27.3388, Calls: Historical Ling, Semantics, Syntax/USA

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-3388. Thu Aug 25 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.3388, Calls: Historical Ling, Semantics, Syntax/USA

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Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2016 12:20:27
From: Eystein Dahl [eystein.dahl at uit.no]
Subject: Alignment Typology in Diachronic Perspective

 
Full Title: Alignment Typology in Diachronic Perspective 

Date: 04-Aug-2017 - 04-Aug-2017
Location: San Antonio, Texas, USA 
Contact Person: Eystein Dahl
Meeting Email: eystein.dahl at uit.no

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Semantics; Syntax 

Call Deadline: 01-Dec-2016 

Meeting Description:

This workshop explores the diachronic dimension of alignment typology.
Alignment typology is understood to include both the basic alignment pattern
expressing core arguments of intransitive and transitive predicates and
various types of valency-affecting constructions, e.g. causatives, passives,
anticausatives/middles, antipassives, impersonals/transimpersonals and A- or
P-lability. While the basic alignment pattern or patterns of a given language
tends to be diachronically stable, the inventory of valency-affecting
constructions are somewhat more prone to undergo change. There appears to be a
clear diachronic relation between certain types of valency-affecting
constructions and certain types of alignment constructions, e.g. passives and
ergatives (cf. e.g. Gildea 1997, Dahl 2016). Thus it is reasonable to explore
the diachronic behavior of basic alignment and valency-affecting constructions
together, as they seem to represent two dimensions of the same area of
grammar. 

Various studies have been concerned with the emergence of ergative alignment
(cf. e.g. Garrett 1990, Gildea 1997, Butt 2001, Dahl 2016) or semantic
alignment (cf. e.g. Aldai 2008, Holton 2008). The development of accusative,
neutral or tripartite alignment, have received less attention and,
consequently, is less well understood. Similar observations pertain to the
emergence and development of valency-affecting constructions. Synchronically,
there appears to be systematic correlation between certain types of basic
alignment and certain types of valency-affecting construction types. For
example, it has long been noted that antipassive constructions tend to show up
in languages with predominantly ergative alignment (cf. Silverstein 1972), and
that languages showing semantic alignment tend not to have passive
constructions (cf. e.g. Wichmann 2007). Such observations suggest a strong
diachronic correlation between certain basic alignment types and certain types
of valency-changing constructions. However, closer examination reveals that
such correlations appear to be statistical tendencies at best (cf. e.g.
Polinsky 2005, Janic 2016 on the existence of antipassive constructions in
accusative languages), a fact suggesting that historical contingency plays an
important role in the structuring of alignment systems. Thus the topic of the
present workshop bears directly on the relationship between universal and
language-specific factors in language change. 

A systematic study of the synchronic and diachronic dimensions of interactions
between basic alignment types and valency-changing constructions may be
expected to contribute significant new insights into this area of grammar as
well as into diachronic syntax more generally. This workshop aims to bring
together scholars working on alignment typology and change in different
languages and from different theoretical perspectives in order to address
research questions including but not limited to the following: 

- To what extent are changes in alignment typology unidirectional? 
- To what extent are particular correlations between certain types of basic
alignment constructions and certain kinds of valency-affecting constructions
diachronically persistent?
- To what extent are some basic alignment types diachronically more stable
than others?
- To what extent do basic alignment systems with a split between different
alignment construction types show different diachronic behavior from
typologically consistent basic alignment systems?


Call for Papers:

We invite individuals to submit contributions on the relationship between
basic alignment and valency-changing categories in different languages and
language families. Contrastive and typological perspectives are especially
solicited, but other approaches, including in-depth studies from different
theoretical perspectives are also very welcome. Abstracts should be a maximum
of two pages in length, including references, and should be submitted via the
conference Easy Chair link (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ichl23).
(If you have problems using Easy Chair, please contact the ICHL organizers at
ichl23 at utsa.edu) Authors may present a maximum of two papers at ICHL23,
whether single-authored or co-authored. Please note that abstracts submitted
for this workshop but not accepted there will be automatically considered for
inclusion in the general session.




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