A warm welcome to our new PhD students.
Here's what they have to say for themselves:
Seung Kyung Kim:
My main interests center on phonology and
phonetics. Speech perception, loanword phonology,
and phonological acquisition are some of the
topics I find interesting. I am a Korean girl, born and raised in Korea.
Sven Lauer:
I was born in Germany, where I got my
undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science. Before
coming to Stanford this fall, I will be busy
finishing my MSc in Logic at the University of
Amsterdam. In the past years, my interests have
mostly centered on formal [semantics and
pragmatics] (naturally extending to certain
issues in the philosophy of language). Things I
have concerned myself with include the semantics
of tense, aspect and modality; the foundations of
formal pragmatics; lexical semantics and
polysemy; and non-truth- conditional conventional meaning.
James McElvenny:
I am from Sydney, Australia. At the moment I am
mainly interested in language change, in
particular historical change and change in
contact situations. I am also interested in syntax and fieldwork.
Kyu won Moon:
I studied Korean Linguistics in Seoul National
University in Korea. What interests me most right
now is linguistic variation, language as a social
strategy, language and power, and discourse analysis.
Robert Munro:
Within linguistics I am particularly interested
in computational linguistics and modeling
variation, ambiguity, gradience and probabilities
in formal linguistic theory. I graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science from
the University of Sydney in 2004, completing
majors in Linguistics, Computer Science,
Information Systems, English and Film Studies,
then worked for two years on the Hans Rausing
Endangered Languages Project at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of
London. When away from a desk I love travelling,
especially by bicycle. I've cycled across Europe,
Australia, Asia and Africa but not yet the
Americas, which is something I hope to achieve during my time at Stanford.
Stephanie Shih:
I hail from El Sobrante ('The Leftover') in the
East Bay and am studying English, music, and
linguistics at UC Berkeley. Within linguistics,
I am particularly interested in
phonologyespecially prosody, rhythm, and
meter. My main research now analyzes
text-setting in jazz bop swing, and I also have
an ongoing project with a Northern Tiwa language,
Picuris. When not doing phonology homework or
text-setting research, I play jazz vibraphone and
classical percussion, bake, coordinate WCCFL 26
registration, and drink tea from my thirty-kinds-and-counting tea collection.
Laura Smith:
I'm a native of Detroit and a graduate of Wayne
State University. I work primarily in
sociolinguistics, and my goals within that
subfield include expanding the present
understanding of AAVE through considering its
regional and register variation, as well as its
role in the construction of black identity. Other
linguistic interests include English nativization
and the shifting sources of prescriptive authority in post-colonial situations.
The
Stanford Blood Center is reporting a shortage of O-, O+, A-, A+, B-, and AB-. For
an appointment: http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/ or call 650-723-7831.
It only takes an hour of your time and you get free cookies. The
Blood Center is also raising money for a new bloodmobile.
Maybe you have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, but
too old to really understand computers in order to fully appreciate
this... If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their
infamous sketch, "Who's on First?" might have gone something like
this:
COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm
thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
AB BOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK,let's just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue "W".
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue "w" if you don't start with some straight answers. What about
financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!
A few days later:
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on "START"
