LINGUIST List 11.1715

Wed Aug 9 2000

Calls: Germanic Linguistics, Semiotics

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Wiebke Brockhaus, Forum for Germanic Language Studies
2. Gloria Withalm, Myths - Rites - Simulacra (Austria) (10/15; 00/12/08-10)

FORUM FOR GERMANIC LANGUAGE STUDIES

Fourth biennial conference - second notice.

The "Forum for Germanic Language Studies" is an association of
university teachers and researchers in the United Kingdom and 
Ireland interested in the linguistic study of German and related 
Germanic languages (excluding English). It was formed in October 
1994 and has since held conferences every two years at venues in 
the UK. President is currently Professor Martin Durrell (Department 
of German, University of Manchester).

The fourth biennial conference will be held in Manchester on 24-25
November 2000, jointly organised by the University of Manchester,
Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of 
Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, with the kind 
collaboration of the Goethe Institute Manchester and the Swiss 
Consulate Manchester.

The conference will open at 16.00 in the Arts Building, University of 
Manchester on Friday 24 November and continue on Saturday 25 
November in the Goethe Institute Manchester (09.15 - 16.30), 
Churchgate House, Oxford Street, Manchester M1 6EU. 

Plenary papers: 

Professor Dr. Peter Eisenberg (Potsdam), "Zur morphologischen
Integration von Fremdw�rtern im Deutschen" Professor 
Dr. Dietmar R�sler (Gie�en), "Zum gegenw�rtigen Stand der DaF-
Forschung". 
It is hoped that a colleague from Switzerland will be able to accept an 
invitation to give a further plenary. 

Aside from a business meeting on Friday 24 November, when it is 
intended that the Forum should be formally constituted as an 
association, there will be time for up to 16 papers (in English or 
German: 25 minutes delivery, 15 minutes discussion), in two sessions. 
All colleagues and postgraduates will be cordially invited to submit 
abstracts (at most 300 words) of papers on a linguistic topic in relation 
to German or another Germanic language (except English). These 
should be sent or (preferably) e-mailed to Professor Martin Durrell, 
Department of German, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 
9PL (Martin.Durrellman.ac.uk) by 1 October 2000. 

The conference fee will be �20, which will include the cost of a
buffet lunch in the Goethe Institute on 25 November. Colleagues
wishing to attend should send a sterling cheque for this amount, 
made payable to 'University of Manchester', to Martin Durrell by 15 
October 2000.

Colleagues who wish to attend the conference and require 
accommodation in Manchester for the Friday (and/or Saturday) night 
may consult the Manchester Phonology Meeting's Travel and 
Accommodation page at 
http://www.art.man.ac.uk/german/8mfm/traccomm.htm, which contains 
a list of hotels and guest houses convenient for the university and the
city centre. 

The committee of the Forum was elected at the meeting held at the
University of Kent in February 1999 and consists of Barbara Fennell
(Aberdeen), Piklu Gupta (Hull), Ann Lawson (IDS), Cliona Marsh
(UCDublin), Victoria Martin (Oxford), Nicola McLelland (TCDublin),
John Partridge (Kent) and Sheila Watts (Cambridge). 

There is at present no formal membership, but an e-mail list of those 
known to be working in the field has been compiled from previous 
records by Mathias Schulze at UMIST. 

Further information may be obtained from any one of the organisers:

Martin Durrell, University of Manchester [Martin.Durrellman.ac.uk]
Bernd Herhoffer, Manchester Metropolitan University
[b.herhoffermmu.ac.uk] 
Mathias Schulze, UMIST
[Mathias.Schulzeumist.ac.uk]

We are looking forward to seeing you in Manchester in November 
and hearing your paper.


Martin Durrell, Bernd Herhoffer, Mathias Schulze

==================================

Mathias Schulze
Lecturer in German
Department of Language Engineering
UMIST
PO Box 88
Manchester
M60 1QD

Mathias.Schulzeumist.ac.uk
http://www.ccl.umist.ac.uk/staff/mathias

tel +44 (0) 161 200 3083
fax +44 (0) 161 200 3099

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 	ISSS-Info Call for Papers - 10-OEGS-2000
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2000/12/08-10
Vienna: Mythen - Riten - Simulakra. Semiotische Perspektiven /
	Myths - Rites - Simulacra. Semiotic Viewpoints.
	10. Internationales Symposium der Oesterreichischen Gesellschaft
fuer Semiotik OEGS / 10th International Symposium of the Austrian
Association for Semiotics AAS.
	DEADLINE: 15 October 2000
Info: OeGS c/o Institut fur Sozio-Semiotische Studien ISSS, Waltergasse
5/1/12, A-1040 Wien/Oesterreich; Tel. & Fax +43-1-5045344, email:
<gloria.withalmuni-ak.ac.at>
http://www.uni-ak.ac.at/culture/withalm/10-OEGS
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 MYTHEN * RITEN * SIMULAKRA
 MYTHS * RITES * SIMULACRA
Semiotische Perspektiven / Semiotic Viewpoints

	10. Internationales Symposium der
	Oesterreichischen Gesellschaft fur Semiotik OEGS
	10th International Symposium of the
	Austrian Association for Semiotics AAS

