukai
 Account number: 00850-7-33033

 Bank deposit:
 Name of account: JCHAT Gengo Kagaku Kenkyuukai
    Daihyoo Miyata Susanne
 Account type/number: Futsuu 1082733
 Account branch: Kamiyashiro branch (Branch number: 231)
 Bank name: Chukyo Bank

   Overseas participants: Please either (1) pay your registration fee at
the conference site on the day of the conference, or (2) send a check to
Keiko Nakamura (please refer to Form #4: Registration fee payment for
overseas participants).  Those who choose on-site registration will be
charged the full registration fee.  Those who pre-register and deposit
registration fees by July 15, 2000 will qualify for the discounted
registration fee.

Housing
    It is also possible to stay at the conference site, the Co-op in Kyoto.
Their website is http://www.univcoop.or.jp/faculty/kyoto.html.  Their
address is: Yanaginobaba-dori, North of Takoyakushi, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto,
604, JAPAN. Phone number: 075-256-6600; fax number 075-251-0120.
The price of a single room starts at 6,000 yen per night.
Unfortunately, we cannot make reservations for conference
participants.  Please contact the hotel directly.

    Conference programs and handbooks will not be mailed in advance.  The
conference program will be sent out through the JSLS mailing list and
through the JSLS homepage. The contents of the conference handbook will
also be made available through the JSLS website.  The JSLS website is:
 http://jchat.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp/JSLS/

    Conference Registration Fee, Conference Handbook, Reception Fee
Individuals who apply for membership on the first day of the conference
will be considered to be JSLS members.

Domestic participants
 Registration fee                  Member     Non-member
 Pre-registration                  3,000 yen  5,000 yen
 (paid in full by July 15, 2000)

 Late registration/on-site         4,000 yen  6,000 yen
 registration (after July 16, 2000)

 Conference handbook               2,000 yen  3,000 yen
 Reception                         3,000 yen  3,000 yen

Overseas participants
  Registration fee                 Member    Non-member
 Pre-registration (paid in full    US$25.00  US$45.00
 by July 15, 2000)

 Late registration/on-site         US$33.00  US$50.00
 registration (after July 16, 2000)

 Conference handbook               US$17.00  US$25.00
 Reception                         US$25.00  US$25.00

   Individuals giving paper presentations who will be attending from
overseas may apply for a registration fee waiver (US$25.00).  Please
indicate if you would like to be considered for this waiver on your
submissions form.

The reception has been scheduled for the evening of August 4, Friday,
2000.

   We strongly encourage you to purchase the conference handbook, as it
will contain copies of each paper which will be given at the conference,
with tables, figures and references.  Additional handouts will not be
distributed at the conference, unless prepared by individual presenters.

Student Volunteers
    We are currently recruiting 10 student volunteers to help at the
reception desk and manage the audiovisual equipment.  Each student
volunteer will be expected to work approximately 4 hours. Student
volunteers will be free to attend conference presentations during other
hours.  Student volunteers will not have to pay the registration fee,
and will also receive a free copy of the conference handbook.
Conditions will be the same for student volunteers who are scheduled to
give paper presentations. All volunteers must be student members or
student non-members.  Those interested in being a student volunteer must
apply to the following address by June 15, 2000:

 Prof. Hidetosi Sirai
 Department of Information Sciences
 Chukyo University
 101 Tokodate, Kaizu-cho, Toyota, Aichi, 470-0393 JAPAN
 email: jsls2000-request at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp
  (Subject: student volunteer)

  Fax number: 0565-46-1299 (please address to Pro. Sirai, clearly marked
as "student volunteer")

   When applying, please specify what languages you are capable of
communicating in.  We particularly need volunteers with fluency in
English and Japanese.  We will inform you of your status
(acceptance/non-acceptance) by July 1, 2000.

All questions regarding the JSLS 2000 conference should be addressed to:
 Prof. Hidetosi Sirai
 Department of Information Sciences
 Chukyo University
 101 Tokodate, Kaizu-cho, Toyota, Aichi 470-0393 JAPAN
 email: jsls2000-request at diana.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp
 Fax number: 0565-46-1299 (please address to Prof. Sirai)

Inquiries by phone will not be accepted.

--------------------------------------------------
Form #1: Application form for submissions
Note: Those applying via email should put "JSLS Submission" in the
subject header.

Title (Japanese):
Title (English):
Name of first author:

Name of co-author (1):
Name of co-author (2):
Name of co-author (3):
If the number of authors exceeds 4, please add the necessary
information).

Affiliation:
Mailing address:  home     work   (please choose one)
Mailing address, with zip code:

Telephone number:

Email address:

Language to be used during paper presentation:     English  Japanese
(please choose one)

JSLS membership status (please choose one):

Already have applied for membership

    Will apply for membership by August 4, 2000

If you are applying from overseas, please indicate if you would like a
registration fee waiver:
(please choose one):

    Yes, I would like a waiver.

    No, I do not need a waiver.

