LINGUIST List 12.1202

Tue May 1 2001

Calls: Perspectives on Aspect, Translatory Action

Editor for this issue: Lydia Grebenyova <lydialinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Sergio Baauw, Perspectives on Aspect, OTS/ Utrecht, Netherlands
2. Dr. Kristin B�hrig, Translatory Action and Intercultural Communication, Belgium

CALL FOR PAPERS

Perspectives on Aspect

Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS

Utrecht, December 12 - 14 2001

The Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS will host an international
conference on aspect. The aim of the conference is to offer a retrospective
view on the past thirty years of research on aspectuality and temporality
as well as develop perspectives on the future development of the field.

The conference will revolve around three themes, distributed over three
days: Formal theory formation, New theoretical insights and Typological
variation. 

Day 1: Formal theory formation
On this day leading theories on aspect will be compared and related to each
other. Henk Verkuyl will give the opening lecture in which he presents a
survey of the main features in the aspectual theories of the past decennia
and the different choices made by theorists. Invited speakers of this day
will be: David Dowty, Manfred Krifka, Marc Moens / Mark Steedman. After the
presentations Hans Kamp will chair a forum discussion.

Day 2: New theoretical insights
The topic of this day will be the future development of research in the
domain of aspect and tense. Alice ter Meulen will give the opening lecture
on new perspectives that are emerging. Proponents of the new generation of
aspect researchers, Hana Filip, Chris Pi��n and Gillian Ramchand, will
present their contributions. 

Day 3: Typological variation
The leading idea for the third day's program is to establish a connection
between theoretical and typological research. Invited speakers for this day
are �sten Dahl and Emmon Bach. The forum discussion of this day will be
chaired by Barbara Partee.

In addition to the invited speakers, there will be a number of slots for
selected talks and poster presentations. We invite researchers in the field
of aspectuality to submit abstracts on the themes identified above.
Abstracts should be anonymous and should be no longer than 2 pages
including references and examples, with margins of at least 1-inch, letter
size 12. Submissions are limited to a maximum of one individual and one
joint abstract per author. Please provide 5 anonymous copies of an
abstract, and one camera ready original containing title, author's name and
affiliation. A separate card should contain the title of the paper,
author's name, affiliation, address, telephone number and e-mail address.
E-mail submissions are accepted, provided that the abstract is anonymous
and sent as an e-mail attachment (Word, RTF). The information about the
author (name, affiliation, address, etc.) should be sent along in the body
of the e-mail message. Submissions by fax will not be accepted.

Deadline for receipt of abstracts: June 1st 2001

Abstracts should be sent to the following address: Perspectives on Aspect,
UiL OTS, Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, Netherlands. Tel: +31 30 253-6006.
E-mail submissions should be sent to: aspectlet.uu.nl.

Organizing Committee: 
Angeliek van Hout (Groningen University), Anna Mlynarczyk (UiL OTS -
Utrecht University), Henri�tte de Swart (UiL OTS - Utrecht University) and
Henk Verkuyl (UiL OTS - Utrecht University).
_____________________________________
Sergio Baauw 
Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS 
Utrecht University 
Trans 10 
3512 JK Utrecht 
Netherlands 
 
tel: +31 (0)30 2536213 
fax: +31 (0)84 8328545 
 
e-mail: sergio.baauwlet.uu.nl 
home page: http://www.let.uu.nl/~Sergio.Baauw/ 
 

Second Call for papers

We are pleased to announce the workshop "Translatory Action and
Intercultural Communication" which we organize within the 34 th Meeting 
of the Societas Linguistica Europaea on "Language Study at the turn of
Milennium". The conference will be held in Leuven, Belgium, on 28-31 August
( http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/sle2001 )

Kristin B=FChrig, Juliane House and Jan ten Thije

Translatory Action and Intercultural Communication

Translating and interpreting as forms of translatory or mediating 
actions are used to overcome linguistic barriers. This mediating function 
often implies the necessity (or possibility) of creating a "communicative 
bridge" for members of two or more cultures. Evidence for the existence in 
translatory action of such a bridging function is provided by investigations 
of "covert translations" (House 1997), i.e., translations in which a 
"cultural filter" is employed. Such a filter prevents, for instance, 
Anglo-American textual conventions from invading German textual norms by 
adapting the translated texts to the relevant German norms. Similarly, 
studies of interpreted interactions show how, for instance, explanations are 
used to adapt source linguistic actions to the needs of target language 
receptors (Rehbein 1985; B=FChrig & Rehbein 2000).

But the translatory process may also be fraught with difficulties and
misunderstandings, which can complicate either the translatory process
itself or the reception of target linguistic actions, thus rendering
intercultural communication more difficult. For example, language - and
culture-specific communicative phenomena such as the realisation of speech
action patterns, politeness or forms of address must frequently be 
modified in translatory action. Such modifications make special demands on 
the translator and in particular on the interpreter, who - due to time
constraints- faces enormous communicative difficulties, which is one reason
why interpreters and translators often shift the focus of their 
activities in the direction of intercultural mediation..

Since in studies of translation and interpretation both source and target
linguistic actions are, as a rule, available as written or transcribed
documents, it is also possible to reflect on the epistemological value 
of translation studies for intercultural communication.

Consistent with the above, we want to try in this workshop to interrelate
the following thematic strands:
a. Procedures of mediating between cultures in translatory action
b. Problems of intercultural communication in translatory action
c. Insights into intercultural communication based on analyses of
translatory action.

We welcome contributions that are empirically based and that deal with any
one of these three topics or, indeed, combinations of them.

Please send your abstract (rtf. Document) until the 1st of June to Kristin
Buehrig (kristin.buehrigtalknet.de)