<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear Info-CHILDES,<div><br><div> Here is the call for papers for a conference on competing motivations in language to be held November 23-25 in Leipzig.</div><div><br></div><div>-- Brian MacWhinney, CMU</div><div><br></div><div><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal">CALL FOR PAPERS FOR A<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal">CONFERENCE <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>ON</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal">COMPETING MOTIVATIONS</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>General<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">We invite papers on the role of competing motivations in the
emergence and use of linguistic structures from linguists, psychologists, and
others working in related fields.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Time and place<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">The three-day conference will take place <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">NOVEMBER 23-25 <span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>(TUESDAY-THURSDAY)</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">2010
</b>at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig,
Germany.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Organizers<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">The conference is organized by Andrej Malchukov (Max Planck
Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology) and Edith Moravcsik (University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (emerita)) and will be sponsored by the Max Planck Institute
for Evolutionary Anthropology.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Program<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">In addition to the papers selected from abstracts and the introductory
and closing talks by the conference organizers, there will be a number of
invited presentations. So far we have the following on board:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Joan Bresnan</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Wolfgang Dressler </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>John Du Bois</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Martin Haspelmath</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>John A. Hawkins</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Bernd Heine</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Helen de Hoop</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Brian MacWhinney</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Gereon Müller</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Frederick Newmeyer</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Michael Tomasello</p><div><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal">The conference website will post the schedule and other
relevant information<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in the
Spring:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-field-code:"HYPERLINK \0022http\:\/\/www\.eva\.mpg\.de\/lingua\/conference\/10-CompetingMotivations\/index\.html\0022 \\t \0022_blank\0022""><span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/conference/10-CompetingMotivations/index.html">http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/conference/10-CompetingMotivations/index.html</a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Topics<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">Competing motivations is a topic
coming in different guises in linguistics and related disciplines. In <b>language
typology,</b> the concept of competing motivations was explicitly introduced by
Du Bois (1985), and since then it has made its way into many contributions
including typology textbooks (e.g. Croft 1990; 2003). Currently it is a common
trend in functional typology to view the evolution of grammar as resulting from
different partly converging but also potentially conflicting functional
motivations. An approach to typology where competing motivations (“conflicting
constraints”) have been accorded the status of a major theoretical concept is <b>Optimality
Theory</b> (OT; Prince & Smolensky 1993/2004, Müller 2000). In OT,
grammatical patterns are viewed as resulting from constraint interaction, and
cross-linguistic variation is attributed to different rankings of constraints.
A similar approach has been introduced in psycholinguistics under the name of <b>Competition
Model</b> (Bates & MacWhinney 1989), which addressed the question of how different
cues are weighted in language comprehension and language acquisition when the
cues are in conflict. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>These three strands of
research have not been totally independent from the start (e.g. OT was inspired
by the work in psycholinguistics and cognitive sciences), and recently there
have been further signs of the converging tendencies in these fields. On the
one hand, with the rise of functional OT (Bresnan & Aissen 2002) conceptual
differences of functional typology and OT (see Haspelmath 1999 for discussion)
have been reduced, and some recent work explicitly tries to further integrate
OT and functional typology (see, e.g., Malchukov 2005; de Hoop & Malchukov
2008). On the other hand, OT shows further convergence with psycholinguistic
research, with the rise of OT semantics and bidirectional OT approaches that
are concerned with comprehension optimization (de Hoop & Lamers 2006). John
Hawkins’ work (2004 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">et passim</i>) aiming
to explain generalizations found in typological and psycholinguistic work in
terms of a few general principles grounded in processing goes in the same
direction. It seems that these new developments have overcome some of the
problems of the early competing motivation approaches noted in the literature
(Newmeyer 1998) and are opening new perspectives in the respective disciplines.