    Not applicable


Form #2: Registration Form
Note: (1) Conference presenters also need to submit this form.
(2) Those registering by email: please put "JSLS Registration" in the
subject header.

I would like to register for the Second Conference of JSLS.

Name:
Affiliation:
Mailing address:  home work (please indicate which)
Mailing address, with zip code:

Telephone number:

Email address:

Conference handbook (please select one):
    Yes, I would like a conference handbook.

    No, I would not like a conference handbook.

Reception (please select one):
    Yes, I would like to attend the reception.

    No, I do not plan to attend the reception.

Amount deposited, with relevant sums:
 (e.g., total: 8,000 yen, registration fee: 3,000 yen, conference
handbook: 3,000 yen;
  reception fee: 3,000 yen)

Overseas participants, please indicate the method by which you will be
paying your
 registration fee:

 On-site registration

 I will mail a check to K. Nakamura

If you are an overseas presenter, please indicate if you would like to
apply for a registration fee waiver:

 Yes, I would like a waiver.

 No, I do not need a waiver.

 Not applicable


Form #3: Application for Symposium
Note: Please list "symposium proposal" in the subject header if you are
applying by email.

Title (Japanese):
Title (English):
Name of symposium organizer/representative:
Affiliation of symposium organizer:
Mailing address:  home work (please indicate which)
Mailing address, with zip code:

Telephone number:

Email address:

Language to be used during presentation:     English   Japanese (please
choose one)

Symposium abstract: Please include the names and affiliations of your
panelists, with a 500-1000 word abstract including the purpose and goals
of your symposium.  Please also indicate if you already have the
commitment of your panelists, and whether (in the case that they are
non-members) they would like to be considered for travel funding.


Form #4: Deposit method for overseas participants

Please send a check or money order in the following manner:
 To: Keiko Nakamura
 Re: JSLS2000
 4-14-18-5 Himonya
 Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-0003 JAPAN

We can only accept checks or money orders in US dollars.  Please send a
check for the appropriate sum, with a copy of your registration form
(Form #2) with the following information:

Name:
Affiliation:
Mailing address:  home work (please indicate which)
Mailing address, with zip code:

Fax number:

Email address:

Conference handbook (please select one):
    Yes, I would like a conference handbook.

    No, I would not like a conference handbook.

Reception (please select one):
    Yes, I would like to attend the reception.

    No, I do not plan to attend the reception.

Amount deposited, with relevant sums in US$:
 (e.g., total: US$67, registration fee: US$25, conference handbook:
US$17;
  reception fee: US$25)

Please indicate whether you are paying by:   check  money order

Membership status:
 I am a JSLS member.

 I plan to apply for membership at the conference site.

 I am not a JSLS member.

If you are an overseas presenter, please indicate if you would like to
apply for a registration fee waiver:

 Yes, I would like a waiver.

 No, I do not need a waiver.

 Not applicable

The registration fee will be US$25.00 for members (US$45.00 for
non-members) who pre-register by July 15, 2000 (i.e., submit
registration forms, deposit registration fee).  After July 16, 2000, the
registration fee will be US$33.00 for members, and US$50.00 for
non-members.  The conference handbook (with full text of papers) will be
US$17.00 for members and US$25.00 for non-members.  The reception fee is
US$25.00.


From ABBEDUTO at Waisman.Wisc.Edu  Tue Dec 28 16:45:10 1999
From: ABBEDUTO at Waisman.Wisc.Edu (Len J. Abbeduto)
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 10:45:10 -0600
Subject: post-doctoral positions
Message-ID: <TUE.28.DEC.1999.104510.0600.ABBEDUTO@WAISMAN.WISC.EDU>

			    Post-Doctoral Training in Mental Retardation Research
				Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Post-Doctoral Training Program in Mental Retardation Research at the
Waisman Center of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is recruiting for
four two-year post-doctoral fellowship positions beginning in July or
September, 2000.  The program provides multidisciplinary training in
research on the social and communicative behavior of persons with mental
retardation and in the functioning of their families.  Applicants should
have a Ph.D. in a discipline related to human behavior or social policy,
including child and family studies, communicative disorders, educational
psychology, psychology, social work, or sociology.  The Waisman Center is a
NICHD-funded Mental Retardation Research Center.  The Training Program has
a faculty of 16 who serve as mentors to post-doctoral fellows.

Review of applications will begin January 15, 2000 and will continue until
all positions are filled.  Eligibility is restricted by Federal guidelines
to US citizens and permanent residents. All appointments are contingent on
federal funding. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an equal
opportunity employer.  Women and minorities are especially encouraged to
apply.

For more information, contact Dr. Leonard Abbeduto, Waisman Center,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Highland Ave, Madison, WI  53705.
Phone:  608/263-1737.  E-mail:  abbeduto at waisman.wisc.edu, or visit our
website at http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/postdoc.html.

Leonard Abbeduto, Ph.D.
Professor of Educational Psychology
Waisman Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53705
(608) 263-1737