LINGUIST List 14.3191

Fri Nov 21 2003

Calls: Text/Corpus Ling; General Ling/Netherlands

Editor for this issue: Andrea Berez <andrealinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Hartmut.Lenk, Colloquium on 'Contrasting Text Types in the Press'
2. Joost.Zwarts, Linguistic Perspectives on Numerical Expressions

Colloquium on 'Contrasting Text Types in the Press' 
Short Title: Text Types in the Press 

Date: 12-May-2004 - 22-May-2004
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Contact: Hartmut Lenk
Contact Email: text-collhelsinki.fi 
Meeting URL: http://www.helsinki.fi/~sala_kol 

Linguistic Sub-field: Text/Corpus Linguistics, Pragmatics, Discourse
Analysis, Applied Linguistics 
Subject Language: German, Standard, English 
Call Deadline: 01-Dec-2003

Meeting Description:

The German Department and the Multilingual Communication Programme
(MonAKO) of the University of Helsinki will arrange a colloquium on
'Contrasting Text Types in the Press', May 21-22, 2004 in
Helsinki. The main focus of the colloquium will be on contrastive
papers which compare English and German with each other or with
another language.

The conference languages are German and English. The main focus of the
colloquium will be on contrastive papers which compare English and
German with each other or with another language.

We invite proposals for papers, including an abstract of one A4 page,
to be sent before December 1, 2003.

Further information: http://www.helsinki.fi/~sala_kol 

Linguistic Perspectives on Numerical Expressions 

Date: 10-Jun-2004 - 11-Jun-2004
Location: Utrecht, Netherlands
Contact: Joost Zwarts
Contact Email: numericalslet.uu.nl 
Meeting URL: http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/events/conf.htm 

Linguistic Sub-field: General Linguistics 
Call Deadline: 12-Feb-2004 

Meeting Description:

Linguistic Perspectives on Numerical Expressions is a workshop on
linguistic and cognitive aspects of numerals, held at Utrecht
University on 10 and 11 June 2004. Invited speakers are Gennaro
Chierchia, James Hurford, Richard Kayne, Heike Wiese. Linguistic
Perspectives on Numerical Expressions

Call for papers

Call Deadline: 12-Feb-2004

INVITED SPEAKERS: 
Gennaro Chierchia (Universit� degli Studi di Milano)
James Hurford (University of Edinburgh)
Richard Kayne (New York University)
Heike Wiese (Humboldt University, Berlin)

ORGANIZING INSTITUTE
Utrecht Institute of Linguistics-OTS, Utrecht University, The
Netherlands

ORGANIZERS: 
Norbert Corver, Jenny Doetjes, Thijs Pollmann, Joost Zwarts

DATE OF THE WORKSHOP
10 & 11 June 2004

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION:
The organizing committee invites researchers in linguistics, and the
cognitive sciences more in general, to present their work on numerical
expressions at the workshop.

The deadline for receipt of abstracts is: 12 February,
2004. Notification of acceptance will be take place early March, 2004.

Abstract requirements:
Submissions are limited to one individual and one joint abstract per
author. Abstract text should be at most 2 pages long, in a 12 point
font with 1 inch margins. They may be sent either electronically (PDF
(preferred), or MSWord attachments) or by snail-mail. In case of
electronic submission, the subject line should read
�Eurooeabstract�Euro and the body of the message should contain the
following information:

Title of the Paper
Name(s) of Author(s)
Affiliation(s)
E-mail address(es)
Snail-mail address(es)

E-mailed submissions should be sent to:

numericalslet.uu.nl

Snail-mail submissions (1 copy with name, address and affiliation,
e-mail address, eight anonymous copies) should be sent to:

J. Zwarts 
(Workshop Numericals)
Utrecht Institute of Linguistics-OTS
Utrecht University
Trans 10
3512 JK Utrecht
The Netherlands

Allow ample time for receipt of snail-mailed abstracts. Abstracts
received after the deadline cannot be accepted even if the delay was
beyond the author's control.

