For some reason I’d presupposed that I was the only Brown faculty member with a blog, or at least an academically inclined one. As you probably guessed from this lead in, that is not true. Vika Zafrin, and NEH Research Fellow in Italian Studies, runs Words’ End. There’s not much overlap with my research interests, but given it’s an academic blog by an inhabitant of Providence, there’s naturally some points of contact.

Physically further away, but closer to my heart, is The X-Bar. It seems I missed the opening night party, but I think I’ll make up for it with return visits. Any bar open 24/7 with people around to talk about syntax is a very good thing in my book. Here’s how Rosanne (the proprietor) described her new blog.

This journal is intended to be a central place to keep tabs on my current reading in linguistics and the thoughts and ideas that come from within and without said readings. I’m a third-year Ph.D. student in a generative linguistics program, on leave for a while thanks to blissful maternity and less blissful academic burnout, and trying to become inspired by the field once more. I plan to review core readings, ponder questions that have been burning to be answered since I entered the field, and to (boldly) go (boldly) where I’ve never studied before. The readings will likely span the fields of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and reach into the philosophy of language, with a more practical turn into pedagogically oriented grammar. I’ve a hankering to look more closely at functionalist efforts (particularly in light of the grammar work), and am also trying to broaden my horizons from the Chomskyan framework in which I’ve cut my teeth.