17.1826, Calls: General Ling/Germany;General Ling/Greece

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1826. Sun Jun 18 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1826, Calls: General Ling/Germany;General Ling/Greece

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1)
Date: 18-Jun-2006
From: Gerhard Jaeger < Gerhard.Jaeger at uni-bielefeld.de >
Subject: The Role of Variation in Language Evolution 

2)
Date: 17-Jun-2006
From: Mary Baltazani < linguist at cc.uoi.gr >
Subject: 8th International Conference on Greek Linguistics 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:43:27
From: Gerhard Jaeger < Gerhard.Jaeger at uni-bielefeld.de >
Subject: The Role of Variation in Language Evolution 
 

Full Title: The Role of Variation in Language Evolution 
Short Title: Evolution Workshop, DGfS 

Date: 28 Feb 2007 - 02 Mar 2007
Location: Siegen, Germany 
Contact Person: Gerhard Jaeger
Meeting Email: Gerhard.Jaeger at uni-bielefeld.de
Web Site: http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/gjaeger/dgfs2007/cfp.html 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 06-Aug-2006 

Meeting Description:

The workshop topic is the role of linguistic variation for the cultural
evolution of language. It will bring together researchers from various areas
(historical linguistics, creolistics, computational linguistics, ...) that are
interested in the application of evolutionary concepts to natural language.

The workshop is part of the annual meeting of the DGfS (German Linguistic Society). 

The role of variation in language evolution

Workshop at the 29th annual meeting of the 
German Association for Linguistics (DGfS).

Siegen, 28 February - 2 March, 2007

Organized by Regine Eckardt (Göttingen) & Gerhard Jäger (Bielefeld) 

Theme:

It is a basic assumption of functional linguistics that the language system is
the result of adaptation to the pressure of language usage. This has succinctly
been expressed by Du Bois' (1987) dictum ''Languages code best what speakers do
most.'' Formal linguists have largely remained skeptical towards the functional
approach because of its teleological flavor. Prima facie, there is no causal
mechanism linking the cognitively founded properties of the language system to
the properties of language use.

This predicament is reminiscent to the issue of adaptation in biology, and it is
well-known that evolutionary theory offers a non-teleological, causal
explanation there. In the past ten years or so, various authors (Nowak, Hurford,
Kirby, Croft, Haspelmath inter alia) have proposed to apply evolutionary
concepts to language. Under this conception, variation is essential to establish
the link between language usage and language system. Among extant theories of
(cultural) language evolution, there is disagreement though about the precise
nature of this link. Some authors (like Haspelmath) propose a quasi-Lamarckian
view of language evolution. This means that variation itself is adaptive. There
are also arguments for a quasi-Darwinian view whereas variation itself is
non-adaptive (i.e. random, as far as the language system is concerned).
Adaptation of the system to usage is achieved via a process of selection,
because some linguistic variants are more apt to be acquired by infants and to
be imitated by adults than others (cf. for instance Kirby 1999).
Invited speakers

-Olga Fischer (Amsterdam)
-Andrew Wedel (Tucson)

Topics:

The workshop will explore the precise role of linguistic variation in language
evolution. We invite submissions to the following (and related) topics: 

-Empirical studies of language variation that are relevant for language
evolution. This includes experimental psycholinguistic studies as well as corpus
investigations 
    
-Computer simulations of language evolution 

-Formal and computational models of the micro-dynamics of language evolution,
like stochastic, exemplar based or memory based approaches 

-Studies of grammaticalization phenomena (and language change phenomena in
general) that relate diachronic change to synchronic variation 

-The role of variation in creolization 

-Mathematical models of language evolution 

Call for papers:

Submissions are invited for 60-minutes presentations (45 minutes + 15 minutes
discussion). Send your two-page abstract to Gerhard Jäger at the address below,
either by email (in plain text or in PDF format) or as hard copy, to arrive no
later than August 6, 2006. Notification of acceptance is by September 15, 2006.

