<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>========================================================</div><div><br></div><div>Call for papers: Grammatical Change and the Expression of Subjects</div><div><br></div><div>2-4 December 2010, Regensburg, Germany</div><div><br></div><div>Submission Deadline for Abstracts: 15 July 2010</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www-slavistik.uni-regensburg.de/gces">http://www-slavistik.uni-regensburg.de/gces</a></div><div><br></div><div><div>========================================================</div><div><div><div><br></div><div>Invited speakers:</div><div>-----------------------</div><div>Elly van Gelderen (University of Arizona) </div><div>Anthony Kroch (University of Pennsylvania) </div><div>Ian Roberts (Cambridge University) </div><div>David Willis (Cambridge University) </div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div><div>Call for papers:</div><div>---------------------</div><div>Diachronic grammatical change affects verbal arguments through an interplay of various semantic and structural factors, leading to new alternations and structural patterns. In the realm of subject expressions, important documented changes include loss of pro-drop, alternations in thematic alignment, and the rise of various new passive and impersonal constructions. The notion of subject itself is, of course, a notoriously multi-faceted one, involving factors like referential relations, structural position, case, agreement, and thematic roles, the specifications of which certainly do not always harmonise. Precisely this state of affairs has often given rise to important and fascinating research questions, as e.g. in the case of null and expletive subjects, or of oblique/quirky subjects. </div><div><br></div><div>Research on grammatical change has made a considerable leap forward by the exploitation of annotated corpora. Not only has its empirical base become more accessible in general, but methodological progress has made feasible new, exciting research questions, especially involving quantitative distributions of linguistic features. Historical and diachronic corpora of an increasing number of languages are being constructed and annotated with syntactically relevant information in order to address these and related issues.</div><div><br></div><div>Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:</div><div><br></div><div>* Diachronic development of null subjects</div><div>* Changes in subject expletives</div><div>* Diachrony of oblique and quirky subjects</div><div>* History of impersonal constructions</div><div>* Development of diatheses affecting the external argument</div><div>* Change in unaccusatives</div><div>* History of subjects in root infinitives and modal constructions</div><div>* Empirical methodology in diachronic syntax</div><div>* Historical and diachronic corpora annotated for syntactic structure and syntactic relations</div><div><br></div><div>The conference will seek a comparative and typological view. Papers will be given precedence which address grammatical change in a theoretically explicit way, aiming at an explanatory account, and/or demonstrate substantial methodological advancement.</div><div><br></div><div>Abstract specifications:</div><div>-------------------------------</div><div>Anonymous abstracts for 25 min. presentations (+10 min. discussion) should be submitted as an email attachment to <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><a href="mailto:gces@sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de">gces@sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de</a> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">until <b>15 July 2010</b>.</span></span></div><div>Abstracts may be up to 2 pages long, including examples and references, in pdf format, with fonts embedded. If you have difficulties at producing pdf, you may also submit a doc file. Please include your contact information (name, affiliation, address, email address for correspondence), as well as the title of your abstract, in the body of the email. Every abstract will be reviewed anonymously by two external referees. Accepted papers will be published in a proceedings volume after the conference.</div><div><br></div><div><div>Programme Committee:</div></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div>Katrin Axel </div><div>Karin Donhauser </div><div>Hanne Martine Eckhoff </div><div>Rafał Górski </div><div>Dag Haug </div><div>Roland Hinterhölzl </div><div>Uwe Junghanns </div><div>Anna Kibort </div><div>Petr Karlík </div><div>Karel Kučera </div><div>Anke Lüdeling </div><div>Krzysztof Migdalski </div><div>Florian Schleburg </div><div>Maria Selig </div><div>Ioanna Sitaridou </div><div>Augustin Speyer </div><div>Achim Stein </div><div>Luka Szucsich </div><div>Carola Trips </div><div>Daniel Weiss </div><div><br></div><div>Organizers:</div><div>----------------</div><div>Roland Meyer</div><div>Björn Hansen</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>---</div><div>Dr. Roland Meyer</div><div>Institut für Slavistik, Universität Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg</div><div>tel. +49(0)941-943 5303</div><div><br></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>