LINGUIST List 6.1254

Fri Sep 15 1995

Calls: Berkeley Linguistics Society Call For Papers

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. , Berkeley Linguistics Society Call For Papers

 THE BERKELEY LINGUISTICS SOCIETY
 BLS 22
 CALL FOR PAPERS

The Berkeley Linguistics Society is pleased to announce its Twenty-Second
Annual Meeting, to be held February 17-19, 1996. The conference will consist
of a General Session and a Parasession. A Special Session will be held on
February 16, 1996.

GENERAL SESSION

The main session will cover areas of general linguistic interest. Invited
speakers include:

ADELE GOLDBERG
 Department of Linguistics, University of California, San Diego
PAUL HOPPER
 Department of English, Carnegie Mellon University
JOHANNA NICHOLS
 Department of Slavic Languages, University of California, Berkeley

Parasession:
 THE ROLE OF LEARNABILITY IN GRAMMATICAL THEORY

 The parasession will accept papers bearing on all aspects of the role
of learnability in linguistic theory. In theoretical linguistics one often
hears the objection that a proposed linguistic construct is unlearnable, or
the claim that a proposed theory is preferable to another because it is
more learnable. What is the status of this type of argumentation? What
justifies the use of this rhetorical technique? What can empirical
language acquisition research or formal learnability models tell us about
learnability? When, if ever, can learnability arguments be validly based
on a priori theories or considerations (such as simplicity, economy, or
abstractness vs. concreteness)? How do claims about learnability relate
to such issues as the autonomy of the language faculty and the nature of
Universal Grammar? Invited speakers include:

MELISSA BOWERMAN
 Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
TED GIBSON
 Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
LISE MENN
 Department of Linguistics, University of Colorado
GEOFFREY PULLUM
 Linguistics Board, University of California, Santa Cruz

Special Session:
 HISTORICAL TOPICS IN NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES

This year's special session will be on historical issues in
Native American languages. Invited speakers include:

SCOTT DELANCEY
 Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon
MARGARET LANGDON
 Department of Linguistics, University of California, San Diego
LAUREL WATKINS
 Department of Anthropology, Colorado College

 Abstracts are invited for all three sessions. We encourage
proposals from diverse theoretical frameworks and welcome papers
from related disciplines, among them anthropology, cognitive science,
literature, philosophy, and psychology.

 Papers presented at the conference will be published in the Society's
Proceedings, and authors who present papers agree to provide camera-ready
copy of their papers (not to exceed approximately 12 pages) by May 15, 1996.
Speakers will be allotted 20 minutes with 10 minutes for questions.
We ask that you make your abstract as specific as possible, including a
statement of your topic or problem, your approach, and your conclusions.
To submit an abstract, send 10 copies of an anonymous one-page
(8 1/2" x 11", unreduced) abstract. (A second page, or reverse side
of the single page, may be used for data and references only.) Along
with the abstract send a 3" x 5" card listing: (1) paper title,
(2) session submitted to (general session, parasession, or special session),
(3) for general session abstracts only, subject matter area, viz.,
Discourse Analysis, Historical Linguistics, Morphology, Philosophy and
Methodology of Linguistics, Phonetics/Phonology, Pragmatics,
Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, or Syntax/Semantics, (4) author's name
(5) author's affiliation, (6) address to which notification of acceptance
or rejection should be mailed (in late December 1995), (7) author's office
and home phone numbers, (8) author's e-mail address, if available. In case
of joint authorship, one address should be designated for communication
with BLS.

Send abstracts to:
 BLS 22 Abstract Committees
 2337 Dwinelle Hall
 University of California
 Berkeley, CA 94720.

Abstracts for the general session and parasession must be received by
5:00 p.m., November 10, 1995. Special session abstracts must be received
by November 17, 1995. Inquiries of a general nature may be sent by e-mail
(blsgarnet.berkeley.edu); however, we cannot accept e-mailed or faxed
submission of abstracts.

(Registration Fees: before February 7, 1996 - $10 students, $15 non-students;
 after February 7, 1996 - $20 students, $25 non-students.)


Contact: blsgarnet.berkeley.edu