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Report on the 2007 Linguistic Institute

The 2007 Linguistic Institute, which took place from July 1-27, was hosted by the Department of Linguistics, Stanford University. Its theme was "Empirical Foundations for Theories of Language", reflecting a focus on emergent directions for linguistic research. Courses and activities were chosen to inspire the broadening and clarification of the empirical basis of linguistic study, alongside the development or refinement of theoretical models. The Institute had around 440 students, 80 affiliates, and 100 faculty (many courses had 2 or more instructors). The named professors were: Collitz, Asko Parpola (University of Helsinki); Hale, Marianne Mithun (University of California, Santa Barbara); and Sapir, Joan Bresnan (Stanford University). The director was Peter Sells (Stanford University; now SOAS); the associate directors were Juliette Blevins (MPI-EVA) and Eve V. Clark, Dan Jurafsky, Beth Levin and Ivan A. Sag (Stanford University).

The Institute featured two curricular innovations. First, in addition to 74 regular session courses, each meeting seven times in the period July 5-27, there were 18 "presession" courses, meeting three times July 1-3. The presession courses were designed either to provide specific skills required for regular Institute classes or to provide gentle introductions intended to widen horizons. Second, a large part of the slate of regular session courses were chosen following a call for proposals, which then went through a review and revision process, with the remainder taught by invited or on-site instructors. Both these facets of the Institute were very positively received.

The Institute hosted three Institute lectures given by the named professors, and three Forum lectures. The Forum lecturers were: William Labov (University of Pennsylvania); Elissa Newport (University of Rochester); Harald Baayen (MPI-Nijmegen). In addition, there were about fifteen workshops and conferences running during the Institute, mainly on weekends and during non-class Wednesdays. Finally, there were several well-attended social events, including an Institute-wide barbecue on the Fourth of July and two weekend parties.

Overall, the Institute seems to have been very successful, with a high level of satisfaction from students, affiliates and faculty.

List of Instructors

List of Concurrent Conferences and Workshops

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