17.1632, Calls: Nordic Langs/Finland;Ling Theories/Germany

Tue May 30 20:34:14 UTC 2006

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1632. Tue May 30 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1632, Calls: Nordic Langs/Finland;Ling Theories/Germany

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1)
Date: 28-May-2006
From: Hanna Lehti-Eklund < hanna.lehti-eklund at helsinki.fi >
Subject: 8th Conference on Nordic Languages as Second Languages 

2)
Date: 28-May-2006
From: Björn Rothstein < bjoern at ifla.uni-stuttgart.de >
Subject: (Morphological) Blocking and Linguistic Variation - Section of the Annual Meeting of the German Linguistics Society (DGfS Workshop) 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 16:32:24
From: Hanna Lehti-Eklund < hanna.lehti-eklund at helsinki.fi >
Subject: 8th Conference on Nordic Languages as Second Languages 

Full Title: 8th Conference on Nordic Languages as Second Languages 
Short Title: Nordand 8 

Date: 10-May-2007 - 12-May-2008
Location: Helsinki, Finland 
Contact Person: Hanna Lehti-Eklund
Meeting Email: nordand-2007[AT]helsinki.fi
Web Site: http://www.helsinki.fi/hum/skl/nordand2007/english.htm 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics 

Subject Language(s): Danish (dan)
                     Finnish (fin)
                     Icelandic (isl)
                     Norwegian, Bokmål (nob)
                     Swedish (swe)

Call Deadline: 01-Nov-2006 

Meeting Description:

The next conference on the Nordic languages as second languages will be held May 10-12, 2007 in Helsinki. The conference is being organized by the departments of Scandinavian languages and literature and Finnish language and literature at Helsingin yliopisto - Helsingfors universitet. 

The conference will have three general themes:
- Constructions in second language 
- Identity and multilingualism 
- Interaction in second language contexts 
Papers dealing with other topics within second language research are also welcome.

The plenary spekers include:
professor Peter Auer (Universität Freiburg) 
docent Maria Egbert (Syddansk universitet) 
professor Kenneth Hyltenstam (Stockholms universitet) 
professor Anna-Riitta Lindgren (Universitetet i Tromsø) 
docent Leena Huss (Uppsala universitet) 

preliminary registration September 15, 2006 
deadline for abstracts November 1, 2006 
notification about the acceptance of the abstracts December 2006

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 16:32:34
From: Björn Rothstein < bjoern at ifla.uni-stuttgart.de >
Subject: (Morphological) Blocking and Linguistic Variation - Section of the Annual Meeting of the German Linguistics Society (DGfS Workshop) 

Full Title: (Morphological) Blocking and Linguistic Variation - Section of the Annual Meeting of the German Linguistics Society (DGfS Workshop) 

Date: 28-Feb-2007 - 02-Mar-2007
Location: Siegen, Germany 
Contact Person: Carola Trips
Meeting Email: carola.trips at ling.uni-stuttgart.de

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories 

Call Deadline: 24-Jul-2007 

Meeting Description:

This workshop, co-organized by Eric Fuss (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/M.), Carola Trips (University of Stuttgart) and Björn Rothstein (University of Stuttgart), is part of the Annual Meeting of the German Linguistics Society (DGfS). It will explore questions concerning (morphological) blocking and linguistic variation.

The workshop is of interest for researchers working in the domain of theoretical linguistics, focusing on syntax, morphology, and semantics. In particular, we are looking forward to applications dealing with formal approaches to language variation and change. 

It is a long-standing idea in grammatical theory that the morphological component does not tolerate doublets for a given slot in a paradigm (cf. worse vs. *badder, thief vs. *stealer). Following insights of the Sanskrit grammarian P?n?ini, this generalization is usually modeled in terms of blocking rules that ensure that the availability of a more specific/marked form blocks the use of a less specific/marked form (cf. e.g. Kiparsky 1973, Anderson 1992, Wunderlich 1996, Noyer 1997, Stump 2001). Contrary to expectations, however, languages do show doublets: competing forms of a certain word or formative are quite common, due either to grammar-external factors such as language contact or to grammar-internal processes such as analogical change. This usually gives rise to linguistic variation involving forms that compete for a certain meaning or slot in a paradigm, e.g., regular and irregular past tense forms in German such as backte (reg.) vs. buk (irreg.) 'I/he/she/it baked'. After some period of coexistence, the competition between forms whose meaning is compatible is usually resolved, either by the loss of one competing form or by a change in which one form adopts a different meaning. While the loss of doublets can again be attributed to the workings of blocking mechanisms (cf. Kroch 1994), the very possibility of this kind of variation raises a number of issues for any theory of blocking and for grammatical theory more generally: 

1 What should a formal account of this type of linguistic variation look like? (e.g. Grammar Competition, Kroch 1989; equally optimal candidates under an OT account of blocking, Blutner 2000, Kiparsky 2004). 
2 Which (grammar-internal/grammar-external) factors govern the distribution of competing forms? 
3 Which factors determine the winner of the competition (e.g. simplicity in the case of analogical change vs. expressiveness in the case of grammaticalization processes)? 
4 Are there similar phenomena in other domains of grammar such as syntax (e.g. competing structures/word orders) or semantics (cf. e.g. Blutner 2000, 2002)? Is there also competition not only within components of grammar but also between components (cf. Ackema & Neeleman 2001 who argue that morphological processes may bleed syntactic operations and vice versa)? 

The workshop is of interest for researchers working in the domain of theoretical linguistics, focusing on syntax, morphology, and semantics. In particular, we are looking forward to applications dealing with formal approaches to language variation and change.  

Presentations will be 40 minutes plus 20 minutes for discussion.

Please submit an abstract (one-page, 12pt, including references) and include the following information: 
(a) Title of the paper 
(b) Name of the author(s) 
(c) Affiliation(s) 
(d) e-mail address(es) 

Abstracts should be sent by e-mail (preferably in PDF format, or in RTF) to the following address: carola.trips at ling.uni-stuttgart.de before July 24, 2006 (please write ''Abstract DGfS '07'' in the header).

We plan to publish the papers discussed in our workshop in conference proceedings.

IMPORTANT DATES:
July 24, 2006			deadline for abstracts submission
September, 1, 2006		notification of acceptance
February 28 - March 02, 2007: 	workshop in Siegen	

Organizing committee
Eric Fuß, Carola Trips, Björn Rothstein

Contact:

carola.trips at ling.uni-stuttgart.de

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