LINGUIST List 21.4236

Sun Oct 24 2010

Confs: Syntax, Historical Ling/Germany

Editor for this issue: Amy Brunett <brunettlinguistlist.org>

        1.     Roland Meyer , Grammatical Change and the Expression of Subjects
Message 1: Grammatical Change and the Expression of Subjects
Date: 22-Oct-2010
From: Roland Meyer <roland.meyersprachlit.uni-regensburg.de>
Subject: Grammatical Change and the Expression of Subjects
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Grammatical Change and the Expression of Subjects Short Title: GCES


Date: 02-Dec-2010 - 04-Dec-2010 Location: Regensburg, Germany Contact: Roland Meyer Contact Email: < click here to access email > Meeting URL: http://www-slavistik.uni-regensburg.de/gces

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Syntax

Meeting Description:

Diachronic grammatical change in the realm of subject expressions involves phenomena like the loss of pro-drop, alternations in thematic alignment, and the rise of various new passive and impersonal constructions. The conference seeks to bring together researchers working on these and closely related topics. Attention shall also be devoted to annotated historical corpora which facilitate the treatment of the above issues.

The conference ''Grammatical Change and the Expression of Subjects'' will take place on Dec 3 and 4 at the University of Regensburg, Germany. Online registration is now open!

Meeting URL: http://www-slavistik.uni-regensburg.de/gces

Invited speakers:

Elly van Gelderen (Arizona State University) Anthony Kroch (University of Pennsylvania) Ian Roberts (University of Cambridge) David Willis (University of Cambridge)

Conference topic:

Diachronic grammatical change in the realm of subject expressions involves phenomena like the loss of pro-drop, alternations in thematic alignment, and the rise of various new passive and impersonal constructions. The conference seeks to bring together researchers working on these and closely related topics. Attention shall also be devoted to annotated historical corpora which facilitate the treatment of these issues.

Topics to be discussed at GCES include:

- Diachronic development of null subjects - Changes in subject expletives - Diachrony of oblique and quirky subjects - History of impersonal constructions - Development of diatheses affecting the external argument - Change in unaccusatives - History of subjects in root infinitives and modal constructions - Empirical methodology in diachronic syntax - Historical and diachronic corpora annotated for syntactic structure and syntactic relations

Preliminary program:

Friday, 3 December

Keynote lecture: Anthony Kroch (Philadelphia)

Carola Trips (Mannheim), Eric Fuss (Frankfurt): Why Different Types of Subjects can Have an Effect on Agreement Marking: a Case Study on Northern Middle English Varieties

Susann Fischer (Hamburg): A Diachronic Comparative Approach of Expletives (and the Definiteness Effect)

Anna Volodina, Helmut Weiss (Frankfurt): Zur Diachronie pronominaler Null-Subjekte im Deutschen

Henrik Rosenkvist (Lund): Referential Null Subjects in Old and Modern Germanic - Typological Observations

Keynote lecture: Elly van Gelderen (Tucson): Pro-drop, Pronouns, and Demonstratives: Reanalyzing Features in the History of English

Jóhanna Barðdal (Bergen), Carlee Arnet (Davis), Tonya Kim Dewey (Berkeley), Thorhallur Eythorsson (Rejkyavik): Verbal Semantics and Subject Case Marking in Early Germanic

Silvia Luraghi (Pavia): The Extension of Unaccusativity in Hittite

Christine Grillborzer (Regensburg): Dative Subjects In Russian Modal Constructions - Synchronic and Diachronic Account

Saturday, 4 December

Keynote lecture: Ian Roberts (Cambridge)

Charlotte Galves, Maria Clara Paixão de Sousa, Silvia Regina de Oliveira Cavalcante (Campinas): Topics, Subjects and Grammatical Change: From Classical to Modern European Portuguese

Javier Elvira González (Madrid): Old Spanish Impersonal Sentences: Demise and Revival of an Ancient Construction

Rossana di Gennaro (Pisa): Impersonal Verbs in Latin: Variations in Subject Detection and Expression in the Shift from Active-stative to Transitive Syntax

Pavel Grashchenkov (Moscow): Emergence of Functional Categories through Argument Suppression

Keynote lecture: David Willis (Cambridge)

Irina Monich (Storrs): Comparing Subjects in Chichewa and Sesotho

Nerea Madariaga (Vitoria-Gasteiz): Dative Subjects in Control Clauses in the History of Russian

Artemij Keidan (Rome): Development of Subject in Indo-Aryan: What Indian Grammarians Tell Us about It

Roland Meyer (Regensburg): The Connection between Null Subject Impersonals and Pro-drop in the History of Slavic Languages

Local Organisers:

Roland Meyer (University of Regensburg) Björn Hansen (University of Regensburg)

Page Updated: 24-Oct-2010