Recursion in Human Languages

[Daniel L. Everett]

Conference Call for Papers:
Recursion in human languages

In an important paper, Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch (2002) state the  
following about the narrow faculty of language (FLN): "We hypothesize  
that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human  
component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may  
have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative  
studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the  
domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social  
relations)."
             As interesting as this claim might be, it is difficult  
to evaluate it for various reasons. For example, there is first the  
fact that recursion has a long and yet often unclear history in the  
development of formal linguistics (Tomalin (2006)). How is recursion  
defined?  Second, the question arises as to where recursion must  
manifest itself in FLN. In the morphology? In the phonology? In the  
syntax? In the semantics? In all components of the grammar? Third,  
there is the empirical issue as to whether the claim above is in fact  
true. Is recursion found in all languages? Is it distributed  
throughout grammars in the same way in all languages?
             As a start towards addressing these and other  
fundamental questions about the nature of recursion in human  
languages, the Department of Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute  
for Evolutionary Anthropology and Illinois State University are  
sponsoring a conference from April 27-29, 2007, at the campus of  
Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. Invited speakers for  
this conference are (topics are listed, rather than actual titles of  
presentations):
             Prof. Aravind Joshi (University of Pennsylvania) – '  
Uniform and non-uniform recursion
             Prof. Edward Gibson (MIT) – 'The psychology of recursion'
             Prof. Marianne Mithun (UCSB) – 'The typology of recursion'
             Prof. D. Robert Ladd (Edinburgh) – What would  
'recursion' mean in phonology?'
             Prof. Daniel L. Everett (ISU) – 'Cultural constraints on  
recursion'
             Prof. Alec Marantz (MIT) – 'Recursion in morphology'
             (tentative) Prof. W. Tecumseh Fitch (St. Andrews) – 'The  
evolution of recursion'

In addition to these invited talks, we would like to invite abstracts  
for up to sixteen additional talks  on recursion. Abstracts may be up  
to 500 words in length and may address any aspect of recursion, e.g.  
its history, its formal nature, unusual distributions or  
manifestations of recursion in specific languages, etc. Abstracts  
must be received by November 20, 2006. Authors will be notified on  
abstract decisions by December 20, 2006.
A webpage for this conference will be announced soon.

Please send abstracts and any questions regarding this conference to:

Daniel L. Everett, Professor of Linguistics & Anthropology and Chair,
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Campus Box 4300
Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois 61790-4300
OFFICE: 309-438-3604
FAX: 309-438-8038


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