17.1121, Calls: Cognitive Science/Germany;Slavic Ling/Germany

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1121. Thu Apr 13 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1121, Calls: Cognitive Science/Germany;Slavic Ling/Germany

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1)
Date: 13-Apr-2006
From: Ssanna Bartsch < bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de >
Subject: Lexical Bootstrapping in Child Language Acquisition and Child Conceptual Development 

2)
Date: 13-Apr-2006
From: Imke Mendoza < imendoza at lmu.de >
Subject: 2nd International 'Perspectives on Slavistics' Conference 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:41:27
From: Ssanna Bartsch < bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de >
Subject: Lexical Bootstrapping in Child Language Acquisition and Child Conceptual Development 
 


Full Title: Lexical Bootstrapping in Child Language Acquisition and Child Conceptual Development 

Date: 05-Oct-2006 - 07-Oct-2006
Location: Munich, Germany 
Contact Person: Susanna Bartsch
Meeting Email: bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science 

Call Deadline: 15-May-2006 

Meeting Description:

Lexical Bootstrapping in Child Language Acquisition and Child Conceptual Development

Theme session
To be held at the 
Second International Conference of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association, 
Munich, 5-7 October 2006

For our special paper session, we would like to invite researchers interested in an exploratory discussion about lexical bootstrapping in child language and conceptual development, and willing to present their own studies as contributions to this discussion. 

Call for Papers 

Apart from some few exceptions (Brown 1958, Nelson 1973), the research on child lexical development did not receive much attention from students of child language in the 1960s and 1970s. In opposition to some statements found in the more recent literature (Rothweiler & Meibauer 1999), this fact is not really surprising when one considers the very influential role then played by formal linguistics with its primacy of syntactic structures and the view of lexicon and semantics as something rather epiphenomenal. From the 1980s on, this state of affairs has changed dramatically. 

For one thing, over the last 25 years or so, there has been more and more interest in topics related to child lexical acquisition. Over these several years, the research has issued many relevant theoretical insights resp. assumptions, and methodologies about lexical development, such as the view of individual differences in early vocabulary composition in terms of a continuum between referential and expressive style (Nelson 1973) and the holophrastic nature of early words (Nelson 1985), the differentiation between expressive and receptive vocabulary, as well as the use of correlational methods (Bates et al. 1988), or the role of domain-general cognitive skills of categorisation and theory of mind (Tomasello 2003), amongst several others. 

Secondly and most importantly, this body of research (much of which has been done within functionalist-cognitivist frameworks) seems to allow for the formulation of general assumptions concerning child language development in general, as well as the interplay between language and conceptual development. Thus, especially studies focussing on within- and cross-domain developmental correlations seem to provide evidence for a Lexical Bootstrapping (Dale et al. 2000, Dionne et al. 2003), i.e., the assumption that early lexical development, as mapping of words to referents or their conceptualisations, and even to whole propositions, is not only prior to, but also pre-requisite for the emergence of morpho-syntactic constructions (which, incidentally, are not fundamentally different from words, in that they are equally form-meaning pairs). The notion of lexical bootstrapping presupposes an early stage in lexical development characterized by the learning of archilexemes, a term originally proposed by Zemb (1978), as grammarless lexemes composed of form and concept only, here understood as the means by which the child begins to cognize and categorize the world. Such assumption on the fundamental role of early lexical acquisition for later language development as a whole challenges the view about the primacy of syntax over lexicon and semantics that has been postulated in these 50 years of formal linguistics. 

For our special paper session, we would like to invite researchers interested in an exploratory discussion about lexical bootstrapping in child language and conceptual development, and willing to present their own studies as contributions to this discussion.

Empirical, methodological and theoretical contributions dealing with aspects of word learning in the one-word phase (and perhaps also before) that might predict diverse aspects of later language and conceptual development of typically developing and impaired children may focus on one or more of the following questions and topics (evidently, other suggestions are equally welcome):

- How can measures of, and assumptions on, early lexical development (vocabulary size, vocabulary composition, vocabulary growth rate, vocabulary style, vocabulary spurt, critical mass, others?) be correlated to measures of later grammatical emergence and development (emergence and proportion of multi-word utterances, Mean Length of Utterance, development of inflectional paradigms and use of function words, realisation of argument constructions, others?) How reliable are such correlations? 

