26.4576, Calls: Syntax/UK

Thu Oct 15 22:17:57 UTC 2015

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-4576. Thu Oct 15 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.4576, Calls: Syntax/UK

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Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2015 18:17:45
From: Sam Wolfe [sw493 at cam.ac.uk]
Subject: Rethinking Verb Second

Full Title: Rethinking Verb Second 

Date: 22-Mar-2016 - 24-Mar-2016
Location: Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom 
Contact Person: Sam Wolfe
Meeting Email: sw493 at cam.ac.uk
Web Site: http://recos-dtal.mml.cam.ac.uk/conference/v2 

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax 

Call Deadline: 07-Dec-2015 

Meeting Description:

Aim of the Workshop: The purpose of the current workshop is to initiate a 'stock-taking' exercise in respect of the Verb Second (V2) Parameter, by bringing together researchers working in different theoretical frameworks and working on different varieties. Please see the attached call for more information.

Organisers: Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge; Sam Wolfe, University of Cambridge

Venue: Old Divinity School, St John's College, Cambridge

Invited Speakers:

Zeljko Bošković (University of Conneticut)
Phil Branigan (Memorial University)
Liliane Haegeman (University of Ghent)
Anders Holmberg (University of Newcastle/Cambridge)
Ana Maria Martins (University of Lisbon)
Cecilia Poletto (University of Frankfurt)
George Walkden (University of Manchester)
Fred Weerman (University of Amsterdam)

Practical Information:

The workshop will last 2.5 days, of which the first half-day will be an afternoon during which local researchers will present their current Verb Second-related work:

Theresa Biberauer, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Adam Ledgeway, Department of Italian
Teresa Parodi, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
David Willis, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics
Sam Wolfe, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

The following two days will feature talks by the invited speakers and by those whose abstracts will be selected via a process of peer review (with an international review committee).

The conference will close with a round table on Verb Second, convened by Ian Roberts.

Do not hesitate to contact Sam Wolfe (sw493 at cam.ac.uk) for more information.

Call for Papers:

We hope to probe matters like the following:

-The crosslinguistic attestation of (full/partial) V2 systems, and also of superficial/apparent V2 systems: In how many different language families is V2 attested (see Holmberg 2015)? How does data from lesser-studied varieties affect formal characterisations of V2?
-The formal nature of the V2 phenomenon: What formal properties distinguish a V2 system from a non-V2 system? Is it useful to think of V2 in parametric terms? Is V2 a “deep” (i.e. Narrow Syntax-internal) or exclusively “shallow” (i.e. PF-based) phenomenon? Can psycholinguistic studies shed light on the nature of V2? What formal properties do V2 systems share with non-V2 systems e.g. V1 languages (Jouitteau 2010) or X2 systems of other kinds, e.g. Warlpiri (Legate 2008)?  
-The typology of V2: What sub-types of V2 systems can we identify? How similar are main- and embedded-clause V2? Is a characterisation of ‘strict’ vs. ‘relaxed’ V2 languages useful in framing a typology (Cognola 2015)?
-The acquisition of V2: How is V2 acquired? Is there room for a form of innately given V2 Parameter? If so, how do we account for its interaction with other such parameters, so that it doesn’t mislead acquirers acquiring non-V2 languages (Wexler 2015)? In the context of the current minimalist take on Universal Grammar, which typically eschews innately specified parameters, viewing them instead as emergent (Biberauer 2015) or as spurious/non-existent (Boeckx 2014), what role does innately specified information play (cf. Chomsky’s (2005) Factor 1)? And which aspects of the input are crucial (Factor 2)? And might there be a role for more general cognitive biases (Factor 3)? Do cue-based models of acquisition aide our understanding of acquisitional ‘pathways’ regarding V2 (cf. Lightfoot & Westergaard 2007)?
-V2 variation and change: How consistently V2 are the oldest forms of languages that have been V2 at some stage or throughout their attested history (Walkden 2014, Wolfe 2015)? How stable is V2 more generally and which language-internal and external factors contribute towards its preservation or loss? Which non-V2 orders are permitted in V2 systems (cf. Kaiser 2002 and Poletto 2014 for opposing views)? Under what circumstances do new V2 patterns arise? What patterns of optionality do V2 structures feature in (cf McCloskey 2006 on embedded interrogatives in Hiberno-English and Biberauer 2003 on Afrikaans)? How does adult V2-related optionality compare with child-language V2-related optionality? 
-V2 and contact: What role does contact play in the V2 context? What are the properties of natively spoken (understudied) contact V2 varieties (cf. Postma 2014 on Brazilian Pomeranian? What does V2 in Heritage Languages look like (cf. Franke 2008 on Springbok German)? How is this similar and different to what we see in L2 German (Wiese 2009)? In the latter context, is it possible to pinpoint respects in which the L1(s) are likely to affect the V2 component of a V2 language?

Anonymous abstracts should not exceed two pages (12-point Times New Roman font, with single spacing and margins of at least 2.54cm/1inch), including examples and references. They should be uploaded in pdf format via EasyAbstracts (http://linguistlist.org/easyabs/rethinkingv2).

The submission deadline for abstracts is Monday, 7 December. Notification of acceptance will take place on Monday, 21 December.

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