Workshop on Light Elements Across Languages

Date: 21-Nov-2025 - 21-Nov-2025
Location: Online

Linguistic Field(s): Morphology; Pragmatics; Semantics; Syntax

Submission Deadline: 01-Oct-2025

The issue of light elements (primarily verbs and nouns, but also prepositions, adjectives, quantifiers a.s.o.) has been the focus of extensive research over the past years within the standard generative framework. The complexity of light elements is apparent at various levels of linguistic analysis: typological, morpho-syntactic, semantic, psycholinguistic, pragmatic, a.o.
In an attempt at shedding some new light on the current analyses of light elements across languages, the workshop tackles (but it is not limited to) the following aspects:

- typological perspectives on light elements
- the relation between “lightness” and semi-lexicality
- sets of diagnostic features discriminating between light verbs, auxiliaries, serial verbs
- sets of diagnostic features discriminating between light nouns and “content” nouns
- the grammaticalization path of light elements
- the relation between “lightness” and silent material
- “lightness” and theta-role assignment
- complex predicate formation
- the morpho-syntax of light elements
- “lightness” and semantic bleaching
- pragmatic analyses of light elements

Workshop convener: Mihaela Tănase-Dogaru (University of Bucharest)

Anonymous abstracts (TNR 12, single-spaced, 2 pages max., references included) should be sent to [email protected] by October 1 2025.

A selection of the papers will be published in a thematic volume.

Important Dates:
Submission of abstracts: October 1 2025
Notification of acceptance: October 15 2025
Workshop date: November 21 2025
Workshop format: online
Workshop fee: 150 RON or 30 Euro