<html>
<font size=3>This is a great idea--but I'd be cautious about the role of
word order in signed languages--and in all languages where there is
considerable flexibility in word order for pragmatic purposes.
Decontextualized picture descriptions are of limited use in studying this
issue. For example, although SOV is the preferred order for such
descriptions in Turkish, less than half of utterances in discourse are
SOV. So it's good that you include discourse studies as well.
But, in regard to word order, most of the topics you suggest are not
directly concerned with word order--unless you mean also to include any
ordering of elements within constructions, in addition to the ordering of
lexical items in utterances. I also find it strange that a proposal
to examine word oder makes no mention of subject/object, topic/comment,
focus, etc. The proposal needs more clarity in defining a specific
topic that is precise enough to allow for comparable examination of
several sign languages.<br><br>
Dan Slobin<br>
University of California, Berkeley<br><br>
<br>
At 04:42 PM 6/24/2003 +0200, Myriam Vermeerbergen wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Dear all, <br><br>
We would like to try to form a group to prepare a joint contribution on
the topic of word order for the "Sign Languages: A cross-linguistic
perspective"-workshop (see Call for Abstracts below). Our objective
would be to compare as many as possible different studies where word
order is analysed both: <br>
-in declarative sentences elicited by the use of the drawings designed by
Volterra and her colleagues (1) AND <br>
-in spontaneous sign language data. <br><br>
If you have been studying word order or would like to do so and would be
willing to co-operate, please let us know as soon as possible. Abstracts
for the workshop have to be submitted by the end of July so there is not
that much time. Thanks in advance. <br>
<br>
Kind regards, <br><br>
Lorraine Leeson and Myriam Vermeerbergen <br><br>
(1) Italian Sign Language: The Order of Elements in the Declarative
Sentence. In: Loncke, F., Boyes-Braem, P. & Lebrun, Y. (Eds.) 1984.
Recent Research on European Sign Languages. Lisse: Swetz &
Zeitlinger. p. 19-48. <br><br>
<br><br>
</font><blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><div align="center"><font size=4><b>Call
for abstracts</b></font><font size=3> </blockquote></div>
<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>We hereby invite the submission of
abstracts for a workshop on <br><br>
<div align="center"><b>“Sign Languages: A cross-linguistic
perspective”</b> </blockquote></div>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>to be held at the Annual Meeting of
the German Linguistic Society (DGfS) 2004. <br><br>
<br>
Location: Mainz (Germany) <br>
Date: February 25-27, 2004. <br>
Organizers: Pamela Perniss (MPI Nijmegen) <br>
Roland Pfau (University of
Amsterdam) <br><br>
Call deadline: July 31st, 2003 <br><br>
<br>
<b>Goal of the workshop <br>
</b>The goal of the workshop is to bring together sign researchers who
conduct comparative research on grammatical phenomena in different sign
languages in order to investigate and discuss typological variation
across sign languages. <br><br>
Comparison of sign languages with spoken languages has yielded many
fruitful results. On the one hand, it was shown that the grammatical
structures are strikingly similar, on the other hand interesting modality
effects have also been revealed. <br><br>
We are convinced, however, that it is of crucial importance to compare
sign languages with each other in order to gain better insights into the
structures of sign languages in their own right. The expectation is that
sign languages, just like spoken languages, are typologically different
from each other. In this context, it is also worth investigating whether
typological variation is observed along similar lines as in spoken
languages and/or whether we find significantly different clusterings
along a typological continuum. <br><br>
Usually, in the literature, the similarities between sign languages are
highlighted. The grammatical similarities are indeed striking (e.g.
phonotactic constraints, realisation of agreement, wh-questions) and it
has been claimed that they are due to the language modality. Recent
research, however, also points to interesting differences (e.g. position
of functional categories, negation, plural marking). <br><br>
This workshop aims to bring together linguists who investigate the
grammatical structure of various sign languages in order to ascertain and
discuss further phonological, morphological, and syntactic similarities
and differences.The results of such investigations have important
implications for our understanding of the question of universals of
language and cognition and of typological variation, in general. <br>
<br>
We hope that the different theoretical backgrounds of the organizers will
ensure a forum for discussion at the workshop that is balanced between
various theoretical approaches to linguistics. <br><br>
<br>
<b>Structure of the workshop <br>
</b>Depending on the content of a given abstract and the clustering of
topics, both 30 minutes and 60 minutes time slots will be available.
<br><br>
Note that the 60 minutes slots are designed to accommodate joint
presentations by researchers working on similar topics in different sign
languages. We thus encourage researchers to collaborate in advance of the
conference. <br><br>
Possible topics may include, but are not restricted to: <br><br>
• verb agreement <br>
• classifiers and classifier constructions <br>
• iconicity in lexicon and grammar <br>
• wh-questions <br>
• negation <br>
• number and quantification / plural-marking
<br>
• narrative and information structure <br>
• discourse markers <br>
• use of non-manuals <br><br>
<br>
<b>Submission <br>
</b>All abstracts should be submitted by e-mail as attachments to both
organizers (</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF"><u>pamela.perniss@mpi.nl
<</font><a href="mailto:pamela.perniss@mpi.nl"><font size=3 color="#1919FF">mailto:pamela.perniss@mpi.nl</a></font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">></u></font><font size=3>
and </font><font size=3 color="#0000FF"><u>r.pfau@uva.nl
<</font><a href="mailto:r.pfau@uva.nl"><font size=3 color="#1919FF">mailto:r.pfau@uva.nl</a></font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">></u></font><font size=3>),
specifying ‘abstract’ in the subject line. The following information
should be contained in the body of the e-mail message: <br><br>
- author’s name(s) <br>
- title of abstract <br>
- affiliation <br>
- e-mail address <br>
- postal address <br><br>
Abstracts should be anonymous and be either in .doc or .pdf formats.
Abstracts should not exceed two pages (font size 12) including examples,
figures, and references. <br><br>
<br>
Deadline for submission of abstracts is <b>July 31st, 2003</b>. <br>
Notification of acceptance: <b>August 31st, 2003</b> <br><br>
<br>
Information about the conference will be posted at: <br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.uni-mainz.de/dgfs2004" eudora="autourl">www.uni-mainz.de/dgfs2004</a></u></font><font size=3>
<br><br>
<br>
We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts! <br><br>
Pamela Perniss & Roland Pfau <br><br>
************************* <br>
Pamela Perniss, Max-Planck-Institut für Psycholinguistik, <br>
Wundtlaan 1, 6525 XD Nijmegen, The Netherlands, <br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF"><u>pamela.perniss@mpi.nl</u></font><font size=3>
<br><br>
Roland Pfau, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Amsterdam, <br>
Spuistraat 210, 1012 VT Amsterdam, The Netherlands, <br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF"><u>r.pfau@uva.nl <br>
</u></font><font size=3>************************* <br><br>
</blockquote></blockquote></x-html>
</font></blockquote><br>
<font size=1>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br>
Dan I. Slobin <br>
<i>Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor <br>
in Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies <br><br>
</i>Department of Psychology <br>
3210 Tolman #1650 <br>
University of California <br>
Berkeley, CA 94720-1650, USA <br><br>
1-510-642-7090 [office] / -5292 [Dept.] <br>
1-510-848-1769 [home] <br>
slobin@socrates.berkeley.edu <br>
fax: 1-510-642-5293 <br>
web page:
</font><a href="http://ihd.berkeley.edu/" eudora="autourl"><font size=1 color="#0000FF"><u>http://ihd.berkeley.edu</a></u></font><font size=1>
[Click on "Research"] <br>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<br><br>
<br><br>
</font></html>