BASEES 2014: CFP on corpora, quantitative data and language (by 15 Sept.)

[Neil H Bermel]

Dear SEELANGS list members,

For the 2014 conference of the British Association for Slavonic and East
European Languages (Cambridge UK, 5-7 April 2014), we'd like to propose a
double panel on CORPORA, QUANTITATIVE DATA AND LANGUAGE.  We envisage that
this panel will form a contribution to the wider discussion surrounding
usage-based approaches to language, and welcome proposals from linguists of
various theoretical stripes.

Papers at BASEES are the standard 20 minutes + 10 discussion. We will be
applying for a slot of six papers (two panel blocks).

To request a slot on the panel, please go to:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RrSggzMl6AnjoUsjAukX7uWgheliucKg_OMKnOLsdUc/viewform
Fill in the contact details by *15 September*, supplying the 250-word
abstract.

PANEL ABSTRACT:
The creation of generalist corpora for Slavonic languages as well as those
for special purposes has had, among others, two significant effects in the
field.  It has forced linguists not only to admit the possibility of
frequency as a contributing factor to language acquisition and evolution,
but also to attempt to assess the role of frequency in these two processes.
 It has also highlighted the need to confront the particular limitations
and shortfalls of corpus data and to measure them against carefully
controlled experimental results.
We welcome suggestions for papers to contribute to a half-day
panel/workshop on the use of quantitative data on Slavonic languages.
 Suitable topics might address aspects of the following:
- The relationship between frequency of occurrence in language (as measured
through the occurrence of items in large-scale corpora) and the status of
linguistic structures in the minds of the speakers as reflected in
experimental data from work with native speakers;
- Specific problems relating to corpus data: what is highlighted and
suppressed in the results of a corpus search or a large-scale corpus
investigation;
- Synchrony vs. diachrony: language change vs. language description and how
the two can be approached through the use of quantitative data;
- The role frequency plays in first and second language acquisition, and
how this is measured or assessed through the use of corpora;
- The relation between corpus frequency and prescriptive or descriptive
manuals of Slavonic languages, including assessments of ‘corpus-based’
grammars and dictionaries.

Proposals not able to be accommodated on this panel for thematic reasons or
due to space constraints will nonetheless be passed to the conference
organisers for consideration elsewhere on the programme, so you should not
submit your proposal both to this panel and as an individual submission.

Neil Bermel
Ludek Knittl
University of Sheffield


-- 
Neil Bermel
Professor of Russian & Slavonic Studies
Head, School of Languages and Cultures (formerly SOMLAL)
University of Sheffield
Jessop West, Sheffield S3 7RA U.K.
tel. +44 (0)114 222 7405

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