33.3209, FYI: Variation, Contact, and Modal Constructions in English

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3209. Sun Oct 23 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.3209, FYI: Variation, Contact, and Modal Constructions in English

Moderators:

Editor for this issue: Everett Green <everett at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2022 10:11:51
From: C. Alessandro Basile [alessandro_basile at outlook.fr]
Subject: Variation, Contact, and Modal Constructions in English

 
Over the past 50 years, modality has been both a highly fruitful and a
notoriously difficult topic in linguistics (Palmer 1986, Nuyts & van der
Auwera 2018), from frameworks of formal semantics in the 1970s (e.g. Kratzer
1977) to grammaticalization theories (cf. Bybee et. Al 1991, Givón 1994, Nuyts
2000, Narrog 2005, among others) and present-day theories of Construction
Grammar (CxG), where it has garnered an increasing amount of interest
(Cappelle & Depraetere 2016). As a domain of meaning and cognitive
representation, modality is most typically studied in semantics and
pragmatics, one central question being the precise role of the former and the
latter in the expression and processing of modal meaning (Leclercq 2018;
Depraetere, Cappelle & Hilpert 2021). Furthermore, the uniform mapping of
meaning to form in the expression of modality has been a long-standing issue
in cross-linguistic and typological studies, with several notable attempts
such as van der Auwera & Plungian (1998).
            This volume is aimed to contribute to studies of modality in
English by taking into account the notion of variation in modal constructions,
which has received relatively little attention in past research. As a crucial
condition for the process of linguistic change, variation is an important
characteristic to model in diachronic approaches to modal constructions, which
is a recent development in the framework of Construction Grammar (Hilpert,
Cappelle & Depraetere 2021). From a synchronic perspective, further work is
needed in the study of social variation in the use of modal constructions,
which has always been of interest for sociolinguists and dialectologists (e.g.
Trousdale 2000; Smith et al. 2019), but would also be desirable for
Construction Grammarians, by warranting a more precise demarcation of
semantic, pragmatic, and social meaning, their respective roles in the
structure of a construction, and the consequences of social meaning for
usage-based models of constructions and networks of constructions (Ostman &
Trousdale 2013). 
            This volume also deals with the perspective that CxG can bring to
contact-language situations involving English, when the lexicon is derived
from one language and the syntax from another. Indeed, CxG has rarely been
applied to contact data in the literature – exceptions being Pietsch 2010,
Hölder 2014 and Ziegeler 2015. One important research question is how the
form-meaning relationship works in contact-situations where mixed construction
inventories are involved. Different theories have been proposed in the past
decades to account for such situations: from the concepts of ‘convergence’, or
pattern replication (Matras and Sakel 2007), to contact-grammaticalization
(Heine & Kuteva 2003, 2005 and Ziegeler 2014, 2017), but further research
applying CxG to modality in contact-language situations is needed on the
topic.

We invite 2-page abstract proposals (including references) investigating the
relationship between variation and modal constructions, as well as the role of
language contact in this variation. Proposals should focus on English, but
contrastive studies involving other languages are encouraged. We welcome
proposals with empirically based claims, using quantitative and qualitative
methods, as well as specific annotation systems. Papers related to the topic
of contact are also highly encouraged.          

Proposals should be sent via email to any of the editors:
Alessandro Basile (alessandro.basile at u-paris.fr)
Agnès Celle (agnes.celle at u-paris.fr)
Cameron Morin (cameron.morin at ens-lyon.fr)
 



Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)





 



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