[Lingtyp] Call for papers - Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Typology: towards and integrated approach to the study of language variation - WS SLI 2020, Florence

Mon Jan 13 10:14:50 UTC 2020

*Sociolinguistics and linguistic typology: towards an integrated approach
to the study of linguistic variation*

*Convenors: *Silvia Ballarè (University of Turin) e Guglielmo Inglese (KU
Leuven).

*Content of the workshop*

The aim of the workshop is to explore the relationship between language
internal and cross-linguistic variation. The study of linguistic variation
has traditionally been the main concern of at least two branches of
linguistics: variationist sociolinguistics and linguistic typology. In
spite of their similar research agenda, the two approaches have only rarely
converged in the description and interpretation of variation. This is
surprising also in light of the fact that variation, both within and across
languages, is in all respects the same phenomenon.

Over the last decades, a number of scholars have discussed in a more
principled way the possible mutual benefits between typology and
sociolinguistics (see e.g. Kortmann 2004 and Trudgill 2011). Traditional
studies in linguistic typology are often based on grammatical descriptions
of individual languages. For this reason, the intrinsic variability of
linguistic systems is often disregarded, as for reasons of cross-linguistic
comparison, only one variety (often the standard one), is taken into
account. What typologists may learn from sociolinguistics is the
opportunity to take into account (also) non-standard varieties, from which
a more complex picture often emerges as compared to the standard codified
in grammatical descriptions. As a matter of fact, comparison between
non-standard (oral) varieties may reveal the existence of common features
even across typologically distant languages (cf. e.g. Auer 1990 and Auer &
Maschler 2013 on Modern Hebrew and German and Ballarè & Inglese 2019 on
locative relatives). In this respect, it is important to mention the
increasing interest in typology for empirical data (Bossong 1985, Murelli &
Kortmann 2011 and Seiler 2019). A key role has been played by the
ever-increasing documentation of languages without a written tradition,
which can offer evidence of grammatical structures that go beyond the
normative treatment of traditional grammatical descriptions (on the
interplay of documentation and typology see Epps 2010). Moreover, in recent
years the availability of rich annotated corpora from typologically diverse
languages has allowed the realization of large-scale typological studies
based on real data extracted from corpora (e.g. Levshina 2017).

On the other hand, sociolinguistics (and more generally the study of
language-internal variation in individual languages) has witnessed a
fruitful opening to typological considerations, which may contribute to the
study of variation with *tertia comparationis *which are independent from
the description of individual languages or language families. Already
Bossong (1991: 143) observed that “broad typological comparison of data
from many genetically and structurally different languages is necessary in
order to be able to describe phenomena of single languages as what they
really are”. In this respect, notable are works by Chambers (2004, 2009) on
vernacular universals and the *Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of
English 2.0* edited by Kortmann and Lunkenheimer (2013), which is a
database of the morphosyntactic features of spoken varieties of English and
shares the structure of the *World Atlas of Language Structures* (Dryer &
Haspelmath 2013).

Concerning Italian, since the ‘80s the tools of typology have also been
adopted to account for phenomena of language internal variation. Individual
constructions have been analyzed within a typological framework (e.g.
Berretta 1989 on the prepositional accusative and Bernini 1992 on
non-canonical negation), and even more traditional sociolinguistic studies
have focused their attention on the relevance of the data for
cross-linguistic variation (e.g. Berruto 1983, 1990 on substandard
varieties and linguistic simplification). More recently, a similar approach
has been pursued in the study of relative clauses (Cerruti 2017). Moreover,
the comparison with more general models of language change based
typological evidence enables the assessment of the degree of
grammaticalization of several constructions in one variety (e.g. Cerruti
2007 on aspectual periphrasis in regional Italian spoken in Piedmont) or of
the same construction in different varieties (e.g. Moretti 2004 on
*avere *‘have’
and Ballarè forthc. on *mica *in varieties from Basilicata and Lombardy).
Finally, elaborating upon the existing analogies between the notion of
*linguistic
type *and *sociolinguistic variety*, Grandi (2018, 2019) has discussed the
progressive inclusion of neo-standard traits in relation to frequent
typological patterns.

In spite of the numerous benefits that may stem from a more intense contact
between typology and sociolinguistics, a principled discussion on how the
two disciplines may interact has not yet been carried out in a programmatic
way. The goal of this workshop is to further stimulate such a debate, and
aims at gathering either papers dealing with the opportunity to apply the
tools and notions of linguistic typology to language-internal variation or
papers that show how the study of a given linguistic phenomenon in a
typological perspective may benefit the evidence from different varieties
of the same language.

*Topics* to be addressed in the workshop include (but are not limited to):

-       The nature of variation and the relationship between language
internal and cross-linguistic variation;

-       Methods and tools for the study of variation;

-       Analysis of language internal variation phenomena in light of
typological insights;

-       Typological study that take into account empirical data, with a
focus on spoken and written corpora.

