ALT News No. 18

Thu Aug 14 14:09:36 UTC 1997

ALT News No. 18
August 1997

Contents:

1. ALT II
2. The Moscow Association for Linguistic Typology
3. Recently published
4. DGfS-Sommerschule 1998: Sprachtypologie
5. Second Symposium on Malay and Indonesian Linguistics
6. A query on case marking
7. The World of Language

1.  ALT II

Second Meeting of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT),
September 11 - 14 (Thursday through Sunday), 1997, Eugene OR, USA

1.1. Academic program

It looks like the program will undergo few changes. So until arrival
in Eugene, the program as advertised in ALT News No. 17, and
permanently readable at http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/alt will do. In all
likelihood, however, the program will include an extra special event,
viz. a computer demonstration by Dietmar Zaefferer
(ue303bh at sunmail.lrz-muenchen.de) on the Cross-linguistic Reference
Grammar Database being developed at the University of Munich, based on
ideas from Comrie, Croft, Lehmann and himself, and representing an
electronic successor to the LDS Grammar series initiated by Comrie and
Smith. (For a short description see
http://www.cip.fak14.uni-muenchen.de/~avg/)

1.2. ALT Charter, Statutes and Interim Arrangements

In the course of 1997 the Executive Committee drafted texts for the ALT
Charter, Statutes and Interim Arrangements. These texts will be found
in the conference documents on arrival. During the business meeting
they will be discussed and voted upon. Members not attending the
meeting will receive them by mail after the meeting and will get six
more more weeks to vote by e-mail or snail-mail.

1.3. Practical matters

Registration will be organized on Wednesday night and on Thursday
morning. On Wednesday night registration will be between 18.30 and
20.30 hours in Dunn Hall, Hamilton Complex. Thursday registration will
take place in Gilbert Hall, outside of room 231. Sessions will be
Gilbert 231 and Gilbert 244.

Everybody who asked for on-campus housing should have had his/her
reservation confirmed by Gwen Alexandra Frishkoff
(gwenf at darkwing.oregon.edu). Most and possibly all participants will
be housed in Dunn Hall. This is also where people should check in and
get keys.

Participants should bring enough hand-outs, peak attendance being
estimated in the 100-125 range. There are several commercial copy shops
on or close to campus, but but no one should plan to do large jobs
there.

Banking. Eugene boasts only two banks that can handle currency
exchange, and even they might be intimidated by anything much more
exotic than French Francs or DM.  One of these has Saturday hours.  It
would be an excellent idea if at all possible for people to bring cash,
traveller's checks in US currency, and credit cards.

Anyone with problems or questions should contact the local organizer:

   Scott DeLancey
   Department of Linguistics
   University of Oregon
   Eugene, OR 97403
   USA
   delancey at darkwing.uoregon.edu
   Fax +1-541-3463917

1.4. Looking forward to ALT III, 1999

We hereby launch a call to prospective hosts for possibly the last ALT
conference in this millennium to make themselves known before or at the
ALT II business meeting.

2. The Moscow Association for Linguistic Typology
(contribution by Konstantin Kazenin, kostya at logos.msu.su)

On February 28, 1997 the first meeting of the Moscow Association of
Language Typology was held.

Typology is by no means is a young discipline in Russia: the first
works on typology by prominent Russian linguists appeared nearly  60
years ago, and since that time revivals of interest in typology have
been observed several times. At the same time, typological research in
Russia has not really been integrated into the international
typological paradigm. Moreover, until very recently, the cooperation
between typologists in Russia was  weak. There were two centres of
typological research, one in Moscow, the other in St Petersburg. The
St Petersburg typological group (V. Nedjalkov, V. Xrakovskij et al.)
concentrates predominantly on typology of verbal categories, whereas
typologists working in Moscow (including A. E. Kibrik, V. Plungian, Ja.
Testelec) deal with more general  issues of syntactic and morphological
typology. The isolation of  Russian typologists from one another and
from the international typological community is especially undesirable
because Russian linguists have access to many 'exotic' languages spoken
in the former Soviet Union, providing valuable material for typological
research and challenging several assumptions of modern linguistic
theory. This isolation was only partly overcome by the participation
of a large group of  Russian linguists in the EUROTYP project. Now a
more radical attempt to overcome is being made. The Moscow Association
for Linguistic Typology (MALT) was founded as a part of the
international Association for Linguistic Typology, as
group-cum-associate members. Thus its task is not just to provide for
broader cooperation between Russian typologists, but also to intensify
international cooperation between typologists interested in the
languages of the former Soviet Union.

