[Lingtyp] CALL FOR PAPERS - SLE2017 Workshop on "Multidisciplinary approaches to the online construction of reference"

Mon Oct 17 12:57:33 UTC 2016

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Workshop on:
“Multidisciplinary approaches to the online construction of reference”

50th Annual Meeting of Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE2017)
Date: 10-Sep-2017 - 13-Sep-2017
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
http://www.societaslinguistica.eu<http://www.societaslinguistica.eu/>
http://sle2017.eu

CONVENORS
Ilaria Fiorentini (ilaria.fiorentini at unibo.it<mailto:ilaria.fiorentini at unibo.it> )
Eugenio Goria (eugenio.goria at unibo.it<mailto:eugenio.goria at unibo.it> )
Caterina Mauri (caterina.mauri at unibo.it<mailto:caterina.mauri at unibo.it> )

KEYWORDS
Conversation, constructions, reference, online processing, indexicality

DEADLINE
Call Deadline (provisional 300-word abstracts): 12-Nov-2016

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1. Brief meeting description and background

It is a commonplace in linguistics that while meaning of indexical expressions like you, tomorrow, that, and so on is deeply rooted in the context where these expressions occur, referential meaning is impervious to the effects of context. Contrary to this view, Croft and Cruse (2004) have extensively argued in favour of a theory where referential meaning is not regarded as an abstract pre-existing notion that transcends the single interaction, but rather as the result of a dynamic process. In particular, there are several pieces of evidence from different fields of linguistics that show how reference (in the sense of Leech 1974) is a psychological reality that is constructed online by the participants in a conversation, through a dynamic step-by-step process. Central to this view is the presence of contextual clues whereby the speaker directs the interpretation of the hearer, in order to achieve the desired interpretation.

The phenomenon of online construction of reference, as observed in Mauri (2016, to appear), is particularly evident in specific conversational actions such as repairs (lines 6-14), with particular constructions, such as lists (line 16), and often involves co-operation between speaker and hearer (see the exchange at lines 16-20).

1  WG    here in gibraltar everybody lives (.) well 2     (0.36)
3                and here xxx
4                in which i don't know if you noticed 5         (0.37)
6        even the son of the person who is 7         (0.42)
8        like i don't know é_que i don't want to 9         (0.35)
10       i don't want to categorise any profession or any xxx (.) for example 11         (0.84)
12 =>    someone who cleans the streets. street-cleaners 13         (2.29)
14       an electrician (.) i_mean (.) no sé
15       (0.51)
16 =>    they've all got the latest clothes (.) the latest phone (.) the latest television
17       (1.4)
18   EG    they have a high standard of living
19   WG    a high standard of living
20              which is something which i_think we xxx quite well

Online construction of reference can be thus seen in association with several constructions and emergent constructions (Auer, Pfänder 2011), particular prosodic patterns (Selting 2007), list constructions (Jefferson 1990, Bonvino et al. 2009), reformulation, exemplification and other strategies used to build ad hoc categories (Barsalou 1983; Mauri, to appear). However, many of these structures have been investigated mainly with respect to their pragmatic properties, whereas their key-role in the construction of reference and meaning has still to be investigated.

2. Aims of the workshop

With this workshop we want to put together studies from different fields of linguistics that share a common interest on
-           how reference is constructed online,
-           what constructions activate this process,
-           how speaker and hearer co-operate in the construction of reference
-           how is this process rooted in the real-time dimension (see the discussion of temporality in Auer, 2009; Günthner, Deppermann, 2015; Du Bois, 2014; Hopper, 2011 inter al.).

3. List of topics

Here is a (rather unexhaustive) list of possible topics that we would like to discuss with the participants to this workshop. Empirical works will receive particular attention, but also more theory-based contributions will be regarded as eligible.
-           Construction grammar and usage based approaches to the construction of meaning
-           Studies on Co-constructions
-           Special uses of indexical referring expressions
-           Repairs and reformulation
-           The interaction between temporality and the creation of reference
-           Prosodic patterns characterizing the online constructions of reference
-           Psycholinguistic and experimental studies
-           Conversation analysis and multimodal perspectives
-           …

Due to the strict deadline, we ask contributors to send a preliminary 300-word version of their abstracts before November 12. Accepted contributions will be attached to our workshop proposal and will be peer-reviewed by the SLE committee.

References
Auer, Peter, Stefan Pfänder (eds). 2011. Constructions: Emerging and Emergent. Berlin, de Gruyter.
Auer, Peter. 2009. Online Syntax: Thoughts on the Temporality of Spoken Language. Language Sciences 31: 1–13.
Barsalou, Lawrence. 1983. Ad hoc categories. Memory and Cognition 11(3): 211-227.
Bonvino, Elisabetta, Francesca Masini, Paola Pietrandrea. 2009. List Constructions: a semantic network. Paper presented at the conference Grammars in Construction(s) – 3rd International AFLiCo Conference. University Paris Ouest – Nanterre – La Défense – May 27-29, 2009
Croft, William, Allan Cruse. 2004. Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge, CUP.
Deppermann, Arnulf, Suzanne Günthner. 2015. Temporality in interaction. Amsterdam, Benjamins. Du Bois, John. 2014. Towards a dialogic syntax. Cognitive linguistics 25(3): 359-410.
Hopper, Paul. 2011. Emergent Grammar and Temporality in Interactional Linguistics. In: Peter Auer and Stefan Pfänder (eds.) Constructions: Emerging and Emergent. Berlin, de Gruyter: 22-44.
Jefferson, Gail, 1990. List construction as a task and interactional resource. In: Psathas, G. (Ed.), Interactional Competence. University Press of America, New York: 63–92.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1974. Semantics. The study of meaning. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Mauri, Caterina. To appear. Building and interpreting ad hoc categories. A linguistic analysis. To appear in: J. Blochowiak, C. Grisot, S. Durrleman-Tame and C. Laenzlinger (eds.) Formal models in the study of language, Berlin: Springer.
Selting, Margret. 2007. Lists as embedded structures and the prosody of list construction as an interactional resource. Journal of Pragmatics 39: 483-526.

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Prof.ssa Caterina Mauri
Università di Bologna - Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture moderne
Via Cartoleria 5
40124 Bologna

Email: caterina.mauri at unibo.it<mailto:caterina.mauri at unibo.it>
Homepage: https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/caterina.mauri

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