34.1393, Calls: Topic, Focus, Subject - between grammatical necessity and information-structural load

Thu May 4 01:05:03 UTC 2023

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-1393. Thu May 04 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.1393, Calls: Topic, Focus, Subject - between grammatical necessity and information-structural load

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Date: 03-May-2023
From: Elisa Maria Stellino [elstellino at uni-osnabrueck.de]
Subject: Topic, Focus, Subject - between grammatical necessity and information-structural load

Full Title: Topic, Focus, Subject - between grammatical necessity and
information-structural load
Short Title: TFS23

Date: 19-Sep-2023 - 23-Sep-2023
Location: Osnabrück, Germany
Contact Person: Valentin Rose
Meeting Email: tfs at uos.de
Web Site: https://sites.google.com/view/tfs-osnabrueck/home

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax

Call Deadline: 04-Jun-2023

Meeting Description:

Subjecthood is a multifaceted and allegedly universal notion that –
quite surprisingly – still withstands a universally accepted
definition. The traditional definition was heavily influenced by the
Greek term hypokeimenon ‘subject of predication’ (literally ‘the
material of which things are made’): the clausal constituent of which
the rest of the sentence is predicated. However, this definition of
subjecthood falls short on several points. First, it is at odds with
the very existence of expletives in non-null subject languages (It
seems that …). Furthermore, it is unclear to what extent the pair
subject – predicate differs from the pairs topic – comment and/or
focus – background. Although subjects and topics share the notion of
“aboutness”, they diverge with respect to optionality: a clause must
have a subject, but can dispense with a topic (Rizzi 2005; and more
generally the very existence of wide-focus sentences). In many cases,
subjects will also be topics and there are grammatical processes where
both notions must coincide, typically topic-drop (e.g. German Was ist
mit Peter? – Ist wieder krank). However, topichood is neither
restricted to, nor required for subjects. Topics may be recursive,
while subjects never are. Therefore, a sentence may involve topics
that are not subjects (e.g. Italian Le pillole, sì che pro le ha prese
‘The pills, for sure he has taken them’). On the other hand, focused
subjects instantiate subjects that are not topics, at least under the
standard view that topics and focus do not coincide (possibly with the
exception of contrastive readings, but see Neeleman e.a. 2009). Just
like other constituents, subjects may also be focused and there are
principled interactions between the notions of subjecthood and focus.
Since focus must always be overtly realized (and is frequently
prosodically marked), focused subjects may never be null, not even in
null-subject languages. Interestingly, whereas expletive subjects may
be left out in topic-drop (e.g. German 11. Dezember. Hat nicht
aufgehört zu regnen ‘December 11. Didn't stop raining’), they cannot
be in the context of focus (e.g. *It was yesterday that didn't stop
raining).

A proper definition of subjecthood should, at the best, consider three
major aspects: thematic-argumental, morpho-syntactic and information
structural properties (Svenonius 2002, Dryer 2013). There are
straightforward cases in which these three components converge on a
single constituent (John sleeps). In contrast to these “easy” subjects
and as discussed above, there are also cases in which these components
are carried over to different constituents, or may lack altogether
(There are cats in the garden; it rains; The Russian-Ukrainian war
worries the president; It was yesterday that John came): expletives
lack a theta-role by definition, the argumental status of
quasi-argumental subjects is still unsettled (but see Haider 2019) and
the subject of (some) psych verbs does not carry the thematically
highest θ-role etc.

2nd Call for Papers:

This conference reaches out to researchers from all theoretical
frameworks and invites them to convene and discuss new insights in all
areas of the syntax and semantics of subjects, topics and foci and the
interactions thereof, e.g.

- Resolution strategies of pronominal subjects,
- Expression of subjects and subject marking,
- Word order variation and universal implications,
- Internal make-up and feature composition of pronouns,
- Interactions between subject syntax and Verb-second,
- Contrastive categories in discourse,
- Clausal Left Periphery,
- EPP effects,
- Interactions between subject- and non-subject clitics,
- Focus movement and subject placement,
- Taxonomy of topics,
- …

We particularly welcome contributions that investigate these and
related themes in a contrastive, diachronic or interdisciplinary way.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

- Matthew S. Dryer (State University at Buffalo)
- Jacqueline Guéron (University of Paris 3)
- Hubert Haider (Paris-Lodron Universität, Salzburg)
- Marianne Mithun (University of California, Santa Barbara)
- Cecilia Poletto (Goethe Universität, Frankfurt a.M.; Università
degli Studi di Padova)
- Luigi Rizzi (Università di Siena; Collège de France, Paris)
- Peter Svenonius (The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø)
- Juan Uriagereka (University of Maryland)

Anonymous abstracts should be uploaded not later than June 4th. They
should not exceed 2 pages all-in (12-point, Times New Roman, single
line spacing, 2.5cm margins). Contributors will be asked to apply for
either a talk (20’+10’) or poster slot. Notifications of acceptance
will be sent by June, 30th.

For more information, please consult our website
(https://sites.google.com/view/tfs-osnabrueck/home).

Inquiries can be sent to tfs at uni-osnabrueck.de.

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