35.132, Calls: Expanding the Research Horizons of the P-demotion Domain: The Crosslinguistic Variation, Diversity, and Boundaries

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-35-132. Thu Jan 11 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.132, Calls: Expanding the Research Horizons of the P-demotion Domain: The Crosslinguistic Variation, Diversity, and Boundaries

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Date: 09-Jan-2024
From: Katarzyna Janic [katarzyna.janic at amu.edu.pl]
Subject: Expanding the Research Horizons of the P-demotion Domain: The Crosslinguistic Variation, Diversity, and Boundaries


Full Title: Expanding the research horizons of the P-demotion domain:
The crosslinguistic variation, diversity, and boundaries
Short Title: ERHOP

Date: 12-Sep-2024 - 13-Sep-2024
Location: Poznan, Poland
Contact Person: Katarzyna Janic
Meeting Email: katarzyna.janic at amu.edu.pl
Web Site: https://katjan21.web.amu.edu.pl/

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Historical Linguistics;
Syntax; Typology

Call Deadline: 01-Feb-2024

Meeting Description:

Crosslinguistic studies show that many languages have valency and
voice alternations that share two defining characteristics: (i) they
demote the P-argument syntactically, (ii) they do not affect the verb
argument structure. The so-called P-demotion alternations thus display
a formal and semantic overlap and may include but are not limited to
antipassive, conative, noun incorporation, and A-labile alternations.
The fact that there is a family of P-demotion constructions sharing
formal and semantic features (i-ii) has never been explicitly stated
in the literature. Nevertheless, some recognize more or less the scope
of the P-demotion domain (Zúñiga & Kittilä 2019; Janic &
Witzlack-Makarevich 2021b). However, P-demotion constructions are more
often described as individual alternation types crosslinguistically.
This contrasts with a mirror image of impersonal alternations that
also demote the core argument (A/S), yielding various impersonal
construction types. Importantly, they have been recognized as a
grammatical domain (Creissels 2008; Malchukov & Siewierska 2011). Even
if there is an apparent parallel between P-demotion and impersonal
alternations, the former has never been acknowledged as a grammatical
domain in its own right. The workshop seeks to describe the P-demotion
domain and define its previously understudied boundaries.

Syntactic studies define the concept of demotion differently. In the
seminal research on voice structure in Relational Grammar, demotion is
defined as a theoretical primitive (Perlmutter 1980; Blake 1990). Many
linguists, however, follow the Givónian tradition and define demotion
in terms of the hierarchy of syntactic functions (e.g., Lehmann 2015).
Regarding the syntactic P-demotion, it traditionally refers to the
antipassive, implying that P loses the core argument coding
properties. While some scholars view P-demotion as a gradient process,
where P is suppressed or represented by an expression lower on the
grammatical hierarchy (subject > object > non-core argument >
non-argument) (Polinsky 2017), others consider P-demotion as coming in
two guises: oblique expression or P suppression (Mithun 2021 Janic
2021). However, more often than not, comparative linguists limit the
P-demotion mechanism to a change from core to oblique (Næss 2007;
Malchukov 2015; Vigus 2018).

It is commonly accepted that grammatical properties of a construction
like voice marking triggers P-demotion. Most of the time, this
mechanism is limited to antipassive alternations alone. Consequently,
other voice alternations meeting a definition of P-demotion are
excluded from consideration. For instance, it is crosslinguistically
not uncommon that P-incorporation that involves P-demotion is
consistent with extra marking on the verb. However, such alternations
are treated outside of the voice domain as a distinct language
phenomenon. On the other hand, if we limit P-demotion to the voice
domain, various valency alternations like agent-preserving
flexivalency alternations will be excluded from the P-demotion domain,
even if they involve a P-demotion mechanism (Haspelmath 2022,
Creissels 2023). Such alternations either involves a change of P from
core to oblique or P-omission with an indefinite reading.

1. To what extent are P-demotion constructions alike and differ in
their form and function?
2. How can we capture their overlap of P-demotion alternations without
losing language-specific particularities?
3. What crosslinguistic generalizations can be made based on
P-demotion domain?
4. Since P-demotion constructions result from the same P-demotion
operation, we can speculate that they are diachronically related. Like
other detransitivized constructions, they may develop from a
regrammaticalization of some functionally related clauses, where the
functional extension is influenced by functional resemblance of
syntactic constructions (Givón 2001). What is the diachronic link
between different functional varieties of P-demotion clauses?

Second Call for Papers:

The deadline for abstract submission has been extended to 1 February
2024.

Abstracts should clearly state the research question(s), approach,
method, data, and (expected) results. They should not display the
names of the presenters, their affiliations or addresses, or any other
information that could reveal their authorship. They should contain
the title, five keywords, and text between 300 and 400 words
(including examples, excluding references). The deadline for abstract
submission has been extended to February 1, 2024.

The workshop is addressed to comparative and language experts
interested in valency and voice alternations resulting from P-demotion
whose research explores the boundaries and diversity of this
phenomenon. It also invites theoretically-oriented scholars with a
focus on methodology on how to compare P-demotion constructions and to
catch their formal and functional overlap. Finally, it welcomes
diachronic linguists interested in the development of P-demotion
constructions



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