<div dir="ltr"><div><font size="4"><b>Call for papers: Valency and valency alternations within and across language boundaries </b></font></div><div><font size="4">Workshop@ALT 15 in Zhuhai, China; November 8-10, 2024</font><ul><li><span lang="EN">Abstract
submission at the ALT webpage: </span>
</li></ul><p class="MsoNormal"><u><span lang="EN-US"><a href="https://sites.google.com/view/alt2024/call-for-papers" target="_blank">https://sites.google.com/view/alt2024/call-for-papers</a></span></u><span lang="EN-US"><span>
</span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"></span></p><ul><li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Deadline: March
15th</b></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"></span></p><ul><li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN">Don't forget to indicate that it is intended for the workshop </span>"Valency and valency alternations within and across language boundaries<span lang="EN">". <br></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span lang="EN-US">Convenors: </span></u><span lang="EN-US">Michael Daniel, </span><span lang="EN-US">Guglielmo Inglese, Silvia Luraghi, Chiara Zanchi</span><u><span lang="EN-US"><br></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
</div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Cross-linguistically,
semantically similar verbs show similar patterns of valency understood as morphosyntactic
treatment of their arguments, including argument realization across verb
classes (e.g. Tsunoda 1985; Levin & Rappaport Hovav 2005), voice phenomena
(e.g. Zúñiga & Kittilä 2019; Bahrt 2020), lability (Creissels 2014) and
more in general valency alternations (Dixon & Aikhenvald 2000); see also
(Creissels forthc.) for a survey of the domain as a whole. So far, research has
been focused on the range of cross-linguistic variation across languages of
different genealogical and areal affiliation, and on attempts to extract
general coding tendencies. This workshop will narrow the scale of the study of
valency to sociolinguistic variation and diachronic change within languages
(cf. Comrie 2006, Grünthal et al. 2021, Luraghi & Roma 2021), across their registers
and varieties and to the effects of language contact (Say 2018, Kozhanov &
Say, in prep.).<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:18pt;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">A landmark typological study has been the project “Valency classes in the
languages of the world” (Malchukov & Comrie 2015; published online as
Hartmann et al 2013; <a href="http://valpal.info"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">http://valpal.info</span></a>). The
core of this database contains data for 80 verb meanings from 36 languages,
thus allowing large scale cross-linguistic comparison. The ValPaL database has
proven a fruitful source for typological studies (e.g. Haspelmath 2015, Aldai
& Wichmann 2018). As it only contains data from modern languages, the
ValPaL database does not allow research on language change. Techniques of data
elicitation used by contributors to create the database are often not uniform,
the data is based on the contributor’s native speaker intuition, sometimes
complemented by dictionaries or other reference works and less frequently by
corpora; in cases in which the contributor was not a native speaker of the
language, data was collected through questionnaires, dictionaries and other
existing secondary sources. In addition, the ValPal data largely disregards
intra-linguistic variation (Japanese is a partial exception).<span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:18pt;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Far from being flaws specific to ValPaL, lack of cross-linguistic
diachronic data, virtually no attention to variation, and non-homogeneous
nature of the data resulting from different collection techniques are important
limitations that come up again and again in cross-linguistic research on
valency patterns and alternations. As one example, there are similar issues
with another resource for the cross-linguistic study of argument structure
such, the BivalTyp database (Say 2020). <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:18pt;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">To address these issues, and promote an integrated research program on
valency and valency alternations that encompasses not only cross-linguistic but
also <span style="color:rgb(63,63,63)">intra-linguistic variation and dynamics
of language internal and contact-induced change</span>, in this workshop we
would like to gather contributions addressing the following open research
questions: <span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:18pt;line-height:150%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;border:medium;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-family:"Noto Sans Symbols""><span>●<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><b><span style="color:black">Valency patterns in corpora</span></b><span style="color:black">: to what extent does the empirical study of valency
patterns in large-scale corpora contribute to our understanding of how said
patterns are distributed in real language usage?<span> </span>Can labile verbs be identified based on
corpora? More generally, do the source of data and elicitation techniques
affect the findings concerning valency alternations within and across
languages? </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;border:medium;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-family:"Noto Sans Symbols""><span>●<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><b><span style="color:black">Valency patterns over time</span></b><span style="color:black">: how does valency change over time? Do certain verb
classes tend to follow comparable pathways of change in unrelated languages?
