LINGUIST List 21.3858 Sat Oct 02 2010 Calls: Historical Ling/Japan 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.    Evie Coussé, Usage-Based Approaches to Language Change Message 1: Usage-Based Approaches to Language Change Date: 01-Oct-2010 From: Evie Coussé <evie.cousseugent.be> Subject: Usage-Based Approaches to Language Change E-mail this message to a friend Full Title: Usage-Based Approaches to Language Change Date: 25-Jul-2011 - 30-Jul-2011 Location: Osaka, Japan Contact Person: Evie Coussé Meeting Email: evie.cousseugent.be Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics Call Deadline: 13-Oct-2010 Meeting Description: Most approaches to language (change) have principally in common that they locate the main explanandum of language in the human mind and that they operate with categories. Change is, implicitly or explicitly, seen as a shift of a linguistic form from one category to another - whether across discrete or fuzzy boundaries. A well-know example of this view is the importance of reanalysis in explaining language change in mainstream historical linguistics. Reanalysis is considered to be the underlying mechanism that motivates changing patterns in usage such as contextual extension and increasing generalization / abstraction in meaning. However, alternative views have also been expressed, in which linguistic structure is seen as subject to constant negotiation in communication. Hopper's (1998) Emergent Grammar or Keller's (1994) Invisible Hand are prominent examples. Without denying the share that cognition has in the production of utterances and the usefulness of categories for linguistic description, structure is seen as epiphenomenal in these approaches. Structure is in a constant flux across time, area and social strata and, therefore, language use or actual communication are the loci of structure formation and hence of change. In line with this usage-based perspective of language and language change, an alternative for reanalysis has been proposed in which (changing) discourse patterns are directly related to meaning without referring to changes in abstract structures (e.g. Bybee e.a 1994, Haspelmath 1998, De Smet 2009). However, a larger coherent vision of the relation between language usage and language change is still largely missing. The workshop aims at discussing possibilities for such a usage-based framework on language change. We wish to combine case studies with theoretical contributions that help setting up a comprehensive model on language change, in which language use is in the focus and in which the core properties of language are seen in its dynamics rather than in its states. References Bybee, J., R. Perkins & W. Pagliuca (1994) The evolution of grammar. Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. De Smet, H. (2009) Analysing reanalysis. In: Lingua 119, 1728-1755. Haspelmath, M. (1998) Does grammaticalization need reanalysis? In: Studies in Language 22, 315-351. Hopper, P.J. (1998) Emergent grammar. In: M. Tomasello (ed.) The new psychology of grammar: cognitive and functional approaches to language structure. Mahwah: Erlbaum: 155-176. Keller, R. (1994) On language change. The invisible hand in language. London: Routlegde. Call For Papers At present, the workshop needs to be approved and accepted by the conference organizers of ICHL 2011. Deadline for submission of the workshop proposal is 15 October 2010. We invite interested speakers to send us before that deadline their interest for participation and a preliminary title of their potential contribution, that will be submitted along with the workshop proposal. Please, mail evie.cousseugent.be or f.vmfu- berlin.de with your preliminary title. Upon notification of acceptance of the workshop by the ICHL organizers (expected shortly after 15 October 2010), we will launch the definitive call for papers as soon as possible. Submission of paper abstracts will go via the ICHL conference website http://www.ichl2011.com. Deadline for paper abstracts is set by the organizers on 15 January 2011. Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 02-Oct-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.