Important dates:

August 6, 2006: deadline for submission 

September 15, 2006: notification of acceptance 

December 3, 2006: deadline for abstract to appear in the proceedings (half a page) 

February 28 - March 2, 2007: Workshop 

 
Contact:

Gerhard Jäger 
University of Bielefeld 
Faculty of Linguistics and Literature 
PF 10 01 31 
33501 Bielefeld, Germany 
Gerhard.Jaeger at uni-bielefeld.de

Regine Eckardt 
University of Göttingen 
Department of English / Linguistics
Käte-Hamburger-Weg 3
37073 Göttingen, Germany

regine.eckardt at phil.uni-goettingen.de

 
Programme committee:

Ellen Brandner (Konstanz)
Brady Clark (Chicago)
Matt Goldrick (Chicago)
Roland Hinterhölzl (Berlin)
Martin Haspelmath (Leipzig)
Simon Kirby (Edinburgh)
Anke Lüdeling (Berlin)
Alexander Mehler (Bielefeld)
Tonjes Veenstra (Berlin)
Robert van Rooij (Amsterdam)
Anette Rosenbach (Düsseldorf)
Jelle Zuidema (Amsterdam)



	
-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 22:43:33
From: Mary Baltazani < linguist at cc.uoi.gr >
Subject: 8th International Conference on Greek Linguistics 

	

Full Title: 8th International Conference on Greek Linguistics 
Short Title: ICGL8 

Date: 29-Aug-2007 - 02-Sep-2007
Location: Ioannina, Greece 
Contact Person: Georgios Giannakis
Meeting Email: linguist at cc.uoi.gr
Web Site: http://users.uoi.gr/linguist/en/ICGL8.html 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 31-Dec-2006 

Meeting Description:

The 8th International Conference on Greek Linguistics, ICGL8, will take place at
the Department of Linguistics, University of Ioannina, on August 29 - September
2, 2007.

The conference welcomes papers on any area of Greek Linguistics. Papers will be
chosen by the organizing committee on the basis of abstracts submitted. The
final program is intended to represent a broad range of approaches to Greek
Linguistics including but not limited to: phonetics, phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics, pragmatics, Greek dialects, sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, historical, computational, and applied linguistics. 

LOCATION: Department of Linguistics, University of Ioannina, Greece
DATE: 29 Aug 2007 - 2 Sep 2007 
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 31 Dec 2006
CONTACT PERSON: Georgios Giannakis
MEETING EMAIL: linguist at cc.uoi.gr
WEB SITE: http://users.uoi.gr/linguist/en/ICGL8.html

SUBMISSION DETAILS:  

Please submit an abstract as a pdf file, if possible. MSWord is acceptable if
the abstract contains no special fonts. We accept only electronic submissions.
Abstracts should be anonymous, no longer than one page, with a font no smaller
than 11 pt and have a 2.5 cm (1 inch) margin on all sides. Papers may be in
Greek or English.

Please send your submission to: linguist at cc.uoi.gr.  
Send all your information - Name, Affiliation, and Title of the paper - in the
body of the message and attach the abstract without name and affiliation. 

Talks are 20 minutes, plus 10 minutes for discussion.

SPECIAL THEMATIC SESSIONS 
The conference will also include a limited number (3-4) of thematic sessions.
These sessions will contain a small number of talks (up to six) on a single
theme. Prospective session organizers should contact the conference organizing
committee as soon as possible, but no later than the general conference
submission deadline, 31 December 2006. They should submit a brief outline of the
theme and purpose of the special session (max. one page), together with the
abstracts for these sessions en block.  

More information on travel, accommodation, organization, invited speakers, etc
will appear on the conference website as it becomes available.

IMPORTANT DATES
Submission Deadline      :    December 31, 2006 
Acceptance Notification  :    March 15, 2007
  
The organizing committee:

Mary Baltazani
Georgios K. Giannakis
Anastasios Tsangalidis
George J. Xydopoulos

Department of Linguistics,
University of Ioannina,
Ioannina, 45110
Greece

Tel: (+30) 26510 95216
Fax: (+30) 26510-95251




 



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