LINGUIST List 18.1771
Mon Jun 11 2007
Calls: Semantics,Syntax,Typology/Germany; Semantics,Syntax/Norway
Editor for this issue: Ania Kubisz
<anialinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Alexis
Dimitriadis,
Reciprocals Cross-Linguistically
2. Peter
Svenonius,
The Syntax and Semantics of Measurability
Message 1: Reciprocals Cross-Linguistically
Date: 10-Jun-2007
From: Alexis Dimitriadis <alexis.dimitriadislet.uu.nl>
Subject: Reciprocals Cross-Linguistically
Full Title: Reciprocals Cross-Linguistically
Date: 30-Nov-2007 - 01-Dec-2007 Location: Berlin, Germany Contact Person: Alexis Dimitriadis Meeting Email: reciprocals07gmail.com. The text of the abstract, including examples, should not exceed two pages; a third page can be used for references, figures, or unusually large or numerous examples.
The body of your email message should include your name, affiliation and contact information.
More information will periodically appear on the Conference website:
http://languagelink.let.uu.nl/burs/RCL07/
Message 2: The Syntax and Semantics of Measurability
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Date: 10-Jun-2007
From: Peter Svenonius <peter.svenoniushum.uit.no>
Subject: The Syntax and Semantics of Measurability
Full Title: The Syntax and Semantics of Measurability
Date: 17-Jun-2007 - 18-Jun-2007 Location: Tromsø, Norway Contact Person: Gillian Ramchand Meeting Email: measurehum.uit.no
Partial travel support will be available for speakers whose abstracts are selected
Measurability across categories:
While there are clear distributional differences among the major lexical categories, the semantics of scalar structure seems to cross cut these natural boundaries, giving rise to the phenomenon of measuring and measure phrase modification, often with the same lexical ingredients.
a. John slept a lot/2hours. (Verb) b. John is a lot/6cm taller than Mary. (Comparative Adjective) c. John ate a lot of/3 oz of beans (Noun) d. John ran 2 miles along the track (Preposition)
Thus, scalar structure can be found in the meanings of (i) verbs, in the unfolding of events according to a linearly ordered time line; (ii) adjectives, in the form of gradability and comparison with regard to property degree; (iii) nominals, in the form of the part-whole scales required for measurement, and (iv) prepositions, in the form of spatial paths and locative projections.
The purpose of this workshop is to investigate the extent to which measurability has a common syntactic and/or semantic representation within natural language. Papers are invited that deal with the semantic and/or syntactic analysis of scales/paths and their measures in any of the major syntactic categories. Papers dealing with measurability in a single domain, as well as those which explicitly deal with comparing measurability across domains are welcome.
Suitable topics include, but are not restricted to the following questions:
- To what extent does scalarity/path structure have a common syntactic representation across categories? Or does the cross categorial nature of the phenomenon point to a common semantics that is mismatched with the syntax?
- How do the 'scales' corresponding to different categories interact semantically when they are in a close syntactic relationship? The relevant phenomena here include verbs interacting with PP complements, with adjectival material in the construction of deadjectival verbs, or with DP objects with incremental theme verbs.
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