The board of MALT consists of A. E. Kibrik (Moscow State University),
V. Podlesskaja (Russian University for Humanities), B. Gorodeckij
(Moscow Linguistic University) and V. Vinogradov (Institute of
Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences). N. Sumbatova (Russian
Institute for Oriental Studies) became the treasurer, and K. Kazenin
(Moscow State University) the secretary. As of today more than 40
members of MALT have been registered.

Meetings of MALT are to be held monthly. At the meeting on April 9, A.
E. Kibrik gave a talk on "Morphology and semantics: a mirror-image".
The talk dealt with the interpretation of verbal morphology of Aljutor,
a language of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family of Siberia. The verbal
morphology of Aljutor appears very complex, but in fact it may be
accounted for on the basis of the concepts of markedness and a
hierarchy of features, which are well established in present day
typology. At the meeting on May 28 ALT's President Bernard Comrie (USC)
gave a guest talk on descriptive and explanatory accounts of anaphora.
This surely is not going to be the last guest talk at the Association's
meetings, as international contacts of Russian linguists become more
intense.

3. Recently published

NOTE:  This periodical feature of the ALT News aims to bring books to
your attention that you might not only want to read, but also to review
in LINGUISTIC TYPOLOGY.  If you want the latter, and promise not to
skip the former, get in touch with the Editor-in-Chief
(frans.plank at uni-konstanz.de).  The journal itself does not list
publications received. If you publish anything relevant (including
descriptive grammars or your autobiography), make sure your publisher
sends a review copy to LT. And you are very welcome to bring titles,
1995 and after, that have inadvertently remained unlisted in this and
the previous News to frans.plank at uni-konstanz.de's attention (grey
publications and unpublished dissertations included, although these
won't be reviewed in the journal).

Abraham, Werner (1995). Deutsche Syntax im Sprachenvergleich:
Grundlegung einer typologischen Syntax des Deutschen. (Studien zur
deutschen Grammatik, 41.) Tuebingen: Narr.

Lang, Ewald & Gisela Zifonun (eds.) (1996). Deutsch -- typologisch.
(Institut fuer deutsche Sprache - Jahrbuch 1995.) Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter.

Dorleijn, Margreet (1996). The Decay of Ergativity in Kurmanci:
Language Internal or Contact Induced? (Studies in Multilingualism, 3.)
Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.

Nowak, Elke (1996). Transforming the Images: Ergativity and
Transitivity in Inuktitut (Eskimo). (Empirical Approaches to Language
Typology, 15.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Guentcheva, Zlatka (ed.) (1996). L'enonciation mediatisee. Louvain:
Peeters.

Wetzer, Harrie (1996). The Typology of Adjectival Predication.
(Empirical Approaches to Language Typology, 17.) Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.

Borg, Albert J. & Frans Plank (eds.) (1996). The Maltese Noun Phrase
Meets Typology. (Issue 8-1 of Rivista di Linguistica.) Pisa: Pacini.

Ladd, Robert D. (1996). Intonational Phonology. (Cambridge Studies in
Linguistics, 79.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wierzbicka, Anna (1996). Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

Fisiak, Jacek (ed.) (1996). Linguistic Reconstruction and Typology.
(Trends in Linguistics, 96.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. (With
contributions by E F K Koerner, T V Gamkrelidze, L Campbell, C Chapman,
P Gasiorowski, J Gvozdanovic, J Hewson, R Hickey, P R Kitson, H C
Luschuetzky, W Manczak, M Picard, J Rischel, E Ronneberger-Siebold, W
van der Wurff.)