- How can the study of early lexical development shed light on the issue of individual variance and developmental language disorders? Can aspects of early word learning (expressive vs. referential style, dissimilar timing of vocabulary development, peculiarities in vocabulary composition, peculiarities in the conceptual mapping, others?) provide criteria for a differentiation between mere individual variance and developmental disorder, as well as for a differentiation between transient and persistent disorders? Can such aspects be used in the context of early diagnosis of such disorders?

- Which cognitive processes underlie word learning as both word-to-concept mapping and categorization task? Are there constraints and principles at play? What is the nature of such constraints--are they domain(=language) specific or domain general? How are they related to later language and conceptual development?

- Does a notion of lexical bootstrapping in language acquisition preclude other bootstrapping mechanisms in the stages before the emergence of grammar, such as prosodic, semantic, syntactic bootstrapping, or can interplay amongst these types of bootstrapping mechanisms be assumed? 

- Related to the last question, how does the child construct her mental lexicon? How is it structured--is this structure modular or network-like or anything else? Which processes of reorganisation are at work along development?

- Can early words (at least partially) be seen as holophrases in that they (at least partially) refer to whole propositions? Which developmental change(s) takes place in the transition from holophrastic one-word utterances to multi-word utterances?

- Which evidences can be drawn from studies of word learning in children with cognitive developmental disorders (Down Syndrome, Williams Syndrome, others?), as well as in blind and deaf children?

- Which insights can be drawn from research based on (i) corpora analyses; (ii) computer learning simulations; (iii) neural activation in experimental situations, such as categorisation tasks; (iv) lexical/conceptual processing in adults with and without language disorders (e.g. aphasia)?

- Which similarities, differences or peculiarities can be observed when comparing mono- and multilingual word learning, as well as comparing monolingual and cross-linguistic studies?
	
Depending on the number of contributions, the special session will take place at one or two days of the conference. 

The theme session will be framed by a paper introducing the topic of lexical bootstrapping in child language and conceptual development and, again depending on the number of contributions, one or two discussion rounds.

Please send only detailed abstracts (2 pages), in which you make clear how your study is related to the topic of lexical bootstrapping in child language and conceptual development. 

The deadline for abstract submission is 15 May 2006. Participants will be notified of the acceptance of their papers by 1 July 2006. Participants should send us an updated abstract of their papers by 21 September 2006.

Please send your abstracts exclusively as email attachments (doc- or rtf-files) to:
Susanna Bartsch			Dagmar Bittner
bartsch at zas.gwz-berlin.de	dabitt at zas.gwz-berlin.de 


The conference languages are German and English.

The organizers are investigating the possibility of, after review, publishing the presented papers in a compilation on lexical bootstrapping in child language and conceptual development.


References

Bates, E., Bretherton, I., & Snyder, L. 1988. From First Words to Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.

Brown, R. 1958. Words and things. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

Dale, P. S., Dionne, G., Eley, T. C., & Plomin, R. 2000. Lexical and grammatical development: A behavioural genetic perspective. Journal of Child Language, 27/3, 619-642.

Dionne, G., Dale, P. S., Boivin, M., & Plomin R. 2003. Genetic evidence for bidirectional effects of early lexical and grammatical development. Child Development, 74, 394-412.

Hoey, M. 2005. Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language. London & New York: Routledge. 

Marchman, V. A. & Bates, E. 1994. Continuity in lexical and morphological development: A test of the critical mass. Journal of Child Language, 21/2, 339-366.

Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Chicago: Univ. Press.

Nelson, K. (1985). Making sense: The acquisition of shared meaning. Developmental psychology series. Orlando: Academic Press.

Pinker, S. 1984. Language Learnability and Language Development. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.

Rothweiler, M. & Meibauer, J. (eds.) (1999). Das Lexikon im Sprcherwerb: Ein Überblick. In: Meibauer, J., & Rothweiler, M. (Eds.). (1999). Das Lexikon im Spracherwerb. UTB für Wissenschaft;Mittlere Reihe, 2039. Tübingen: Francke.

Rescorla, L., Mirak, J., & Singh, L. (2000). Vocabulary growth in late talkers: Lexical development from 2;0 to 3;0. Journal of Child Language, 27, 293-311.

Zemb, J. M. 1978. Vergleichende Grammatik Französisch Deutsch: Comparaison de deux systèmes. Mannheim et al.: Bibliographisches Institut.

Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: a usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press.


	
-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:41:35
From: Imke Mendoza < imendoza at lmu.de >
Subject: 2nd International 'Perspectives on Slavistics' Conference 

	

Full Title: 2nd International 'Perspectives on Slavistics' Conference 
Short Title: PoS II 

Date: 21-Sep-2006 - 24-Sep-2006
Location: Regensburg, Germany 
Contact Person: Imke Mendoza
Meeting Email: pos2 at slav.fak12.uni-muenchen.de

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics 

Language Family(ies): Slavic Subgroup 

Call Deadline: 30-Apr-2006 

Meeting Description:

The Second 'Perspectives on Slavistics' Conference is an international conference on Slavic languages and literatures. It will take place in Regensburg, Germany, September 21-24, 2006. The linguistics section will host the 6th Annual Conference of the Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Association.

The deadline for abstract submission is April 15th 2006. 

Third Call for Papers and Extension of Deadline

The Departments of Slavic Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and the Universität Regensburg are pleased to announce the 
Second International ''Perspectives on Slavistics'' Conference
The conference will take place in Regensburg, Germany, September 21-24, 2006.

The goals of the conference are to encourage the study of Slavic languages and literatures and to establish connections among scholars working in these areas. There will be three parallel sections, two focusing on literature and cultural studies, the third one reserved for linguistics. The linguistics section will have the honour to host the 6th Annual Conference of the Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Association.

The following keynote lectures will be presented:
-Language Mixing and Language Separation in Bilingual Russian-German Children (Tanja Anstatt)
-Features: Slavonic and Typological Perspectives (Greville Corbett)
-Speaking from the Inside: Stories of Everyday Life in Russia (Catriona Kelly)
-On the Discourse of National Identity in Russian Culture (Renata von Maydell)
-Fundamentals of Ego-Linguistics. Self-reference, Self-centred Speech Acts, and Related Phenomena in Contemporary Russian (Daniel Weiss)
-Fiction and Individuality (Georg Witte)

Submissions from any scholar working on Slavic languages or literatures are welcomed, including those in Slavic departments, as well as in specialized linguistics or literature departments. We particularly want to encourage young scholars to participate in this conference. Papers will be considered on topics relating to the diachronic or synchronic study of Slavic languages and literatures from any theoretical perspective. Each paper will be allowed thirty minutes (including 10 minutes for discussion). 

The deadline for submissions has been extended to April 30th 2006 (abstract specifications see below). 

Presentations should be in English in order to open the conference up to researchers working on non-Slavic languages and literatures. 
The participation fee will be 50 euros (25 for graduate students and passive participants), to be paid in advance. Detailed information on payment options & deadlines and hotel accommodation will be provided by May 2006. The participation fee covers the abstract booklet, other conference materials, refreshments and snacks. A limited number of participants from economically disadvantaged countries may be allowed free participation upon application. Please include a motivated application for free participation when sending in your abstract. In assigning waivers priority will be given to graduate students and non-tenured scholars. 
Please, do not hesitate to contact us for further details or questions (pos2(at)slav.fak12.uni-muenchen.de).

Abstract specifications: 
The abstracts should not exceed 500 words (plus an additional page for tables, graphs and references, if necessary). Please use MS Word for Windows and Times New Roman or MS Word for Apple and TimesCE or Unicode text. Make sure to use the international transcription in case you work on languages with a Cyrillic alphabet. Your abstract should present a hypothesis and outline your plan for defending that hypothesis, i.e. it should specify research question(s), an approach/method to the data, and obtained results. Each abstract will be anonymously reviewed by independent reviewers.

Please, send your name, address, affiliation and the title of your abstract by e-mail. The text of the abstract should be sent in an attached file. This file should not include the author's name. Submit your abstract to pos2(at)slav.fak12.uni-muenchen.de by April 15th 2006. Notifications of the Organizing Committee's decisions will be sent out by May 31st 2006. 

Prof. Dr. Björn Hansen
Dr. Roland Meyer
Universität Regensburg
Universitätsstr. 27
D-93040 Regensburg

PD Dr. Imke Mendoza
Miriam Finkelstein, M.A.
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Geschwister-Scholl Pl. 1
D-80539 München

Conference webpage: http://www-slavistik.uni-regensburg.de/pos/
 



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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1121