28.267, Calls: Morphology, Semantics, Typology/Switzerland

Thu Jan 12 22:26:32 UTC 2017

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-267. Thu Jan 12 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.267, Calls: Morphology, Semantics, Typology/Switzerland

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Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2017 17:26:25
From: Francesca Masini [francesca.masini at unibo.it]
Subject: When ''Noun'' Meets ''Noun'': A Cross-Linguistic Look at Complex Nominals

Full Title: When "Noun" Meets "Noun": A Cross-Linguistic Look at Complex Nominals 
Short Title: When 

Date: 10-Sep-2017 - 13-Sep-2017
Location: Zurich, Switzerland 
Contact Person: Steve Pepper
Meeting Email: stevepe at iln.uio.no
Web Site: http://sle2017.eu/list-of-workshops 

Linguistic Field(s): Morphology; Semantics; Typology 

Call Deadline: 15-Jan-2017 

Meeting Description:

The workshop will investigate the strategies employed by the languages of the
world to create complex denotations by combining two nominal (or nominalizing)
elements.

In Germanic languages this is usually achieved through compounding (e.g. Ger.
Eisen.bahn [iron.track] ‘railway’), but other languages use other
constructions. Thus, Romance typically employs prepositional compounds (e.g.
Fr. chemin de fer [track PREP iron] ‘railway’), while Slavic favours
relational compounds (e.g. Rus. železnaja doroga [iron.ADJZ road] ‘railway’).
Turkish has an izafet construction (demir.yol.u [iron.road.IZ] ‘railway’) and
elsewhere possessives abound (e.g. Malagasy lala.m.by [road.PER.iron]
‘railway’). In all of these examples, the constituent meanings, the resultant
meaning, and presumably also the underlying cognitive processes, are
essentially identical, but the constructions are quite different. What they
have in common is that they serve to name a complex concept via the
combination of two “Thing-roots” (Haspelmath 2012), between which there is an
unstated (or underspecified) relation. They are all binominal naming
constructions (BNCs).

In terms of Štekauer’s model of onomasiological word-formation BNCs are Type 3
naming units, in which “the determined (actional) element is not
linguistically expressed” (Štekauer 1998). This perspective prompts two
further refinements to the concept of BNCs. The first is the exclusion of
complex nominals of Štekauer’s Type 1 and Type 2 that contain an
“Action-root”. As a consequence, synthetic compounds like truck-driver are
considered out of scope. The second is based on the recognition that
nominalizing affixes, like Eng.  er and Slovak  ica, and noun classifiers like
Bora -heju (‘hole-like object’), constitute the “base” in a Type 3 complex
nominal. As a consequence, adnominal nominalizations (e.g. Slovak želez.n.ica
[iron.ADJZ.NMLZ] ‘railway’), and noun classifier constructions (e.g. Bora
túú.heju [nose.CM(hole)] ‘nostril’), fulfil the basic criterion and are
considered very much in scope.

This approach to complex denotation cuts across traditional boundaries between
morphology and syntax, and between compounding and derivation: it “divides the
cake” in a new way that might reveal new insights into language and
conceptualization. The goal of this workshop is therefore to explore semantic
and morphosyntactic aspects of BNCs as defined here, along with frequency,
productivity, and competition between different strategies (cf. Rainer 2013),
across a broad range of languages. In particular, papers are sought that
investigate BNCs through:

- Studies of individual languages, especially lesser-studied and non-SAE
languages
- Contrastive studies of languages, in particular those closely related
genetically
- Typological and areal studies
- Studies that address cognitive aspects of complex nominals

References:

Haspelmath, Martin. 2012. How to compare major word-classes across the world’s
languages. UCLA Working Papers in Linguistics, Theories of Everything 17,
Article 16. 109–130.
Rainer, Franz. 2013. Can relational adjectives really express any relation? An
onomasiological perspective. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 10(1).
Štekauer, Pavol. 1998. An onomasiological theory of English word-formation.
Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Final Call for Papers:

The workshop has been accepted as a part of the 50th Annual Meeting of the
Societas Linguistica Europea (SLE), which takes place in Zürich, 10-13
September 2017. Abstracts should be submitted via Easychair
(https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sle2017) by selecting the ''When noun
meets noun'' workshop. Abstracts should i) be anonymous, ii) contain between
400 and 500 words (exclusive of references), and iii) state research
questions, approach, method, data and (expected) results. Each submission will
receive three scores, two by two members of the SLE 2017 Programme Committee
and one by the workshop convenors.

Important Dates:

15 January 2017: Deadline for submission of all abstracts
31 March 2017: Notification of paper acceptance
1 April 2017: Early bird registration starts
1 May 2017: Full fee registration starts
31 May 2017: Closing registration date for participants with a paper

The full description of this workshop can be found at:

http://sle2017.eu/list-of-workshops
http://folk.uio.no/stevepe/WSproposal_SLE2017.pdf

More info at: http://sle2017.eu

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