29.4326, Calls: General Linguistics, Sociolinguistics/Germany

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-4326. Mon Nov 05 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.4326, Calls: General Linguistics, Sociolinguistics/Germany

Moderator: linguist at linguistlist.org (Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté)
Homepage: https://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Everett Green <everett at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2018 12:41:46
From: Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez [itxaso.rodriguez-ordonez at siu.edu]
Subject: Learners and Variationist Theory: New Speakers and New Variations

 
Full Title: Learners and Variationist Theory: New Speakers and New Variations 

Date: 21-Aug-2019 - 24-Aug-2019
Location: Leipzig, Germany 
Contact Person: Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez
Meeting Email: itxaso.rodriguez-ordonez at siu.edu

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Sociolinguistics 

Call Deadline: 15-Nov-2018 

Meeting Description:

(Session of 52nd Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea)

Convenors: Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez and Jonathan R. Kasstan

A heavily understudied dimension to the research on ‘new speakers’ concerns
their linguistic systems, especially the means by which they exploit their
linguistic repertoires and the various linguistic resources that they deploy
to navigate the sociolinguistic field. Yet, this is beginning to change.
Variationist sociolinguistic work on ‘new speakers’ has shown that newly
enregistered varieties of minoritized languages may be emerging within new
speaker communities (Nance, 2015, 2018; Nance et al., 2016), the implication
being that new speakers can operate as agents of change in the diffusion of
new variants into their communities, even in cases of severe language
endangerment (Kasstan, 2017; Kasstan & Müller, 2018). This variation, in turn,
can also represent a linguistic manifestation of ‘newspeakerness’ (cf. Nance
et al. 2016, Kennard, 2018). Researchers have also begun to focus on the role
that language and dialect contact plays in new speaker practices, raising
questions concerning the nature of code-switching and vernacularisation of
standard norms (Lantto, 2014, 2018a, 2018b) or the role that linguistic
ideologies play in shaping mechanisms of contact-induced processes among
learners (Rodríguez-Ordóñez, 2016, 2018).

The results from this more recent quantitative line of work shows that some of
the patterns of language change cannot be explained within the scope of
existing (variationist) sociolinguistic theory. For instance, Nance et al.
(2016) compared variation in rhoticity among traditional and new speakers of
Scottish Gaelic in Edinburgh and Glasgow, where they found that the
variability that emerges among new speakers is better explained in terms of a
Type III variation model, i.e. a type of variation that that accounts for
identity construction among L2 speakers, contra traditional speaker types that
remain the staple of variationist research. Similarly, Rodríguez-Ordóñez
(2018) examines the social meaning and use of Differential Object Marking in
Basque, a contact-induced phenomenon that is highly salient and stigmatized
within the Basque community. Her results show that ‘new speakers of Basque’
adopt and diffuse stigmatized variants once they have claimed some level of
‘authority’ and ‘legitimacy’ as Basque speakers, further arguing that salient
and stigmatized features are prone to change inviting more nuanced
explanations that go beyond Labov’s (1994) principles of change (‘change from
below’ and ‘change from above’). From a stylistic point of view, Kasstan
(2018) examines the variable use of /l/-palatalization in traditional and new
speakers of Francoprovençal, and shows that previously obligatory rules can
become variable, and that this underspecification renders variants available
for social work as dialect icons. As such, Kasstan (2018) argues that new
forms of style variation can emerge in situations of severe language
endangerment, questioning the notion that language obsolescence leads to
stylistic shrinkage, as is commonly argued in the literature (see e.g. Dorian
1994).  

These new advancements in our understanding of the linguistic variation among
new speakers calls for more sociolinguistically comparative work (per Stanford
2016) that situates the study of linguistic variation at the center of
linguistic inquiry in minoritized contexts.


Call for Papers:

These new advancements in our understanding of the linguistic variation among
new speakers calls for more sociolinguistically comparative work (per Stanford
2016) that situates the study of linguistic variation at the center of
linguistic inquiry in minoritized contexts. As such, this workshop welcomes
contributions that engage with questions pertaining to linguistic variation
among new speakers of minoritized languages. In particular, we aim to address
the following research questions: 

- In what ways can ‘new speaker’ variation be modelled?
- What principles of linguistic diffusion and change stand out in these
contexts?
- In what ways are ‘new varieties’ of minoritized languages emerging? 
- How and why are new speakers diffusing new vernacular forms in their
communities? 
- What are the processes by which contact features become part of ‘new
speakers’’ linguistics systems?
- What aspects of the language are more vulnerable to cross-linguistic
influence? 
- How do aspects of social meaning interact in contact-induced language
change? 
- How do contact features become enregistered in minoritized contact
situations? 
- What kind of stylistic practices do new speakers engage in? 
- Why do certain features become enregistered while others don’t? 
- How can existing analytical domains such as social networks and communities
of practice aid us in understanding the emergence and change of new variants
among new speakers? 
- What is the role of dialect and language contact in the use of new variants
in minoritized contexts? 
- What are methodological challenges that arise from studying the variation
among ‘new speakers of minoritized languages? 

In line with the questions listed above, we invite contributions that consider
quantitative approaches to our understanding of variation in new speakers that
may intersect with the following approaches to linguistic variation:

- Language and dialect contact 
- Language acquisition 
- Linguistic variation and change 
- Interactional sociolinguistics and stylization 
- Experimental and formal approaches to language variation 
- Sociolinguistic cognition 

We invite contributions that address these and related questions on ‘new
speakers’. We invite you to submit a provisional title and abstract (300 words
maximum) for a 20-minute presentation by November 15 to the following address:
itxaso.rodriguez-ordonez at siu.edu.  

Important dates:

- Call deadline: 15-Nov-2018 
- Notification of acceptance in the workshop: 17-Nov-2018 
- Proposal submission to SLE: 20-Nov-2018 
- Notification of acceptance by SLE organizers: 15-Dec-2018




------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:

              The IU Foundation Crowd Funding site:
       https://iufoundation.fundly.com/the-linguist-list

               The LINGUIST List FundDrive Page:
            https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-29-4326	
----------------------------------------------------------