30.3321, Calls: Morphology, Semantics, Syntax, Typology/Germany

Wed Sep 4 22:06:04 UTC 2019

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-3321. Wed Sep 04 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.3321, Calls: Morphology, Semantics, Syntax, Typology/Germany

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Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2019 18:04:53
From: NaP2019 organizers [numberandplurality at gwdg.de]
Subject: Number and Plurality: Cross-linguistic Variation in the Nominal Domain (part of LinG2)

Full Title: Number and Plurality: Cross-linguistic Variation in the Nominal Domain (part of LinG2) 
Short Title: NaP2019 

Date: 11-Dec-2019 - 12-Dec-2019
Location: Göttingen, Niedersachsen, Germany 
Contact Person: NaP2019 organizers
Meeting Email: numberandplurality at gwdg.de
Web Site: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/611408.html 

Linguistic Field(s): Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Typology 

Call Deadline: 09-Sep-2019 

Meeting Description:

Cross-linguistic variation concerning the presence of number marking, the
count-mass distinction and the expression of plurality has been an inspiring
source for hypotheses about the structure and meaning of nominals. One
important challenge for current research is to figure out if different
number-marking strategies systematically correspond to differences in the
semantics of nominals or if the variation in number marking is orthogonal to
semantic variation.

Some approaches take different number-marking strategies to indicate
cross-linguistic semantic variation: Lucy (1992) speculated that Yucatec Mayan
speakers “treat nouns semantically as masses” in order to explain the
optionality of plural morphology and the need for numeral classifiers. If so,
the quantificational properties of nominals systematically depend on the
available aspectual properties of the nominals (cf. Krifka 1989, Rijkhoff
1991, Champollion 2015), such that variation between (classifier vs.
non-classifier languages) and within (mass/count) languages is traced back to
a common source. Partially building on these ideas, Chierchia (1998)
integrated cross-linguistic variation in number marking into a general
framework of the possible denotations of bare nominals, relating the
presence/absence of number marking to the presence/absence of determiners and
classifiers in a language.

The hypothesis that the denotations of nominals differ across languages raises
the question how such differences relate to the cross-linguistic variation in
number marking. One relevant insight from typological research is that a
substantial part of this variation is to be found in the lexicon. Thus, number
marking is sensitive to animacy in some languages, to humanness in some other
languages, and to human rationality in yet others, i.e. to language-specific
lexical semantic properties (Smith-Stark 1972, Corbett 2004). A further source
of morphosyntactic variation comes from the role of the plural morphemes in
nominal structures (head/modifier, cf. Wiltschko 2008).

Cross-linguistic variation concerning semantic plurality and the count-mass
distinction also raises the broader question if these grammatical phenomena
relate closely to conceptual distinctions that matter for non-linguistic
cognition, or if this correlation is indirect and permits systematic
mismatches between grammatical and conceptual countability (cf. e.g. Rothstein
2017).

The aim of this workshop is to bring together research, theoretical or
experimental, on morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects of number
marking and the expression of plurality that shed light on the observed
cross-linguistic variation. Possible questions include but are not limited to:

- Which number-marking strategies do natural languages employ?
- Which other semantic properties of nominals correlate with semantic
plurality and the count/mass distinction across languages?
- Is semantic plurality associated with cross-linguistic constraints on the
meanings of nominals? If so, what explains these constraints?
- What are the consequences of particular nominal denotations for
countability, the possibility of plural marking, the use of classifiers and
determiners, and the predicational and argumental potential of nouns?
- What is the division of labor between syntax and semantics in accounting for
the constraints on plural marking?
- To what extent can nominal expressions without morphosyntactic plural
marking (e.g. conjunctions or singular quantifiers) behave like plurals
semantically?
- What cross-linguistic evidence can be found for the claim that languages
with bare nominals employ covert determiners?
- To what extent do semantic plurality and the count-mass distinction
correspond to conceptual distinctions relevant for non-linguistic cognition?

Call for Papers:

We invite abstracts for 30-minute talks. The abstracts must be up to 2 pages
long (including examples), with an optional third page for references, and
should use an A4 format with margins of at least 2 cm and font size 12 pt
(Times New Roman). They must be anonymous and should be submitted via
EasyChair at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nap20190 by September 9,
2019, 23:59.

Important Dates:

Abstract submissions (extended): September 9, 2019
Notification of acceptance: mid-October 2019
Workshop: December 11-12, 2019

This workshop is part of LinG2, the Annual Meeting of the Linguistics in
Göttingen network: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/447150.html. LinG2 will
also contain a workshop on “New Ways of Analyzing Ancient Greek, 1” to take
place on Dec 13-14, 2019.

Invited Speakers:

Gennaro Chierchia (Harvard University)
Amy Rose Deal (University of California at Berkeley)

Organizing Committee:
Nina Adam, Sascha Alexeyenko, Nina Haslinger, Stavros Skopeteas, Clemens
Steiner-Mayr, Yidong Yu

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LINGUIST List: Vol-30-3321	
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