Kortmann, Bernd (1997). Adverbial Subordination: A Typology and History
of Adverbial Subordinators Based on European Languages. (Empirical
Approaches to Language Typology, 18.) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Haspelmath, Martin (1997). Indefinite Pronouns. (Oxford Studies in
Typology and Linguistic Theory.) Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Foley, William A. (1997). Anthropological Linguistics: An Introduction.
Oxford: Blackwell.

Heine, Bernd (1997). Possession: Cognitive Sources, Forces and
Grammaticalization. (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, 83.) Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.

Alsina, Alex, Joan Bresnan, & Peter Sells (eds.) (1997). Complex
Predicates. (CSLI Lecture Notes, 64.) Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

Hajek, John (1997). Universals of Sound Change in Nasalization. Oxford:
Blackwell.

Whaley, Lindsay J. (1997). Introduction to Typology: The Unity and
Diversity of Language. Newbury Park: Sage.

Roelcke, Thorsten (1997). Sprachtypologie des Deutschen: Historische,
regionale und funktionale Variation. (Sammlung Goeschen, 2812.) Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter.

Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. (1997). Deiktikon, Artikel, Nominalphrase: Zur
Emergenz syntaktischer Struktur. (Linguistische Arbeiten, 362.)
Tuebingen: Niemeyer.

4. DGfS-Sommerschule 1998: Sprachtypologie

This item is essentially taken from http://www.uni-mainz.de/~lingtyp,
where you'll also find updates. DGfS is short for Deutsche Gesellschaft
fuer Sprachwissenschaft.

DGfS-Sommerschule 1998: Sprachtypologie
vom 31. August - 11. September 1998
an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz

Prof. Dr. Walter Bisang / Bernhard Hiegl, M.A.

A. Inhalt

Kurse von zweiwoechiger Dauer (jeweils zwei Stunden von Montag bis
Freitag) zu aktuellen Themen der Sprachtypologie von profilierten
Forschern.

Voraussichtliche Dozenten / Themen (derzeitiger Stand: 14 Kurse):

  Auer, Peter (Hamburg): Sprachtypologie und Phonologie
  Bisang, Walter (Mainz): Grammatikalisierung
  Cinque, Guglielmo (Venezia): TBA
  Comrie, Bernard (Los Angeles): Typology of reference-tracking
  Corbett, Greville (Surrey): Typology of gender systems and number
   systems
  Croft, William (Manchester): Typology and cognition
  Foley, William (Sidney): Papuan languages of the New Guinea area
  Haspelmath, Martin (Bamberg): Morphologische Typologie
  Kornfilt, Jaklin: TBA
  Lahiri, Aditi (Konstanz) und Plank, Frans (Aarhus): Co-variation of
    phonology, morphology, and syntax? The prospects of holistic
    typology
  Lehmann, Christian (Bielefeld): Typologie des Yukatekischen
  Siewierska, Anna (Lancaster): Word order typology
  Stassen, Leon (Nijmegen): Methods in language typology (sampling,
    evaluation of data)
  Stolz, Thomas (Bremen): Sprachtypologie und Sprachkontakt

Einmalige Gastreferate zur Bereicherung der linguistischen Diskussion
(aktueller Stand):

 Haider, Hubert (Salzburg): Sprachvergleich in der Formalen Linguistik
 Johanson, Lars (Mainz): Zum Thema Aspekt
 Slobin, Dan (California): Language typology and language acquisition
 van der Auwera, Johan (Antwerpen): Areality in language typology
    (with special reference to the problem of Standard Average European
   languages)

Taeglich ca. einstuendige Podiumsdiskussionen zu aktuellen
Fragestellungen aus der Forschung der Dozenten.

