LINGUIST List 19.2515
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Fri Aug 15 2008
Calls: Syntax/UK; General Ling,Lang Doc,Typology/Germany
Editor for this issue: F. Okki Kurniawan
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Directory
1. Glenda
Newton,
Workshop on Particles
2. Doris
Löhr,
International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages
Message 1: Workshop on Particles
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Date: 14-Aug-2008
From: Glenda Newton <gen21cam.ac.uk>
Subject: Workshop on Particles
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Full Title: Workshop on Particles
Date: 30-Oct-2008 - 31-Oct-2008
Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom
Contact Person: Theresa Biberauer
Meeting Email: mtb23cam.ac.uk
Web Site: http://research.ncl.ac.uk/linearization/
Linguistic Field(s): Syntax
Call Deadline: 01-Sep-2008
Meeting Description:
The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers working on particles
to work towards a better understanding of the properties that particle and
non-particle elements share and also of those which differentiate them.
Call for Papers
For Full Call Please See Conference Website:
http://research.ncl.ac.uk/linearization/events.php
Invited Speakers:
Edith Aldridge (University of Washington, Seattle)
Waltraud Paul (CRLAO, EHESS-CNRS, Paris)
The focus of this workshop is a neglected and not very well understood syntactic
element, namely that commonly designated ''particle'' in the descriptive,
typological and generative literature. Elements of this type are generally
treated in one of two, mutually contradictory ways, either being excluded from
consideration alongside functionally/semantically similar non-particle elements
or being (largely uncritically) classified as categories no different from
non-particles. Thus, for example, Greenberg (1963) famously excluded
''uninflected auxiliaries'' from his discussion of auxiliary placement relative
to the verb and object, basing his Universal 16, regarding the tendency for V, O
and Aux placement to be ''harmonic'' (i.e. either AuxVO or OVAux, or
consistently head-initial or head-final), exclusively on the behaviour of
inflected auxiliaries. By contrast, it is very common in the modern generative
literature to find particles being described as heads of various more or less
articulated types (consider, for example, the various C-(related)particles
postulated for Celtic and Sinitic languages), heads which may also be realised
by elements that are not generally viewed as particles (e.g. fully-fledged
finite or non-finite complementisers). The aim of this conference, then, is to
work towards a better understanding of the properties that particle and
non-particle elements share and also of those which differentiate them.
The specific impetus for the conference is the observation that elements
designated 'particles' in the literature very frequently violate a seemingly
robust word-order constraint, namely the Final-Over-Final Constraint in (1):
(1) Final-Over-Final Constraint (FOFC - cf. Biberauer, Holmberg & Roberts 2007)
If ? is a head-initial phrase and ? is a categorially non-distinct* phrase
immediately dominating ?, then ? must be head-initial. If ? is a categorially
non-distinct head-final phrase, and ? is a phrase immediately dominating ?, then
? can be head-initial or head-final.
[* 'categorial non-distinctness' being speculatively defined with reference to a
head's 'verbal' [+V] versus 'nominal' [+N] specification]
(1) highlights an asymmetry in the distribution of disharmonic word orders that
is empirically attested in a range of domains. Consider, for example, the
oft-noted VOAux gap in Germanic (cf. i.a. den Besten 1989, Kiparsky 1996), which
contrasts with the ready attestation of AuxOV orders in this family (Holmberg
2000 shows that the same gap appears in Finnish and Haddican (2004) registers
the corresponding gap in Basque). Similarly, it is well-established that VO
languages do not feature final complementisers (cf. Hawkins 1990), whereas OV
languages rather commonly have initial complementisers (cf. West Germanic,
Turkish, etc.). The unattested pattern is once again ruled out by (1) since it
requires a FOFC violation at some level between VP and CP. VOAux and VOC
patterns do not seem to universally ruled out, however: a range of VO languages
with non-inflecting (particle?) auxiliaries permit the former pattern, while VO
languages featuring clause-final discourse particles would seem to instantiate
the latter.
Against this background, we welcome abstracts on topics including, but not
limited to the following:
1. The nature of particles
Do we need a syntactic category 'particle'?
Do all particles have common properties (e.g. inability to project, as proposed
in Toivonen 2003, or a deficiency of some other kind - for example,
morphological invariance)?
What roles may they play in clausal and nominal contexts?
What kinds of positions may they occupy?
Do particles in languages tend to be consistently final or consistently initial
or do languages just as commonly exhibit both initially and finally surfacing
particles? Do we observe optionality in the placement of (certain) particles
within a single language?
Can particles be spellouts of the ''sub-heads'' of articulated projections such
as the Rizzian CP and its TP, DP, PP and other counterparts?
Can particles be phase-heads (cf. Chomsky 2001 onwards)? If so, and if they can
also spell out sub-heads as outlined above, can they give us any insight into
which sub-heads are phasal and which are not?
