27.2277, Calls: Historical Linguistics, Typology/Sweden

Thu May 19 13:28:36 UTC 2016

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-2277. Thu May 19 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.2277, Calls: Historical Linguistics, Typology/Sweden

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Date: Thu, 19 May 2016 09:28:23
From: Ljuba Veselinova [ljuba at ling.su.se]
Subject: The Negative Existential Cycle from a Historical-Comparative Perspective

Full Title: The Negative Existential Cycle from a Historical-Comparative Perspective 

Date: 08-Dec-2016 - 09-Dec-2016
Location: Stockholm, Sweden 
Contact Person: Ljuba Veselinova
Meeting Email: negative.existential.cycle at gmail.com
Web Site: http://www.ling.su.se/negative.existentials.cycle 

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Typology 

Call Deadline: 15-Aug-2016 

Meeting Description:

The evolution of negation is often discussed in terms of a grammaticalization
process dubbed Jespersen Cycle by Dahl (1979). Within this process, negation
markers are seen to originate from emphatic elements in the negative phrase
which gradually lose their sense of emphasis and are eventually interpreted as
general verbal negators. Croft (1991) has suggested negative existentials as
another source for negation markers. This author presented his hypothesis
under the name Negative Existential Cycle (NEC). Despite renewed interest in
cyclical processes in language change cf. (van Gelderen 2009, Willis, Lucas &
Breitbath 2013), the NEC has received little attention. In order to examine
its realizations from a cross-linguistic perspective we, Ljuba Veselinova (U
of Stockholm) and Arja Hamari (U of Helsinki), have started a collaborative
effort; we are hereby inviting other scholars to join in.

Veselinova has devoted several articles to a critical examination of the NEC
cf. (Veselinova 2014, 2015, 2016). In these works she tests the NEC by
applying it to comparative data from six families: Slavic, Uralic, Turkic,
Dravidian, Berber and Polynesian. These tests show, among other things, that
the cycle tends to go full circle under very specific conditions and that it
is rarely fulfilled within the time span for reasonable reconstruction, cf.
www.ling.su.se/negative.existentials.cycle for a more detailed overview.

Lexington Books, https://rowman.com/LexingtonBooks are interested in
publishing a book on this topic. We are planning an edited volume where the
NEC is tested on a family based sample with a world-wide coverage. 

The goal of this conference is to establish collaboration between scholars who
are interested in the evolution of negation and in the interaction between
special and standard negators.

Confirmed Participants:

Prof. Elly van Gelderen, U of Arizona
Prof. Johan van der Auwera, U of Antwerpen

References:

For reasons of space the references mentioned above are listed here
www.ling.su.se/negative.existentials.cycle.

Call for Papers:

To this end we are now seeking collaboration with other scholars who have
expertise on specific language families and are interested in issues similar
to those outlined below:

- Negative existentials and their interaction with standard negation
- Processes whereby negative existentials or other lexicalizations of negation
break into the domain of standard negation
- The time duration of the stages in a negative existential cycle
- Are there any language specific characteristics which trigger or halt the
cycle
- The constant renewal of negative existentials
The compilation of the planned volume will be preceded by a 2 day workshop in
Stockholm in December 2016.

If you are interested in participating, please send one page abstract (500-700
words) to negative.existential.cycle at gmail.com.

Important Dates:

Deadline for abstract submission: August 15, 2016
Notification of acceptance: September 1, 2016
Workshop: December 8-9, 2016, Dept of Linguistics, U of Stockholm

The timeline for the volume will be discussed at the workshop. Please note
that your submission can be considered for the volume even if you do not
participate in the workshop.

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