LINGUIST List 11.674

Fri Mar 24 2000

Calls: Peripheral Positions

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. David Adger, Peripheral Positions

Peripheral Positions

Invited Speakers

Jim McCloskey (Santa Cruz)
Mamoru Saito (Nanzan)
Lilliane Haegeman (Lille)
Caroline Heycock (Edinburgh) (to be confirmed)
Ianthi Tsimpli (Thessaloniki/Cambridge) (to be confirmed)

Early generative syntax was concerned with providing a formal account
of a whole range of constructions, and provided transformational
analyses of phenomena like Heavy NP Shift, Extraposition,
Topicalisation, Scrambling, Focussing Constructions etc. In some
sense, all of these constructions involve peripheral positions within
the clausal architecture - that is, positions which, at first blush,
are not associated with one of the core clausal heads. Within the
Government and Binding framework, these phenomena, together with
those traditionally treated as involving base generation (Clitic
Right/Left Dislocation), never truly figured as core concerns of the
theory of clausal structure, althought they were important from the
perspective of A-bar dependency. More recently, however, developments
within the theory of clause structure, and the development of the
Minimalist program, have meant that such phenomena are beginning to
raise interesting analytical and theoretical questions. We intend to
hold a conference at the University of York on the 9th-11th of
September to address these issues.

More specifically, the kinds of questions we would like to address include
the following:

 Euro Is it possible or even desirable to provide a unified account of the
behaviour of elements at the right and left peripheries of the clause?

 Euro What is the phrase structural characterisation of such elements?

 Euro Are there dedicated peripheral positions for particular kinds of
syntactic formatives, and if so what are the relevant featural characteristics?

 Euro Are peripheral positions available at early stages of first and second
language acquisition?

 Euro What is the relationship between peripheral positions and apparently
resumptive elements deeper within the clause structure?

 Euro What kinds of motivations are there for movement of elements to
peripheral positions, and how do these bear on considerations of information
structure and prosody?

 Euro What, if anything, differentiates matrix from embedded peripheral
positions?

Abstract Submission details

Abstracts should be no more than two pages long (1000 - 1200 words maximum).
Send 5 anonymous and one camera ready copy bearing the authors' name and
affiliation, together with contact details, including an email address, to:

Peripheral Positions Conference Programme Committee
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
University of York
Heslington - York
YO10 5DD
United Kingdom

Faxed abstracts will not be considered.

You can, however, submit your abstract by email in plain ASCII (no
attachments, no LaTeX source please) to: lang7york.ac.uk

 For further/updated information, please see the conference website:
 http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~lang7/

Important Dates:

Abstract submission deadline: June 1 2000
Notification of acceptance (by email): June 19 2000
Conference: 9-11 September 2000

Note: The conference will follow on from the Linguistics Association of
Great Britain (LAGB) conference which is to be held in Durham 7-9th
September. Durham is 45 minutes away by train. See the LAGB�s website
( http://clwww.essex.ac.uk/LAGB/ ) for further details.

We intend to publish selected papers from the conference with a major
publisher.