31.3000, Calls: Socioling, Typology/Greece
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LINGUIST List: Vol-31-3000. Fri Oct 02 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.
Subject: 31.3000, Calls: Socioling, Typology/Greece
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Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2020 14:08:14
From: Guglielmo Inglese [guglielmo.inglese at kuleuven.be]
Subject: Integrating sociolinguistics and typological perspectives on language variation: methods and concepts
Full Title: Integrating sociolinguistics and typological perspectives on language variation: methods and concepts
Date: 31-Aug-2021 - 03-Sep-2021
Location: Athens, Greece
Contact Person: Guglielmo Inglese
Meeting Email: guglielmo.inglese at kuleuven.be
Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics; Typology
Call Deadline: 10-Nov-2020
Meeting Description:
Linguistic variation, loosely defined here as the wholesale processes whereby
patterns of language structures exhibit divergent distributions within and
across languages, has traditionally been the object of research of at least
two branches of linguistics: variationist sociolinguistics and linguistic
typology. In spite of their similar research agendas, the two approaches have
only rarely converged in the description and interpretation of variation (see
Trudgill 2011). While a number of studies attempting to address at least
aspects of this relationship have appeared in recent years, a principled
discussion on how the two disciplines may interact has not yet been carried
out in a programmatic way. The present workshop aims to fill this gap and to
provide a venue for discussions on the bridging between sociolinguistic and
typological research, with the ultimate goal of laying out the methodological
and conceptual foundations of an integrated research agenda for the study of
linguistic variation.
We identify two broad promising domains of interaction between sociolinguistic
and typological approaches to the study of variation:
1. Understanding and explaining non-linguistic correlates of linguistic
diversity
Over the past decades, researchers have argued that various factors pertaining
to population structure and the broader ecology of speech communities
contribute to shape the worldwide distribution of language structures.
Examples of suggested factors are the difference between open and close-knit
communities (Wray & Grace 2007; Trudgill 2011), geographic spread, population
size, and number of linguistic neighbors (Lupyan & Dale 2010), proportion of
L2 speakers in a community (Bentz & Winter 2013).
Even though useful to test general hypotheses about linguistic adaptation, the
sociohistorical variables that have so far been put to the test remain
somewhat distal to the fundamental mechanisms that underpin language variation
and change. Understanding the link between sociohistorical and typological
variation ultimately requires a twofold effort: on the one hand, conducting
in-depth studies of language evolution and change, and the role of contact and
language ecology in the dynamics of language; on the other hand, using
evidence from these studies to develop new methods and variables for
large-scale comparisons of language structures, social structures and
interactions thereof.
2. Understanding and explaining language-internal and cross-linguistic
variation
Structural variation is the main object of interest of typology and
sociolinguistics: a closer interaction of the two disciplines may benefit both
on a methodological and conceptual level.
On a methodological level, what typologists may learn from sociolinguistics is
the opportunity to take into account (also) non-standard varieties, often
neglected in the practice of building typological samples. The comparison
between non-standard varieties may reveal the existence of patterns of
variation that cannot be observed by taking into consideration standard
varieties only (e.g. Chambers 2004, 2009). On a more conceptual level,
linguistic variation is traditionally explained by recurring to different
types of synchronic and diachronic motivations in typology and
sociolinguistics. However, typological and sociolinguistic explanations of
variation are in principle not mutually exclusive, and should be integrated
into a general explanatory framework of linguistic variation.
The proposed workshop will bring together these two streams of research in the
attempt of unifying macro- and micro-perspectives on language variation, thus
creating opportunities for dialogue and exchange between scholars from each of
these fields, their methods and proposed explanatory models.
Call for Papers:
We welcome contributions on any of the following topics (the list is not
exhaustive):
Theories:
- conceptual tools for an integrated approach to the study of linguistic
variation
Methods:
- sampling techniques and variable design (both sociolinguistic and
typological) for studying adaptive responses of language structures to social
structures.
- corpus-based methodologies for crosslinguistic variationist studies.
- typologically informed description of intra-linguistic variation.
Contributions from the ground: large-scale typological investigations,
speech-community-based studies, and/or experimental studies focusing on (the
list is not exhaustive):
- the relationship between language structures and the non-linguistic
environment
- language-internal vs. external explanations for language variation and
change
- models of change and diffusion at the community level and at the level of
language structures.
We invite short abstracts of max. 300 words. Please, send abstracts in .docx
or .pdf format to:
- guglielmo.inglese at kuleuven.be
- eri.kashima at helsinki.fi
The deadline for the submission of the short abstract is NOVEMBER 10, 2020.
If the workshop proposal is accepted, you will also have to prepare a full
abstract (500 words) and submit it to be reviewed by the SLE. The deadline for
full abstract submission is January 15, 2021.
Keynote speakers:
- Bernd Kortmann (Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies - University of
Freiburg)
- Susanne Michaelis (University of Leipzig - Max Planck Institute for the
Science of Human History)
Convenors: Silvia Ballarè (University of Bologna), Francesca Di Garbo
(University of Helsinki), Guglielmo Inglese (KU Leuven), and Eri Kashima
(University of Helsinki)
See
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18RITWetFgfyalY_HG7Or5XWyPW-zfZij/view?usp=sha
ring for the full call for papers with references.
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