[Lingtyp] ALT 2017 workshop on the interplay of language, culture and environment

[Alice Gaby]

Dear colleagues,


We would like to remind you of the workshop described in further detail
below, on ‘Sociotopography: the Interplay of Language, Culture, and
Environment’. We have space for a couple more papers and encourage
interested colleagues to discuss potential submissions on this topic with
us (Bill Palmer <Bill.Palmer at newcastle.edu.au>, Jonathon Lum
<Jonathon.lum at monash.edu>, Jonathan Schlossberg
<schlossberg.jonathan at gmail.com> and me <Alice.Gaby at monash.edu>) and/or to
submit an abstract here
<http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/alt-conference-2017/call-for-abstracts/>.


The deadline for abstracts is the 31st of March. Abstracts submitted to
a workshop but not accepted there will be automatically considered for
inclusion in the general session.


Best wishes,

Alice Gaby <Alice.Gaby at monash.edu>, Bill Palmer
<Bill.Palmer at newcastle.edu.au>, Jonathon Lum
<Jonathon.lum at monash.edu>, and Jonathan
Schlossberg <schlossberg.jonathan at gmail.com>



WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:



This workshop explores the interplay of language, culture, and environment
('sociotopography'), especially as it pertains to spatial language.

Considerable diversity in spatial reference across languages is well
attested, both in the linguistic means by which spatial categories are
expressed, and in the categories themselves (Levinson 2003; Levinson &
Wilkins 2006; Pederson et al. 1998). Spatial relations of any type can be
expressed using language. However, in perhaps all languages some spatial
concepts are lexicalised or expressed in a grammaticized way, while others
are relegated to periphrastic expression. These lexicalized and
grammaticized expressions are key to understanding the extent to which
spatial reference displays universal tendencies, and the extent to which
variation is systematic. Although considerable cross-linguistic diversity
exists in spatial categories, universal tendencies can nonetheless be
detected, and salient landscape and other external-world features seem to
play a role in the detail of systems involving absolute Frame of Reference
(FoR) (Palmer 2002, 2015), and even in FoR choice (see Majid et al. 2004;
Bohnemeyer et al. 2014). However, those aspects of the environment that are
perceived as salient vary across cultures, and the nature of the
interaction between humans and their environment plays a crucial role, as
seen in demographic variation within individual languages in tendencies in
FoR choice (e.g. Pederson 1993), and in geocentric versus egocentric
strategies more generally (Palmer et al. 2016). These findings prompted
Palmer et al. (2016) to propose a Sociotopographic Model, which models the
interplay of the physical environment of the language locus, sociocultural
interaction with the environment, and the linguistic repertoire available
to speakers. This workshop seeks to bring together scholars working in
linguistic spatial reference in a diverse range of languages in a diverse
range of environments, in order to explore the extent to which the
Sociotopographic model adequately captures the interplay of the various
linguistic, conceptual and environmental forces at work in linguistic
spatial reference, and the extent to which the model reveals systematic
variation in some of the cross-linguistic diversity observed in this area
of language.


Call for Papers:

We invite papers addressing sociotopography from a variety of perspectives,
including:

- Factors (cultural, linguistic, topographic) influencing conceptual and
linguistic representations of space
- Cross-linguistic and comparative analyses of systems of spatial reference
- The effect of migration, education and industrialisation on spatial
reference
- How cultural and linguistic knowledge influences navigation, wayfinding
and other aspects of spatial cognition.

Submissions to this workshop should be made through the general ALT2017
abstract submission form (choosing option “3” when prompted with “What
session would you like your paper submitted to?”):

http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/alt-conference-2017/call-for-abstracts/

-- 

Director, Graduate Research Program in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
<http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/graduate-research-programs/linguistics-and-applied-linguistics-program/>
School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics
Monash University
Victoria 3800
Australia

Ph: +61 (0)3 9902 4169  |  Fax: +61 (0)3 9905-5437  |  E:
Alice.Gaby at monash.edu
Visit: W503 Menzies Building (20 Chancellors Walk)
http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/alice-gaby/

-----
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners, and Elders past and present, of all
the lands on which Monash University operates.
https://www.facebook.com/MonashIndigenousCentre
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