LINGUIST List 13.841

Tue Mar 26 2002

Calls: Heritage Lang Education, Syntax & Semantics

Editor for this issue: Renee Galvis <reneelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Scott McGinnis, EXTENDED DEADLINE: Call for proposals (poster session):
2. Miriam Butt, Call for Papers: Complex Predicates, Particles and Subevents

Heritage Languages in America Second National Conference -- DEADLINE
FOR ABSTRACTS 15 APRIL
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 14:34:31 -0500

Heritage Languages in America: Building on our National Resources Second
National Conference Washington, D.C. October 18-20, 2002

CALL FOR POSTER SESSION PROPOSALS

The Second National Conference on Heritage Languages in America will
be held at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner, Virginia (in the
greater Washington, D.C. area) October 18-20, 2002. The conference is
being organized by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) and the
National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), with support from the
University of Maryland, College Park.

Building from the foundation of the First National Conference,
convened in October 1999, in Long Beach, California, the Second
National Conference will seek to further the aims of the Heritage
Languages Initiative, a national effort to develop the non-English
language resources that exist in our communities. It will bring
together heritage language community and school leaders,
representatives from pre-K-12 schools and colleges and universities,
world-renowned researchers, and federal and state policymakers. The
goals of the Heritage Languages Initiative and this conference are to
continue to make manifest the personal, economic, and social benefits
to our nation of preserving and developing the languages spoken by
those living in this country; to build a national dialogue on this
topic; and to develop an action agenda for the next several years.

Poster sessions will take place on Saturday, October 19. We encourage
submissions on all topics related to heritage language education, and
we suggest the following topics:

* Instruction (programs, materials and curricula, strategies, and
	assessment)
* Community-based initiatives
* Career opportunities for heritage language speakers
* Teacher preparation programs and materials
* Professional needs and opportunities (development and recruitment)
* Research
* Language and education policy

Poster sessions may focus on completed work or work in progress. They
will include a display of work and a brief oral presentation. Tables
and display boards will be provided. Presenters are responsible for
all other audiovisual equipment. They may bring their own equipment or
make arrangements with the audiovisual supplier for the
conference. For information on how to construct a poster presentation
see <http://www.lcsc.edu/ss150/poster.htm>;

Proposals should include a title (not to exceed ten words), an
abstract of no more than 250 words, and a 50-75 word abstract suitable
for inclusion in the conference program. The primary language(s)
involved should be included as well as the presenter's contact
information (including institutional affiliation and e-mail
address). All proposals may be submitted by e-mail attachment (the
preferred method) in WordPerfect or Word, or postal mail to the
following address:

Ana Maria Schwartz
Email aschwartumbc.edu
Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
Phone 410-455-2109

The deadline for receipt of proposals is April 15, 2002. The
conference program committee will notify those who submitted proposals
of their status no later than May 15, 2002. Abstracts received after
the deadline will be considered only if space is available.

"Competence in languages other than English is desperately needed in
the United States. Our huge and varied heritage language resources
have a definite role to play in arriving at such competence."
		Joshua Fishman, Yeshiva and Stanford Universities

			 CALL FOR PAPERS

			 Workshop
	 Complex Predicates, Particles and Subevents

			University of Konstanz
			 SFB 471
		 September 30, October 1-2


The phenomenon of complex predicates across languages points towards a
tight correlation between the syntax of predication and the semantics
of events. The exploration of this syntax/semantics interface has
taken many forms, but remains far from having reached a state of
accomplishment. The aim of this workshop is to contribute to the
exploration of the syntax/semantics interface by paying special
attention to how the semantics of events is tied to the syntax of
complex predication. Central phenomena under investigation are V-V
constructions as found in South Asian languages (Butt 1995) or
resultative readings which go along with auxiliary and verbal
selection as found in Romance (Folli and Ramchand 2001). Of further
interest are N-V constructions such as in (3) or (4).

	 (1)	 nAdyA aa gayii
		 Nadya come went
		 'Nadya arrived.' (Urdu)

 (2)	 Gianni ha	corso nel bosco	(Italian)
		 John has run.Past in.the woods 
		 'John has run in the woods (for an hour).'

		 Gianni e	corso nel bosco (Italian)
		 John is run.Past in.the woods 
		 'John has run in the woods (in a minute).'

 (3)	 shekast dAdan 
		 defeat give
		 'to defeat' (Persian)

		 shekast xordan 
		 defeat eat 
		 'to be defeated'	 (Persian)

	 (4)	 Er hot a kum arayn geton
		 he has a come in done
		 'He came in.'		(Yiddish)


There is growing evidence that parts of complex (but still primary)
predication hook into "subevents" (Ramchand 2001) or "diminutivized
events" (Diesing 1998). This type of syntax/semantics interplay is
heavily reminiscent of the elusive semantics associated with Germanic
particle verbs. One question that arises is whether the syntax and
semantics of complex V-V or N-V predication can indeed be analyzed
along the same lines as the syntax and semantics of particle verbs.

 (5) Er kommt an. 
	 he come	at
	 'He arrives.'

A perhaps pertinent observation is that while Sanskrit made heavy use
of preverbs (or particle verbs) along the lines now found in Germanic,
the modern Indo-Aryan descendents in South Asia have purged themselves
of this construction. In comparison, the South Asian languages make
much heavier use of V-V or N-V complex predication than is the case in
Germanic, where the Indo-European preverb/particle construction is
still very much in evidence. Does this diachronic evidence as to
complementary distribution support the perceived close connection
between particles and complex predicates?

Another observation is that the phonological and prosodic properties
of complex predicates and particle verbs are special both from a
diachronic and a synchronic perspective in that they form separate
prosodic entities, but nevertheless are also dependent on another
prosodic word. This dependency, however, does not lead to a gradual
loss of prosodic independence, as is observed with auxiliaries or
clitics, for example. How can this be accounted for?

The possibility of a close connection between particles and complex
predicates has often been raised, but not been substantiated,
primarily because research on the Indo-Aryan (and Indo-Iranian) type
of complex predication is seldom treated by the same group of
researchers who work on particle verbs. One goal of this workshop is
thus to bring together researchers on complex predicates (V-V and N-V)
and particle verbs. The ultimate goal is to understand the
syntax/semantics/phonology interface of these constructions better in
terms of both synchronic and diachronic perspectives.


Invited Speakers:

David Adger (York) and Daniel Harbour (MIT) 
Ashwini Deo (Stanford) 
Paula Fikkert (Nijmegen) and Astrid Kraehenmann (Konstanz) 
Gillian Ramchand (Oxford)
Peter Svenonius (Tromso)

We anticipate being able to accept another 8-10 papers. Partial
reimbursement will be available.

The workshop is part of project A2 of the SFB 471 at the University of
Konstanz: http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/proj/sfb471/welcome.htm

Abstracts should be sent to: miriam.buttuni-konstanz.de

Deadline:	 June 15 (notification of acceptance by the 30th)

Accepted Formats: PDF, PS, HTML or ASCII. No Word or RTF files will
be accepted.

Alternative methods of submission: 

	 Fax: +49 7531 88 30 95

	 Snail Mail: Miriam Butt
			 FB Sprachwissenschaft, Fach D186
			 Universitaet Konstanz
			 78457 Konstanz
			 Germany


*************************************************************
Miriam Butt			Tel: +49-(0)7531 88 29 28
Universitaet Konstanz		Fax: +49-(0)7531 88 30 95
FB Sprachwissenschaft miriam.buttuni-konstanz.de
Fach D186		
78457 Konstanz 
Germany