Call for papers for<br><br>Production, Perception, Attitude<br>An interdisciplinary workshop on understanding and explaining linguistic variation<br><br>Hosted by the University of Leuven, April 2-4, 2009<br><br>Organized by the Universities of Leuven, Nijmegen, and Groningen for the VNC-research <br>
programme<br>The interaction between intelligibility, attitude, and linguistic distance.<br><br><br><br>We invite paper and poster presentations for a two day symposium which focuses on (and <br>confronts) work in variationist linguistics, perceptual dialectology, and language <br>
attitude research. Contributions preferably tackle one of the following topics:<br><br><br>* Innovative methods and techniques for measuring language variation and change, language <br>perceptions, or language attitudes;<br>
* Innovative methods and techniques for collecting reliable data in these disciplines;<br>* Data-based analysis which highlights the causal relations between production, <br>perception, and attitudes.<br>Although the focus in the research programme which frames this workshop is on Dutch, <br>
contributions need not be restricted to linguistic variation in the Low Countries.<br><br><br><br>Background<br><br><br>Although linguistic variation in the Dutch language area (The Netherlands and Flanders) <br>has enjoyed an enormous amount of descriptive and theoretical attention, few reliable <br>
data are available on the origin of this variation and on how it can be accounted for. In <br>order to explain language variation, the sociolinguistic correlates of phonetic, lexical, <br>and morpho-syntactic variables ?have to be traced back to a complex set of underlying <br>
criteria? (Knops & Van Hout 1988: 2). The identification of at least some of these <br>criteria is the ambitious aim to which the present workshop is devoted.<br><br>Up to now, linguistic variation in The Netherlands has been investigated predominantly <br>
from the perspective of language production, i. e. in terms of the description of the <br>linguistic distance observed between regional and stylistic varieties of Dutch (cf. <br>Geeraerts, Grondelaers & Speelman 1999; Van Hout & Van de Velde 2001; Heeringa & Nerbonne <br>
2001). In order, however, to move from merely describing linguistic variation to <br>explaining variation, three extensions are needed.<br><br>First, the production perspective on linguistic variation has to be refined theoretically <br>
and methodologically to chart hitherto unknown patterns and (more importantly) triggers <br>of variation. Second, it is well-known that some language variation and change patterns <br>are sustained by attitudinal factors (whereby ?attitudes? are provisionally defined as <br>
the culturally and experientially acquired inclination to perceive and evaluate a variety <br>as systematically negative or positive). Although the causal link between perception and <br>production has recurrently been demonstrated (cf. Van Bezooijen 2001), both define <br>
different disciplines in (socio)linguistics and social psychology which rarely interact. <br>Attitude research is moreover hindered by a lack of reliable quantitative data <br>(Grondelaers, Van Hout & Steegs: in press).<br>
<br>In addition to these two perspectives, the workshop also focuses on the (often missing) <br>link between the production and the evaluative perception of language variation. Before <br>language variation can be subjectively evaluated, it must first be recognized by the <br>
layman. Perceptual dialectology (Long & Preston 1999) therefore investigates to what <br>extent linguistic laymen recognize and understand other varieties, and where they situate <br>the boundaries between their own and other varieties. Although this paradigm represents <br>
one of the oldest disciplines in sociolinguistics (pioneered in Weijnen 1946), its <br>findings have rarely been systematically confronted with production and attitudinal <br>perception data. Another crucial perspective which has largely been ignored in this <br>
respect is the mutual intelligibility between language varieties, a factor which is <br>co-determined by attitudes and by linguistic distance (Gooskens 2007).<br><br>The present meeting is devoted to enhancing the convergence between the cited research <br>
disciplines in order to develop (the preliminaries to) an explanatory model of language <br>variation and change. The workshop is interdisciplinary in focus and features three <br>plenary speakers and presentations by the universities participating in the research <br>
programme. In addition, we invite contributions from (socio)linguists and (social) <br>psychologists working in the three aforementioned areas for plenary oral presentations as <br>well as an extended poster programme (poster presenters will be allowed plenary <br>
presentation time to advertize their posters).<br><br><br><br>References<br><br><br>Geeraerts, D., S. Grondelaers & D. Speelman (1999). Convergentie en Divergentie in de <br>Nederlandse Woordenschat: een Onderzoek naar kleding- en voetbalnamen. Amsterdam: <br>
Meertensinstituut.<br>Grondelaers, S., R. van Hout & M. Steegs. Non-circular scales and ecological stimuli. <br>Measuring accent attitudes in the Dutch language area. To appear in the Journal of <br>Language and Social Psychology.<br>
Gooskens, Charlotte (2007): The contribution of linguistic factors to the intelligibility <br>of closely related languages. Journal of Multilingual and multicultural development 28 <br>(6), 445-467.<br>Heeringa, W. & J. Nerbonne (2002). Dialect areas and dialect continua. In David Sankoff, <br>
William Labov and Anthony Kroch (eds.), Language Variation and Change, 375-400. New York: <br>Cambridge University Press.<br>Long, D., D. R. Preston (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology. Volume 1. <br>Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.<br>
Van Bezooijen, R. (2001). Poldernederlands. Hoe kijken vrouwen ertegenaan? Nederlandse <br>Taalkunde 6, 257-271.<br>Van de Velde, H. & R. van Hout. R-atics. Sociolinguistic, Phonetic and Phonological <br>Characteristics of /r/. Etudes & Travaux 4. Brussel: Editions Université Libre de <br>
Bruxelles.<br>Van Hout, R. & U. Knops (1988). Language Attitudes in the Dutch Language Area. Dordrecht: <br>Foris<br><br><br><br>Plenary speakers<br><br><br>Dennis Preston (Michigan State University)<br>Janet Pierrehumbert (Northwestern University)<br>
Roeland van Hout (Radboud University Nijmegen)<br><br><br><br>Abstracts<br><br><br>Please send an anonymous abstract (500 words without references) to <a class="fixed" onclick="popup_imp('/imp/compose.php',780,850,'to=ppa%40arts.kuleuven.be&thismailbox=sent-mail');" href="https://webmail5.kuleuven.be/imp/message.php?index=823#">ppa@arts.kuleuven.be</a>. <br>
Specify your name, affiliation and contact details in the message body and append your <br>abstract to the message. Abstracts are due on December 15, 2008 and will be reviewed by <br>two members of the programme committee.<br>
<br><br><br>Programme & local committee<br><br><br>Dirk Speelman (University of Leuven)<br>Stefan Grondelaers (Radboud University Nijmegen)<br>Dirk Geeraerts (University of Leuven)<br>Roeland van Hout (Radboud University Nijmegen)<br>
John Nerbonne (University of Groningen)<br>Charlotte Gooskens (University of Groningen)<br>Sebastian Kürschner (University of Groningen)<br>Leen Impe (University of Leuven)<br>Mieke Steegs (Radboud University Nijmegen)<br>
<br><br><br>Important dates<br><br><br>December 15, 2008 Abstracts due<br>January 15, 2009 Notification of acceptance<br>March 1st, 2009 Final abstracts due for inclusion in workshop programme<br>
April 2-4, 2009 Workshop<br><br><br><br>Proceedings<br><br><br>From the invited and submitted contributions, 15 papers will be selected for inclusion in <br>an edited volume. The workshop organizers are currently negotiating a volume in the <br>
series Studies in Language Variation with Benjamins.<br><br><br><br>Conference website<br><br><br><a class="fixed" href="http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/ppa" target="_blank">http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/ppa</a>