From A.v.Kemenade at let.ru.nl Sun Aug 19 14:33:25 2007 From: A.v.Kemenade at let.ru.nl (Ans van Kemenade) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:33:25 +0200 Subject: call reminder: Transmission and Diffusion Message-ID: Call reminder: Transmission and Diffusion 17-18-19 January 2008 Venue: Radboud University Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies The title ‘Transmission and Diffusion’ is inspired by Labov’s recent paper (to appear in Language), in which he attempts to fit together the family tree model of language change with the wave model into a general framework based on changes in language learning ability across the lifespan. The general argument is that the (usually relatively slow) divergence of branches of the family tree is based on the transmission of language structure from adults to children (who learn the native language with depth and perfection), and the incrementation of changes in progress by children. The diffusion of language contact across branches of the tree is primarily the work of adults who do not preserve structural conditions with the same fidelity (as adult second language learning is to varying degrees imperfect), which accounts for the limitations on borrowing of structure. Labov illustrates these issues by case studies on recent and ongoing changes in the sound system of North-eastern American city dialects based on the American Dialect Atlas. The overall model proposed opens a number of perspectives and at the same time raises a number of interesting larger questions that set the theme for this conference. The theme of the conference can be approached on various levels of scale. * the macro-level of (sub-)continental transmission and diffusion patterns, as in the field of the historical-comparative of larger language families such as Amerind, Austronesian and Trans-New Guinea Phylum, or Semitic within Afro-Asiatic * the meso-level of language contact, acquisition, and pidgin and creole studies * the micro-level of more fine-grained (historical) dialectological research, e.g. within the Germanic language area We welcome theoretically informed papers on the following intersecting issues and perspectives: * Issues of convergence vs. divergence: the view that incrementation of change in progress by children is primarily responsible for divergence is relatively well-supported by the shape of the Indo-European family tree. Is the converse also possible, i.e. can relative homogeneity within language branches arise out of original diversity by convergence fuelled by incrementation during first language learning? Such questions can be approached on various scales: the perspective might span the time frame involved in the shaping of a language family tree, but is equally useful when considering the level of dialects, dialect contact resulting from urbanization and so on. Case studies on the role of first and second language learning in convergence and divergence are especially welcome, particularly if they move beyond the realm of sound correspondences and address topics in morpho-syntax as well. * Questions concerning processes involved in first language learning and second language learning: why should first language learning necessarily lead to incrementation of change in progress? One issue with respect to second language learning is whether more drastic language contact and less drastic dialect contact involve the same kinds of processes. * Evidence for first and second language learning, or: making the best of bad data (another notion coined by Labov). There is recent major progress in quantitative research tools tracking down relatively diffuse patterns in historical data, concerning phonological as well as morpho-syntactic diversity. Thus, it is now possible to distinguish typical effects of first and of second language learning, even at considerable historical depth, and including grammatical properties. As a result, sophisticated quantitative methodologies are rapidly being developed to allow more refined research into language/dialect relationships resulting from transmission and/or diffusion than has hitherto been possible. As a research tool, such methodologies may cut both ways: they may serve to separate the effects of stable transmission and of diffusion through language contact in histories of language families; on the other hand, they may help in tracing deeper relationships that may exist with isolated languages that seem typologically remote. Similarly, such methodologies may serve to reveal the superficially rather diffuse effects of dialect contact in situations of urbanization such as arose in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages. Case studies developing and using such research tools based on historical corpora and on typological databases are particularly invited. Invited speakers Lyle Campbell (Utah) William Labov (Penn) April McMahon (Edinburgh Jürgen Meisel (Hamburg) Jonathan Owens (Maryland) Russell Gray (Auckland) Fred Weerman (Amsterdam) Donald Winford (Ohio) Abstracts are solicited for 45 minute papers (including 10 minutes discussion). Please send in an abstract of max. one page, single spaced, Times New Roman pt. 12 or equivalent font (excluding