SKY Symposium on "Subject: cognitive, typological and functional approaches"

Fri Feb 22 14:15:26 UTC 2013

The Linguistic Association of Finland (SKY) organizes a symposium on:

Subject: cognitive, typological and functional approaches

Helsinki, September 12-14, 2013
http://www.linguistics.fi/subject/index.html

Grammatical subject is a central notion in linguistic theories.  
Subjects have been studied across multiple theoretical frameworks, and  
defined from various perspectives, including, for example,  
feature-based (Keenan 1976), construction-based (Goldberg 1995), and  
cognitive-based (Langacker 2008). While there is no doubt that in many  
languages subjects constitute a core element of grammar, there is no  
general agreement on how to define them in and across languages, what  
conditions the way in which subjects are expressed, and what functions  
they have in discourse. Furthermore, there are numerous languages that  
lack the idea of a grammatical subject altogether, and the assignment  
of semantic roles to the constituents of discourse is conditioned by  
pragmatics and discourse structure.

The aim of this symposium of the Linguistic Association of Finland is  
to bring together linguists from different fields who work on subjects  
within cognitive, functional, typological, and interactional  
approaches. Contributions are expected to be data-driven, and the  
discussion of theoretical issues is appreciated to the extent that it  
helps to elucidate the data and remains accessible to linguists  
working within other theoretical approaches as well.

The invited speakers are:
Jóhanna Barðdal (University of Bergen)
Pekka Posio (University of Helsinki)
Catherine E. Travis (Australian National University, Canberra)

Possible topics for talks include (but are not restricted to) the following:

·         Definitions of subject in different theoretical frameworks:  
feature-based, construction-based and cognitive definitions (Keenan  
1976; Goldberg 1995; Langacker 2008), relation between subject and  
topic and subject-prominent vs. topic-prominent languages (Li &  
Thompson 1976)
·         Languages with variable subject expression (e.g.  
null-subject and pro-drop languages), different marking strategies,  
information structure, and choice of referring expressions in the  
subject position (Kibrik 2011; Dryer 2011; Posio 2012)
·         Non-referential and vague subjects, for instance in the  
sense of reference reducing impersonals (Siewierska & Papastathi 2011;  
Malchukov & Ogawa 2011)
·         Grammaticalization of subjects and subject pronouns  
(Shibatani 1991; Heine & Song 2011)
·         Discourse functions of subjects; differences between deictic  
and anaphoric subjects (Scheibman 2002; Travis & Torres Cacoullos 2012)
·         Subjects in typology; the universality of subject as a  
grammatical relation (LaPolla 1993); prototypical and non-canonical  
subjects
·         Syntax and semantics of subjects in and across languages:  
subjects and semantic roles; the role of subjects in argument  
structure (Shibatani 1977; Van Valin & LaPolla 1997; Levin & Rappaport  
Hovav 2005)

Abstract submission:
Anonymous abstracts, no more than 500 words, excluding data and  
references, should be submitted by April 15, 2013. The abstracts must  
be anonymous. They will be evaluated by the organizing committee and  
by the members of the scientific committee. Notifications of  
acceptance will be announced by May 20, 2013. The talks will be 30  
minutes long: 20 min for presentation and 10 min for discussion. In  
addition, there will be a poster section.

Please submit your abstract via EasyAbs available at:  
http://linguistlist.org/easyabs/subject2013

Proposals for workshops should be submitted no later than April 1,  
2013. Workshop proposals will be evaluated by the organizing  
committee. Notification of acceptance will be given by April 8, 2013.  
The symposium organizers will provide the lecture rooms and other  
facilities, but the workshop organizers will be responsible for the  
organization of their workshops (such as choosing the speakers).

Organizing committee:
Chair: Leena Kolehmainen (University of Eastern Finland), Meri  
Larjavaara (Åbo Akademi University), Tommi Nieminen (Unversity of  
Eastern Finland), Santeri Palviainen (University of Oulu), Hanna  
Parviainen (University of Tampere) and Erika Sandman (University of  
Helsinki).

