LINGUIST List 21.4370 Tue Nov 02 2010 Calls: Syntax, Typology/Spain 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.     Søren Wichmann , The Argument/Adjunct Distinction Cross-Linguistically Message 1: The Argument/Adjunct Distinction Cross-Linguistically Date: 30-Oct-2010 From: Søren Wichmann <wichmanneva.mpg.de> Subject: The Argument/Adjunct Distinction Cross-Linguistically E-mail this message to a friend Full Title: The Argument/Adjunct Distinction Cross-Linguistically Date: 08-Sep-2011 - 11-Sep-2011 Location: Logroño (La Rioja), Spain Contact Person: Søren Wichmann Meeting Email: wichmanneva.mpg.de Linguistic Field(s): Syntax; Typology Call Deadline: 11-Nov-2011 Meeting Description: During this workshop, which is organized by the Leipzig Valency Classes Project (Andrej Malchukov, Iren Hartmann, Martin Haspelmath, Bernard Comrie, and Søren Wichmann, cf. http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/valency/index.php), we wish to shed new light on the distinction between arguments and adjuncts. This distinction has been hotly debated since the 1970s (e.g., contributions to Vater (ed.) 1977), yet the issue remains largely unresolved. One of the challenges is that some of the most reliable tests (such as verb-anaphoric tests, especially popular in generative approaches), are not applicable to all languages. Another challenge is that the notion of valency is understood both at the levels of semantics and syntax (see, e.g., contributions to Herbst (ed.) 2007 for some complexities involved discussed primarily from lexicographic perspective), with some theories introducing still more intermediate levels (e.g., in the work by Apresjan and Mel'cuk; e.g., Mel'cuk 1988). Yet, this topic is of obvious typological relevance, as it has been suggested that the distinction might correlate with other typologically significant parameters (such as pro-arg hypothesis by Jelinik 1984, Baker 1996 and others predicting that NPs show an adjunct-like behavior in radically head-marking ('polysynthetic') languages). For the envisaged workshop we invite contributions dealing with the following topics: - the distinctions between arguments and adjuncts in individual languages; - diagnostics for the argument/adjunct distinction in individual languages and across languages; - cross-linguistic applicability/universality of diagnostics for argumenthood; - the question of whether the distinction between arguments and adjuncts is dichotomous or rather gradient (as argued by Croft 2001 ch. 7, following Langacker 1987); - mismatches between semantic and syntactic valency. Contributions discussing less studied (non-Indo-European) languages are particularly welcome, as the present workshop is intended to explore the degree of convergence and variation in this domain. References Baker, Mark. 1996. The Polysynthesis Parameter. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Croft, William. 2001. Radical Construction Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Herbst, Thomas & Katrin Götz-Votteler (eds.). 2007. Valency: theoretical, descriptive and cognitive issues. Berlin: Mouton. Jelinek, Eloise. 1984. Empty categories, case, and configurationality. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 2:39-76. Langacker, Ronald. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, Vol. 1: Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Mel'cuk, Igor. A. 1988. Dependency Syntax: Theory and practice. Albany, NY: SUNY Vater, Heinz (ed.). 1977. Valence, Semantic Case and Grammatical Relations. Amsterdam, John Benjamins. Call For Papers Towards the organization of the workshop we need preliminary titles and mini-abstracts (3-5 sentences) from potentially interested participants. The deadline for these is Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010. That will allow us a little time for preparing the finalized version of the workshop proposal before the Nov. 15 deadline for session proposals. Please note that expressing an interest in participation by sending us a title and mini-abstract is not binding. Later on (Jan. 15, 2011) there is a deadline for regular abstracts, to be submitted via the conference site. We will send interested participants a reminder about this, and we will of course also let them know, by mid-December, whether the workshop was accepted. Other dates: notification of acceptance of regular abstracts: March 31, 2011; registration open from April 1, 2011. 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