It should also be noted that there is an increased awareness of the
similarities of competing motivations models as practiced within linguistic
disciplines and beyond (e.g., in psychological research).</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>The goal of this conference
is to bring together researchers from linguistics and other fields<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>that adopt the competing motivation
approach in one form or other another, and to promote further integration and
cross-fertilization between them. Topics to be addressed include but are not
limited to the following:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.75in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;
tab-stops:list .75in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;
mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>application of the competing motivation approach
to individual languages and cross-linguistically;</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.75in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;
tab-stops:list .75in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;
mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>application of competition models in
psycholinguistic research (both language comprehension and language
production);</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.75in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1;
tab-stops:list .75in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;
mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>theoretical questions such as:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;
tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;
mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>What motivations are at work in given domains? </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;
tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;
mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>What evidence is there for the existence and the
weighting of the constraints?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;
tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;
mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>What factors determine the weightings of the
constraints?</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2;
tab-stops:list 1.0in"><span style="font-family:Symbol;
mso-fareast-font-family:Symbol;mso-bidi-font-family:Symbol"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">·<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span>How are competing motivations manifested
synchronically and diachronically? (cf. Haspelmath’s (1999) notion of
‘diachronic adaptation’ and the research program of ‘evolutionary phonology’
advocated by Blevins (2004)).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Submission of
abstracts<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo3"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">(a)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Length:</b> up to one page of text plus up
to one page containing possible tables and references</p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo3"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">(b)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Format</b>:</p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The abstract should include
the title of the paper and the text of the abstract but not the author’s name
or affiliation. The e-mail message to which it is attached should list the
title, the author’s name, and the author’s affiliation. Abstracts will be
evaluated anonymously. </p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto">Please send the message to both organizers at the following addresses:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><a href="mailto:malchukov@eva.mpg.de">malchukov@eva.mpg.de</a></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><a href="mailto:edith@uwm.edu">edith@uwm.edu</a></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l2 level1 lfo3"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">(c)<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Deadline<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto">The abstracts should reach us by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">WEDNESDAY,
MARCH 31.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto">Submitters will be notified by <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">FRIDAY,
APRIL 30.<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left:23.25pt;mso-add-space:
auto"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><o:p> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "> </span></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. 1987. Competition, variation,
and language learning. In B. MacWhinney (Ed.), <i>Mechanisms of Language
Acquisition</i>, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>157–193.
Hillsdale, New Jersey; London: Lawrence Erlbaum.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Blevins, J. (2004). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Evolutionary phonology: The emergence of sound patterns</i>. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Bresnan, J. and J. Aissen (2002). Optionality and
functionality: Objections and refutations. <i>Natural Language and Linguistic
Theory</i> 20, 81–95.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Croft, W., 1990. <i>Typology and universals</i>.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Du Bois, J.A. 1985. “Competing motivations”. In:
Haiman, J. (ed.) <i>Iconicity in syntax</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>343-366. Amsterdam: Benjamins, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.5in"><span class="red"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Haspelmath, M. 1999. </span></span><span class="red"><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:DE">‘Optimality
and diachronic adaptation.’ </span></span><em><span lang="DE" style="font-size:
11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:DE">Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft</span></em><span class="red"><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:DE"> 18.2:
180-205.</span></span><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
DE"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Hawkins, John A. 2004. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">Efficiency and complexity in grammars</i>. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.5in"><span lang="NL" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:NL">de Hoop, H. and M.
Lamers. </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt">2006. Incremental distinguishability
of subject and object. </span><span lang="DA" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:
DA">In L. Kulikov, A. L. Malchukov and P. de Swart<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style:italic">(eds.)</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"> </i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Case, valency, and transitivity</span></i><span style="font-size:11.0pt">. Amsterdam, John Benjamins.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:justify;text-indent:-.5in"><span lang="NL" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:NL">de Hoop, H. and A.
Malchukov. </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt">2008.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"> </b>Case-marking strategies. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Linguistic Inquiry</span></i> 39 565–587.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Malchukov, A., 2005. Case pattern splits, verb types,
and construction competition. In </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">M. </span><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Amberber
& H. de Hoop (eds.) </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Competition and variation
in natural languages: the case for case</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">, 73-117. </span><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:DE">Elsevier, Amsterdam, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:DE">Müller, Gereon. 2000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Elemente
der optimalitätstheoretischen Syntax</i>. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Prince, A. and P. Smolensky <span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>(2004). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Optimality Theory:constraint
interaction in Generative Grammar</i>. Oxford, Blackwell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span lang="DE" style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-ansi-language:DE"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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