LINGUIST List 15.2516

Fri Sep 10 2004

Calls: Ling Theory; Phonology/Germany

Editor for this issue: Amy Wronkowicz <amylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. oystein.vangsnes, Nordic Journal of Linguistics
2. silke, Workshop ''Speech perception within or outside phonology?''

Nordic Journal of Linguistics 	

Call Deadline: 31-JAN-2005

Call for Papers:
NJL Special Issue on 'Dialects and Linguistic Theory'

The second issue of Volume 28 (2005) of the Nordic Journal of
Linguistics will be a special issue on the relation between dialects
and linguistic theory, edited by �ystein Alexander Vangsnes and
Curt Rice.

The study of linguistic diversity is one of the keys to understanding
the human linguistic capacity and the limits within which human
language systems may vary. Such studies may be approached in various
ways, and from an empirical point of view many researchers distinguish
between micro- and macrocomparative studies, i.e. the study of micro-
and macrovariation, respectively. Macrocomparison has the advantage of
revealing properties which are shared cross-linguistically, as well as
areal features; this approach can furthermore suggest, by
non-attestation, which grammatical patterns are not allowed by the
human language faculty.

Microcomparison, which will be the focus of this special NJL issue,
has, on the other hand, the advantage that particular phenomena or
subsystems of grammar can be studied in a manner resembling a
laboratory environment. The study of closely related linguistic
varieties enables the linguist to keep many properties of the overall
system 'constant' and focus on the few properties that set the
varieties apart.

For this special issue we will employ a broad definition of 'dialect'
in that we take the term to subsume both geographical and social
microvariation. We first and foremost invite papers that combine
comprehensive empirical descriptions of microvariation with a
discussion of the challenges for linguistic theory that arise from the
data sets at hand. Papers dealing with any language or language area
are welcome, and we particularly encourage studies related to the
languages of the Nordic countries.

The deadline for submission is 31 January 2005. Papers should be sent
to either of the two guest editors:

�ystein Alexander Vangsnes	
Department of Linguistics	 
Faculty of Humanities	 
University of Troms�	 
NO-9037 Troms�	 
oystein.vangsneshum.uit.no	

Curt Rice
Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Linguistics
Faculty of Humanities
University of Troms�
NO-9037 Troms�
curt.ricehum.uit.no

Workshop ''Speech perception within or outside phonology?'' 

Date: 23-Feb-2005 - 25-Feb-2005
Location: Cologne, Germany
Contact: Silke Hamann
Contact Email: silkezas.gwz-berlin.de 
Meeting URL: http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/events/percphon/ 

Linguistic Sub-field: Phonology

Call Deadline: 15-Sep-2004

Meeting Description:

Workshop on the question whether speech perception is extragrammatical
or inextricably woven into phonology. Part of the 27th annual meeting
of the German Society for Linguistics (DGfS). Organized by Paul
Boersma (University of Amsterdam) and Silke Hamann (ZAS, Berlin).

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS

Cognitive psychologists define perception as the mapping from raw
sensory data to abstract mental representations. Correspondingly,
phoneticians and psycholinguists define speech perception as the
mapping from continuous auditory features to discrete phonological
representations. Speech perception researchers consistently find that
this mapping is language-specific for all normally developing
speakers/listeners from about nine months of age. Because of this
language-specificity some linguists have tried to model perception
with linguistic methods, which in phonology almost automatically means
that they have tried to model perception within the framework of
Optimality Theory. The earliest examples are Tesar (1997 et seq) and
Tesar & Smolensky (1998 et seq), who modelled the mapping from overt
stress patterns to abstract metrical structure, and Boersma (1997 et
seq), who modelled the mapping from continuous F1 values to discrete
vowel height categories.

Since Tesar and Boersma's proposals involve an explicit
Optimality-Theoretic modelling of both the listener's comprehension
(i.e. perception and recognition) and the speaker's production, it is
not surprising that several authors who acknowledge the influence of
perception on phonology stay with the less elaborate original notion
of Optimality Theory in which the grammar has to model production
only. These authors thus tend to propose (or assume) that speech
perception resides outside phonology. The earliest example is Steriade
(1995 et seq.), who introduces an extra-phonological perceptibility
map to explain relative rankings of faithfulness constraints in
production.

Since there has been little or no open discussion about the relative
merits and the implications of the two competing views, this workshop
invites researchers from all phonological subfields to bring empirical
and theoretical evidence to bear on the issue: does perception inform
the grammar from outside, or is perception inextricably woven into the
grammar?

Invited speakers are Donca Steriade (MIT) and Paul Smolensky (Johns
Hopkins).

Presentations will be either 40 minutes plus 20 minutes discussion or
20 plus 10 minutes.