LINGUIST List 21.3472 Tue Aug 31 2010 Calls: Lang Acq, Socioling/Germany Editor for this issue: Di Wdzenczny <dilinguistlist.org> LINGUIST is pleased to announce the launch of an exciting new feature: Easy Abstracts! Easy Abs is a free abstract submission and review facility designed to help conference organizers and reviewers accept and process abstracts online. Just go to: http://www.linguistlist.org/confcustom, and begin your conference customization process today! With Easy Abstracts, submission and review will be as easy as 1-2-3! Directory         1.    Gunther De Vogelaer, The Acquisition of Variation Message 1: The Acquisition of Variation Date: 30-Aug-2010 From: Gunther De Vogelaer <gunther.devogelaerugent.be> Subject: The Acquisition of Variation E-mail this message to a friend Full Title: The Acquisition of Variation Date: 29-Jun-2011 - 01-Jul-2011 Location: Freiburg, Germany Contact Person: Gunther De Vogelaer Meeting Email: gunther.devogelaerugent.be Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition; Sociolinguistics Call Deadline: 15-Sep-2011 Meeting Description: Recent years have seen a number of interesting studies on the acquisition of language variation in different languages. We hope to bring together scholars working on the acquisition of variation in different European languages in a panel which will be submitted to be held at ICLaVE-6 in Freiburg, in order to engage in cross-linguistic comparison and set a research agenda for the near future. Call For Papers Despite repeated calls for in-depth research the acquisition of variation remains to be an underinvestigated topic both in sociolinguistics and in language acquisition research. Yet several reasons can be given why children and adolescents are a worthwhile topic of investigation: first, the process of language transmission has been quoted for more than a century as a potential cause of dialect levelling and loss. In addition, processes of koinèisation are believed to take place primarily in children and adolescents. However, the precise socio-pragmatic circumstances underlying faithful dialect transmission, levelling and koinèisation remain poorly understood. Second, it has been claimed that in acquisition there is no 'time gap between the acquisition of grammatical competence and the development of sociolinguistic competence' (Chambers 2003:174). If this is correct, the ability to perceive and employ variation in speech is an integral part of children's linguistic competence, and the field of language development cannot afford to study the acquisition process in a sociolinguistic vacuum. It is, for instance, unclear whether the acquisition of a standardised variety yields reliable diagnostics for language disorders in children acquiring a non-standard variety. In addition, the study of the acquisition of variation is bound to lead to important insights into the role of the input in the language acquisition process, and may be instrumental in refining existing models of language learning. We welcome papers dealing with, but not restricted to, the following topics: -style shifting and accommodation in children and adolescents -the socio-pragmatic circumstances in which variation is acquired, including the effect of the linguistic repertoire within a speech community (diglossia vs.diaglossia), the role of caregivers vis-à-vis the peer group... -the development of sociolinguistic monitoring and/or the awareness of language variation, including children and adolescents' attitudes towards variation -the role of children in processes of change, including dialect levelling, regiolectisation and koinèisation -detecting language disorders in children acquiring non-standard varieties -the importance of variation in child language for models of language learning, and grammar in general Researchers interested in taking part in the panel are asked to signal their interest and provide a short description of their intended topic to Gunther De Vogelaer (gunther.devogelaerugent.be) and Matthias Katerbow (matthias.katerbowstaff.uni-marburg.de). Abstracts will be submitted along with the panel description to the scientific committee of ICLaVE. Important dates: September, 15: Manifestation of interest October, 1: Notification of acceptance of the panel November, 30: Abstract submission Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 31-Aug-2010       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.