Whamit!

The Weekly Newsletter of MIT Linguistics

Issue of Monday, May 4th, 2026

LF Reading Group 5/6 - Thomas Truong and Karolin Kaiser (MIT)

Speaker: Thomas Truong and Karolin Kaiser (MIT)

Title: Age is not just a number

Time: Wednesday, May 6th, 1pm - 2pm

Location: 32-D461
 

Abstract: We start from constructions where a proper name modifies a gradable adjective, as in (1).

  1. Eyal is Joe Biden old.

While these examples initially may suggest a simple degree interpretation, i.e. mapping the individual to their degree on the relevant scale. We show that this cannot be the full story. We examine the conditions of use for these sentences and show that these constructions systematically differ from measure phrases and equatives. They crucially permit felicitous uses in contexts where the target individual does not match the named individual’s absolute degree. 

We propose that this construction supports an analysis where comparison classes are structured objects with a contextually provided ordering on a partition of individuals in the comparison class. Following mechanisms from Bale (2006, 2008) we propose that a “scale” is built from the modifying proper name. Informally, A is B-adj means that A occupies a position in A’s comparison class that corresponds to B’s position on the constructed “scale”.

Phonology Circle - Christopher Bader (MIT)

Speaker: Christopher Bader (MIT)
Title: Front Vowels are Palatal: Phonetic and Phonological Evidence
Time: , 5pm - 6:30pm
Location: 32-D831

Abstract: Clements (1991) and Hume (1992) proposed that front vowels are coronal, rather than
dorsal (Sagey 1986). But this is the wrong generalization, since it fails to explain the following
contrast in Mandarin Chinese: *si, *?i, ?i ‘west’ (?) (Lee-Kim 2014). As this example shows,
the Mandarin high front vowel /i/ may only be preceded by a palatal ([-anterior][+distributed])
sibilant. Anterior and retroflex sibilants, which of course are also coronal, may not precede this
vowel. Instead of si and ?i, Mandarin has these consonants followed by the syllabic, non-vocalic
coronal sonorants [? ? ] and [? ? ], sometimes incorrectly referred to as ‘apical vowels’. As I will
show, neither anterior nor retroflex consonants pattern with front vowels. But fortition of front
vowels can result in palatal consonants and front vowels do pattern with palatal consonants. I
will argue that this is because front vowels are palatal. The Mandarin data cited is then the result
of AGREE(PAL), AGREE(ANT), and AGREE(RET) being higher ranked than IDENT(Amax), a
constraint which preserves vocalic apertures… (continued in attached file)

LingLunch 5/7 - Haoming Li (MIT)

Speaker: Haoming Li (MIT)

Title: Conditional semantics for permission and weak necessity

Time: Thursday, May 7, 12:30pm - 2pm

Location: 32-D461



Abstract: The classic analyses of permission and weak necessity view them as existential and universal quantification over a modal base with one or two ordering sources. In this talk, I will advance the alternative view that both permission and weak necessity involve an underlying conditional semantics. I will draw analogies between permission and weak necessity on the one hand and conditionals on the other hand across several phenomena, many of which are puzzling for the classic accounts, including free choice/simplification of disjunctive antecedents, Sobel and Reverse Sobel sequences, homogeneity, and performative uses. I will then deliver a concrete implementation based on von Fintel’s (2001) dynamic account of conditionals and Chung’s (2018) work on Korean deontic modals. I will show that the approach naturally captures the parallels mentioned above and derives a stipulation about the nature of the modal base for such modals. If times allows, I will also compare and contrast the present approach with other approaches in the literature to similar empirical puzzles and other work which motivates a conditional semantics for modals, like McHugh (2026), which was previously presented at LingLunch.

MIT Linguistics @ FASL 35

The 35th meeting of Formal Approaches to Slaviv Languages was hosted by the Linguistics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz from May 1-3, 2026. The following students and alums presented their work:

  • Vlad Orlov (2nd year): Existential wh-words are still a question in Russian 
  • Marijana Marelj & Ora Matushansky (PhD 1998)[CNRS]: Against length-determined tone assignment in Serbo-Croatian
  • Marijana Marelj & Ora Matushansky (PhD 1998)[CNRS]: Two types of unaccusatives: evidence from Slavic Degree Achievements
  • Ivona Ku?erová (PhD 1997)[McMaster University] & Edgar Onea: Topic pronouns in Czech: Argument drop in disguise