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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>WORKSHOP</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Typology of labile verbs:<BR>Focus on
diachrony<BR><BR>Call for papers<BR><BR>The term ‘labile’ refers to verbs or
verbal forms which can show valency<BR>alternation, i.e. changes in syntactic
pattern, with no formal change in<BR>the verb. Very often (but not always) the
term ‘labile’ is only employed to<BR>refer to verbs (or verbal forms) which can
be employed both transitively<BR>and intransitively, as in (1-2); some scholars
use other, less widely<BR>accepted terms in this sense, such as ‘ambitransitive’
(R. M. W. Dixon<BR>1994) or ‘optionally transitive’ (J. G. Miller
1993):<BR><BR>(1) English <BR> a.
John broke the vase <BR> b. The vase
broke<BR><BR>(2) Greek<BR> a. O Janis
efage mesimeriano<BR> the:NOM
Janis:NOM ate:3SG lunch:ACC<BR> ‘Janis ate
lunch’<BR> b. O Janis
efage <BR>
the:NOM Janis:NOM ate:3SG<BR> ‘Janis
ate’<BR><BR>(1) exemplifies Patient-preserving lability (P-lability), while
(2)<BR>instantiates an Agent-preserving lability (A-lability). Other types
of<BR>syntactic alternation, such as locative alternation (cf. John sprayed
paint<BR>on the wall ~ John sprayed the wall with paint) or dative shift (Mary
gave<BR>John an apple ~ Mary gave an apple to John) are usually treated
separately<BR>from P- and A-lability. Of particular interest is P-lability,
common in<BR>ergative-absolutive languages (for instance, in many Daghestan
languages),<BR>quite frequent also in some nominative-accusative languages (such
as<BR>English, Greek, German or French), but (almost) entirely lacking in
many<BR>others (e.g. in Slavic or Uralic).<BR>Although there are a number of
studies dealing with this phenomenon in<BR>individual languages, such as English
(e.g. Keyser & Roeper 1984; McMillion<BR>2006), French (Larjavaara 2000),
Greek (Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 1999,<BR>2004, Theophanopoulou-Kontou
1983-4, 2004, Tsimpli 1989, 2006) and some<BR>others, a cross-linguistic study
of lability is rather neglected (with a<BR>few exceptions such as Letuchiy
2006). Even less attention has been paid to<BR>the diachronic aspects of labile
verbs. In many cases, we cannot explain<BR>why and how the lability emerges and
disappears. We do not know why in<BR>several languages labile verbs become more
productive and the class of<BR>labile verbs is constantly increasing (as in
English, Greek or some<BR>Daghestan languages), while in some other languages
this class is<BR>decreasing (as in Sanskrit) or entirely lacking (as in modern
Turkic or<BR>Kartvelian languages). Only a few mechanisms responsible for the
emergence<BR>of lability (such as the phonetic merger of transitive and
intransitive<BR>forms or the deletion of the reflexive pronoun, attested in the
history of<BR>English) are mentioned in the literature. The few studies dealing
with the<BR>diachronic aspects of labile verbs, their rise, development or decay
and<BR>loss include Kitazume 1996 (on English), Kulikov 2003 (on Vedic
Sanskrit)<BR>and Lavidas 2004 (on Greek).<BR>The idea of our workshop is to
bring together scholars interested in<BR>lability and to open up new horizons in
the research of this phenomenon,<BR>paying special attention to its diachronic
aspects. The issues to be<BR>addressed include:<BR>• theoretical and
descriptive aspects of a study of labile verbs:<BR> – should
such verbs be treated as one lexical unit with two different<BR>syntactic uses
or as two separate lexical units,<BR> – which of the two
constructions may be considered as basic<BR>(transitive or
intransitive)?<BR>• issues in a synchronic typological study of
lability:<BR> – for which semantic and syntactic classes of
verbs is the labile<BR>pattern particularly common or
uncommon?<BR> – are there any correlations between the
grammatical characteristics<BR>of a form and its lability?<BR>
– labile patterning of finite vs. non-finite forms (infinitives,<BR>participles
etc.)<BR> – relationships between labile verbs, voices and
valency-changing<BR>categories<BR> – types of lability (cf.
