CfP: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008 (MAD 08) - extended deadline!

[Wiebke Ramm]

(apologies for cross-postings)


Full Title: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008: 
Linearisation and Segmentation in Discourse

Short title: MAD 08

Date: 20-Feb-2008 - 23-Feb-2008

Location: Oslo, Norway

Contact persons: Wiebke Ramm, Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen

Meeting Email: mad-08 at ilos.uio.no

Meeting URL: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/forskning/konferanser/mad08/

Call deadline: extended deadline 26-Oct-2007


Meeting description:

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008 (MAD 08) is the seventh 
in a series of small-scale, high-quality workshops that have been 
organised  (approx.) every second year since 1995. Its aim is to bring 
together researchers from different linguistic disciplines to exchange 
information and learn from each other on a common topic of 
investigation. The theme of MAD 08 is 'Linearisation and Segmentation in 
Discourse'.


CALL FOR PAPERS (3rd call - extended deadline: October 26!)

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008 (MAD 08) is the seventh 
in a series of small-scale, high-quality workshops that have been 
organised  (approx.) every second year since 1995. Its aim is to bring 
together researchers from different linguistic disciplines to exchange 
information and learn from each other on a common topic of 
investigation. The theme of MAD 08 is 'Linearisation and Segmentation in 
Discourse'.

Language as well as other forms of communication are inseparably tied to 
some kind of linear-sequential form of presentation, due to the 
linear-sequential nature of the media on which they operate. 
Linearisation in its turn presupposes segmentation, i.e. decisions 
concerning the size and type of units to be brought into a sequential 
order at various levels. In written and spoken language, for example, it 
has to be decided whether a piece of information can and should be 
realised as a word, a phrase, a clause, a (complex) sentence or even as 
a sentence sequence or paragraph. And the relevant units have to be 
arranged in a certain order that is determined - in part, at least - by 
the rules of grammar but also - at higher levels of discourse - by other 
principles. We are interested in identifying and defining such 
principles. What principles govern the segmentation of the information 
to be (explicitly) conveyed? What do the minimal discourse units look 
like, which kinds of complex structure do they build and how are these 
structures separated from each other?

The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers from different 
linguistic disciplines (e.g., psycholinguistics, contrastive 
linguistics/translation studies, computational linguistics, discourse 
studies), and, if possible, also from other disciplines in which the 
linearisation and segmentation of 'content' or information is 
constitutive (e.g., in music or film). We invite contributions on topics 
and questions such as the following (the list may be extended):


- Discourse units and segmentation:

*  Which are the (minimal) units of discourse, and how are they marked 
and separated from each other? For example, which role does punctuation 
play in written discourse, and pauses and intonation in spoken language?


- Linearisation and its relation to nonlinear linguistic and conceptual 
  structures:

*  How are linear sequences of discourse units mapped onto complex 
(potentially hierarchical) conceptual structures? (Perception perspective)

*  How are complex (potentially hierarchical) conceptual structures 
mapped onto linear sequences of discourse units? (Production perspective)

*  How do notions like salience, discourse prominence, 
foreground(ing)/background(ing) etc. relate to linearity?

* Cohesion / coherence and linearity


  - Perspective and linearisation:

*  Perspective and subjectivity in discourse: How is information 
presented and what is the role of relations "in the world" relative to 
the order of presentation by the speaker?

*  How do the linguistic notions of perspective relate to perspective in 
other media?


- Linearisation and segmentation across languages:

*  To what extend do (the grammars of) different languages impose 
different constraints on linearisation and segmentation?

*  What are the implications for multilingual activities such as 
translation or multilingual text generation?


- Linearisation and segmentation in different media:

* in electronic media such as e-mail and chat

* in media combining language and pictures, e.g., film, cartoons

* in music (with and without language)


Keynote speakers:

- Thomas Pechmann (Univ. of Leipzig) on "Linearisation and segmentation 
  in music (and language)" (preliminary title)
- Russell S. Tomlin (Univ. of Oregon) on "Attention and time: temporal 
phasing in event representations and language production" (preliminary 
title)
- Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen (Univ. of Oslo) on "Segmentation and 
linearization from a cross-linguistic perspective" (preliminary title)


Workshop location:

The workshop and lodging will be at Lysebu, a conference center in the 
middle of one of Oslo's major skiing areas (for cross-country as well as 
down-hill) which is accessible by public transport.


Attendance:

Following the tradition of the earlier workshops, the total number of 
participants will be limited to (approx.) 30 persons. Speakers of 
accepted papers are automatically granted a place; the remaining ones 
are assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis.


Abstract submission:

We invite extended abstracts in PDF, RTF or Word format. Abstracts must 
not be longer than ten pages (including figures and references), using 
12 pt font, 1.5 line spacing, with 2.5 cm margins on all sides. Please 
include your name, affiliation and e-mail address at the top of the 
page, directly below the title. All abstracts will be reviewed  by 
members of the program committee. For final versions of accepted 
abstracts, precise formatting instructions (for Word) will be issued.

Send your submission BY OCTOBER 26 2007 (extended deadline!) to 
mad-08 at ilos.uio.no

With previous workshops in the series, selected papers have later been 
published in special issues of journals or as an edited volume in a 
relevant series (e.g., for the 2005 workshop: M. Grabski et al. (eds.) 
"Salience. Multidisciplinary perspectives on its function in discourse", 
to appear in the Mouton-de Gruyter series 'Trends in Linguistics. 
Studies and Monographs' [TiLSM]). We are planning on following this 
approach for MAD 08 as well.


Programme Committee:

Bergljot Behrens (University of Oslo, Norway)
Liesbeth Degand (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen (University of Oslo, Norway)
Alistair Knott (University of Otago)
Wiebke Ramm (University of Oslo, Norway)
Ted Sanders (University of Utrecht)
Manfred Stede (University of Potsdam, Germany)


IMPORTANT DATES:

Submission deadline: October 26, 2007 (extended deadline!)

Notification of acceptance: November 15, 2007

Final versions of papers due: December 15, 2007

Deadline for registration: December 28, 2007

MAD 08 workshop: February 20-23, 2008


Organizers:

Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen,  University of Oslo
Wiebke Ramm, University of Oslo
Manfred Stede, University of Potsdam, Germany


Workshop URL:

http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/forskning/konferanser/mad08/