[EDLING:15] CFP: Re-writing Linguistic History

[Tamara Warhol]

via the Linguist List . . .

Date: 02-Apr-2007
From: Eric Anchimbe <anchimbe_ericyahoo.com>
Subject: Re-writing Linguistic History


Full Title: Re-writing Linguistic History
Short Title: Workshop KCTOS conference

Date: 06-Dec-2007 - 09-Dec-2007
Location: Vienna, Austria
Contact Person: Eric Anchimbe
Meeting Email: anchimbe_ericyahoo.com
Web Site: http://www.inst.at/kctos/sektionen_a-f/anchimbe.htm

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics; Pragmatics;
Sociolinguistics

Call Deadline: 25-Jul-2007

Meeting Description:

The workshop 'Re-writing Linguistic History - (Post)colonial Reality on the
Fringes of Linguistic Theories' will be held at the upcoming 
INST-conference on
the theme 'Knowledge, Creativity and Transformations of Societies 
(KCTOS)' in
Vienna, 6th-9th December 2007.
The workshop seeks to reassert the place of (post)colonial reality within
linguistic theories, which unfortunately were designed for other 
contexts but
have been applied to these contexts without a conscious regard for 
discrepancies.

Papers that approach the issue from quantitative and qualitative 
perspectives
and/or introduce alternative analytical frameworks are welcome.

Send abstracts to Eric A. Anchimbe at anchimbe_ericyahoo.com
Deadline: July 25th, 2007.

Re-writing Linguistic History - (Post)colonial Reality on the Fringes of
Linguistic Theories

For the past several decades, linguistic studies of (post)colonial 
societies
have been built on theories, platforms, templates and frameworks 
constructed in,
and for, the west. As Franz Boas rightly said at the turn of the last 
century,
''the internal structure of languages and societies must be allowed to 
emerge on
their own, without the distorting imposition of European templates upon 
them''
(see Handbook of American Indian Languages). The distorting impact of 
foreign
models, as the case may be, prohibited researchers from investigating 
peculiar
characteristics of these societies as outcomes of their sociohistorical
completeness. For instance, Africa's multilingualism has often been 
described on
a par with European multilingualism. This is theoretically misleading 
because
whereas European multilingualism involves several written languages, the 
African
context involves only one (or two) written languages existing alongside 
oral
languages founded on oral cultures and transmitted orally. It is about 
time more
natural and region-based findings were made that handle postcolonial 
areas not
as being on the fringes of the west but as constituting centres of their 
own.

This section of the KCTOS conference (December 6-9, 2007) addresses the
following (and more) linguistic issues in postcolonial areas that have been
studied with foreign-based theories:

1. Postcolonial linguistics (how colonialism rolled the dice in 
approaches to,
and conceptions of, languages in these contexts)
2. Postcolonial pragmatics (face, politeness, turn-taking, name-calling, 
etc.)
3. Notions of bilingualism and multilingualism (oral vs. written 
languages and
cultures)
4. Construction of (multiple) linguistic identities (allegiance to 
languages)
5. Endangerment(?) and survival of indigenous languages in the face of
international (official) languages like English and French.
6. Language contact and (socio)linguistic outcomes

Papers with strong insights into the above topics and related ones are 
invited.
Priority will be given to papers that propose new (and promising) 
analytical
frameworks to particular linguistic processes in postcolonial areas.
Quantitative and qualitative approaches are welcome.

NB: Papers will be published in TRANS 17 
(http://www.inst.at/trans/index.htm).
Selected papers will be published as a book.

Send abstracts to Eric A. Anchimbe at anchimbe_ericyahoo.com by July 
25th, 2007.