LINGUIST List 15.1694

Wed Jun 2 2004

Calls: General Ling/Finland; Phonology/Germany

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

Directory

1. leena.kolehmainen, The Lexicon: Its Status in the Theory of Language
2. vijver, Variation and Change in Phonology and Phonetics

The Lexicon: Its Status in the Theory of Language

Date: 18-Nov-2004 - 19-Nov-2004
Location: Turku, Finland
Contact: Leena Kolehmainen
Contact Email: leena.kolehmainenhelsinki.fi 
Meeting URL: http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/tapahtumat/lexicon/lexicon.shtml 

Linguistic Sub-field: General Linguistics 
Call Deadline: 31-Jul-2004 


Meeting Description:

The Linguistic Association of Finland is organizing a symposium on 

''The lexicon: its status in the theory of language'' 

to be held in Turku, Finland, November 18-19, 2004.

The purpose of the symposium is to concentrate on the theoretical
issues concerning the lexicon. We invite papers addressing theoretical
questions as well as papers taking a specific (empirical) viewpoint on
one (or more) particular language(s). The status of the lexicon has a
central part in any theory of language. Thus, it is a topic that is
common among linguists from different schools of thought. At the same
time, the views on the proper treatment of the lexicon differ across
the broad field of linguistics, and there is therefore room for
genuine debate.

We encourage contributions broadly from diverse areas of linguistics,
including traditional theoretical linguistics, experimental
psycholinguistics, linguistic work on spoken language, etc.
 
Invited speakers:
- Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm (University of Stockholm, Sweden)
- Jussi Niemi (University of Joensuu, Finland)
- Minna Laakso (University of Helsinki, Finland)
 
Activities:
- lectures by invited speakers
- presentations by other participants (20 min + 10 min for discussion)
- posters

Symposium venue: The Abo Akademi University, Humanities building
(Arken), Tehtaankatu 2. Turku, Finland.
 
Abstracts:
The deadline for submission of abstracts (in English; max 500 words)
is July 31, 2004. Please submit your abstract by e-mail to the
following address:

<lexicon-organizersutu.fi>

Check for information updates at the symposium website: 
<http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/tapahtumat/lexicon/lexicon.shtml>;

Organizing committee:
 
Chair: Urpo Nikanne
Abo Akademi University
Finnish language
Tehtaankatu 2
FIN-20500 TURKU
Finland
 
Marja Etelämäki (University of Helsinki)
Pentti Haddington (University of Oulu)
Arja Hamari (University of Turku)
Jarmo Jantunen (University of Joensuu)
Seppo Kittilä (University of Turku)
Leena Kolehmainen (University of Helsinki)
Harry Lönnroth (University of Tampere)
Marja Nenonen (University of Joensuu)
Helena Pirttisaari (University of Helsinki)
Heli Pitkänen (University of Joensuu)


CALL FOR PAPERS
 Problems concerning the lexicon are for instance the following:
- What kinds of information can be lexicalized?
- What are the constraints for phonological, syntactic, semantic, and
pragmatic information in the lexical entries?
- How is this information represented formally?
- How does lexicalization take place in the history of language?
- How should the theories deal with constructions (more or less
idiosyncratic syntactico-semantic mappings that are larger than a
word)?
- Are constructions a part of the lexicon or a domain of their own?
And regardless of the answer: what is the relationship between
constructions and the more traditional lexical items?
- How is the lexicon organized?
- There are different kinds of relations between lexical items. How
should we describe those in our theories?
- According to some linguistic theories, lexical meanings are
negotiated during conversation. What are the limits of flexibility of
word meanings, and what is the starting point for the negotiation?
- What kind of possibilities are there for lexical typology or for
gaining typologically significant insights of the lexicon? What kind
of lexical regularities are of typological significance and common for
a larger group of languages?
 
