29.2420, Calls: Historical Ling, Phonology, Pragmatics, Syntax, Typology/Germany

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-2420. Tue Jun 05 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.2420, Calls: Historical Ling, Phonology, Pragmatics, Syntax, Typology/Germany

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Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2018 13:14:24
From: Johannes Mursell [j.mursell at lingua.uni-frankfurt.de]
Subject: Encoding varieties of topic and focus: The role of contrast and information status

 
Full Title: Encoding varieties of topic and focus: The role of contrast and information status 

Date: 06-Mar-2019 - 08-Mar-2019
Location: Bremen, Germany 
Contact Person: Johannes Mursell
Meeting Email: j.mursell at lingua.uni-frankfurt.de
Web Site: http://idsl1.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/37706.html 

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Phonology; Pragmatics; Syntax; Typology 

Call Deadline: 21-Aug-2018 

Meeting Description:

Encoding varieties of topic and focus: The role of contrast and information
status. A workshop (AG) organized as part of the 41st Annual Meeting of the
German Linguistic Society (DGfS) in Bremen, 6-8 March 2019.

Organizers:

Sophie Repp (Cologne)
Johannes Mursell (Frankfurt)

Invited Speakers:

Silvio Cruschina (Vienna)
Frank Kügler (Frankfurt)

This workshop aims at gaining a better understanding of the syntax and
phonology of different types of topics and foci. The term 'type' here refers
to aspects like the information-structural dimensions contrast and information
status (given...new), as well as to other semantic/pragmatic differences that
have been associated with different varieties of topics and foci. We are
particularly interested in syntactic and phonological strategies used to mark
these type-relevant aspects, in the sense that certain marking strategies
typically result in a specific semantic/pragmatic interpretation of the
topical/focused element. For instance, contrastive focus, or identificational
focus, has frequently been associated with a left peripheral position in the
clause in several languages, occurring in this area together with certain
kinds of topics. We would like to address the question if there are further
type-relevant characteristics that can be associated with a left-peripheral
position, and if so, how exactly these characteristics can be defined (for
contrast, e.g. Repp 2016). Similarly, are there type-relevant characteristics
that can be associated with a non-left-peripheral position (e.g. newness for
foci or givenness for topics), and if so, with what position exactly? Finally,
can comparable restrictions be found in the nominal domain?

Besides the different types of information-structural marking, the workshop
will also address characteristics that seem to cross-cut the typical divide
between topic and focus, for example contrast. In several eastern African
languages contrastive topics frequently behave like foci, raising the question
of the exact semantic/pragmatic impact that contrast has on these categories.

For prosodic reflexes of different types of topics/foci, similar questions can
be asked. For instance, do contrastive topics and contrastive foci share
phonetic/phonological characteristics in comparison to their non-contrastive
variants? And what exactly makes a contrastive phrase contrastive?

In addition to the issue of varieties of topics/foci, we are also interested
in critical evaluations of the terms topic and focus themselves because e.g.
especially thematic topics are notoriously difficult to define (Büring 2016).
Such evaluations could not only include discussions of synchronic properties
but also of the diachronic development of topic and focus in general and with
respect to the different types mentioned above.

Website: http://idsl1.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/37706.html

Website of the DGfS conference: http://www.dgfs2019.uni-bremen.de/welcome


Call for Papers:

We invite submissions addressing one or several issues raised in the
description. Please submit your anonymous abstracts to both of the organizers.

sophie.repp at uni-koeln.de
j.mursell at lingua.uni-frankfurt.de

Submission guidelines:

pdf, 2 pages, 11pt Times New Roman, with References and Graphics on an
additional page.
Please indicate whether you would prefer a 30 min (20+10) or 60 min (45+15)
slot in case you have a preference.

Deadline for abstract submission: 21 August 2018
Notification of acceptance: 15 September 2018




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