reflexive lability: Mary washed the baby ~<BR>Mary washed; reciprocal lability:
Mary and John kissed the baby ~ Mary and<BR>John kissed; etc.)<BR>
Particularly encouraged are papers dealing with<BR>• diachronic aspects of
lability:<BR> – mechanisms of the emergence and expansion of
labile verbs (as e.g.<BR>in English or Greek)<BR> – mechanisms
of the decay and disappearance of labile verbs (as e.g.<BR>in
Vedic)<BR> – which semantic and syntactic classes of verbs
tend to become labile<BR>or non-labile<BR> – lability
considered as an instance of syncretism (of transitive and<BR>intransitive) and
its possible relationships with other types of syncretism<BR>or grammatical
homonymy <BR> – what are the main evolutionary types of
lability attested for Indo-<BR>European and other language families and groups
with a well-documented<BR>history?<BR> – what is the position
of Indo-European in a diachronic typological<BR>classification of lability
types?<BR><BR>The workshop will be organized within the 19th International
Symposium on<BR>Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (ISTAL 19), Thessaloniki,
Greece, 3-5<BR>April 2009. Please visit <A
href="https://webmail.vuw.leidenuniv.nl/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.enl.auth.gr/symposium19"
target=_blank>http://www.enl.auth.gr/symposium19</A>, where you will<BR>also
find practical information.<BR>Only electronic submissions by e-mail will be
considered. Abstracts should<BR>be 300-500 words long, not exceeding one page
(A4). Please send the one-<BR>page abstract of your paper by 15 December 2008
to:<BR>L.Kulikov@hum.leidenuniv.nl and kulikovli@gmail.com . Applicants will
be<BR>notified on abstract acceptance by 20 January 2009.<BR><BR>Leonid
Kulikov <BR>Nikolaos
Lavidas<BR><BR>REFERENCES<BR><BR>Alexiadou, A. & Anagnostopoulou, E. 1999:
“Non-active morphology and the<BR>direction of transitivity alternations”. NELS
29, 27-40.<BR>Alexiadou, A. & Anagnostopoulou, E. 2004: “Voice morphology in
the<BR>causative-inchoative alternation: evidence for a non-unified
structural<BR>analysis of unaccusatives”. In Α. Αlexiadou, E.
Anagnostopoulou & M.<BR>Everaert (eds), The Unaccusativity Puzzle:
Explorations of the Syntax-<BR>Lexicon Interface. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 114-136.<BR>Dixon, R. M. W. 1994: Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. <BR>Keyser, S. J. & Roeper, T. 1984: “On the middle
and ergative constructions<BR>in English”. Linguistic Inquiry 15,
381-416.<BR>Kitazume, S. 1996: “Middles in English”. Word 47,
161-183.<BR>Kulikov, L. 2003: “The labile syntactic type in a diachronic
perspective:<BR>the case of Vedic”. SKY Journal of Linguistics 16,
93-112.<BR>Larjavaara, M. 2000: Présence ou absence de l'objet. Limites du
possible en<BR>français contemporain. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopiston
verkkojulkaisut.<BR>Lavidas, N. 2004: “Causative alternations: synchronic and
diachronic<BR>tendencies”. Studies in Greek Language 24, 369-381.<BR>Letuchiy,
A. 2006: Tipologija labil’nyx glagolov: Semantičeskie
i<BR>morfosintaksičeskie aspekty [A typology of labile verbs: semantic
and<BR>morphosyntactic aspects]. PhD Dissertation, Russian State University
for<BR>Humanities. [in Russian]<BR>McMillion, A. 2006: Labile Verbs in English:
their Meaning, Behavior and<BR>Structure. PhD Dissertation, Stockholm
University.<BR>Miller, J. G. 1993: Complex Verb Formation. Amsterdam:
Benjamins.<BR>Theophanopoulou-Kontou, D. 1983-4: “Patient vs non patient
orientation of<BR>the action and the voice distinction in Modern Greek”.
Glossologia 2-3, 75-<BR>90.<BR>Theophanopoulou-Kontou, D. 2004: “The structure
of the VP and the<BR>mediopassive morphology. The passives and anticausatives in
Modern Greek”.<BR>Parousia 15-16, 173-206.<BR>Tsimpli, I.-M. 1989: “On the
properties of the passive affix in Μodern<BR>Greek”. UCL Working papers
in Linguistics 1, 235-260.<BR>Tsimpli, I.-M. 2006: “The acquisition of voice and
transitivity<BR>alternations in Greek as a native and second language”. In S.
Unshworth, T.<BR>Parodi, A. Sorace & M. Young-Scholten (eds), Paths of
Development in L1 and<BR>L2 Acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins,
15-55.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>