The MIT Linguistics Group has been engaged in the study
of language since the 1950's, and the first class of PhD students was admitted in 1961. Our research aims to discover the
rules and representations underlying the structure of
particular languages and what they reveal about the general
principles that determine the form and development of language
in the individual and the species. The program covers the
traditional subfields of linguistics (phonetics, phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and psycholinguistics) as well
as interfaces with philosophy and logic, speech science and
technology, computer science and artificial intelligence, and
study of the brain and cognition.
News from WHAMIT! — our weekly
newsletter:
Recent and Upcoming Conferences:
- NELS 45, October 31-November 2, 2014
- Phonology 2014, September 19-21, 2014
- WAFL 10: Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics, May 2-4, 2014
- McGill-MIT Workshop on Gradability and Quantity in Language and the Brain, January 31 - February 1, 2014
- SNEWS 2013, the Southern New England Workshop in Semantics, November 16, 2013
- NECPhon, the Northeast Computational Phonology workshop, October 26, 2013
- Japanese/Korean Linguistics 23, October 11-13, 2013
- Conference on Metrical Structure: Text-Setting and Stress (m@90) to honor Morris Halle's 90th birthday, September 20-21, 2013: videos of the talks
- Previous Conferences...
James Higginbotham (1941-2014)
It is with sadness and shock that we have learned of the death of linguist, philosopher, and colleague James Higginbotham at the age of 72. Jim was member of both the Linguistics and Philosophy faculties at MIT for 13 years, from 1980 until 1993, when he left MIT for Oxford. In 2000, he moved from Oxford to the University of Southern California, where at various times he chaired both the philosophy and linguistics departments. At the time of his death, he was Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Linguistics and Linda Hilf Chair in Philosophy at USC.
In both fields, Jim was a larger-than-life figure. It was Jim who made semantics a vital component of the linguistics program at MIT. He taught classes at all levels in both the linguistics and philosophy programs, and was a huge influence on many graduate students in both programs during his time here.
Jim pioneered the integration of semantic theory (in his own maverick version) with the Principles-and-Parameters approach to syntax that was being developed at MIT. In the press release that accompanied his appointment to USC in 2000, Jim described this work (accurately) as follows: "I’m putting together the work of Chomsky and Davidson and juxtaposing it in ways that both would probably object to". In the same press release, he described the joys and sorrows of living in California by noting: "I have grown reconciled to not being able to see the Yankees play. After all, I couldn’t get to Yankee Stadium easily from Oxford either. At least here I can watch them on television.” Jim will be badly missed.
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