We encourage contributions broadly from diverse areas of linguistics,
including traditional theoretical linguistics, experimental
psycholinguistics, linguistic work on spoken language, etc.
 
Participants will be notified about acceptance by September 1,
2004. The abstracts will be published on the web pages of the
symposium at

<http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/tapahtumat/lexicon/lexicon.shtml>; 

Registration:
The deadline for registration is October 1, 2004. Register by e-mail
to the address above.
 
Registration fees:
- general: EUR 50
- members of the association: EUR 25
- undergraduate students free

Participants from abroad are requested to pay in cash upon arrival.

Participants from Finland may send the registration fee by giro
account no 800013-1424850 to The Linguistic Association of Finland
(SKY) / Symposium or pay in cash upon arrival.

 
In case you have further questions please email 
<lexicon-organizersutu.fi>
 
Check for information updates at the symposium website: 
<http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/tapahtumat/lexicon/lexicon.shtml>;
 

Variation and Change in Phonology and Phonetics 
Short Title: VarPhon 

Date: 07-Oct-2004 - 09-Oct-2004
Location: Potsdam, Germany
Contact: ruben van de vijver
Contact Email: vijverrz.uni-potsdam.de 

Linguistic Sub-field: Historical Linguistics ,Phonetics ,Phonology
,Sociolinguistics

Call Deadline: 14-Jun-2004 

Meeting Description:

We invite abstracts for the conference on variation and change in
phonology and phonetics which will be held from 7 Oct 2004 till 9 Oct
2004 in Potsdam, Germany. Abstracts should not exceed two pages; the
first page is for text (Times New Roman 12 pt.) and the second page is
for tables, figures and the bibliography. Page margin is 1 inch (top,
bottom, left and right). Abstracts should be submitted electronically
to vijverrz.uni-potsdam.de as a MS-Word file, PDF file or a plain
text file. Deadline: 31 May 2004 For more information please contact:

Ruben van de Vijver
vijverrz.uni-potsdam.de

The organizers:
Caroline Fery,
Frank Kügler
Jörg Mayer,
Ruben van de Vijver

Final Call (Extended deadline!)

Variation and change in phonology and phonetics

The phonologists and phoneticians in Potsdam organize a conference on
variation in speech sounds which will take place from the 8th to the
10th of October 2004. This conference will gather specialists working
on variation in phonology and phonetics and on models thereof. We
expect original contributions to this developing field, dealing with
phonological and phonetic data and models.

Traditional generative approaches have been conceived to explain
categorical data. Application of rules, as well as derivations by
means of ordered rules are obligatory as soon as their structural
description is fulfilled. Speech sounds change all at once or not at
all, and variation in the process of changes or in their results have
long been considered epiphenomenal. Usually, the study of gradient and
variable data is assumed to be the object of study of phonetics,
sociolinguistics or psycholinguistics, more generally, of a domain of
the study of language that is not primarily dominated by grammar, but
rather by the so-called E-language, or performance.

The emergence of new ways of thinking about linguistic patterns and
about grammar has changed our perception of the field, and it is
nowadays natural to examine the pattern of variation when talking
about the output of a rule or of a process. This new conception of
phonology has been facilitated by sophisticated yet comfortable speech
analysis programs and by the elaboration of corpora, as well as by the
consciousness of the limits of classical generative grammars. As new
data and typological comparisons have become more accessible, our
awareness of the variable way the same sound is pronounced in
different languages or dialects has grown.

The integration of variation into the core phonology forces us to
rethink our phonological models. Numerous proposals are emerging
nowadays which can explain variable data more readily, like
probabilistic and stochastic models. The influence of phonetics is
clearly perceptible in these new models, as well as the influence of
phonology on phonetics.

The persons we address in this first letter are:

Joan Bybee
William Labov
Aditi Lahiri
Björn Lindblom
Janet Pierrehumbert


The organizing committee: Caroline Féry, Frank Kügler, Jörg Mayer
and Ruben van de Vijver