For more information, please visit the website of this workshop:
http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/events/conf.htm

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION (for a more elaborate description, see website)

Knowledge of language and knowledge of the number system are two
cognitive capacities that have been characterized as being genuinely
human. A core property which is shared by these two cognitive domains
is that of discrete infinity: just like the series of numbers goes on
indefinitely (you can always add one more), you can go on building
linguistic structures by adding new linguistic material to the already
built structure, as in John and Peter and Sue and Betty and
�Euro�. This property of discrete infinity accounts for the fact that
there is no limit in principle to how many words a sentence may
contain. In Language and Problems of Knowledge, Noam Chomsky
speculates on the idea that the number faculty developed as a
by-product of the language faculty. He states that �Eurooewe might
think of the human number faculty as essentially an
�Eurooeabstraction�Euro from human language, preserving the mechanisms
of discrete infinity and eliminating the other special features of
language.�Euro This thought-provoking idea suggests a certain
relationship between knowledge of language and numerical
knowledge. The general aim of the workshop is to further our
understanding of this relationship between the two cognitive
systems. This will be done by raising such general questions as: In
what ways is our knowledge of the number system expressed
linguistically? That is, what knowledge of language is at the basis of
our linguistic expression of the number system? And, what are the
interface relations between the numerical system and the language
system? Answers to these questions should come from different
linguistic/cognitive perspectives (grammatical theory, acquisition,
mathematical cognition, et cetera) .

At a more specific linguistic level, the general research question
raises among others such sub-questions as:
(I) What is the lexical status of number words? Are they lexical
categories (e.g. N, A) or functional ones (Q(uantifier))? Should they
rather be interpreted as hybrid (semi-lexical) categories in the sense
that they display both functional and lexical characteristics?
(II) What are the syntactic and morphological rules for composing
number expressions? That is, how are number words (syntactically or
morphologically) combined with words that refer to a countable set of
things? Is the concatenation the result of a simple Merge operation or
are displacement processes involved in the formation of expressions
that refer to numerosities (e.g. DP-internal movement of number
words)?
(III) What is the the linguistic relationship between the number word
and the presence of grammatical number as an inflectional property on
the noun? From a typological point of view, there is a correlation
between the lack of number marking on the noun and the need of
inserting a so-called numeral classifier in nominal projections
modified by a numeral. What is the syntactic and/or semantic status of
these numeral classifiers?
(IV) What is the distribution of number words in the phrasal system?
Of course, this question first of all relates to their DP-internal
distribution. But can numerals also occur in DP-external positions,
i.e. in syntactic domains other than the noun phrase?
(V) How are numerals interpreted? There is, for instance, a well-known
difference between event-related readings and object-related
readings. The sentence Two thousand people visited the art exhibition
is most easily understood as a report of the number of visits of the
exhibition. In this event-related reading, people who visited the
exhibition more than once are counted more than once. In Only three
linguists asked a question during the question period the
object-related reading imposes itself: three individual linguists
asked at least one question.
(VI) What are the linguistic means of expressing what are
traditionally called "ordinals"? In general, the morphosyntax of
ordinals has received far less attention in linguistic research than
that of cardinals.
(VII) What is the range of grammatical variation in the formal
expression of numerosities, intra-linguistically (dialectal variation)
and interlinguistically (cross-linguistic variation)?
(VIII) In what ways do grammatical constructs expressing number
concepts change over time (i.e. the diachronic perspective)?

The broader cognitive perspective on numericals raises such questions
as:
(IX) What are the interface relations between the numerical system and
the language system? Which numerical capacities are dependent on
language, and which ones are not?
(X) How are number words acquired and how are they stored in the
lexicon? How do children form complex numbers from simple number
words?
(XI) Are certain number words used more frequently than others, and is
it possible to explain these frequencies from properties of the number
system? Do people, in language use, tend to refer to numerosities by
means of precise numbers, or do they refer to numerosities by means of
approximation?