Conference on Grammaticography, Leipzig, Germany

[Sebastian Nordhoff]

*apologies for cross-postings*


Full Title: Electronic Grammaticography

Date: 11-Feb-2011 - 12-Feb-2011
Location: Leipzig, Germany
Contact Person: Sebastian Nordhoff
Meeting Email: sebastian_nordhoff at eva.mpg.de
Web Site: http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/conference/11-grammaticography2011

== Meeting Description ==

This meeting wants to bring together field linguists, computer  
scientists,and
publishers with the aim of exploring production and dissemination of
grammatical descriptions in electronic/hypertextual format

== Call for Papers ==

For long a step-child of lexicography, the domain of grammaticography has
received growing interest in the recent past, especially in what concerns  
lesser
studied languages. At least three volumes contain parts dealing with this
question (Ameka et al. 2006, Gippert et al. 2006, Payne & Weber 2007).

At the same time, advances in information technology mean that a number of
techniques become available which can present linguistic information in  
novel
ways. This holds true for multimedial content on the one hand (see e.g.  
Barwick
& Thieberger 2007), but also so called content-management-systems (CMS)  
provide
new possibilities to develop, structure and maintain linguistic  
information,
which were unknown when the idea of an electronic grammar was first put to  
print
in Zaefferer (1998).

Recent publications in grammaticography often allude to the possibilities  
of
hypertext grammars (Weber 2006, Evans & Dench 2006), but these  
possibilities are
only starting to get explored theoretically (Good 2004, Nordhoff 2008) and  
in
practice (Nordhoff 2007).

This conference will bring together experts on grammar writing and  
information
technology to discuss the theoretical and practical advantages hypertext
grammars can offer. We invite papers dealing with the arts and crafts of  
grammar
writing in a wide sense, preferably with an eye on electronic publishing.  
Topics
of interest are:

-general formal properties of all grammatical descriptions (GDs) in  
general, and
hypertext GDs in particular

-functional requirements for GDs and the responses of the traditional and  
the
hypertext approach (cf. Nordhoff 2008)

-discussion or presentation of implementations dealing with the media
transition from book to electronic publication

-opportunities and risks of hypertext grammars

-integration with fieldwork or typological work

-treatment of a particular linguistic subfield (phonology, syntax, ...)  
within
a hypertext description

Presentations will be 30 minutes + 15 minutes discussion.

== Invited Speakers ==
Nick Evans (Australian National University)
Christian Lehmann (Universität Erfurt)
Jeff Good (University of Buffalo)

== Submission of Abstracts ==
(a) Length: up to one page of text plus up to one page containing possible
tables and references
(b) Format: The abstract should include the title of the paper and the  
text of
the abstract but not the author's name or affiliation. The e-mail message  
to
which it is attached should list the title, the author's name, and the  
author's
affiliation. Please send the message to the following address:
sebastian_nordhoffeva.mpg.de
(c) Deadline:
The abstracts should reach us by FRIDAY, October 01.
Submitters will be notified by MONDAY, November 01.

== References ==
Ameka, F. K., A. Dench & N. Evans (eds.) (2006). Catching language -- The
Standing Challenge of Grammar Writing. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Barwick, L. & N. Thieberger (eds.) (2006). Sustainable data from digital
fieldwork. Sydney: University of Sydney.

Gippert, J., N. Himmelmann & U. Mosel (eds.) (2006). Essentials of language
documentation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Good, J. (2004). "The descriptive grammar as a (meta)database". Paper
presented at the EMELD Language Digitization Project Conference 2004.  
[paper]

Nordhoff, S. (2007). "Grammar writing in the Electronic Age". Paper  
presented at
the ALT VII conference in Paris.

Nordhoff, S. (2008). "Electronic reference grammars for typology --  
challenges
and solutions". Journal for Language Documentation and Conservation,  
2(2):296-324.

Payne, T. E. & D. Weber (eds.) (2007). Perspectives on grammar writing.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Zaefferer, D. (ed.) (1998). Deskriptive Grammatik und allgemeiner
Sprachvergleich. Tübingen: Niemeyer.