references). Abstracts should be sent by 1 September 2007 to HYPERLINK "mailto:transmission.diffusion at let.ru.nl"transmission.diffusion at let.ru.n l. Notification of acceptance can be expected by15 October 2007. The conference is organised by the research programme Language in Time and Space at the Centre for Language Studies CLS Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, (HYPERLINK "http://www.ru.nl/cls/"http://www.ru.nl/cls/). This group comprises researchers in various departments in the Radboud Faculty of Arts and at the Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen. Working on a variety of languages, they share a common interest in the forces that shape various types of language variation and change, with a strong methodological commitment. No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.0/961 - Release Date: 19-8-2007 7:27 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Histling-l mailing list Histling-l at mailman.rice.edu https://mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/histling-l From henrik.rahm at husa.hkr.se Sun Aug 19 17:37:03 2007 From: henrik.rahm at husa.hkr.se (Henrik Rahm) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:37:03 +0200 Subject: Histling-l Digest, Vol 8, Issue 1 Message-ID: Fr.o.m. 070815 arbetar jag som post doc på Vårdalinstitutet och Språk- och litteraturcentrum vid Lunds universitet. Min e-postadress dit är: henrik.rahm at nordlund.lu.se -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Histling-l mailing list Histling-l at mailman.rice.edu https://mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/histling-l From dwew2 at cam.ac.uk Mon Aug 20 09:16:01 2007 From: dwew2 at cam.ac.uk (David Willis) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:16:01 +0100 Subject: Call reminder: Continuity and Change in Grammar, Cambridge Message-ID: Conference: Continuity and Change in Grammar Cambridge, 18-20 March 2008 We are pleased to announce an international conference on Continuity and Change in Grammar, which will take place from 18-20 March 2008 at the University of Cambridge. The focus will be on theoretical and methodological aspects of morphosyntactic change and conservatism. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers working on different aspects of linguistic transmission in order to enhance our understanding of what makes languages change and what in turn prevents them from changing. Factors that are thought to play a role in the diachronic development of languages include first and (imperfect) second language acquisition, the latter typically under conditions of language contact. The role of language contact and resulting (biased) bi- or multilingualism in morpho-syntactic change, and the question of whether in fact there can be any entirely language-internal change are topics that have gained much interest recently. If language contact has a role in triggering change, can it equally be shown to play a role in preventing it? What other factors can prevent or inhibit a change that might be expected on the basis that other languages show a comparable change under comparable conditions? A particular focus of the conference will be syntactic continuity, that is, cases where syntactic change fails to happen, or at least is delayed, even though change would be expected on the basis of parallel changes in other languages. An example is Jespersen's Cycle, which occurred in a continuum of languages beginning in early Old Norse in northern Europe, and giving the appearance of spreading south from Scandinavia via German, English, Dutch, Welsh, Breton, French and northern Italian dialects. In Jespersen's Cycle as it is found in several European languages, a preverbal negation marker is first reinforced and later replaced by a postverbal one. As Jespersen's Cycle seems to have spread geographically (essentially from north to south) in the course of the last millennium and to affect languages from different subgroups of Indo-European, it has been suggested that this might be a contact phenomenon or even a manifestation of a more general western European convergence area (Ramat and Bernini 1990, Bernini and Ramat 1996, Haspelmath 1998, 2001). However, Polish and especially Czech, which have been in very close contact with German (and Yiddish) for centuries, have never undergone a change of this sort in their negation systems, even though their preverbal negation markers have undergone considerable weakening (in Czech, for example, ne behaves like a verbal prefix). Such resistance to change appears to cast doubt on the role of contact in the spread of postverbal adverbial negation. A topic that belongs to this general field of syntactic changes that are expected, but fail to happen, are changes which occur in some dialects of a given language but are delayed in others. The conference aims at encouraging discussion on what might cause syntactic continuity in general. This is an entirely novel perspective, as previous research has exclusively focused on explaining linguistic change. Topics addressed at the conference may be from a range of perspectives, theoretical linguistic as well as a language acquisitional, contact linguistic and sociolinguistic, and the conference aims at