TLS 2000 Conference Announcement

[Claude Mauk]

Conference Announcement

The 2000 Texas Linguistic Society will hold a conference on

THE EFFECTS OF MODALITY ON LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC THEORY

to be held at the University of Texas at Austin,
February 25-27, 2000.

The work of many linguists and psycholinguists has revealed profound
similarities between signed and spoken languages in their structure,
acquisition, and processing. However, there may also be interesting
differences between signed and spoken languages; a close examination of
modality differences may offer particular insights into the factors that
shape the nature of language and contribute to linguistic theory. The
aim of this conference is to explore the extent to which current
linguistic theory can account for signed languages and the ways in which
linguistic theories may need to be revised to accommodate both signed
and spoken languages.

Conference languages: American Sign Language (ASL) and English

Invited Keynote Speakers:

Diane Brentari, Purdue University
Modality Differences in Sign Language Phonology and Morphophonemics

David Corina, University of Washington
Is ASL Phonology Psychologically Real?

Diane Lillo-Martin, University of Connecticut
Modality and Modularity: Where are the Effects?

Registration for the conference will be:
Students: $25
Non-Students: $40

Tentative Schedule of Presentations:

Friday, Feb. 25
Flawn Academic Center, 4th floor Atrium

8:30    Registration & coffee
9:30    Opening remarks
9:40    Why different, why the same: Explaining effects and non-effects of
modality on the structure of signed and spoken languages
Richard P. Meier, The University of Texas at Austin

Session 1: Deixis
10:50   A typological study of pronominal reference
Susan McBurney, University of Washington
11:20   Deixis in the visual/gestural and tactile modalities
David Quinto, The University of Texas at Austin
11:50   Modality effects in the verb agreement morphology of signed languages
Gaurav Mathur, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Session 2: Acquisition
1:40    Individual differences cross modalities in language acquisition
Paula Marentette, Augustana University College
2:10    There must be more to natural signed languages: Insights from the
processing problems in the acquisition and use of Manually Coded English
Sam Supalla & Cecile McKee, University of Arizona

Session 3: Syntax
2:50    When is a modality effect not a modality effect? Aspectual marking in
signed and spoken languages
Sandra K. Wood & Ronnie Wilbur, Purdue University
3:20    Accessing nonmanual features in phonological readjustment: Sentential
negation in German Sign Language
Roland Pfau, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University

4:00    Keynote: Modality and modularity: Where are the effects?
Diane Lillo-Martin,  University of Connecticut


Saturday, Feb. 26
Flawn Academic Center, Room 21

9:00    Keynote:  Is ASL phonology psychologically real?
David Corina, University of Washington

Session 4: Psycholinguistics
10:10   The effect of language modality on the architecture of the mental
lexicon
Klaudia Grote, University of Cologne
10:40   The effects of modality on British Sign Language Development in
exceptional and normal learners
Gary Morgan & Neil Smith,  University College London
Ianthi Tsimpi, University of Cambridge
Bencie Woll,  City University, London
11:10   Modality-dependent aspects of sign language production: evidence from
slips of the hand and their repairs in German Sign Language (DGS)
Helen Leuninger, Annette Hohenberger & Daniela Happ, University of Frankfurt

Session 5: Space & Gesture
1:00    The effects of modality on spatial language: How signers and speakers
talk about space
Karen Emmorey, The Salk Institute
1:30    A modality independent notion of gesture and how it can help us answer
the morpheme vs. gesture question in sign language linguistics (or at least
give us some criteria to work with)
Arika Okrent, University of Chicago
2:00    Gesture as the substrate in the process of ASL grammaticization
Terry Janzen, University of Manitoba
Barbara Shaffer, University of New Mexico

Session 6: Languages in Contact
2:40    A cross-linguistic examination of Mexican Sign Language (MSL) to
French (LSF), Spanish (LSE), and Japanese (JSL) Sign Languages Anne-Marie
Currie & Amanda Holzrichter, The University of Texas at Austin
3:10    Analysis of preverbal nominal expressions in signed and spoken
languages: A case between Hong Kong Sign Language and spoken Cantonese
Gladys Tang & Felix Sze, Chinese University of Hong Kong
3:40    The role of Japanese mouthing in Japanese Sign Language
Daisuke Sasaki, The University of Texas at Austin


Sunday, Feb 27
Flawn Academic Center, Room 21

9:00    Keynote: Modality Differences in Sign Language Phonology and
Morphophonemics
Diane Brentari, Purdue University

Session 7: Phonology/Phonetics
10:10   Phonological similarity in American Sign Language
Ursula Hildebrant & David Corina, University of Washington
10:40   Temporal characteristics in sign and speech
Rachel Channon, University of Maryland
11:10   On the balance between phonological specification and phonetic
implementation: Register variation in Sign Language of the Netherlands
Onno Crasborn, Leiden University


For further information, see
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~tls/2000tls/index.html, or contact
tls at uts.cc.utexas.edu

The Texas Linguistic Society is an organization composed of graduate
students interested in the study of language from a theoretical
perspective.