<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal">Dear colleagues,<span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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 (<a href="mailto:Bill.Palmer@newcastle.edu.au">Bill Palmer</a>, <a href="mailto:Jonathon.lum@monash.edu">Jonathon Lum</a>, <a href="mailto:schlossberg.jonathan@gmail.com">Jonathan Schlossberg</a> and <a href="mailto:Alice.Gaby@monash.edu">me</a>) and/or to submit an abstract <a href="http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/alt-conference-2017/call-for-abstracts/">here</a>.
<br>
<br>
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.<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal">Best wishes,<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:Alice.Gaby@monash.edu">Alice Gaby</a>, <a href="mailto:Bill.Palmer@newcastle.edu.au">Bill Palmer</a>, <a href="mailto:Jonathon.lum@monash.edu">Jonathon Lum</a>, and <a href="mailto:schlossberg.jonathan@gmail.com">Jonathan Schlossberg</a><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span>WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This workshop explores the interplay of language, culture,
and environment ('sociotopography'), especially as it pertains to spatial
language.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<br>
Call for Papers:<br>
<br>
We invite papers addressing sociotopography from a variety of
perspectives,<br>
including:<br>
<br>
- Factors (cultural, linguistic, topographic) influencing conceptual and
linguistic representations of space<br>
- Cross-linguistic and comparative analyses of systems of spatial reference<br>
- The effect of migration, education and industrialisation on spatial reference<br>
- How cultural and linguistic knowledge influences navigation, wayfinding and
other aspects of spatial cognition.<br>
<br>
Submissions to this workshop should be made through the general ALT2017
abstract submission form <span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:107%;font-family:calibri,sans-serif">(choosing option “3”
when prompted with “What session would you like your paper submitted to?”):</span><br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/alt-conference-2017/call-for-abstracts/" target="_blank">http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/alt-conference-2017/call-for-abstracts/</a><span></span></p><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><br></div><div><font size="1">Director, Graduate Research Program in <a href="http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/graduate-research-programs/linguistics-and-applied-linguistics-program/" target="_blank">Linguistics and Applied Linguistics</a><br></font><div><font size="1">School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics<br>Monash University<br>Victoria 3800<br>Australia<br><br></font></div><div><span style="font-size:x-small">Ph: +61 (0)3 9902 4169 </span><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif;font-size:10.9091px">| </span><span style="font-size:x-small">Fax: +61 (0)3 9905-5437 </span><span style="font-family:calibri,sans-serif;font-size:10.9091px">| E: <a href="mailto:Alice.Gaby@monash.edu" target="_blank">Alice.Gaby@monash.edu</a></span></div><div><font size="1">Visit: W503 Menzies Building (20 Chancellors Walk)</font></div><div><font size="1"><a href="http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/alice-gaby/" target="_blank">http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/alice-gaby/</a><br></font><p><font size="1">-----<br>We acknowledge the Traditional Owners, and Elders past and present, of all the lands on which Monash University operates. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MonashIndigenousCentre" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/MonashIndigenousCentre</a></font></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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