Are specific coding patterns (e.g. non-canonical subjects) or alternations
(e.g. anticausative) more stable vs. prone to change than others? </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;border:medium;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-family:"Noto Sans Symbols""><span>●<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><b><span style="color:black">Valency in language contact</span></b><span style="color:black">: does language contact affect valency patterns, and to
what extent it may condition changes in the coding of arguments and in valency
alternations? </span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;border:medium;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-family:"Noto Sans Symbols""><span>●<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><b><span style="color:black">Valency patterns and areal variation</span></b><span style="color:black">: Can large-scale areal patterns be detected in the
distribution of valency patterns? Can one observe effects of variation in the
distribution of valency patterns across distinct diatopic varieties of the same
language?</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;border:medium;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-family:"Noto Sans Symbols""><span>●<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></span></span><b><span style="color:black">Sociolinguistic factors</span></b><span style="color:black">:
To what extent is the distribution of individual valency patterns and
alternations sensitive to extra-linguistic factors, such as formal or
colloquial register etc.? Do non-standard varieties showcase distinct valency
patterns as compared to the standard language (and, if so, what should be the
consequences of this for adjusting methods of language sampling in the
cross-linguistic study of valency)? Can the degree of variation internal to
standard language be compared to that of cross-dialectal variation?</span><span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><b><span> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><b>References<span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Aldai,
Gontzal & Søren Wichmann. 2018. Statistical observations on hierarchies of
transitivity. <i>Folia Linguistica</i> </span><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(59,61,63);background:white">52(2).
249-281.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Bahrt, Nicklas N.
2021. <i>Voice syncretism</i>. Berlin:
Language Science Press.<span style="color:black"><span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Bickel, Balthasar & Alena
Witzlack-Makarevich (eds.). 2019. <i>Argument
Selectors. A new perspective on grammatical relations</i>. <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51)">Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.<span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Comrie, Bernard. 2006.
Transitivity pairs, markedness, and diachronic stability. Linguistics 44(2). P.
303-318.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Creissels, Denis. 2014.
P-lability and radical P-alignment. Linguistics 2014; 52(4): 911 – 944.</span><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:white"><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Creissels, Denis.
Forthcoming. </span><i><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Transitivity, Valency, and Voice. </span></i><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Oxford: Oxford University Press.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Dixon, Robert, & A.Yu.
Aikhenvald (eds.) 2000. Changing valency: Case studies in transitivity.
Cambridge University Press.</span><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:white"><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(34,34,34);background:white">Grünthal, Riho, Heini Arjava, Jyri Lehtinen & Johanna
Nichols. 2021. Basic causative verb patterns in Uralic:Retention and renewal in
grammar and lexicon.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:rgb(51,51,51)">Hartmann, Iren, Martin
Haspelmath & Bradley Taylor (eds.) 2013. <i>Valency Patterns Leipzig</i>. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Haspelmath,
Martin. 2015. Transitivity prominence. In Andrej L. Malchukov & Bernard
Comrie (eds.), <i>Valency classes in the
world’s languages, Vol. 1</i>, 131–147. Berlin: de Gruyter.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Kozhanov,
Kirill, and Sergey Say. (in prep.) Genealogy vs. contact configuration:
argument encoding across Romani dialects in Europe<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Levin,
Beth & Malka Rappaport Hovav. 2005. <i>Argument
realization</i>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Luraghi,
Silvia, and Elisa Roma. 2021. Valency and transitivity over time: An
introduction. Valency over Time: Diachronic Perspectives on Valency Patterns
and Valency Orientation.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Malchukov,
Andrej L. & Bernard Comrie (eds.). Valency classes in the world’s
languages. Berlin: de Gruyter.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Say,
Sergey. 2018. Valentnostnye klassy dvuxmestnyx predikatov: teoretičeskij
kontekst, zadači issledovanija i struktura sbornika. [Valency classes of two
place verbs: theoretical context, aims and structure of the volume] In: Sergey
Saj (ed). Valentnostnye klassy dvuxmestnyx predikatov v raznostrukturnyx
jazykax. Saint Petersburg: ILI RAN. Pp. 5–24.</span><span style="font-size:11pt"><span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Say, Sergey (ed.). 2020. <i>BivalTyp: Typological database of bivalent
verbs and their encoding frames</i>. St. Petersburg: Institute for Linguistic
Studies, RAS.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Tsunoda,
Tasaku. 1985. Remarks on transitivity. <i>Journal
of Linguistics</i> 21: 385-396.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt">Zúñiga, Fernando
& Seppo Kittilä. 2019. <i>Grammatical
voice</i>. Cambridge: Cambridge University<span style="color:black"> </span>Press<i>.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:normal;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><span style="font-size:11pt"><i><br></i><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></span></p>
</div><div dir="ltr">Silvia Luraghi<br>Università di Pavia<br>Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Sezione di Linguistica <br>Strada Nuova 65<br>I-27100 Pavia<br>tel.: +39/0382/984685<div>Web page personale: <a href="https://studiumanistici.unipv.it/?pagina=docenti&id=68" target="_blank">https://studiumanistici.unipv.it/?pagina=docenti&id=68</a></div></div></div></div></div>