LINGUIST List 15.2266

Tue Aug 10 2004

Calls: General Ling/Belgium; Ling Theories/Germany

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>

As a matter of policy, LINGUIST discourages the use of abbreviations or acronyms in conference announcements unless they are explained in the text.

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html.

Directory

  • hubert.cuyckens, From Ideational to Interpersonal: Perspectives from Grammaticalization
  • heike.wiese, Expecting the Unexpected - Exceptions in Grammar

    Message 1: From Ideational to Interpersonal: Perspectives from Grammaticalization

     Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 11:45:46 -0400 (EDT)
    From: hubert.cuyckens <hubert.cuyckensarts.kuleuven.ac.be>
    Subject: From Ideational to Interpersonal: Perspectives from Grammaticalization


    >From Ideational to Interpersonal: Perspectives from Grammaticalization Short Title: FITIGRA

    Date: 10-Feb-2005 - 12-Feb-2005 Location: Leuven, Belgium Contact: Hendrik De Smet Contact Email: fitigraarts.kuleuven.ac.be Meeting URL: http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/fitigra

    Linguistic Sub-field: General Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Pragmatics, Semantics, Syntax, Text/Corpus Linguistics, Typology Call Deadline: 01-Nov-2004

    Meeting Description:

    ''From Ideational to Interpersonal: Perspectives from Grammaticalization'' is a conference devoted to the study of semantic-pragmatic change in grammaticalization, from ''ideational'' to ''interpersonal'' (Halliday and Hasan 1976) or from ''propositional'' to ''expressive'' (Traugott 1989).

    FROM IDEATIONAL TO INTERPERSONAL: PERSPECTIVES FROM GRAMMATICALIZATION

    Leuven, 10-12 February 2005

    FIRST CIRCULAR AND CALL FOR PAPERS

    Convenors: Hubert Cuyckens (Functional Linguistics Research Group, University of Leuven) Kristin Davidse (Functional Linguistics Research Group, University of Leuven) Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen (English Department, University of Ghent)

    Meeting URL: http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/fitigra

    Meeting description: Since the 1980s, grammaticalization has taken up an important place in the research of linguists. Following Traugott, grammaticalization can be described as a robust tendency whereby "lexical items and constructions come in certain linguistic contexts to serve grammatical functions or grammatical items develop new grammatical functions". Importantly, grammaticalization involves "a subset of crosslinguistically recurring changes that involve correlations across time between semantic, morphosyntactic (and sometimes also) phonological changes." (Elizabeth C. Traugott, 2001. "Legitimate counterexamples to unidirectionality").

    As is well known, one tradition in grammaticalization studies has focused on explorations in morphosyntactic change, building on Lehmann's ([1982] 1995) seminal study on processes and parameters of grammaticalization. This type of grammaticalization research mainly focuses on the change of free syntactic units into highly constrained morphemes with a grammatical function. A more recent tradition, initiated by Traugott (1982) and elaborated, e.g., in Traugott (1989, 1995, 1996), focuses on semantic-pragmatic change in grammaticalization. Based on Halliday and Hasan's (1976) proposal that there are three functional domains of language, the ideational, the textual, and the interpersonal, she has proposed that semantic change in grammaticalization often proceeds along the following cline:

    Propositional > textual > expressive.

    This cline has been reformulated as three tendencies which involve (increasing) pragmatic strengthening, and in which the tendency towards expressiveness/subjectivity is the most prominent.

    The purpose of this conference is to bring together papers that examine various aspects of grammaticalization within the framework of the clines ideational > textual > interpersonal and/or propositional > textual > expressive. As such, we welcome contributions addressing (by now) familiar issues in grammaticalization such as: - auxiliarization, the development of discourse markers, etc. - the importance of pragmatic strengthening/invited inferencing/subjectification, as they occur in the cognitive-functional context of speaker-hearer interaction.

    Furthermore, we encourage contributions which, within the framework outlined above, take up newer issue that may necessitate a broader definition of grammaticalization. These include: - the study of shifts such as those from head to modifier (Denison 2002) or modifier to intensifier (Adamson 2000) in the NP, a grammatical environment which has hitherto been relatively neglected in grammaticalization theory; - the interplay between grammaticalization and lexicalization, with the latter understood as the formation of a new lexical item by the combination of two formerly distinct lexical items (Fischer & Rosenbach 2000; Lehmann 2002; Van der Auwera 2002 ); - the question whether grammaticalization processes can be predicted to follow certain structurally determined paths, such as center-to-periphery directionality in the NP (Rijkhoff 2002); - the role played in the lexicogrammatical re-organization accompanying grammaticalization by syntagmatic relations between lexical items such as collocation (Sinclair 1991), semantic feature copying (Bublitz 1996), semantic prosody (Stubbs 1995), and pragmatic feature copying.

    Finally, we also seek contributions that highlight the importance of such usage-based factors as frequency and entrenchment for grammaticalization, and that, in general, give attention to quantitative data in support of grammaticalization processes.

    Guest speakers: Teresa Fanego (University of Santiago de Compostela), Manfred Krug (Freiburg University) have confirmed their participation as keynote speakers.

    Call for papers: Papers are invited on the aspects of grammaticalization within the framework outlined above. Presentations will be 20 minutes with 10 minutes question time.

    Abstracts should be between 400 and 500 words (exclusive of references) and should state research questions, approach, method, data and (expected) results. Abstracts will be reviewed anonymously.

    Abstracts should be submitted as Word or as .RTF files. More information on how to submit abstracts can be found on the conference website http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/fitigra under "Submit Abstract".

