Date: 12-Mar-2008
From: Zsuzsa Várnai <varnai nytud.hu>
Subject: A Consortium for a Grant Proposal for EuroBABEL
 E-mail this message to a friend
Dear Colleagues,
This is to let you know that people from the Department of Theoretical
Linguistics and the Department of Uralic Languages of the Budapest Research
Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (which also
hosts the Theoretical Linguistics Programme of ELTE University, Budapest)
plan to pull together
A CONSORTIUM FOR A GRANT PROPOSAL
for EuroBABEL, and submit the proposal in the beginning of May 2008.
We are looking for partners in the consortium.
EuroBABEL is a new EUROCORES Programme. Its main purpose is to promote
theoretical and empirical research using data from underdescribed
endangered languages. EuroBABEL programmes will run for 3-4 years starting
in March 2009, and it includes national research funding. The research has
to involve the collection of new data in the endangered languages chosen.
The research groups are encouraged to
involve researchers from the region where the languages under
investigation are spoken. There are three possible types of grant; we plan
to apply in the first category, namely, ``Linguistic theory and endangered
languages''. The deadline of the Outline Proposal is May 12, 2008. For
more information see the Call for Outline Proposals:
http://www.esf.org/activities/eurocores/programmes/eurobabel.html
As for the content of the proposal we are planning, here is a brief summary
of the ideas we would find interesting and for which we can offer competence:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Project title: Theory of writing grammars in a surface-only spirit
Keywords: theory of grammar writing, endangered languages,
non-generative grammar
Main objectives: innovative grammar-writing formalism for the purpose of
describing less studied endangered languages
Main ideas:
- grammar should specify correlations between surface form/function
pairs rather than rule systems deriving surface forms from `underlying' forms;
- analogy is the major force ensuring the cohesion of a synchronic
linguistic system;
- morpho-phonological transparency (agglutination) and syntactic
transparency (productive patterns) are extreme/limiting cases of structural
and functional parallelism, but not the model; other types of sign
combination should not be considered deviant;
- concentrate on the investigation of those types of combination previously
considered deviant (e.g., non-agglutinative morphological patterns and
non-transparent syntactic patterns).
Expertise and interest in endangered languages by the Hungarian
participants: endangered Uralic (especially, Samoyedic) languages; Baiash
(which derives from an archaic Romanian dialect); Lovari (and other Romani
dialects spoken in our region).
Contact:
Zsuzsa Várnai (RIL HAS): varnainytud.hu
László Kálmán (RIL HAS, ELTE): kalmannytud.hu
Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories
This Year the LINGUIST List hopes to raise $60,000. This money will go to help keep
the List running by supporting all of our Student Editors for the coming year.
See below for donation instructions, and don't forget to check out our Fund Drive
2008 LINGUIST List Circus and join us on our many shows!
http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2008/
There are many ways to donate to LINGUIST!
You can donate right now using our secure credit card form at
https://linguistlist.org/donation/donate/donate1.cfm
Alternatively you can also pledge right now and pay later. To do so, go to:
https://linguistlist.org/donation/pledge/pledge1.cfm
For all information on donating and pledging, including information on how to
donate by check, money order, or wire transfer, please visit:
http://linguistlist.org/donate.html
The LINGUIST List is under the umbrella of Eastern Michigan University and as such
can receive donations through the EMU Foundation, which is a registered 501(c)
Non Profit organization. Our Federal Tax number is 38-6005986. These donations
can be offset against your federal and sometimes your state tax return (U.S. tax
payers only). For more information visit the IRS Web-Site, or contact your
financial advisor.
Many companies also offer a gift matching program, such that they will match any
gift you make to a non-profit organization. Normally this entails your contacting
your human resources department and sending us a form that the EMU Foundation fills
in and returns to your employer. This is generally a simple administrative procedure
that doubles the value of your gift to LINGUIST, without costing you an extra penny.
Please take a moment to check if your company operates such a program.
Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue
|
