LINGUIST List 15.906

Wed Mar 17 2004

Confs: Historical Ling/Germany

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

Directory

1. ioanna.sitaridou, Multilingualism and Diachronic Change: Multilingualism in the Individual and in the Societies; its Influence on Language Change.

Multilingualism and Diachronic Change: Multilingualism in the
Individual and in the Societies; its Influence on Language Change.

Date: 02-Apr-2004 - 03-Apr-2004
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Contact: Ioanna Sitaridou
Contact Email: ioanna.sitaridouuni-hamburg.de 
Meeting URL: http://http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/SFB538/aktuelles/historical_coll.html 

Linguistic Sub-field: Historical Linguistics 


Meeting Description:

The colloquium wishes to adress the following issues: what is the role
of multilingualism in language change; in which ways does
multilingualism manifest itself; does language change require
particular multilingual socio-historical constellations; or should its
locus be sought in the individual since parametric change that takes
place during first language acquisition functions as the trigger of
language change. If the latter is true: does the existence of more
than one grammar lead to multilingualism (viewed as acquisition of
either more than one grammar of the same language or of different
languages), or, does multilingualism, as a result of language contact,
cause parametric change. The Historical Group of the Research Centre
on Multilingualism at the University of Hamburg currently comprises 4
projects (for more information on the individual projects please visit
our website
http://www.rrz.uni-hamburg.de/SFB538/forschung/historische/index.html):
 
*Multilingualism as Cause and Effect of Language Change: Historical
Syntax of Romance Languages (Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. J�rgen
Meisel)
*Scandinavian Syntax in Multilingual Context (Principal Investigator:
Prof. Dr. Kurt Braunm�ller)
*Forms of written discourse in Byzantine and Greek diglossia
(Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Hans Eideneier)
*Multilingualism, Language Variation and Language Universals
(Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Peter Siemund)

The Group conducts research in the different manifestations of
multilingualism (parametric change, bilingualism, diglossia, dialect
contact, etc.) and their effect on language change. The concept of
multilingualism in language change invokes multiple
interpretations. Additionally, the concept may receive different
interpretations depending on the adopted theoretical perspectives. We
have set out to investigate the hypothesis whereby multilingualism is
one of the decisive triggers of grammatical change.

The colloquium wishes to adress the following issues: what is the role
of multilingualism in language change; in which ways does
multilingualism manifest itself; does language change require
particular multilingual socio-historical constellations; or should its
locus be sought in the individual since parametric change that takes
place during first language acquisition functions as the trigger of
language change. If the latter is true: does the existence of more
than one grammar lead to multilingualism (viewed as acquisition of
either more than one grammar of the same language or of different
languages), or, does multilingualism, as a result of language contact,
cause parametric change.

The colloquium aims at providing a forum for the reseachers within the
centre to communicate their work and to bring together researchers
from different frameworks, carrying out work on Romance, Germanic and
Greek languages. It also envisages to provide new (reconciliatory)
perspectives between the different strands of research in this area.