27.2192, Calls: Lang Acq/Romania

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-2192. Thu May 12 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.2192, Calls: Lang Acq/Romania

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Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 12:27:58
From: Anca Sevcenco [anca.sevcenco at fulbrightmail.org]
Subject: The Acquisition of Recursion

 
Full Title: The Acquisition of Recursion 

Date: 18-Nov-2016 - 18-Nov-2016
Location: Bucharest, Romania 
Contact Person: Anca Sevcenco
Meeting Email: anca.sevcenco at fulbrightmail.org

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition 

Call Deadline: 15-Sep-2016 

Meeting Description:

In recent biolinguistic studies recursion has been integrated in linguistic
theory as a formal property of the grammatical devices that generate an
infinite number of utterances (see Tomalin 2007 and references therein).
Hauser, Chomsky & Fitch (2002) reconsidered the role of recursion, advancing
the hypothesis that it is a central computation of the faculty of language in
the narrow sense (FLN). On this view, it is conjectured that recursion
actually represents a central property of the human language faculty. This
proposal has sparkled a lively debate about the universality of recursion
within the language faculty, about the relationship between recursion and the
human cognitive system, as well as about the radical view that recursion might
be the defining characteristic of the language faculty  (Everett 2005, 2009,
Pinker & Jackendoff 2005, Nevins et al. 2009 a,b, Piattelli-Palmarini et al.
2009, Corballis 2011, Frank, Bob & Christiansen 2012, a.o.). 

Research on these issues has stayed mainly within the bounds of theoretical
studies. Recently, however, attention started to be directed towards the
acquisition of recursive structures by the typically developing children (see
Limbach & Adone 2010, Pérez-Leroux et al. 2012, Roeper et al. 2012 on
recursion in the nominal domain). These studies have revealed that younger
children have difficulty producing and comprehending recursive structures,
showing preference for non-recursive responses to task stimuli. 

Providing answers to the following questions (the list is by no means
exhaustive) could shed further light on the acquisition of recursion as well
as on its  role as a central computation of narrow syntax:

- how much of the acquisition of recursion is constrained by innate factors
and how much by third factors (e.g. general principles of structural
architecture, of efficient computation, and of data analysis, Chomsky 2005)?
- does recursion type matter? e.g. does one form of recursion trigger another?
 -is it possible to outline a path for the acquisition of recursion? How much
of the path is universal and how much subject to cross-linguistic differences?

Invited speakers:

Ana T. Pérez-Leroux (University of Toronto)
Thomas Roeper (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)


Call for Papers: 

We welcome submissions for 30 minute oral presentations on experimental work
that addresses the acquisition of recursive structures in any learning
context. The abstracts should be anonymous, written in English, typed in
12-point font and should not exceed one page. An optional page may be
included, with examples and references. Submissions are limited to one
single-authored and one joint-authored abstract per author.

Important dates:
Deadline for abstract submission: September 15 2016
Notification of acceptance: October 1 2016




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