LINGUIST List 21.4195 Thu Oct 21 2010 Calls: Language Acquisition, Linguistic Theories/Greece 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.     Stavroula Stavrakaki , Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition Message 1: Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition Date: 21-Oct-2010 From: Stavroula Stavrakaki <svoulaauth.gr> Subject: Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition E-mail this message to a friend Full Title: Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition Short Title: GALA Date: 06-Sep-2011 - 08-Sep-2011 Location: Thessaloniki, Greece Contact Person: Stavroula Stavrakaki Meeting Email: gala2011itl.auth.gr Web Site: http://gala2011.web.auth.gr Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition; Linguistic Theories Call Deadline: 15-Mar-2011 Meeting Description: GALA 2011 will focus on first and second language acquisition, bilingual acquisition, language pathology, the acquisition of sign language and brain imaging research for acquisition and pathology. Besides the main session, two workshops will be held on 'Phonological representations in early language acquisition' (organized by Barbara Höhle) and on 'Syntax and Pragmatics: Division of Labour in Acquisition' (organized by Joao Costa and Spyridoula Varlokosta). Talks for the main sessions and the workshops will be 20 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes discussion. At most one single- authored and one joint abstract (or two joint abstracts) per author will be considered. There will be two poster sessions. Please indicate in your submission whether you want your abstract to be considered for the main session, a workshop, for oral presentation, poster, or both. Invited speakers Harald Clahsen (University of Essex) Maria Teresa Guasti (University of Milan-Bicocca) Chloe Marshall (City University London) Programme Committee Sergey Avrutin (University of Utrecht) Naama Friedmann (University of Tel Aviv) Anna Gavarró (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) Petra Schulz (Goethe-University Frankfurt) Stavroula Stavrakaki (University of Thessaloniki) Arhonto Terzi (Technological Educational Institute of Patras) Laurie Tuller (Université François-Rabelais) Angeliek van Hout (University of Groningen) Organizing Committee Dora Bahourou Katerina Kalaidzidou Polyxeni Konstantinopoulou Stavroula Stavrakaki Eleni Vletsi Call For papers Abstracts should be submitted electronically at gala2011itl.auth.gr Deadline of submission: March 15th, 2011 Notification of acceptance: May 1st, 2011 Guidelines for abstracts Abstracts should be at most two pages, with only figures and references in the second. 12 point Times New Roman, single spaced, should be used, with 2 cm margins. An anonymous abstract and an abstract with author's name/s and affiliation should be sent by email as Word or pdf attachments (if special symbols are used, pdf format is required). The abstract with name and affiliation should be as follows: Title (bold, left justified) Author's name/s (left justified) Affiliation (left justified) Abstract Two workshops will be held. GALA 2011 Workshop Phonological representations in early language acquisition Organized by: Barbara Höhle The workshop will focus on the emergence and the development of phonological representation in early first language acquisition. Recent research has shown that infants are equipped with highly efficient perceptual and learning mechanism that allow for a fast attunement to features of the phonological system of the target language during the first year of life. On the other hand data from production and word learning studies suggest that the establishment of phonological representations underlying early production and comprehension is a longer-lasting process extending over the first years of life. From the developmental perspective one of the intriguing questions is how perception and the emergence of abstract phonological representations are interrelated. What are the contributions of data-driven learning and of universal phonological constraints in the emerging phonological system of the child? How are perception and production related? This workshop aims at bringing researchers who work in all kinds of areas in early phonological development covering all aspects of this research area together: i.e. early perceptual development and attunement to specific phonological properties of the language including segmental and suprasegmental aspects; phonological bootstrapping to other linguistic domains like the lexicon, syntax and pragmatics; phonological representations in the acquisition of the lexicon. Contributions to all kinds of variations of language acquisition like simultaneous multilingual acquisition, phonological development in clinical populations are welcome as well. GALA 2011 Workshop Syntax and Pragmatics: Division of Labour in Acquisition Organized by: Joao Costa & Spyridoula Varlokosta The literature on acquisition of syntax in the late 80s and 90s revealed that children's syntactic knowledge is very precocious. In fact, there is evidence showing that many syntactic parameters are set at a pre-lexical stage (e.g. Wexler 1998), that knowledge of functional structure is available at the time children utter their first two word utterances (e.g. Hyams 1992) and that knowledge of principles such as subjacency or binding are evident from early on (e.g. Chien and Wexler 1990). The fact that children's utterances are not target-like was attributed to specific aspects of pragmatic knowledge that would be acquired late (e.g. Rizzi 1993/1994). However, literature from the last decade reveals that children master some pragmatic knowledge from very early on as well (e.g. de Cat 2003, Crain et al. 2002). Recent research reveals accurate production and comprehension of information structure, good mastery of certain implicatures and a good domain of some aspects related to co- reference. As it stands, it is reasonable to assume that certain aspects of both syntactic and pragmatic knowledge are acquired very early. However, for such a statement to be productive, it is important to qualify it. The aim of this workshop is to provide answers to questions like the following: A.When children produce target-deviant sentences, which aspects can be explained in terms of late acquisition of syntax? B.When children produce target-deviant sentences, which aspects can be explained in terms of late acquisition of pragmatics? C.What types of structures/parameters/principles are good candidates for late acquisition? What unifies them? D.What type of pragmatic knowledge is a good candidate for late acquisition? E.When there is no consensus on whether a certain category is a syntactic primitive (e.g. topic, focus, etc.), can acquisition facts shed light on its status? F.What do acquisition facts tell us about the syntax-pragmatics interface? G.Is there crosslinguistic variation in the acquisition of the syntax- pragmatics interface? If there is, how can one explain it? Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 21-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.