CfP: Subjects in Diachrony

[Roland Meyer]

========================================================

Call for papers: Grammatical Change and the Expression of Subjects

2-4 December 2010, Regensburg, Germany

Submission Deadline for Abstracts: 15 July 2010

http://www-slavistik.uni-regensburg.de/gces

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Invited speakers:
-----------------------
Elly van Gelderen (University of Arizona)
Anthony Kroch (University of Pennsylvania)
Ian Roberts (Cambridge University)
David Willis (Cambridge University)

Call for papers:
---------------------
Diachronic grammatical change affects verbal arguments through an  
interplay of various semantic and structural factors, leading to new  
alternations and structural patterns. In the realm of subject  
expressions, important documented changes include loss of pro-drop,  
alternations in thematic alignment, and the rise of various new  
passive and impersonal constructions. The notion of subject itself is,  
of course, a notoriously multi-faceted one, involving factors like  
referential relations, structural position, case, agreement, and  
thematic roles, the specifications of which certainly do not always  
harmonise. Precisely this state of affairs has often given rise to  
important and fascinating research questions, as e.g. in the case of  
null and expletive subjects, or of oblique/quirky subjects.

Research on grammatical change has made a considerable leap forward by  
the exploitation of annotated corpora. Not only has its empirical base  
become more accessible in general, but methodological progress has  
made feasible new, exciting research questions, especially involving  
quantitative distributions of linguistic features. Historical and  
diachronic corpora of an increasing number of languages are being  
constructed and annotated with syntactically relevant information in  
order to address these and related issues.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

* Diachronic development of null subjects
* Changes in subject expletives
* Diachrony of oblique and quirky subjects
* History of impersonal constructions
* Development of diatheses affecting the external argument
* Change in unaccusatives
* History of subjects in root infinitives and modal constructions
* Empirical methodology in diachronic syntax
* Historical and diachronic corpora annotated for syntactic structure  
and syntactic relations

The conference will seek a comparative and typological view. Papers  
will be given precedence which address grammatical change in a  
theoretically explicit way, aiming at an explanatory account, and/or  
demonstrate substantial methodological advancement.

Abstract specifications:
-------------------------------
Anonymous abstracts for 25 min. presentations (+10 min. discussion)  
should be submitted as an email attachment to gces at sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de 
  until 15 July 2010.
Abstracts may be up to 2 pages long, including examples and  
references, in pdf format, with fonts embedded. If you have  
difficulties at producing pdf, you may also submit a doc file. Please  
include your contact information (name, affiliation, address, email  
address for correspondence), as well as the title of your abstract, in  
the body of the email. Every abstract will be reviewed anonymously by  
two external referees. Accepted papers will be published in a  
proceedings volume after the conference.

Programme Committee:
---------------------------------
Katrin Axel
Karin Donhauser
Hanne Martine Eckhoff
Rafał Górski
Dag Haug
Roland Hinterhölzl
Uwe Junghanns
Anna Kibort
Petr Karlík
Karel Kučera
Anke Lüdeling
Krzysztof Migdalski
Florian Schleburg
Maria Selig
Ioanna Sitaridou
Augustin Speyer
Achim Stein
Luka Szucsich
Carola Trips
Daniel Weiss

Organizers:
----------------
Roland Meyer
Björn Hansen




---
Dr. Roland Meyer
Institut für Slavistik, Universität Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg
tel. +49(0)941-943 5303




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