Presentations

2020s

2020

William Wood’s New England’s Prospect and language learning in colonial New England
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
New Orleans, LA.  January 2020

The T-unit as a measure of “syntactic maturity”: operationalizing linguistic complexity within early generative grammar
Colloque SHESL HTL: Simplicité et complexité des langues dans l’histoire des théories linguistiques
Université Paris Diderot, Paris.  January 2020

2010s

2019

On the history of generative grammar: Four perspectives
The Bar-Hillel Colloquium for History, Philosophy & Sociology of Science
The Cohen Institute / Tel Aviv University.  December 2019

On what bases does functional linguistics oppose formalism, and what are the consequences beyond the study of language?
The Bar-Hillel Colloquium for History, Philosophy & Sociology of Science
The Edenstein Center / The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.  December 2019

Brokers, mediators, & ‘forest diplomats’: Language in colonial New England
Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Annual Colloquium
University of Edinburgh.  August 2019

The history of monolingual fieldwork as a tool in American linguistics
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
New York, NY.  January 2019

2018

Roots of the debate between ‘formalists’ and ‘functionalists’
Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Annual Colloquium
National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland. September 2018

Broca’s legacy to the twenty-first century
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Salt Lake City, UT.  January 2018

Wikipedia in a course on the history of linguistics
Co-presented with Jared Collier, Boston College (Linguistics) 2017 at the North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Salt Lake City, UT.  January 2018

2017

On the historiography of ‘Cartesian linguistics’
Fourteenth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences
Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. August 2017

Conceptualization of the basis of English grammaticology, 1800-2000
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Austin, TX.  January 2017

2016

Why the history of linguistics matters
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Washington, D.C.  January 2016

English negative concord in usage and grammar, across time and space
Histoire des langues et histoire des répresentations linguistiques
Société d’Histoire et d’Épistemologie des Sciences du Langage, Paris.  January 2016

The significance of missionary grammars
Invited presentation
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.  March 2016

American women’s contributions to the history of linguistics
Distant and Neglected Voices: Women in the History of Linguistics
British Academy / Royal Society, London. June 2016

Onomastics in American linguistic fieldwork
Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Annual Colloquium
Cambridge University, Cambridge.  June 2016

2015

First-person testimonies as resources in linguistic historiography
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Portland, OR.  January 2015

Historiography of second language acquisition: How has the field narrated its own history?
Symposium on the Social History of Second Language Acquisition 
American Association of Applied Linguistics Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario.  March 2015

2014

Women in American linguistics, 1924-2014
Symposium marking the 90th anniversary of the LSA at the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting
Minneapolis, MN.  January 2014

In what language did Roman Jakobson ‘speak six languages, all of them in Russian’?
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Minneapolis, MN. January 2014

Air writing’ as a technique for acquisition of kanji by second-language learners in the age of the word processor
8th International Conference on Practical Linguistics of Japanese
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Tachikawa, Japan. March 2014

What do we talk about, when we talk about the history of linguistics? A view from the United States
Thirteenth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences
Universidad de Trás-Os-Montes, Vila Real, Portugal.  August 2014

2013

New England’s contributions to the history of language study
Organized session, with co-organizer Brian Joseph at the North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Boston, MA.  January 2013

Otto Jespersen and ‘The Woman’, now and then
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Boston, MA.  January 2013

Acquisition of kanji by second-language learners in the age of the word processor
Invited lecture at the Center for English Language Education
Waseda University, Tokyo,  January 2013

Pragmatics of ‘little’ words in English
Invited lecture at the Graduate School of Arts and Letters
Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo.   January 2013

Research design in the study of acquisition of kanji by second-language learners
Invited lecture at the Department of Japanese Literature
Japan Women’s University, Tokyo.  January 2013

2012

Unconscious role of the hands in second-language learning of Japanese orthography
Invited lecture at the Department of English and American Literature
Momoyama Gakuin University, Osaka.  July 2012

Roman Jakobson and the 1968 Newberry Conference on the History of Linguistics
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Portland, OR.  January 2012

2011

On the history of the LSA’s Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Pittsburgh, PA.  January 2011

Jakobson’s circles
Twelfth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences
St. Petersburg University, St. Petersburg, Russia.  August 2011

2010

The professional and the personal in linguistic biography
Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Annual Colloquium
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.  September 2010

Chomsky revisited, reviewed, republished, renewed
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Baltimore, MD.  January 2010

2000s

2009

Names and pseudonyms in linguistic case studies
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
San Francisco, CA.  January 2009

2008

Gender and the language scholarship of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in the context of mid twentieth-century American linguistics
Eleventh International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences
Potsdam University, Potsdam.  August 2008

Who counts as a ‘key figure’ in the history of linguistics?
Invited lecture at the Department of Linguistics
University of Newcastle, Newcastle, UK.  February 2008

Fifty key thinkers’
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL.  January 2008

2007

On the pragmatics of English sentential anaphors it and that
Invited lecture at the Department of English Studies
Chuo University, Tokyo.  May 2007

On the origins of modern study of second language acquisition, and why we should care about getting the story right
Invited plenary address at the Annual Meeting of the Japan Second Language Association
Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan.  May 2007