creating discussion and exchange between researchers with generative and non-generative backgrounds and also beyond (historical) linguistics itself. Longstanding points of dispute have been the perceived directionality and the gradualness of syntactic change. Directionality seems to conflict with generative models of linguistic change, which localise abrupt reanalyses or parameter resetting in individual speakers. However, long-term pathways and cycles do seem to be observable as well. How can this clash be reconciled? Much research has been devoted to accommodating gradualness within a generative conception of syntactic change, such as the grammar competition approach (Kroch 1989 etc.). However, problems with grammar competition approaches have not remained unnoticed, and invite reconsideration. We particularly invite submissions addressing the following questions: - contact-induced language change - first language acquisition and syntactic change - bilingualism and syntactic change - directionality, gradualness and long-term developments - absence of syntactic change / syntactic conservatism - general theoretical models of syntactic change and continuity, theoretical or computational - empirical case studies discussing instances of continuity and/or change in grammar - change in the expression of negation - linguistic and cultural contact in the Middle Ages We invite anonymous submissions for 20+10 minute presentations, which will be reviewed by an international committee of referees. Abstracts should be submitted in .pdf format via EasyChair. Go to http:// www.easychair.org/CCG08/, create an account if you do not yet have one and login as an author. The text of the abstract itself must be anonymous; you will be asked to fill in your name, affiliation and email address when you create your EasyChair account. This ensures a fair and unbiased review procedure. Abstracts should not exceed one page of A4, with one-inch margins on all sides, with the possibility of one additional page for graphs, figures, examples and references. Deadline for submissions is 1 October 2007. Notification of acceptance is around 1 November 2007. Invited Speakers: Jan-Terje Faarlund (Oslo) Richard Ingham (Birmingham) John Sundquist (Purdue) Sarah Grey Thomason (Michigan) Organising committee: David Willis, Anne Breitbarth, Chris Lucas Web Site: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/ab667/negproject/continuity- change-conf.html _______________________________________________ Histling-l mailing list Histling-l at mailman.rice.edu https://mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/histling-l From A.v.Kemenade at let.ru.nl Sun Aug 19 14:33:25 2007 From: A.v.Kemenade at let.ru.nl (Ans van Kemenade) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:33:25 +0200 Subject: call reminder: Transmission and Diffusion Message-ID: Call reminder: Transmission and Diffusion 17-18-19 January 2008 Venue: Radboud University Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies The title ?Transmission and Diffusion? is inspired by Labov?s recent paper (to appear in Language), in which he attempts to fit together the family tree model of language change with the wave model into a general framework based on changes in language learning ability across the lifespan. The general argument is that the (usually relatively slow) divergence of branches of the family tree is based on the transmission of language structure from adults to children (who learn the native language with depth and perfection), and the incrementation of changes in progress by children. The diffusion of language contact across branches of the tree is primarily the work of adults who do not preserve structural conditions with the same fidelity (as adult second language learning is to varying degrees imperfect), which accounts for the limitations on borrowing of structure. Labov illustrates these issues by case studies on recent and ongoing changes in the sound system of North-eastern American city dialects based on the American Dialect Atlas. The overall model proposed opens a number of perspectives and at the same time raises a number of interesting larger questions that set the theme for this conference. The theme of the conference can be approached on various levels of scale. * the macro-level of (sub-)continental transmission and diffusion patterns, as in the field of the historical-comparative of larger language families such as Amerind, Austronesian and Trans-New Guinea Phylum, or Semitic within Afro-Asiatic * the meso-level of language contact, acquisition, and pidgin and creole studies * the micro-level of more fine-grained (historical) dialectological research, e.g. within the Germanic language area We welcome theoretically informed papers on the following intersecting issues and perspectives: * Issues of convergence vs. divergence: the view that incrementation of change in progress by children is primarily responsible for divergence is relatively well-supported by the shape of the Indo-European family tree. Is the converse also possible, i.e. can relative homogeneity within language branches arise out of original diversity by convergence fuelled by incrementation during first language learning? Such