22.129, Calls: Syntax, Computational Ling/UK

Sat Jan 8 01:50:53 UTC 2011

LINGUIST List: Vol-22-129. Fri Jan 07 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.129, Calls: Syntax, Computational Ling/UK

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1)
Date: 03-Jan-2011
From: Anna Kibort [ak243 at cam.ac.uk]
Subject: Syntactic Government and Subcategorisation

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:49:41
From: Anna Kibort [ak243 at cam.ac.uk]
Subject: Syntactic Government and Subcategorisation

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Full Title: Syntactic Government and Subcategorisation 

Date: 31-Aug-2011 - 03-Sep-2011
Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom 
Contact Person: Anna Kibort
Meeting Email: ak243 at cam.ac.uk
Web Site: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ak243/gvt/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics; Syntax 

Call Deadline: 04-Apr-2011 

Meeting Description:

'Explorations in Syntactic Government and Subcategorisation'
Wed 31 August 2011 - Sat 3 September 2011
University of Cambridge, UK

Conference website: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ak243/gvt/

Linguistic Fields:

General Linguistics, Linguistic Typology, Syntax, Morphology, Formal Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Psycholinguistics

The conference is dedicated to the phenomenon of 'syntactic government', a type of dependency which links linguistic elements making up a clause.  It is generally acknowledged that under government a principal element requires that a dependent element appears in a particular form. For example, a verb which functions as a predicate may require that a noun which functions as this predicate's object should appear in genitive case. Despite a basic consensus, the interpretation of the notions 'principal element', 'dependent element', and what it means for one element to determine another element's form, can vary considerably between linguistic frameworks.  Likewise, when government as a syntactic dependency is equated with subcategorisation, there is no consensus about where to draw the line between subcategorisation, semantic selection, and co-occurrence.

The conference aims to bring together descriptive linguists, typologists, theoretical, computational and corpus linguists who wish to contribute to the understanding and modelling of the phenomenon of government and subcategorisation. It is hoped that the papers will involve both expertly summarised overviews of different approaches to syntactic government which have been proposed but never brought together for direct comparison, as well as new descriptions of challenging phenomena from typologically diverse languages together with their cutting-edge analyses. Computational, corpus-based and language processing perspectives on dependency and government are very welcome. Linguists representing different standpoints will be asked to spell out their assumptions in order to facilitate cross-theoretical and cross-disciplinary discussion.

Keynote Speakers:

The following speakers have already agreed to give invited talks at the conference (with provisional titles):

Farrell Ackerman (UC San Diego): 'Predicates and argument selection: case and grammatical functions'
Balthasar Bickel (Leipzig): 'Grammatical Relations: what's where why?'
Christian Lehmann (Erfurt): 'Conceptual bases and structural correlates of government'
Silvia Luraghi (Pavia): 'Variable case government'
Adam Przepiórkowski (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw): 'Automatic acquisition of subcategorisation from large text corpora'
Ian Roberts (Cambridge): 'Government: agreement and minimality' 

Call for Papers:

Abstract Submission Deadline: Monday, 4 April 2011
Notification of acceptance: Monday, 18 April 2011
Conference dates: Wednesday, 31 August - Saturday, 3 September 2011 (lunchtime finish)
Selected papers due for publication: Wednesday, 30 November 2011

Abstract Submission:

Abstract submission instructions will be posted on the conference website and sent out to linguistic lists by February 2011.

Meeting Description:

In traditional linguistic description, agreement and government are two types of featural dependency which link linguistic elements making up a clause. The features which are involved in agreement and government are identified through inflectional morphology, and the particular featural dependency between the relevant elements is captured with a syntactic rule, e.g. 'adjectives agree in gender with their head nouns', or 'verbs of this class govern genitive case of their objects'. Agreement and government are traditionally distinguished by the fact that under agreement 'two or more words or phrases are ''inflected'' for the same category (e.g. number or person), whereas under government the principal and the dependent member of a syntactic construction do not both exhibit the same category: instead the dependent member is determined with respect to the relevant category (e.g. case) by the principal member' [John Lyons, Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics 1968: 241].

Therefore, agreement can be seen as 'displaced information' - where one element carries the grammatical meaning relevant to another; while government can be seen as a 'brand mark' - here an element requires another element to carry grammatical meaning relevant to the relationship between them.

Although this distinction is accepted by most linguists, our understanding of government is surprisingly incomplete. Since there is no generally agreed upon definition of government, the interpretation of the notions of the 'principal member', 'dependent member', and 'being determined by' can vary considerably between linguistic frameworks. There is no systematic inventory of government phenomena and no criteria by which to identify less typical instances of government. Syntactic accounts which offer to model government are often incompatible with one another and may not correspond to accounts from inflectional morphology. The term 'governs' sometimes appears to be simply a substitute for 'requires [a particular form of an element]', revealing the lack of understanding of the possible general mechanism behind this requirement. At other times, government as a syntactic dependency may be equated with subcategorisation; however, there is no consensus about where to draw the line between subcategorisation, semantic selection, and co-occurrence.

Call:

Papers are invited which address topics related to syntactic government and subcategorisation, and the morphosyntax of governed categories. These may include, but are not limited to:

- Description and analysis of uncertain or disputed instances of government, in familiar or underdescribed languages
- Unusual or unexpected governors, governees, or governed categories
- Criteria for canonical vs non-canonical government
- Modelling variable case government
- Modelling dependence of case government on another category (e.g. tense-aspect-mood-polarity)
- Typology of syntactic dependency and government
- Government vs agreement
- Government vs subcategorisation
- Government vs collocation
- Syntactic government in computational grammars
- Corpus-based studies of dependency and government
- Language processing perspectives on syntactic government

Publication:

Following the conference, a selection of externally refereed papers will be included in a volume dedicated to 'Syntactic Government', to be published with a major publisher.

Venue:

The conference will take place in the new building of the English Faculty, University of Cambridge (http://www.cam.ac.uk). Accommodation (modern rooms) for participants has been reserved in historic Cambridge colleges. Conference dinner will be held in the Old Hall at Queens' College, arguably the most impressive mediaeval dining hall in Cambridge. All conference locations are central and within 10 minutes' walk of each other. Cambridge offers a spectacular location for a conference, with its amazing mix of historic and modern buildings, lush college gardens, and world-famous museums and libraries. It also has a vibrant musical and theatre scene, with outdoor performances of Shakespeare, and concerts of music of all periods performed in college chapels, city churches and modern concert venues. It is only 50 minutes away by direct train from central London.

Organisers:

Anna Kibort (University of Cambridge)    ak243 @ cam.ac.uk
Arturas Ratkus (University of Cambridge)    ar392 @ cam.ac.uk

Further information about the venue and the conference, as well as accommodation and registration details will be posted on the conference website closer to the date.

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