33.3238, Calls: Cog Sci, Gen Ling, Morphology, Pragmatics, Syntax/Greece

Tue Oct 25 06:37:10 UTC 2022

LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3238. Tue Oct 25 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.3238, Calls: Cog Sci, Gen Ling, Morphology, Pragmatics, Syntax/Greece

Moderators:

Editor for this issue: Everett Green <everett at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2022 06:35:54
From: Alena Kolyaseva [alena.kolyaseva at kuleuven.be]
Subject: Similarity of quality: grammaticalization (SLE 2023)

Full Title: Similarity of quality: grammaticalization (SLE 2023) 

Date: 29-Aug-2023 - 01-Sep-2023
Location: Athens, Greece 
Contact Person: Alena Kolyaseva
Meeting Email: alena.kolyaseva at kuleuven.be

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; General Linguistics; Morphology; Pragmatics; Syntax 

Call Deadline: 10-Nov-2022 

Meeting Description:

Recognition of similarity has been proposed to be fundamental to human mental
object representations and categorization (Rosch 1975; Goldstone 1994; Hahn &
Ramscar 2001; Cooke et al. 2007, Hampton 2015 among others). Like, way and as,
grouped under the category of similarity, have been listed among semantic
primes, i.e. “simple universal concepts that are embedded in the lexicons of
all (or most) human languages” (Goddard & Wierzbicka 2014: 11-12). One way or
another, the concept of similarity is believed to be ubiquitous across
languages. It has multiple facets: from physical resemblance to vague
reminiscence to simulation (Fortescue 2010), from similarity of manner to
similarity of quality (Insara 2021).
In linguistic literature, similarity has been largely examined in the context
of ‘sameness’, whether the two notions are considered parts of one conceptual
continuum ‘same’-‘similar’ – ‘different’ or whether they are juxtaposed
(Sovran 1992; Arutjunova 1990; Haspelmath & Buchholz 1998; Fortescue 2010;
Treis & Vanhove 2017; Insara 2021; Umbach & Gust 2021). Another fruitful
avenue of research has been the study of the link between similarity on the
one hand and irrealis, evidentiality and epistemic and non-epistemic modality
on the other (Letuchiy 2008, Gipper 2018; Creissels 2017; Wiemer 2020).
However, most of the studies, with some rare exceptions, have been engaged
with inspection of similarity of manner (1), (consider Giomi 2022), while
similarity of quality (2) remains understudied. 

1. He sings like a nightingale. (Haspelmath & Buchholz 1998: 278)
2. There is movement towards, I think, something in the nature of a
pluralistic system. (Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)

In this workshop, we would like to refine the distinction between different
types of similarity, and to draw particular attention to markers of similarity
of quality. Typically being part of a nominal phrase, they reveal a tendency
to be based either on a genitive structure (e.g. tipo in Romance languages <
del tipo, Polish typuGEN, pokrojuGEN), or on a prepositional phrase, such as
in + (Det) + N + of/Gen in languages of various groups (e.g. English in the
nature of, German in der Art von, French dans le genre de, Polish w rodzaju
and w stylu or Russian vrode and v duxe) or na ‘onto’ + N +GEN in Slavic
languages (Russian napodobie, na fason, Ukrainian na zrazok, Polish na
kształt, na wzór, na obraz, Czech na způsob), comp. French à la (manière de),
à l'image de. We are especially interested in new markers that have undergone
grammaticalization or other ‘ ization’ processes. However, we also appreciate
papers that bring an overview of existing similarity markers or structures, as
well as reports on languages that might have different marking.

3. zdarzali się              także      ludzie         pokroju krawca         
        Kujawskiego (NKJP)
        happen-3PL.PAST  also        people-NOM     pokroju    
tailor-GEN.SG.M  Kujawski-GEN.SG.M’
        <*pokrój-GEN.SG
        ‘there were also people like (similar to) Kujawski, the tailor'

4. malenʹkij                  xvostik                   napodobie 
porosjačʹego (RNC)
        small-NOM.SG.M tail-NOM.SG.M  napodobie pig-ADJ.GEN.SG.M
 < na+podobie-ACC.N.SG
        ‘a small tail similar to a pig's tail’

Call for Papers:

The questions we would like to be addressed in the workshop include but are
not limited to:
- Which criteria can be used to distinguish various types of similarity
(similarity of quality, degree or manner)?
- What are the semantic sources of similarity markers?
- What are the mechanisms and motivation behind the change that results in the
rise of a similarity marker? 
- In what way morphosyntax (e.g. the genitive and the prepositional phrase) is
conducive to this process? 
- Are there further paths of grammaticalization to which markers of similarity
of quality are susceptible?
- Is similarity purely perceptually based in a natural language?