B. Kurskosten

Hochschulangehoerige Personen mit Einkommen / Studierende

Voller Betrag:       DM 280/350*             DM 560/650*
DgfS-Mitglied:       DM 252/315*             DM 504/585*

(*Teilnahmegebuehr bei Bezahlung nach dem 30. Juni 1998)

C. Unterkunftsmoeglichkeiten

Der Campus der Universitaet bietet 100 Betten zu besonders guenstigen
Bedingungen:
        1 Bett in einem Doppelzimmer fuer 2 Wochen: ca. DM 170,--
        1 Bett in einem Einzelzimmer fuer 2 Wochen: ca. DM 210,--
Die Vergabe erfolgt in der Reihenfolge der Anmeldung. Vermittlung
weiterer Unterkuenfte (hoeherer Preis!) moeglich.

D. Anmeldung / Weitere Informationen

Anmeldungen und Anfragen an:
        Institut fuer Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
        Johannes Gutenberg-Universitaet Mainz
        Herrn Bernhard Hiegl, M.A.
        Jakob-Welder-Weg 18
        D-55099 Mainz
        e-mail: lingtyp at mail.uni-mainz.de
        Tel.: 06131 / 39-3980
        Fax: ab September unter 06131 / 39-3980

5. Second Symposium on Malay and Indonesian Linguistics

This item is taken from:
http://www.udel.edu/pcole/malay_indon/symp2.html; pictures omitted.

Organizers:
David Gil (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and University of Delaware),
Peter Cole (University of Delaware), & Uri Tadmor (University of
Hawaii)

Sponsors:
Institut Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Ujung Pandang, Indonesia (host
institution); Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences, Fakulti
Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; Department
of Linguistics, University of Delaware; The University of Hawaii; The
Association for Linguistic Typology

The Second Symposium on Malay/Indonesian Linguistics will be held in
Ujung Pandang, Sulawesi, Indonesia on July 11-12, 1998. Papers to be
presented at the symposium should be concerned with the Malay /
Indonesian language in all of its varieties. In addition to the
standardized versions of Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia, papers are
particularly welcome dealing with non-canonical varieties such as
Peranakan Malay, Bazaar Malay, and regional dialects of Malay and
Indonesian. Papers may be in any of the subfields of linguistics, and
may represent variegated approaches and diverse theoretical
persuasions. Presentations at the symposium will be delivered in
English.

The Call for Abstracts will be issued at a later date.

For further information, contact David Gil
Department of Audiology and Speech Sciences
Fakulti Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz
50300 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Tel/fax: 60-3-291-4230.

The symposium website (see above) is maintained by Peter Cole.

6. A query on case marking

Dear ALT Members:

I am conducting a survey of languages that have a case-marking split
conditioned by one or more of the following factors:
tense/aspect/mood/polarity.  I am already familiar with the languages
of this sort listed in (section 3.4 of) Dixon's Ergativity (1994).  If
you know of any relevant references or have discovered this sort of
phenomenon in a language that you studied, would you please apprise me?
Thanks in advance.

Stuart Robinson <Stuart.Robinson at anu.edu.au>
Linguistics Department
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200

7. The World of Language

Interested in THE WORLD OF LANGUAGE (Ltd.)? "The World of Language will
explore every aspect of the English language and of language in
general. It will give access to information about all 6700 of the
world's languages - including those that are now endangered languages.
And it will have universal appeal for specialists and the general
public, teachers and students, parents and children alike." See further
http://www.worldoflanguage.com.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Bernard Comrie [President]
Linguistics, GFS-301
University of Southern California
Los Angeles,
CA 90089-1693
USA
comrie at bcf.usc.edu
fax: +1-213-740-9306

Frans Plank [Editor-in-chief, Linguistic Typology]
Sprachwissenschaft
Universitaet Konstanz
D-78457 Konstanz
Germany
frans.plank at uni-konstanz.de
fax: +49-7531-88 2741

Johan van der Auwera [Secretary-Treasurer]
Linguistiek (GER)
Universiteit Antwerpen (UIA)
B-2610 Antwerpen
Belgium
auwera at uia.ua.ac.be
fax: +32-3-8202762

ALT on the WEB: http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/alt