[LAP] Call for papers & invitation: World-Conference on Pluricentric Languages and their Non-Dominant Varieties

Thu Jan 8 23:38:19 UTC 2015

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*Call for Papers *
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W**orld-Conference on Pluricentric Languages and their Non-Dominant
Varieties:*
***************
http://www.pluricentriclanguages.org/ndv-conf-graz-2015/
Organized by the International Working Group on Non-Dominant Varieties
of Pluricentric Languages (WGNDV)*
Conference**date: *July 08–11, 2015
*Location:* University of Graz, Austria
*Submission deadline: *March 30, 2015
*Notification of acceptance: *April 15, 2015
*Publication of papers*: A volume of selected papers is to be published
by Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt.
All papers for the conference and the publication will be peer-reviewed.
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The conference will also have a section on language technology providing
scholars the possibility to present their methods and approaches in
corpus linguistics, natural language processing and the computational
treatment of linguistic variation existing between and within national
varieties.
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*Invitation:*
We would like to invite scholars from around the world to participate in
the 4th conference organized by the Working Group on Non-Dominant
Varieties of Pluricentric Languages (WGNDV).
The conference is devoted to the description of pluricentric languages
and in particular of non-dominant national varieties of plc. languages.
These are the varieties that are small by the number of their speakers
and their symbolic power, and are not the primary norm-setting centres
of the language. They may often be falsely attributed the status of a
“dialect”, and have little or no codification of their norms. Typically,
nd-varieties often have to legitimate their norms towards the dominant
varieties etc.
The previous conferences of the WGNDV (see
www.pluricentriclanguages.org...conferences) have shown that
non-dominant varieties around the world have many linguistic and
sociolinguistic features in common. We would therefore like to deepen
our knowledge and invite scholars from around the world to take part in
the conference and give insight into the situation and features of as
many nd-varieties and plc. languages as possible.
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Objectives of the 4th conference:*
The WGNDV wishes to continue in the line of the previous conferences and
to extend the scope of its research. The main objectives of this
conference are:
*1.    To get more information about the situation of as many
pluricentric languages and non-dominant-varieties in order to get
empirically secure descriptions of effects of non-dominance.*

  * on the identity of their speakers,
  * on the identity of their language communities,
  * on the treatment of norms in written and spoken language
  * on the principles of codification and their spread to younger
    generations
  * on methods in language-technology, how linguistic variation between
    and within national varieties and nd-varieties in particular can be
    treated and modelled computationally.

*2.    To get exhaustive reports of the situation of as many plc.
languages and nd-varieties around the world as possible and in
particular of lesser known and researched plc. languages and
nd-varieties like:*

  * Albanian, Aramaic, Aromunian, Basque, Bengali, Chinese, Croatian,
    Guaraní, Hebrew, Hindi/Urdu, Hungarian, Kiswahili / Swahili,
    Kurdish, Mapudungun, Occitan, Pashto, Punjabi, Quechua, Tamil,
    Romanian, Russian etc.
  * ND-varieties of English in Europe, Americas, Africa and Asia:
  * ND-varieties of French in Europe, Africa, Asia and America:
  * ND-varieties of Spanish in the Americas and in Asia:
  * ND-varieties of Portuguese in South-America, Africa and Asia:
  * ND-varieties of German in Austrian, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland,
    Liechtenstein, Luxemburg.
  * Reports on the development of Russian in the former member-states of
    the Soviet Union

*3.    To deepen the theory of plc. languages and the methods for the
description of nd-varieties in particular in respect to:*

  * migrant varieties creating new types of pluricentricity;
  * second level forms of pluricentricity within national varieties and
    their theoretical treatment;
  * strategies for coping with language shift caused by electronic media
    and satellite TV spreading dominant norms to non-dominant varieties;
  * the treatment of linguistic and pragmatic features of nd-varieties
    in education in primary and secondary schools;
  * principles of codification in diglossic language communities of plc.
    languages, esp. the treatment of divergent linguistic forms that are
    common in everyday communication
  * the usage of endonormative codification strategies and their impact
    on the development of varieties and languages;
  * measures of status planning and corpus planning etc. etc.

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Important dates*
All scholars working in this field are invited to submit proposals for
papers/workshops by
30th March 2015. Notification of acceptance: 15th April 2015.
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*Contents of papers*
Papers (25 mins. + 5 mins. discussion) should address one or more of the
above mentioned objectives of the conference as mentioned above and
should thus provide:

 1. Information about the situation of any pluricentric language and any
    non-dominant-varieties in order to get empirically secure descriptions.
 2. To get exhaustive reports of the situation of lesser known and
    researched plc. languages and nd-varieties (see the list) and may be
    of “new” plc. languages that have not previously been identified.
 3. Data that deepen the theory of plc. languages and the methods for
    the description of nd-varieties. 
 4. Suggestions for other topics are welcome!

*Contents of workshops*
Workshops (90 minutes long) should concern specific languages and their
various non-dominant varieties, and particular methodological problems
in the description of non-dominant varieties.

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*Abstracts*
All abstracts must be written in English and copied into the field
"abstract" on the registration page  -
http://www.pluricentriclanguages.org/ndv-conf-graz-2015/...registration
- or sent to
*ndv-conf at pluricentriclanguages.org* as an email-attachment in Word format.

  * Abstracts for 25-minutes papers should not exceed 3000 characters (1
    page A4) including 4 keywords. Suggested topics for presentations
    can be downloaded from the conference website.
  * Abstracts for 90-minutes workshops should not exceed 5000 characters
    (1 1/2 page A4) including 4-8 keywords. Workshop organizers should
    outline the overall structure of the workshop and provide names of
    the participants.

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Conference language(s) and Sections*
The conference languages will be *English *and *German *plus
the*languages of the sections for specific languages* if there are
enough presentations to establish a section. The following sections are
envisaged: English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, a
general section and a language technology section.
All presentations at the conference must be written in English, the oral
presentation can be held in the language of the section.

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*Rudolf Muhr
Austrian German Research Centre /
Forschungsstelle Österreichisches Deutsch
Universität Graz, Heinrichstr. 22/2, A-8010 Graz
Tel. +43316 380 8176; Fax +43316 380 9763;*
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http://www.gsoed.at; http://www.klarsprache.at
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