Please send provisional abstracts of max. 300 words to
alena.kolyaseva at kuleuven.be or anna.kisiel at kuleuven.be by November 10th, 2022.
The workshop proposal will be submitted to SLE by November 20th, 2022. If it
is accepted, participants will be invited to submit their full abstracts by
January 15th, 2023.

References
Arutjunova Nina D. 1990. Toždestvo i podobie: sravnenie i identifikacija
[Identity and similarity: comparison and identification]. Moscow: Nauka.
Cooke, Theresa, Frank Jäkel, Christian Wallraven & Heinrich H.Bülthoff. 2007.
Multimodal similarity and categorization of novel, three-dimensional objects.
Neuropsychologia 45 (3). 484-495.
Creissels, Denis. 2017. Similarity, suitability, and non-epistemic modalities
(volitionality, ability, and obligation). In Treis, Yvonne & and Martine
Vanhove (eds.). 2017.  Similative and Equative Constructions: A
cross-linguistic perspective, 79-90. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Fortescue, Michael. 2010. Similitude: A conceptual category. Acta Linguistica
Hafniensia, 42(2). 117-142.
Giomi, Riccardo. 2022. Similatives are Manners, comparatives are Quantities
(except when they aren’t). Open Linguistics.
Gipper, Sonja. 2018. From similarity to evidentiality. Uncertain
visual/perceptual evidentiality in Yurakaré and other languages. In Ad Foolen,
Helen de Hoop  and Gijs Mulder (eds.), Evidence for evidentiality. 257 – 280.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Goddard, Cliff & Anna Wierzbicka. 2014. Words and meanings: Lexical semantics
across domains, languages, and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Goldstone, Robert L. 1994. The role of similarity in categorization: providing
a groundwork. Cognition. 52(2). 125-57. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(94)90065-5.
Hahn, Ulrike & Michael Ramscar (eds.). 2001. Similarity and categorization.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hampton, James A. 2015. Categories, prototypes and exemplars. In Nick Riemer
(ed.), The Routledge handbook of semantics. Abingdon: Routledge.
Haspelmath, Martin & Buchholz, Oda. 1998. Equative and similative
constructions in the languages of Europe. In Johan van der Auwera (ed.),
Adverbial constructions in the languages of Europe, 277–334. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110802610.277
Irsara, Martina. 2021. Expressing equality and similarity in English, Italian,
and Ladin: Interlingual contrastive features and micro-variation. Linguistic
Typology at the Crossroads 1(1). 47-93.
Letuchiy, Alexander. 2008. Sravnitelʹnye konstrukcii, irrealis i
èvidencialʹnostʹ [Comparative constructions, irrealis and evidentiality]. In.
B. Wiemer (eds.), Lexikalische Evidenzialitäts-Markerin slavischen, 217-238.
München – Wien. 
Rosch, Eleanor. 1975. Cognitive representations of semantic categories.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 104(3). 192-233.
Sovran, Tamar. 1992. Between similarity and sameness. Journal of Pragmatics 18
(4). 329-344.
Treis, Yvonne & and Martine Vanhove (eds.). 2017. Similative and equative
constructions: A cross-linguistic perspective.  Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Umbach, Carla & Helmar Gust. 2021. Grading similarity. In Löbner, S.,
Gamerschlag, T., Kalenscher, T., Schrenk, M., Zeevat, H. (eds.) Concepts,
frames and cascades in semantics, cognition and ontology. Cham: Springer.
Wiemer, Bjoern. 2020. Complementizers: Polish jakoby: an exotic
similative-reportive doughnut? Tracing the pathway and conditions of its rise.
SLE 2020.

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