questions can be approached on various scales: the perspective might span the time frame involved in the shaping of a language family tree, but is equally useful when considering the level of dialects, dialect contact resulting from urbanization and so on. Case studies on the role of first and second language learning in convergence and divergence are especially welcome, particularly if they move beyond the realm of sound correspondences and address topics in morpho-syntax as well. * Questions concerning processes involved in first language learning and second language learning: why should first language learning necessarily lead to incrementation of change in progress? One issue with respect to second language learning is whether more drastic language contact and less drastic dialect contact involve the same kinds of processes. * Evidence for first and second language learning, or: making the best of bad data (another notion coined by Labov). There is recent major progress in quantitative research tools tracking down relatively diffuse patterns in historical data, concerning phonological as well as morpho-syntactic diversity. Thus, it is now possible to distinguish typical effects of first and of second language learning, even at considerable historical depth, and including grammatical properties. As a result, sophisticated quantitative methodologies are rapidly being developed to allow more refined research into language/dialect relationships resulting from transmission and/or diffusion than has hitherto been possible. As a research tool, such methodologies may cut both ways: they may serve to separate the effects of stable transmission and of diffusion through language contact in histories of language families; on the other hand, they may help in tracing deeper relationships that may exist with isolated languages that seem typologically remote. Similarly, such methodologies may serve to reveal the superficially rather diffuse effects of dialect contact in situations of urbanization such as arose in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages. Case studies developing and using such research tools based on historical corpora and on typological databases are particularly invited. Invited speakers Lyle Campbell (Utah) William Labov (Penn) April McMahon (Edinburgh J?rgen Meisel (Hamburg) Jonathan Owens (Maryland) Russell Gray (Auckland) Fred Weerman (Amsterdam) Donald Winford (Ohio) Abstracts are solicited for 45 minute papers (including 10 minutes discussion). Please send in an abstract of max. one page, single spaced, Times New Roman pt. 12 or equivalent font (excluding references). Abstracts should be sent by 1 September 2007 to HYPERLINK "mailto:transmission.diffusion at let.ru.nl"transmission.diffusion at let.ru.n l. Notification of acceptance can be expected by15 October 2007. The conference is organised by the research programme Language in Time and Space at the Centre for Language Studies CLS Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, (HYPERLINK "http://www.ru.nl/cls/"http://www.ru.nl/cls/). This group comprises researchers in various departments in the Radboud Faculty of Arts and at the Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen. Working on a variety of languages, they share a common interest in the forces that shape various types of language variation and change, with a strong methodological commitment. No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.0/961 - Release Date: 19-8-2007 7:27 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Histling-l mailing list Histling-l at mailman.rice.edu https://mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/histling-l From henrik.rahm at husa.hkr.se Sun Aug 19 17:37:03 2007 From: henrik.rahm at husa.hkr.se (Henrik Rahm) Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:37:03 +0200 Subject: Histling-l Digest, Vol 8, Issue 1 Message-ID: Fr.o.m. 070815 arbetar jag som post doc p? V?rdalinstitutet och Spr?k- och litteraturcentrum vid Lunds universitet. Min e-postadress dit ?r: henrik.rahm at nordlund.lu.se -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Histling-l mailing list Histling-l at mailman.rice.edu https://mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/histling-l From dwew2 at cam.ac.uk Mon Aug 20 09:16:01 2007 From: dwew2 at cam.ac.uk (David Willis) Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:16:01 +0100 Subject: Call reminder: Continuity and Change in Grammar, Cambridge Message-ID: Conference: Continuity and Change in Grammar Cambridge, 18-20 March 2008 We are pleased to announce an international conference on Continuity and Change in Grammar, which will take place from 18-20 March 2008 at the University of Cambridge. The focus will be on theoretical and methodological aspects of morphosyntactic change and conservatism. The aim of the conference is to bring together researchers working on different aspects of linguistic transmission in order to enhance our understanding of what makes languages change and what in turn prevents them from changing. Factors that are thought to play a role in the diachronic development of languages include first and (imperfect) second language acquisition, the latter typically under conditions of language