News & Events
Sag Gives Cum Laude Address
Ivan Sag ’67 was the featured speaker at this year’s Cum Laude Convocation Friday, March 28, in the Simon Theatre.
Sag, who holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a noted linguist and professor of linguistics at Stanford University. He has co-authored several books that introduce and develop the syntactic theory known as head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG). He was also involved with work on generalized phrase structure grammar, HPSG’s immediate intellectual predecessor. In addition, he has written numerous articles about linguistic theory and analysis. His research goal is “to contribute to the development of a theory of grammars that can be directly embedded within a theory of communication and language processing.”
Sag, who was advised at MIT by celebrated linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, wrote his dissertation on ellipsis—the omission or suppression of words in a sentence. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied comparative Indo-European languages, Sanskrit, and sociolinguistics.
Twenty-four Mercersburg seniors were elected to membership in the Cum Laude Society this school year. They include Kelsie Bittle, of Frederick, Maryland; Josh Bowling, of Lake Charles, Louisiana; Lara Brandfass, of Morgantown, West Virginia; Eleanor Carroll-Smith, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Sarah Cho, of Kunpo-si, Kyungki-do, Korea; Jeff Chung, of Seoul, Korea; Leonard Deibel, of Worms, Germany; Laura Diller, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; James Finucane, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Chris Freeland, of Frederick, Maryland; Vivien Hu, of Shanghai, China; Janice Jung, of Seoul, Korea; Patrick Morgan, of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania; Ting Ou Yang, of Taipei, Taiwan; Kiva Rudd, of Amarillo, Texas; Molly Sabol, of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania; Jenna Spagnolo, of Falls Church, Virginia; Annie Spencer, of Frederick, Maryland; Nathan Stanford, of Annandale, Virginia; David Strider, of Charles Town, West Virginia; Emily Weiss, of Greencastle, Pennsylvania; Remy Wheat, of Richmond, Virginia; Laura Willwerth, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; and Tony Yen, of Flushing, New York.
The Cum Laude Society recognizes excellence in academic work; it is the secondary-school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa.
Ivan Sag ’67 was the featured speaker at this year’s Cum Laude Convocation Friday, March 28, in the Simon Theatre. Sag, who holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a noted linguist and professor of linguistics at Stanford University. He has co-authored several books that introduce and develop the syntactic theory known as head-driven phrase structure grammar (HPSG). He was also involved with work on generalized phrase structure grammar, HPSG’s immediate intellectual predecessor. In addition, he has written numerous articles about linguistic theory and analysis. His research goal is “to contribute to the development of a theory of grammars that can be directly embedded within a theory of communication and language processing.”
Sag, who was advised at MIT by celebrated linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, wrote his dissertation on ellipsis—the omission or suppression of words in a sentence. He earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied comparative Indo-European languages, Sanskrit, and sociolinguistics.
Twenty-four Mercersburg seniors were elected to membership in the Cum Laude Society this school year. They include Kelsie Bittle, of Frederick, Maryland; Josh Bowling, of Lake Charles, Louisiana; Lara Brandfass, of Morgantown, West Virginia; Eleanor Carroll-Smith, of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Sarah Cho, of Kunpo-si, Kyungki-do, Korea; Jeff Chung, of Seoul, Korea; Leonard Deibel, of Worms, Germany; Laura Diller, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; James Finucane, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Chris Freeland, of Frederick, Maryland; Vivien Hu, of Shanghai, China; Janice Jung, of Seoul, Korea; Patrick Morgan, of Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania; Ting Ou Yang, of Taipei, Taiwan; Kiva Rudd, of Amarillo, Texas; Molly Sabol, of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania; Jenna Spagnolo, of Falls Church, Virginia; Annie Spencer, of Frederick, Maryland; Nathan Stanford, of Annandale, Virginia; David Strider, of Charles Town, West Virginia; Emily Weiss, of Greencastle, Pennsylvania; Remy Wheat, of Richmond, Virginia; Laura Willwerth, of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; and Tony Yen, of Flushing, New York.
The Cum Laude Society recognizes excellence in academic work; it is the secondary-school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa.
