Typology in Phonology

[Frans Plank]

>
>                *************************************
>
>CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
>
>Fourth Utrecht Biannual Phonology Workshop
>
>Rene Kager & Wim Zonneveld, organizers
>Utrecht Institute of Linguistics - OTS
>
>22-23 June, 2000
>
>Theme: Typology in Phonology
>
>Invited speakers: Ellen Broselow (SUNY Stony Brook) and Paul Kiparsky
>(Stanford University)
>
>Deadline for abstracts: 1 April 2000
>
>Theme description: The aim of this workshop is to consider the role of
>negative typological evidence in phonological theory. That is, we will
>approach the research field of Phonological Typology not from the
>standard
>viewpoint of existing languages of two or more types, vis-a-vis a given
>phenomenon, but from that of the existing/non-existing language type
>dichotomy, with an emphasis on the latter: which type of language is
>actually never found, why is its absence principled rather than
>accidental,
>and how is its absence explained in formal theories of phonology.
>        Gaps in typologies have played an important role in phonological
>theory
>(for example, the iambic-trochaic asymmetry in metrical phonology).
>Since
>the primary goal of linguistic theory is to define the notion of
>"possible
>natural language", the question arises to what extent systematic gaps in
>
>typologies reflect genuine properties of human language, or conversely,
>to
>what extent such gaps are accidental only. What criteria render negative
>
>typological evidence relevant to phonological theory?
>
>        High priority will be given to papers that have one or more of
>the
>following properties. Its typological claims:
>* are based on existing and identified corpora, and/or defined
>literature
>searches (and perhaps only lastly on reasonable hunches or gut
>feelings);
>* are made against the background of overt criteria regarding the
>relevance of typological gaps (or stated differently, the observed
>typological gap constitutes an empirical surprise rather than a
>trivial observation inviting just a formal exercise);
>* are formalized in an overtly stated theoretical framework.
>
>We will especially welcome contributions that highlight issues such as:
>* an appraisal (weak and strong points) of the corpus approach to their
>material;
>* the role of phonetic experimental explanation in phonology;
>* the differences and similarities between a formalization and an
>explanation;
>* relations between phonological and morphological typology (for
>example,
>directionality of phonological processes in prefixing versus suffixing
>languages), or syntactic typology (for example, the side of the head in
>syntactic and phonological phrases);
>* explanations for typological gaps in terms of converging gradient
>factors
>(for example, the convergence of directionality and foot type in
>leftward
>iambic systems).
>
>It must be emphatically noted that the contents of the workshop are also
>
>intended to cover:
>* (corpus-based) descriptions and explanations of existing vs.
>non-existing historical developments;
>* observed principled differences between child and adult languages (for
>
>example, the wide-spread occurrence of consonant harmony in child
>language);
>* empirically supported pleas for (further) typological investigations
>of
>an identified research area;
>* empirically supported pleas for establishing new corpora between
>existing ones.
>
>Submission of abstracts. Abstracts are requested to have a maximum
>length
>of a single page, with an optional second page for examples and
>references.
>Send two anonymous abstracts and one marked with the author's name and
>affiliation to:
>
>Rene Kager
>Trans 10
>3512 JK Utrecht
>The Netherlands
>
> No e-mail submissions, please. (Electronic versions of accepted
>abstracts
>will be requested at a later stage.) Any queries: rene.kager at let.uu.nl
>or
>wim.zonneveld at let.uu.nl
>