Scientific committee:
Denis Creissels (University of Lyon)
Pål K. Eriksen (National Library of Norway, Oslo)
Marja-Liisa Helasvuo (University of Turku)
Tuomas Huumo (University of Turku)
Laura Janda (University of Tromsø)
Marja Järventausta (University of Cologne)
Jae Jung Song (University of Otago)
Andrej A. Kibrik (Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow)
Seppo Kittilä (University of Helsinki)
Andrej Malchukov (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig)
Maria Vilkuna (Institute for the Languages of Finland)
Camilla Wide (University of Turku)

Registration fee:
·         100 EUR
·         members of the association: 80 EUR
·         students 50 EUR

Important dates:
Abstract submission deadline: April 15, 2013
Notification of acceptance:  May 20, 2013
Proposals for workshops: April 1, 2013
Notification of workshop proposals: April 8, 2013
Early registration starts: June 1, 2013
Deadline for registrations: August 15, 2013
Conference dates: September 12-14, 2013

For further information, see http://www.linguistics.fi/subject/index.html.

For all correspondence concerning the symposium, please contact:
subject-2013 at helsinki.fi.

References

Dryer, Matthew S. 2011. Expression of pronominal subjects. In Matthew  
S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds.), The World Atlas of Language  
Structures Online. Max Planck Digital Library, Munich. Chapter 101.  
Available online at wals.info/chapter/101.

Goldberg, Adele 1995. Constructions. A Construction Grammar Approach  
to Argument Structure. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Heine, Bernd & Song, Kyung-An 2011. On the grammaticalization of  
personal pronouns. Journal of Linguistics 47: 587-630.

Keenan, Edward 1976. Towards a universal definition of subject. In  
Charles N. Li (ed.). Subject and Topic. New York: Academic Press:  
305-334.

Kibrik, Andrej A. 2011. Reference in Discourse. Oxford/New York:  
Oxford University Press.

Langacker, Ronald W. 2008. Cognitive Grammar. A Basic Introduction.  
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

LaPolla, Randy J. 1993. Arguments against 'subject' and 'direct  
object' as viable concepts in Chinese. Bulletin of the Institute of  
History and Philology, Academia Sinica 63 (4): 759-813.

Levin, Beth & Malka Rappaport Hovav 2005. Argument Realization.  
Research Surveys in Linguistics Series, Cambridge University Press,  
Cambridge, UK.

Li, Charles N. & Sandra A. Thompson 1976. Subject and topic: a new  
typology of language. In Charles N. Li (ed.). Subject and Topic.  
London/New York: Academic Press: 457-489.

Malchukov, Andrej & Ogawa, Akio 2011. Towards a typology of impersonal  
constructions. A semantic map approach. In Malchukov, Andrej &  
Siewierska, Anna (eds.) Impersonal Constructions.  
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins: 17-54.

Posio, Pekka 2012. Who are 'we' in spoken Peninsular Spanish and  
European Portuguese? Expression and reference of first person plural  
subject pronouns. Language Sciences 34(3): 339-360.

Scheibman, Joanne 2002. Point of View and Grammar: Structural Patterns  
of Subjectivity in American English Conversation. Amsterdam: John  
Benjamins.

Seo, Seunghyun 2001. The Frequency of Null Subject in Russian, Polish,  
Czech, Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian: An Analysis According to  
Morphosyntactic Environments. Doctoral dissertation, Indiana University.

Shibatani, Masayoshi 1977. Grammatical relations and surface cases.
Language 53: 789-809.

Shibatani, Masayoshi 1991. Grammaticization of topic into subject. In
Bernd Heine & Elizabeth Closs Traugott (eds.) Grammaticalization .
Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 93-133.

Siewierska, Anna & Maria Papastathi 2011. Third person plurals in the  
languages of Europe: typological and methodological issues.  
Linguistics 43(2): 575-610.

Travis, Catherine E. & Torres Cacoullos, Rena 2012. What do subject  
pronouns do in discourse? Cognitive, mechanical and constructional  
factors in variation. Cognitive Linguistics 23 (4): 711-748.

Van Valin, Robert D. and LaPolla, Randy J. 1997. Syntax: Structure,  
Meaning, and Function. Cambridge textbooks in linguistics, Cambridge:  
Cambridge University Press.