call for papers

[cecile de cat]

We have the pleasure of announcing that a conference on Peripheral
Positions will be held at the University of York, UK (September
9-11, 2000)
We would like to organise a Language Acquisition session, so please
read on...

Invited Speakers:

Lilliane Haegeman (Lille)
Caroline Heycock (Edinburgh) (to be confirmed)
Jim McCloskey (Santa Cruz)
Mamoru Saito (Nanzan)
Ianthi Tsimpli (Thessaloniki/Cambridge)


Early generative syntax was concerned with providing a formal account
of a whole range of constructions, and provided transformational
analyses of phenomena like Heavy NP Shift, Extraposition,
Topicalisation, Scrambling, Focussing Constructions etc.
In some sense, all of these constructions involve peripheral positions
within the clausal architecture - that is, positions which, at first
blush, are not associated with  one of the core clausal heads.
Within the Government and Binding framework, these phenomena, together
with those traditionally treated as involving base generation (Clitic
Right/Left Dislocation), never truly figured as core concerns of the
theory of clausal structure, although they were important from the
perspective of A-bar dependency.
More recently, however, developments within the theory of clause
structure, and the development of the Minimalist program, have meant
that such phenomena are beginning to raise interesting analytical and
theoretical questions.
We intend to hold a conference at the University of York on the
9th-11th of September to address these issues.


More specifically, the kinds of questions we would like to address
include the following:

- Is it possible or even desirable to provide a unified account of the
behaviour of elements at the right and left peripheries of the clause?
-  What is the phrase structural characterisation of such elements?
-  Are there dedicated peripheral positions for particular kinds of
syntactic formatives, and if so what are the relevant featural
characteristics?
-  Are peripheral positions available at early stages of first and
second language acquisition?
-  What is the relationship between peripheral positions and
apparently resumptive elements deeper within the clause structure?
-  What kinds of motivations are there for movement of elements to
peripheral positions, and how do these bear on considerations of
information structure and prosody?
- What, if anything, differentiates matrix from embedded peripheral
positions?

Abstract Submission details

Abstracts should be no more than two pages long (1000 - 1200 words
maximum).
Send 5 anonymous and one camera ready copy bearing the authors' name
and affiliation, together with contact details, including an email
address, to:


Peripheral Positions Conference Programme Committee
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
University of York
Heslington - York
YO10 5DD
United Kingdom

Faxed abstracts will not be considered.

You can, however, submit your abstract by email in plain ASCII (no
attachments, no LaTeX source please) to: lang7 at york.ac.uk

Details and updates about the conference can be found at the following
URL: http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~lang7/

Important Dates:

Abstract submission deadline:  June 1 2000
Notification of acceptance (by email):  June 19 2000
Conference: 9-11 September 2000


We intend to publish selected papers from the conference with a major
publisher.