2. The manner in which particles interact with other structural elements
Do we find non-selection-related root-embedded asymmetries in respect of the
distribution of particles (cf. i.a. Paul 2008 on the root nature of Chinese
clause-typing particles, and Cavalcante 2007 on the clause-final concord element
in Brazilian Portuguese negation structures which is, likewise, restricted to
root contexts)?
Do we observe intervention effects between particles? Between particles and
non-particle elements?
How similar/different are particles and clitics? Do we observe intervention
effects between these elements? Are they subject to the same sorts of
positioning effects?
Can particles readily be borrowed where languages are in contact or do we find
languages where particle-borrowing has not taken place despite intensive contact
which has resulted in large-scale borrowing in other domains?
3. The origins of particles
Are they grammaticalised units deriving from more contentful elements or do
particles tend not to be elements that have undergone grammaticalisation processes?
How frequently are particles homophonous with (an)other particle element(s) in
the same language, which may or may not differ in positioning and/or headedness?
4. Particles cross-linguistically
How similar/different are particles in different languages families (e.g. those
found in the Celtic languages, in Germanic and in the languages of East Asia,
Austronesian, Africa, etc.)?
Does it make sense to think in terms of a typology of particles?
Papers may deal with these questions from any theoretical or empirical
standpoint. We particularly welcome papers focusing on particles in lesser
studied languages and on languages which exhibit structures that (superficially
appear to) violate (1).
Presentations will be allotted forty minutes (30 minutes for the presentation
followed by ten minutes for questions). Abstracts should not exceed two
A4/letter-size pages and be in 10- or 12-point type with standard margins. They
should be submitted by e-mail in pdf format to Theresa Biberauer
(mtb23cam.ac.uk) by 1 September 2008. Notification of acceptance by 15
September 2008.
Local Organisers: Theresa Biberauer and Glenda Newton
Scientific Committee
Theresa Biberauer
Anders Holmberg
Glenda Newton
Ian Roberts
Michelle Sheehan
Message 2: International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages
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Date: 13-Aug-2008
From: Doris Löhr <sannunkuaol.com>
Subject: International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages
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Full Title: International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages
Short Title: BICCL
Date: 10-Jun-2009 - 14-Jun-2009
Location: Leipzig, Saxonia, Germany
Contact Person: Doris Löhr
Meeting Email: sannunkuaol.com
Web Site: http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~afrika/
Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Genetic Classification; Language
Documentation; Typology
Subject Language(s): Hausa (hau)
Language Family(ies): Afroasiatic
Call Deadline: 30-Nov-2008
Meeting Description:
Fifth Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages (Afroasiatic)
To be held at the University of Leipzig, Germany
June 10 - 14, 2009
This Fifth Colloquium continues the series of Leipzig (2001), Prague (2003),
Villejuif/Paris (2005), and Bayreuth (2007), taking up two discontinued
traditions (the series of Leiden 1976, Hamburg 1981, Boulder 1987) and the
Franco-German meetings in Paris (Groupe d'Etudes tchadiques, 1980 - 1997). It is
devoted to all aspects of Chadic linguistics, in particular:
- Descriptive linguistics of individual Chadic languages
- Comparative linguistics of Chadic languages
- Typology of Chadic languages
- Hausa linguistics
- The position of Chadic within Afroasiatic
- Chadic languages in contact with non-Chadic languages
The year in which the Fifth Colloquium will take place coincides with that of
both the 600th anniversary of the University of Leipzig which was established in
the year 1409 and the retirement of H. Ekkehard Wolff from the Chair of
Afrikanistik at this university which he took over in 1994.
The venue of the Colloquium will be at the Villa Tillmanns which serves as
university guest house within walking distance from the city centre. This guest
house also provides single and double rooms for participants of the Colloquium
from Wednesday (arrival) to Sunday (departure).
Because of the manifold academic activities scheduled for the year of the
university's 600th anniversary, early registration for accommodation is highly
recommended (also for non-university guest house accommodation, if preferred or
necessary).
As usual, a selection of papers from the Colloquium will be published in the
special series Chadic Linguistics - Linguistique Tchadique - Tschadistik
(Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Cologne).
All correspondence (exclusively by email) should be addressed to members of the
Organizing Committee:
(a) for registration & accommodation:
Daniela Puhrsch, M.A. puhrschuni-leipzig.de
(b) for programme details, abstracts & publication of proceedings:
Dr. Ari Awagana awaganarz.uni-leipzig.de
Dr. Doris Löhr sannunkuaol.com
Registration (before December 1, 2008) should contain:
1. Name and address (email and snail mail)
2. (Working) title of paper
3. Planned date of arrival (suggested: Wednesday, June 10, 2009)
4. Planned date of departure (suggested: Sunday, June 14, 2009)
5. Request for accommodation type (single or double, guest house, non-guest house)
Deadline for submitting final title and abstract (1 page): April 1, 2009.
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