Second Call for Papers: Empirical, Theoretical and Computational Approaches to Countability in Natural Language

[Jan Strunk]

Second Call for Papers

Empirical, Theoretical and Computational Approaches to
Countability in Natural Language

Date: 22-Sep-2010 - 24-Sep-2010
Location: Bochum, Germany
Contact Person: Tibor Kiss
Meeting Email: countability2010 at linguistics.rub.de
Web Site: http://www.linguistics.rub.de/countability2010/

Call Deadline: 31-May-2010


Meeting Description:
Empirical, Theoretical and Computational Approaches to Countability in
Natural Language
A conference organized by the Linguistics Department
(Sprachwissenschaftliches Institut) of Ruhr­-Universität Bochum, Germany.
Ruhr­-Universität Bochum, September 22­-24, 2010


Aims and scope:
The distinction between mass and count nouns has been addressed in a
variety of linguistic (and also extra­-linguistic) approaches. Initially,
it has been suggested that the distinction is a property of lexemes, or
that it can be derived from properties of the objects denoted by the
respective nouns.
This assumption has been severely challenged by a variety of approaches,
leading to the assumption that countability is a property of 
constructions and phrases. Yet, a critical survey of the most advanced
work on the count­-mass distinction has shown that multiple, partially
conflicting views on this phenomenon are still competing.

As an illustration for unsettled questions, consider the following:
- If the mass­-count distinction is actually dependent on formal
   syntactic and/or semantic marking, how are nouns to be classified that
   lack such a marking, e.g. nouns in preposition-­noun combinations
   (determinerless PPs)?

- If mass is taken to be a basic property of nouns to which syntactic
   marking must be added to transform the noun into a count noun, why do
   certain languages already require such marking for mass terms (e.g.
   Romance languages)?

- How can the apparent tension between theoretical constructional
   (i.e. token-based, and hence construction­-specific) and computational
   (i.e. primarily type-based, and hence possibly lexical class based)
   classification be resolved?

The goal of this conference is to bring researchers from all areas of
linguistics together to clarify the numerous existing theories
concerning the count­-mass distinction and also to offer a platform for
new insights and constructive criticism.

We therefore invite original contributions which relate to the following
issues within or around the count­-mass distinction:

- Cross-­linguistic empirical and/or theoretical analysis of
   the count-mass distinction
- Empirical and/or theoretical analysis of countability in a specific
   natural language
- Psycholinguistic experiments
- Manual or computer-­aided classification/annotation of countability
- Historical/etymological contributions


Electronic Submission:
Abstracts no longer than six pages should be sent to
countability2010 at linguistics.rub.de
not later than May 31, 2010.


Invited speakers:
- Hagit Borer (University of Southern California, Los Angeles)
- Francis Jeffry Pelletier (Simon Fraser University, Burnaby)
- Henriette de Swart (OTS, Universiteit Utrecht)


Conference Organizers:
- Tibor Kiss
- Tobias Stadtfeld
- Antje Müller
- Katja Keßelmeier
- Claudia Roch
- Jan Strunk


On behalf of the conference organizers:

Jan Strunk

Sprachwissenschaftliches Institut
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany
strunk at linguistics.rub.de