Columbia School Linguistics Conference

[Nancy Stern]

CALL FOR PAPERS

9th International Columbia School Conference
on the Interaction of
Linguistic Form and Meaning with Human Behavior

February 18-19, 2007
The City College of New York
New York, New York  

Invited speakers:

Yishai Tobin (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)
Elizabeth Traugott (Stanford University)

Special session:  Functional linguistics in language education

Papers are invited on any aspect of linguistic analysis in which the postulation and testing of hypotheses about meaningful signals plays a central role in explaining the distribution of linguistic forms.  A special session will be devoted to functional linguistics in language education.

The Columbia School is a group of linguists developing the theoretical framework originally established by the late William Diver.  Language is seen as a symbolic tool whose structure is shaped both by its communicative function and by the characteristics of its users.  Grammatical analyses account for the distribution of linguistic forms as an interaction between hypothesized linguistic meanings and contextual, pragmatic and functional factors such as inference, ease of processing, and iconicity.  Phonological analyses explain the syntagmatic and paradigmatic distribution of phonological units within signals, also drawing on both communicative function and human physiological and psychological characteristics.

Abstracts should be sent as an email attachment to nstern at ccny.cuny.edu, following these guidelines:

*In the body of the email, please include:  (1) Author name(s) and affiliation(s); (2) Title of the paper; (3) Email addresses and telephone numbers of all authors.

*The abstract, containing only the title of the paper and the text of the abstract, should be sent as an attachment (RTF or Word) format.  The abstract should be no more than 300 words, although references and/or data may be added to that limit.   

DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ABSTRACTS:  30 SEPTEMBER 2006

The language of the conference is English.  Papers delivered in languages other than English will be considered.


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The support of
The Columbia School Linguistic Society
is gratefully acknowledged

www.csling.org
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Selected Columbia School bibliography:

Contini-Morava, Ellen, Robert S. Kirsner, and Betsy Rodriguez-Bachiller (eds).  2005.  Cognitive and Communicative Approaches to Linguistic Analysis. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Contini-Morava, Ellen, and Barbara Sussman Goldberg (eds).  1995.  Meaning as Explanation:  Advances in Linguistic Sign Theory.  Berlin:  Mouton de Gruyter.   
Huffman, Alan.  1997.  The Categories of Grammar:  French lui and le.  Amsterdam/Philadelphia:  John Benjamins.
Huffman, Alan.  2001.  "The Linguistics of William Diver and the Columbia School."  WORD 52:1, 29-68.
Reid, Wallis.  1991.  Verb and Noun Number in English:  A Functional Explanation.  London:  Longman.
Reid, Wallis, Ricardo Otheguy, and Nancy Stern (eds).  2002.   Signal, Meaning, and Message:  Perspectives on Sign-Based Linguistics.  Amsterdam/Philadelphia:  John Benjamins.
Tobin, Yishai.  1997.  Phonology as Human Behavior:  Theoretical Implications and Clinical Applications.  Durham, NC:  Duke U Press.

For more information, please contact Nancy Stern at nstern at ccny.cuny.edu