The evergreen story of Psammetichus’ inquiry
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Anaheim, CA.  January 2007

2005

Re-conceptualiation of child and adult learning in late nineteenth into twentieth century America
Tenth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL.  September 2005

Saussure’s arrows, Chomsky’s vectors
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Oakland, CA.  January 2005

2004

Two proposals for the extra-linguistic value of the study of language: Eighteenth century idéologues and modern generative grammarians
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Boston, MA.  January 2004

2003

What do we talk about, when we talk about ‘universal grammar,’ and how have we talked about it?
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Atlanta, GA.  January 2003

2002

Notions of universal grammar and their multiple uses: Bacon, Steinthal, Joos
Invited presentation at the Georgetown Conference on the Uses of the Term ‘Grammar’ in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. March 2002

The specious battle between ‘contrastive analysis’ and ‘creative construction’
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
San Francisco, CA.  January 2002

2001

The arbitrary versus the natural in debate about the Critical Period
Harvard Mind/Brain/Behavior Forum
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA.  November 2001

Medieval and early Renaissance background to the modern epistemology of language
Invited presentation at the Department of Linguistics Colloquium Series
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.  March 2001

Arbitrary lexicon / natural grammar’ in the history of concepts of second language acquisition
Invited presentation
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. March 2001

Development of the concept of ‘the poverty of stimulus’
Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
Washington, D.C.  January 2001

2000

Twenty-five years of the BUCLD: An institutional history
Invited presentation at the 25th Annual Conference on Language Development
Boston University, Boston, MA. November 2000

1990s

1999

History, scholarship, nonsense: A chapter in the prehistory of second language acquisition
Invited plenary address at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics
Stamford, CT. March 1999

The significance of Babel in Western conceptualization of second language learning
North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences Annual Meeting
Los Angeles, CA.  January 1999

1998

Syntax and serial order in the elicited imitation of sentences by L2 learners
Second Language Research Forum
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI.  October 1998

1997

Corder’s insight in the context of Medieval and early Renaissance language science
Invited plenary address at the Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition
McGill University, Montreal, Québec. May 1997

1996

Why second-language acquisition theory has no sense of its own history, why we should do something about it, and what we should do
21st Annual Conference on Language Development
Boston University, Boston, MA.  November 1996

Language study in the ancient Mediterranean world and current research on L2 acquisition
Second Language Research Forum
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.  October 1996

Second language learning and the history of universal grammar
Spencer Fellows’ Forum
National Academy of Education, New York, NY.  April 1996

Interpretive and methodological issues in recent nativist research on child language acquisition
Guest lecture
The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.  February 1996

1995

Medieval and modern views of Universal Grammar and the nature of second language learning
Georgetown Roundtable of Language and Linguistics (Presession: History of Linguistics)
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. March 1995

1994

[With Akio Kamio] English multiple-foci it clefts
Conference on English linguistics [Presented by Akio Kamio]
Tokyo University, Tokyo.  November 1994

Roundtable on acquisition of Japanese as a second language
Organizer and co-chair at the Second Language Research Forum
McGill University,  Montreal, Québec.  October 1994

Acquisition of Japanese as a second language
Association for Asian Studies (Panel chair and discussant)
Boston, MA.  March 1994

1993

Comments on the session on binding and related phenomena
Recent Advances in Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.  January 1993

Language acquisition and movement of reflexives in Logical Form
Second Language Research Forum
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. March 1993

1992

Historical parallels to young children’s grammars of English reflexives
Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
Philadelphia, PA, January 1992

What does elicited imitation reveal about comprehension?
Second Language Research Forum
Michigan State University/Boston University in East Lansing, MI/Boston, MA.  March/April 1992

1991

Degree-zero learnability, morphology, and binding domains
16th Annual Conference on Language Development
Boston University, Boston, MA. October 1991

Position of adverbial clauses and anaphora direction in Japanese as a second language
Second Language Research Forum
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.  March 1991

Assessment of proficiency levels in second language research
Annual Meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics
New York, NY.  March 1991

1990

Language interference and wanna contraction
Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association
Chicago, IL. December 1990

Access to universal grammar in L2 learners’ interpretation of anaphors
15th Annual Conference on Language Development
Boston University, Boston, MA. October 1990

Acquisition of the Japanese zibun by unilingual and multilingual learners
Second Language Research Forum
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR.  March 1990

Universal grammar and second language acquisition
10th Annual Conference on Second Language Acquisition
University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.  February 1990

1980s

1989

[With Akio Kamio] Referential properties of English it and that: A functional analysis
Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
Washington, D.C.  December 1989

Parameters and Japanese zibun
Annual Meeting of the American Association for Applied Linguistics
Washington, D.C.  December 1989

Active learning and active teaching
Harvard-Danforth Center Fall Teaching Orientation
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. September 1989

1988

The interpretation of English reflexive pronouns by non-native speakers
13th Annual Conference on Language Development
Boston University, Boston, MA. October 1988

Vietnamese submissive passives
24th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. April 1988

Use of English articles by Mandarin-speaking second language learners
22nd Convention of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Chicago, IL.  March 1988