Synchrony vs. Diachrony in Phonology

[Marc van Oostendorp]

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Phonology in GLOW 2005
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SECOND CALL. PLEASE NOTE NEW DEADLINE: NOVEMBER 1, 2004

The 28th GLOW Colloquium will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, in
March/April 2005. The GLOW Main session will take place from March 31
to April 2, preceded by three workshops on March 29 and 30. One of
these workshops will be specifically on phonology (Synchrony vs.
Diachrony in Phonology, see below), and another one (on the Philosophy
of Linguistics) might also be of interest to phonologists.

Over the past few years, phonology in GLOW has grown again. The Main
Session has one day of parallel sessions, and one of these is devoted
to phonology. Together, the main session and the workshop therefore
make up a small phonology conference of (at least) two days.
Hopefully, this year there will again be many submissions from
phonologists both for the main session, and for the workshop. You will
find the calls for papers below. Please note that the deadline is one
month earlier than it used to be, on Nov. 1, 2004.

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MAIN SESSION
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Date:           March 31, 2005 - April 2, 2005
Location:               Geneva, Switzerland
Contact:                glow05 at lettres.unige.ch
Meeting URL:    http://www.unige.ch/glow05
Call deadline:  November 1, 2004

Abstracts are invited to the GLOW main session (March 31 - April 2,
2005) on any topic in generative grammar (phonology, morphology,
syntax and semantics). There is no topic specified for this year's
main session.

The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2004. (NOTE change from
previous years!).

Abstracts should be sent anonymously as virus-free attached files (the
name(s) should be clearly mentioned in the email only) to
glow05 at lettres.unige.ch, in PDF format. Only electronic submissions
will be considered.

Abstracts may not exceed two pages of text with at least a one-inch
margin on all four sides (measured on A4 paper) and must employ a font
not smaller than 12 point. Each page may include a maximum of 50 lines
of text. Abstracts may include an extra page for references (not
examples), but this third page will not be published in the Spring
2005 GLOW newsletter.

Upon acceptance, authors will be further asked to submit a
camera-ready original abstract with their name, address and
affiliation.

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WORKSHOP: "Synchrony meets Diachrony in Phonology"
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Date:   March 30, 2005
Location:       Geneva, Switzerland
Invited Speakers: Larry Hyman, University of Southern California, Berkeley
                          Paula Fikkert, University of Nijmegen

Session of Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW),
pre-conference workshop:

"Synchrony meets Diachrony in Phonology"

This workshop addresses the relative role of synchrony and diachrony
in phonological explanation. Papers are invited from phonologists
working from any theoretical conviction on any topic which may shed
light on the question of what is the division of labour between
diachronic and synchronic explanation.

Following the rise of constraint-based frameworks, phonological theory
has witnessed a recrudescence of the controversy between formalist,
autonomous models of phonological competence on the one hand, and
functionalist approaches grounded in phonetics and general cognition
on the other. The two paradigms approach markedness generalizations
and unnatural or opaque phenomena in diametrically opposed ways. In
radically formalist models, markedness tends to be dismissed as an
epiphenomenon of phonetically driven change; it is argued that the
focus of synchronic phonological theory should be on arbitrary or
unnatural phonological patterns, so as to achieve insights into
autonomous phonological competence. In contrast, functionalist
phonologists propound models in which phonological cognition is
grounded on, and refers directly to, phonetic substance. In this view,
grounded markedness patterns constitute the very matter of synchronic
phonology; unnatural or opaque phenomena are regarded as the
(morphologized or lexicalized) residue of accumulated change. Thus,
paradoxically, formalist theories resort to diachronic explanations
for natural patterns and markedness generalizations, whereas
functionalist approches appeal to history to deal with the arbitrary
and the opaque.
Closely related to this question is the long-standing debate
concerning how much of the inherent sequentiality of phonological
history is reflected synchronically in terms of grammatical serialism.
In classical Lexical Phonology, the several stages of the diachronic
life-cycle of phonological patterns could be directly plotted onto the
serially organized strata of the synchronic grammar. More recently,
however, strictly parallel models have abandoned this view, whilst
hybrid models like Stratal Optimality Theory have sought to recapture
classical insights in a more constrained way. To what extent is it
still possible to uphold the classical view that the synchronic
derivation partially mirrors the diachrony?

These problems received an early formulation in the work of the
renowned Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. Accordingly, the
workshop, which takes place in the city where Saussure taught, is held
in his honour.

Abstracts of papers are invited for 40-minute talks. They should not
exceed 1 pages and be sent as virus-free electronic attachments in PDF
format to glow at lettres.unige.ch. The subject line of the message
should read "Phonology workshop abstract submission" and the body of
the message should include author name(s), and e-mail and postal
addresses. The deadline for submission is November 1, 2004 (one month
earlier than in previous years).

Contact:        Marc van Oostendorp, marc.van.oostendorp at meertens.knaw.nl
Meeting URL:    http://www.unige.ch/glow05
Linguistic subfield:    Phonology
Call deadline:  November 1, 2004
Organizing committee:
Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne
Astrid Kraehenmann, University of Konstanz, Konstanz
Marc van Oostendorp, Meertens Institute, Amsterdam