contact. The role of language contact and resulting (biased) bi- or multilingualism in morpho-syntactic change, and the question of whether in fact there can be any entirely language-internal change are topics that have gained much interest recently. If language contact has a role in triggering change, can it equally be shown to play a role in preventing it? What other factors can prevent or inhibit a change that might be expected on the basis that other languages show a comparable change under comparable conditions? A particular focus of the conference will be syntactic continuity, that is, cases where syntactic change fails to happen, or at least is delayed, even though change would be expected on the basis of parallel changes in other languages. An example is Jespersen's Cycle, which occurred in a continuum of languages beginning in early Old Norse in northern Europe, and giving the appearance of spreading south from Scandinavia via German, English, Dutch, Welsh, Breton, French and northern Italian dialects. In Jespersen's Cycle as it is found in several European languages, a preverbal negation marker is first reinforced and later replaced by a postverbal one. As Jespersen's Cycle seems to have spread geographically (essentially from north to south) in the course of the last millennium and to affect languages from different subgroups of Indo-European, it has been suggested that this might be a contact phenomenon or even a manifestation of a more general western European convergence area (Ramat and Bernini 1990, Bernini and Ramat 1996, Haspelmath 1998, 2001). However, Polish and especially Czech, which have been in very close contact with German (and Yiddish) for centuries, have never undergone a change of this sort in their negation systems, even though their preverbal negation markers have undergone considerable weakening (in Czech, for example, ne behaves like a verbal prefix). Such resistance to change appears to cast doubt on the role of contact in the spread of postverbal adverbial negation. A topic that belongs to this general field of syntactic changes that are expected, but fail to happen, are changes which occur in some dialects of a given language but are delayed in others. The conference aims at encouraging discussion on what might cause syntactic continuity in general. This is an entirely novel perspective, as previous research has exclusively focused on explaining linguistic change. Topics addressed at the conference may be from a range of perspectives, theoretical linguistic as well as a language acquisitional, contact linguistic and sociolinguistic, and the conference aims at creating discussion and exchange between researchers with generative and non-generative backgrounds and also beyond (historical) linguistics itself. Longstanding points of dispute have been the perceived directionality and the gradualness of syntactic change. Directionality seems to conflict with generative models of linguistic change, which localise abrupt reanalyses or parameter resetting in individual speakers. However, long-term pathways and cycles do seem to be observable as well. How can this clash be reconciled? Much research has been devoted to accommodating gradualness within a generative conception of syntactic change, such as the grammar competition approach (Kroch 1989 etc.). However, problems with grammar competition approaches have not remained unnoticed, and invite reconsideration. We particularly invite submissions addressing the following questions: - contact-induced language change - first language acquisition and syntactic change - bilingualism and syntactic change - directionality, gradualness and long-term developments - absence of syntactic change / syntactic conservatism - general theoretical models of syntactic change and continuity, theoretical or computational - empirical case studies discussing instances of continuity and/or change in grammar - change in the expression of negation - linguistic and cultural contact in the Middle Ages We invite anonymous submissions for 20+10 minute presentations, which will be reviewed by an international committee of referees. Abstracts should be submitted in .pdf format via EasyChair. Go to http:// www.easychair.org/CCG08/, create an account if you do not yet have one and login as an author. The text of the abstract itself must be anonymous; you will be asked to fill in your name, affiliation and email address when you create your EasyChair account. This ensures a fair and unbiased review procedure. Abstracts should not exceed one page of A4, with one-inch margins on all sides, with the possibility of one additional page for graphs, figures, examples and references. Deadline for submissions is 1 October 2007. Notification of acceptance is around 1 November 2007. Invited Speakers: Jan-Terje Faarlund (Oslo) Richard Ingham (Birmingham) John Sundquist (Purdue) Sarah Grey Thomason (Michigan) Organising committee: David Willis, Anne Breitbarth, Chris Lucas Web Site: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/ab667/negproject/continuity- change-conf.html _______________________________________________ Histling-l mailing list Histling-l at mailman.rice.edu https://mailman.rice.edu/mailman/listinfo/histling-l