    Information on the venue, accommodation, registration fee, travel arrangements and social program will be sent out in a second circular around the end of August 2004.

    The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 1 November 2004. Notification of acceptance will be given by 15 November 2004.

    Message 2: Expecting the Unexpected - Exceptions in Grammar

     Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 04:53:42 -0400 (EDT)
    From: heike.wiese <heike.wieserz.hu-berlin.de>
    Subject: Expecting the Unexpected - Exceptions in Grammar


    Expecting the Unexpected - Exceptions in Grammar

    Date: 23-Feb-2005 - 25-Feb-2005 Location: Cologne, Germany Contact: Heike Wiese Contact Email: exceptionsstaff.hu-berlin.de Meeting URL: http://www.dgfs.de/cgi-bin/koeln2005.pl

    Linguistic Sub-field: General Linguistics, Language Description, Linguistic Theories Call Deadline: 15-Aug-2004

    Meeting Description:

    EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED: EXCEPTIONS IN GRAMMAR Workshop as part of the 26th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Linguistics (DGfS)

    Organisers: Horst Simon & Heike Wiese (Humboldt-University Berlin)

    Keynote speakers: Frans Plank (University of Konstanz) Marga Reis (University of Tuebingen) Tom Wasow (Stanford University)

    A general goal of scientific theories is to systematise data from a particular field as completely and as elegantly as possible; ideally, all phenomena should be accounted for within a simple system.

    Is such a methodological aim also adequate for human language? In the analysis of linguistic data, one frequently faces phenomena that pose a problem for systematisation because they do not follow the standard patterns one observes otherwise. The workshop will explore the theoretical and practical problems that exceptions pose for grammatical modelling; focussing on questions like: - How can exceptions be identified? In how far is their special status tied to the particular grammatical model used? - Do exceptions constitute sub-systems? Are there special areas in grammar where exceptions abound? - How do exceptions emerge diachronically? How are they levelled out again? - Are there special acquisitional patterns for exceptions? How are they affected in situations of language loss? What is their status in language processing? - Are exceptions also a part of communication systems of other species, or are they a species-specific characteristic of the human language faculty? Do they play a role in language evolution?

    REMINDER: Deadline for submission of abstracts is this coming Sunday (August 15th, 2004)!

    Expecting the Unexpected - Exceptions in Grammar

    Workshop as part of the 26th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Linguistics (DGfS) at the University of Cologne, Germany (23rd-25th February, 2005)

    organisers: Horst Simon and Heike Wiese, Humboldt-University Berlin

    Keynote speakers: Frans Plank (University of Konstanz) Marga Reis (University of Tuebingen) Tom Wasow (Stanford University)

    A general goal of scientific theories is to systematise data from a particular field as completely and as elegantly as possible; ideally, all phenomena should be accounted for within a simple system.

    Is such a methodological aim also adequate for human language? In the analysis of linguistic data, one frequently faces phenomena that pose a problem for systematisation because they do not follow the standard patterns one observes otherwise. There are various ways to deal with this problem; possible options, as realised in different frameworks, include:

    - ignoring special cases and concentrating on abstract model building instead,

    - reserving a specialised part of the model (the 'lexicon') for idiosyncrasies,

    - dispensing with generalisations altogether and concentrating on in-depth analyses of case studies.

    In addition, some approaches favour 'softer' grammatical models (such as Prototype Theory or Stochastic Optimality Theory) that can integrate 'exceptions' without bestowing them a special theoretical status. Finally, for some models of language change (e.g. those based on evolutionary theory), the existence of exceptions is an integral and constitutive part of the theory.

    Exceptions can be defined both inter- and intra-linguistically. First, typologically, exceptions can represent counter-examples to cross-linguistically formulated general regularities, while they might constitute a systematic phenomenon in the individual language in which they occur (cf. e.g. the cases collected in the Constance Rarit�tenkabinett). Second, in a particular language, exceptions can represent an idiosyncratic phenomenon that cannot be captured by intra-linguistic grammatical generalisations and therefore requires special descriptive efforts.

    In the workshop, we want to explore the theoretical and practical problems that such intra- and inter-linguistic exceptions pose for grammatical modelling. In particular, the workshop will be dedicated to the following questions:

    - How can exceptions be identified? In how far is their special status tied to the particular grammatical model used?

    - Do exceptions constitute sub-systems? Are there special areas in grammar where exceptions abound?

    - How do exceptions emerge diachronically? How are they levelled out again?

    - Are there special acquisitional patterns for exceptions? How are they affected in situations of language loss? What is their status in language processing?

    - Are exceptions also a part of communication systems of other species, or are they a species-specific characteristic of the human language faculty? Do they play a role in language evolution?

    We invite linguists from all persuasions who work on grammatic modelling and who reflect on methodological issues, in particular those working in the fields of grammatical theory, typology, historical linguistics, psycho- and neurolinguistics, and computer linguistics. General theoretical discussions and analyses of case studies are equally welcome.

    Talks will be 20 minutes each, with 10 minutes of discussion. Please send an anonymous abstract of max. 500 words, as a text file or Word file, to exceptionsstaff.hu-berlin.de, by Aug 15th, 2004.

    Notification of acceptance or rejection will be sent by email in September.

    For further enquiries please contact: Horst Simon or Heike Wiese, Institut f�r deutsche Sprache und Linguistik Humboldt-Universit�t zu Berlin, Germany

    horst.simonunivie.ac.at (until Sept 20th) / horst.simonrz.hu-berlin.de (from Oct 1st) heike.wieserz.hu-berlin.de