LINGUIST List 8.974

Tue Jul 1 1997

Calls: Paleoindian, Syntax of Adverbials

Editor for this issue: Brett Churchill <brettlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. PEARSON, Paleoindian Call for Papers
2. wilhelm.geuder, The Syntax of Adverbials: Theoretical and Cross-linguistic Aspects

 SAA 1998 SEATTLE
 63RD ANNUAL MEETING
 SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY
 
 
 LATE PLEISTOCENE-EARLY HOLOCENE
 POPULATION MOVEMENTS IN THE AMERICAS:
 THE PEOPLING OF A CONTINENT
 
This session will address important questions related to the
initial dispersal and settling of humans across North,
Central and South America. The organizers wish to encourage
researchers from the fields of archaeology, physical
anthropology, human genetics, linguistics, etc., to submit
abstracts. Submissions must be sent before August 30th.
Suggested topics include:

1-Technological diffusion versus human migrations.
2-Coastal and/or terrestrial entry and dispersal routes.
3-Late Paleoindian origins and expansions.
4-Rates of dispersal and ecological boundaries.
5-Periglacial refugiums and "backwash" movements.
6-Culture historical unilineal evolution and multi-cultural models.
7-Migration waves revisited: Recent genetic, linguistic and archaeological
 evidence.
8-Origins and interactions between South American and North American
 Paleoindian groups.
9-Geographical and environmental obstacles, bottlenecks and zones of rapid
 radiation: natural highways and corridors.
10-Environmental adaptations and technocultural divergence.
11-Paleoindian response to Holocene biogeographical re-organization.


For further information or to submit abstracts contact:

Georges A. Pearson
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Kansas
622 Fraser Hall
Lawrence, KS 66046
tel. (913) 864-4103 fax (5224)
ftgapeagle.cc.ukans.edu

David R. Yesner
Dept. of Anthropology
University of Alaska Anchorage
3211 Providence Dr.
Anchorage, AK 99508
tel. (907) 786-6845
afdryuaa.alsaka.edu

As a part of the annual meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer
Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS), March 4-6, 1998, in Halle, a workshop will be
held on

The Syntax of Adverbials: Theoretical and Cross-linguistic Aspects

Although adverbials often play an important role in syntactic
argumentation, e.g. as a test for verb movement, they are comparatively
rarely made the object of a systematic investigation. The goal of this
workshop is therefore to bring together work on theoretical, descriptive
and cross-linguistic aspects of the syntax of modifiers, such as
deadjectival adverbials (i.e., adverbs proper), prepositional phrases,
adverbial clauses, adverbial participles, etc. Likewise, work on the
syntax-semantics interface in this area would be welcome. Possible topics
comprise (but are not confined to) the following:


1. How do adverbials fit in with a restrictive theory of phrase structure
and movement?

Are right-adjunction or multiple adjunctions to be excluded universally (as
proposed by Kayne and Haider)? Are there fixed base positions for
adverbials and do adverbials obey syntactic licensing conditions? If so,
should special functional projections be invoked for this purpose (cf.
Cinque, Alexiadou)? Or are there different alternative positions in which a
specific adverbial can be generated? Do adverbials undergo scrambling?


2. What is the connection between the syntax and the semantics of adverbials?

Can we do away with purely syntactic constraints for adjunction sites and
order of adverbials and explain the restrictions entirely on semantic
grounds, i.e. with the needs of semantic composition? Furthermore, how do
adverbials connect to the theory of Logical Form? Which kinds of semantic
entities do the various types of adverbials operate on and in which way are
these linked to syntactic categories and projections?


3. Which universals of the syntax of modifiers can be found in
cross-linguistic comparison, and how do directionality parameters bear on
the syntax of adverbials?

One especially interesting problem originates from the observation that the
order and hierarchy of arguments are the same in OV and in VO languages
(Koster, Haider). This has engendered the view that the OV/VO distinction
is at least partly due to a movement parameter instead of a phrase
structure parameter. However, modifiers do not (consistently) exhibit this
parallelism across language types. A comparison of the OV/VO types with
respect to the syntax of adverbials can therefore be expected to have
interesting consequences for research on syntactic universals. This
cross-linguistic perspective also bears on the theoretical question as to
the conditions that may license right adjunction.

***

Organizers: Wilhelm Geuder (University of Tuebingen), Werner Frey and Karin
Pittner (University of Stuttgart)


Languages of the workshop will be German and English. There are 30-minute
and 60-minute slots available. If you are interested in presenting a paper,
please send a detailed abstract (in German or English)

by regular mail (3 copies, no longer than 2 pages) to

Wilhelm Geuder, Universitaet Tuebingen, Seminar fuer Sprachwissenschaft,
Wilhelmstr. 113, 72074 Tuebingen, Germany


or, preferably, via e-mail to

wilhelm.geuderuni-tuebingen.de

(please, cc to <pittnerims.uni-stuttgart.de> and <wernerims.uni-stuttgart.de>)


Your abstract should reach us no later than August 15, 1997. The programme
of the workshop will be set up by September 15.
Camera-ready one-page abstracts of the accepted papers will be due in
December 1997.