22.2859, Calls: Phonology, Syntax/Germany

Tue Jul 12 15:53:27 UTC 2011

LINGUIST List: Vol-22-2859. Tue Jul 12 2011. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 22.2859, Calls: Phonology, Syntax/Germany

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1)
Date: 12-Jul-2011
From: Volker Struckmeier [volker.struckmeier at uni-koeln.de]
Subject: DGfS 2012 Workshop: Interaction of Prosody and Syntax

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:51:38
From: Volker Struckmeier [volker.struckmeier at uni-koeln.de]
Subject: DGfS 2012 Workshop: Interaction of Prosody and Syntax

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Full Title: DGfS 2012 Workshop: Interaction of Prosody and Syntax 

Date: 07-Mar-2012 - 09-Mar-2012
Location: Frankfurt (Main), Germany 
Contact Person: Volker Struckmeier
Meeting Email: volker.struckmeier at uni-koeln.de
Web Site: https://dgfs.de/cgi-bin/dgfs.pl/tagung?lang=en 

Linguistic Field(s): Phonology; Syntax 

Call Deadline: 15-Aug-2011 

Meeting Description:

Our workshop addresses questions of the interaction of prosody and syntax, especially in Minimalist architectures: Which languages demonstrably display interactions of this kind? How can we represent these finding in current generative frameworks of grammar?

Workshop Description: Towards a Complex Architecture of Grammar? On the Interaction of Prosody and Syntax

Many recent publications have discussed word order phenomena in the Germanic languages as instances of core syntactic movement operations, many of which are motivated by their effect on outcome at the semantic interface. Often, the effects of prosody on word order are conspicuously absent in these discussions. However, it has been demonstrated that prosody influences word order in the German Mittelfeld (e.g., Molnarfi 2002, Struckmeier in prep.) as well as the constitution of the Vorfeld (e.g., Meinunger 2006), even in the absence of accompanying semantic effects. Extraposition in German is in part constrained by prosodic factors, too (Büring & Hartmann 1997). Undeniably, then, prosody is often an important factor for word order. Our workshop aims to investigate the complex interaction between syntax and prosody and its importance for current generative architectures.

Interactions between prosody and syntax are, needless to say, not only found in German. Word order phenomena in Dutch (Neeleman & Reinhart 1998) and Afrikaans (Molnarfi 2002) have been argued to be constrained by prosodic considerations. Richards (2006) demonstrates that object shift in the Scandinavian languages is conditioned by phonological properties of the shifted objects. The interrelation between syntax and prosody has, of course, long been acknowledged, and generalisations regarding the mapping of syntactic structures to PF representations are available (e.g., Selkirk 1986, Truckenbrodt 1999). However, we believe that prosodic effects have not been incorporated comprehensively into current minimalist architectures. On the contrary, PF factors are often regarded as syntactically irrelevant - primarily because they would seem to involve undesirable look-ahead to the PF interface. The theoretical aim of our workshop is thus to develop approaches which allow a proper representation of the empirically attested interrelations of prosody and syntax. For example, should core syntax generate a multitude of spell-out options (e.g. multiple copies of moved elements, multiple linearization options etc.), with the mapping to PF involving a choice among these options ('subtractively') on the basis of prosodic considerations (as in, e.g., Richards 2008, Struckmeier in prep.)? In this architecture, core syntax itself is not influenced by PF, as is desirable under current syntactic aims and assumptions. The opposite view, however, might argue that the architecture of our grammar is more symmetrical than has been assumed: Should the PF interface, like its semantic counterpart, then impose interface conditions which ('additively') license core syntactic operations, thereby generating the observed word order effects?

An overwhelming percentage of works on word order phenomena have investigated semantic aspects of syntactic operations. In our workshop, we would like to address the viability of a complementary perspective that also incorporates prosodic factors: Since many word order phenomena constitute a complex interplay of syntactic, semantic and prosodic factors, we must ask how a minimalist architecture can represent these facts. The question is rather pressing as (currently influential) approaches that consider externalization a secondary add-on (to a maximally efficient and homogenuous core syntax) may well turn out to be misguided.

Invited Speaker(s):

We are pleased to announce Hubert Truckenbrodt as our invited speaker. 

Call for Papers:

Our workshop invites empirical contributions that will further our knowledge about interactions of this kind: Which word order effects, in which languages of the world, demonstrably display prosodic influences? 

We invite abstracts for 25 minute talks, followed by 5 minutes of discussion. Abstracts must be no longer than 500 words, including references and examples. Note that, for the conference programme, abstracts must be shorter than 250 words. Therefore, accepted abstracts will have to be shortened (by their authors) for inclusion in the conference programme. 

Abstracts must be submitted as pdf, doc or rtf to: syntaxandprosody at googlemail.com

Important Dates:

Submission deadline for 500-word abstracts: August 15th 
Notification of acceptance: August 30th 
Submission deadline for 250-word abstracts: September 10th

Workshop Organizers:

Andre Meinunger
Marc Richards
Volker Struckmeier

References:

Büring, D. & K. Hartmann 1997: Doing the right thing. The Linguistic Review 14, 1-42. 
Meinunger, A. 2006: Interface restrictions on verb second. The Linguistic Review 23, 127-160. 
Molnarfi, L. 2002: Focus and antifocus in modern Afrikaans and West Germanic. Linguistics 40, 1107-1160.  
Neeleman, A. & T. Reinhart 1998: Scrambling and the PF Interface. In: M. Butt & W. Geuder (eds.): The Projection of Arguments: Lexical and Compositional Factors. Stanford: CSLI Publications, 309-353. 
Richards, M. 2006: Weak pronouns, object shift and multiple spell-out: Evidence for phases at the PF-interface. In: C. Boeckx (ed.): Minimalist Essays. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 160-181. 
Richards, M. 2008: Desymmetrization: Parametric variation at the PF-interface. In: A.-M. di Sciullo (ed.): Interface Asymmetries (Canadian Journal of Linguistics 53, 2/3), 275-300. 
Selkirk, E. 1986: On Derived Domains in Sentence Phonology. Phonology Yearbook 3, 371-405.
Struckmeier, V., in prep.: An Architecture for Scrambling: Deriving German Word Order without Look-Ahead. Ms., University of Cologne.
Truckenbrodt, H. 1999: On the relation between syntactic phrases and phonological phrases. Linguistic Inquiry 30, 219-255.

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