Tim Hunter - UMD Linguistics

Tim Hunter
Graduate Student in Linguistics
University of Maryland, College Park

timh at umd dot edu

Research Interests

Syntax/Semantics

Most of this centres around the argument/adjunct distinction, and in particular what insight can be gained from thinking about how these two kinds of constituents contribute to neo-Davidsonian logical forms. More generally I am striving to provide computationally explicit models, along the lines of what Ed Stabler and others have been developing, of a theory of syntax/semantics inspired by many ideas from Norbert Hornstein and Paul Pietroski.

Two related papers which will make up a large chunk of my dissertation (comments welcome!):
- "Connecting Adjunct Islands and Freezing Effects"
- "Connecting the Argument/Adjunct Distinction, Neo-Davidsonian Semantics and Move as Re-merge"
MoL 2009 proceedings paper: "Deriving Syntactic Properties of Arguments and Adjuncts from Neo-Davidsonian Semantics"
Generals paper, Mar. 2008: "Phrase Structure and Conjunctivist Interpretation" [defense slides (PDF)] [defense handout (PDF)]

Verification and Acquisition of Quantification/Determiners

Along with Paul Pietroski, Jeff Lidz, and Justin Halberda, I'm studying the semantics of quantificational words like 'most'. In particular, we're looking at what can be gained from looking beyond truth-conditional analysis of semantics using psychophysical experimentation.

SALT presentation, Mar. 2008: "Beyond Truth Conditions: The semantics of 'most'" [proceedings paper] [slides as PPT file] [slides as PDF file]
To appear in Mind and Language: Pietroski, Lidz, Hunter & Halberda: "The Meaning 'most': Semantics, Numerosity and Psychology"
Submitted: Lidz, Halberda, Pietroski & Hunter: "Interface Transparency and the Psychosemantics of 'most'"

I've done some experiments, with Jeff Lidz and others, looking at four- and five-year-olds' learning of determiner meanings. The aim of this work is to see how closely the learner's hypothesis space of available determiner meanings reflects existing typological generalisations, such as the restriction to conservative determiner meanings.

BU presentation, Nov. 2008: "Children's restrictions on the meanings of novel determiners" [proceedings paper] [slides as PPT file] [slides as PDF file]
SALT poster, Apr. 2009: "Restrictions on the meanings of determiners" [proceedings paper] [poster]

Other odds and ends

MASL poster, Aug. 2009, with Shiti Malhotra: "Reassessing the argument for tucking-in"
With Philip Resnik, I'm working on extending phrase-based statistical translation models, using dependency trees to provide better information about how constituents should be ordered in the target language. The idea behind this is to use "hierarchically informed" ordering strategies without throwing away the advantages of the flat phrases used in systems like Pharaoh.
- Submitted paper: "Exploiting Syntactic Relationships in a Phrase-based Decoder"
- Tech report (more comprehensive, less polished): "Extending Phrase-based Decoding with a Dependency-based Reordering Model"

Teaching

Spring 2010: Instructor for LING419: Fitting Syntax and Semantics Together
Spring 2009: Instructor for LING419: Fitting Syntax and Semantics Together
Fall 2008: TA for LING200: Introductory Linguistics
Spring 2008: TA for LING311: Syntax I

From "Down Under"

I'm originally from Sydney, Australia but moved to the US for graduate studies in 2005. As an undergraduate I studied mainly computer science and French, but towards the end I became more interested in linguistics.

In Sydney I studied at the University of New South Wales from 2000-2004, mainly in the School of Computer Science and Engineering (where I also did some teaching) and the French and Linguistics departments. Most of my involvement with linguistics was with Mengistu Amberber. I also spent a semester on exchange at Ecole des Mines d'Ales, France, in 2002-03.

In my spare time I was what's known in Australia as a "cricket tragic" (a fanatical follower of the game) and also a committed member of the STALW indoor cricket team. I'm hoping I'll still get to the Sydney Test match in January every year, but in between I suspect my cricket exposure will sadly be fairly sparse. I'm eyeing baseball off as a replacement. The picture of me above was taken at Lord's cricket ground in London, "the home of cricket".

In my not-so-spare time I was a proud member of the small software development team at Brain Juice.

If you would like a one-minute introduction to Australia, have a look at this.

Odds and Ends

Photos from:

a particularly Australian way to celebrate Australia Day in 2008
trip to Kansas, June/July 2008
trip to Hamburg for ESSLLI, August 2008