	In Zusammenarbeit mit der Universitaet fur angewandte Kunst Wien
	organisiert vom Institut fur Sozio-Semiotische Studien ISSS, Wien
	In cooperation with the University of Applied Arts, Vienna,
	organized by the Institute for Socio-Semiotic Studies ISSS, Vienna

Time:	Friday to Sunday, 8-10 December 2000
Venue:	University of Applied Arts Vienna
	Oskar-Kokoschka-Platz 2
	A-1010 Wien/Oesterreich

	* CALL FOR PAPERS *

	In the year 2000, the Austrian Association for Semiotics celebrates
its 25th anniversary (1975 proposers' committee, 1976 formal foundation),
and suggests on this very occasion as the title of its 10th Symposium
"Myths, Rites, and Simulacra", i.e. a semiotically "deep" and "significant"
topic - not least due to the fact that "2000" is certainly a myth in itself!
	The notion of "myth" is doubtlessly ambiguous, and thus generally,
as well as (in particular) semiotically, challenging - fiction with "deep
truth"(?). In the classical sense there were, in the beginning, the myths
about gods and heroes, about the creation and the end of the world.
"Mythologies" were understood as ("primitive"?) models of explanation and
appropriation of the world, as early states of consciousness, in close
connection with religious thought. A more secularized view of the myth
comprised also personalities and events pertaining to world history, then a
trivialized view the modern political myths too (e.g. "nation", "empire").
In the end it also became obvious - thanks to semiotics - that we are
living with and in "everyday myths". Moreover, "mythology" means the whole
of the myths of a community on the object level; on the meta-level, their
scientific treatment. Semiotic analysis and elaboration of the notion of
"myth", and what is meant by it in different contexts, is therefore an
important task. Indeed, semiotics has dealt with mythology already broadly
and fundamentally (Vico, Barthes, Levi-Strauss, Cassirer, Langer, Geertz,
Leach, the Moscow-Tartu-School...), and it is obvious that many related
semiotic fields of interest are connected with "myth" (culture, structure,
deep structure, discourse, narration, metaphor, modelling, fictionality,
ideology, media, magic...). There seem to be no limits for the application
of semiotic methods and categories.
	The notion of "rite" means first of all the cultic tradition of a
religious community as a whole, while "ritual" indicates singular cultic
practices and liturgical acts. Yet, as the notion of "ritualization" -
coined by J.S. Huxley in 1914 - shows, there were also other currents of
thought, for instance early ethology, signifying therewith certain animal
and later also human patterns of behavior ("displays"), participating in
the construction of a now more manifold meaning. Or take A. van Gennep's
notion of "rites de passage" (already from 1909) in anthropology. Such
terms were then also used in sociology, as can be demonstrated by E.
Goffman's well-known term "interaction ritual". And similar to the case of
"everyday myths", one speaks today about "everyday rituals" even in
colloquial speech, in which the notional extensions from the
liturgial-cultic and the scientific field diffusely intermingle - a
(dis)continuum of notions, from value-neutral (be it biologically or
sociogenetically) "regulated", "ordered" behavior to pejoratively
interpreted patterns of stereotyped, automatized, schematized,
over-regulated behavior. From a semiotic point of view, the topic is
closely connected with that of the "myth", on the one hand, and with many
further important fields of research and interest, on the other (codes,
conventions, speech rituals, gestures, expressive behavior, kinesics,
proxemics...).
	The notion of "simulacrum" is, in a way, ambivalent too, insofar as
it first of all meant picture (Lat. image, picture, reproduction), but at
the same time the fictitious, vague, diffused image (Lat. dream image,
mirage, shadow). The latter meaning was centrally established by J.
Baudrillard in postmodern and particularly postmodernism-critical
discourse. In his culture and media semiotics the point of the term is the
increasingly reference-less, "empty" sign in our culture and society,
characterized by "floating significants", which in total tend to make
everyday life as well as history become huge simulacra. In this process,
the media and the ideology of consumerism play outstanding roles, so that
the notion of "simulacrum", as a pendant to "myths" and "rituals", seeks to
encourage practice-oriented semiotic approaches in dealing with genuinely
contemporaneous phenomena.

We invite you to offer theoretical as well as particularly
practice-oriented analytical contributions to the above-mentioned
interrelated topics. Duration of lecture: 30 minutes (+ 15 minutes
discussion).

Please send
a) your registration and the title of your lecture (as soon as possible -
e-mail, fax or an informal letter suffices; please indicate particularly
your email address!), and
b) an abstract of about 100 to max. 150 words
	(until October 15, 2000, at the latest!!!).
	preferably by email (either in the body or attached: filename:
	"lastname-10OEGS".

Congress fee: ATS 500.- (OeGS/AAS Members free of charge).
Congress languages: German, English.
The congress results will be published.

Registrations, abstracts and requests to:
OeGS/AAS c/o Institute for Socio-Semiotic Studien ISSS
Waltergasse 5/1/12, A-1040 Vienna/Austria
Tel. & fax +43-1-5045344: email: <gloria.withalmuni-ak.ac.at>

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ISSS-Info - der elektronische Newsletter zu Veranstaltungen und
Publikationen im Feld der Semiotik, uebermittelt durch das:
	Institut fuer Sozio-Semiotische Studien ISSS
	Jeff Bernard
	Waltergasse 5/1/12, 1040 Wien
	phone+fax: +43-1-5045344
	email: <gloria.withalmuni-ak.ac.at>
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