*Submission of abstracts:*

We welcome papers in Italian and English. Abstracts should be up to *500
words* (references and examples excluded) and should be sent in .doc/.docx
format to Silvia Ballarè (silvia.ballare at unito.it) e Guglielmo Inglese (
guglielmo.inglese01 at ateneo <guglielmo.inglese01 at ateneo.pv>pv.it) by *20
February 2020*. Please indicate in the text of the email the name and
surname of the authors, their affiliation, and the email address of the
corresponding author(s).

Abstracts will be evaluated by the workshop’s scientific committee.
Acceptance to the workshop will be notified by 31 March 2020. In order to
take part in the workshop, presenters must also be members of SLI.

For further information and for the Italian version of the Call for Papers
please refer to
https://www.sli2020.unifi.it/vp-113-workshop-5-tipologia-e-sociolinguistica.html

*Keynote speakers: *Massimo Cerruti (University of Turin) e Nicola Grandi
(University of Bologna).

*Scientific commitee: *Marco Angster (University of Zara), Giorgio F.
Arcodia (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Silvia Ballarè (University of
Turin), Gaetano Berruto (University of Turin), Sonia Cristofaro (University
of Pavia), Silvia Dal Negro (Free University of Bolzano), Guglielmo Inglese
(KU Leuven), Silvia Luraghi (University of Pavia), Caterina Mauri
(University of Bologna), Emanuele Miola (University of Bologna) e Davide
Ricca (University of Turin).

*References:*

Auer, Peter (1990), “Einige umgangssprachliche Phänomene der türkischen
Syntax und Möglichkeiten ihrer Erklärung aus ‘natürlichen’ Prinzipien”. In:
Boretzky, Norbert, Werner Enninger & Thomas Stolz (eds.), *Spielarten der
Natürlichkeit–Spielarten der Ökonomie. Beiträge zum 5, Essener Kolloquium,
vol. 2*, Brockmeyer, Bochum, 271–298.

Auer, Peter & Yael Maschler (2013), “Discourse or grammar? VS patterns in
spoken Hebrew and spoken German narratives”. In: *Language Science* 37,
147-181.

Ballarè, Silvia (forthcoming), *Esiti del ciclo di Jespersen in area
italoromanza: grammaticalizzazione e contatto linguistico*, Bologna: Caissa.

Ballarè, Silvia & Guglielmo Inglese (2019), “Beyond the accessibility
hierarchy: evidence from the polyfunctionality of locative relatives”,
presented at *Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT 2019)*, Università
degli Studi di Pavia, 4-6 Settembre 2019.

Bernini, Giuliano (1992), “Forme concorrenti di negazione in italiano”. In:
Moretti, Bruno, Dario Petrini & Sandro Bianconi (eds.), *Linee di tendenza
dell’italiano contemporaneo. Atti del XXV Congresso Internazionale di Studi
della SLI, Lugano 19.21 settembre 1991*, Roma: Bulzoni, 191-215.

Berretta, Monica (1989), “Sulla presenza dell’accusativo preposizionale in
italiano”. In: *Vox Romanica* 48, 13-37.

Berruto, Gaetano (1983), “L’italiano popolare e la semplificazione
linguistica”. In: *Vox Romanica* 42, 38-79.

Berruto, Gaetano (1990), “Semplificazione linguistica e varietà
sub-standard”. In: Holtus, Günter & Edgar Radtke (eds.), *Sprachlicher
Substandard III. Standard, Substandard und Varietätenlinguistik,* Tübingen:
Niemeyer, 17-43.

Bossong, Georg (1985), *Empirische Universalienforschung. Differentielle
Objektmarkierung in den neuiranischen Sprachen*, Tübingen: Narr.

Bossong, Georg (1991), “Differential Object Marking in Romance and Beyond”.
In: Kibbee, Douglas & Dieter Wanner (eds.), *New Analyses in Romance
Linguistics*, Amsterdam -  Philadelphia: Bemjamins, 143 - 170.

Cerruti, Massimo (2007), “Sulla caratterizzazione aspettuale e la
variabilità sociale d’uso di alcune perifrasi diatopicamente marcate”.
In: *Archivio
Glottologico Italiano*, 92.2: 203-247.

Cerruti, Massimo (2017), “Changes from below, changes from above: relative
constructions in contemporary Italian”. In: Cerruti, Massimo, Claudia
Crocco & Stefania Marzo (eds.), *Towards a New Standard*, Berlin- New York:
De Gruyter, 62-88.

Chambers, Jack (2004). “Dynamic typology and vernacular universals”. In:
Kortmann, Bernd (ed.), *Dialectology Meets Typology: Dialect Grammar from a
Cross-Linguistic Perspective*, Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 128-145.

Chambers, Jack (2009). “Cognition and the Linguistic Continuum from
Vernacular to Standard”. In: Filppula, Marrkku, Juhani Klemola & Heli
Paulasto (eds.), *Vernacular Universals and Language Contacts*, London-New
York: Routledge, 19-32.

Dryer, Matthew S. & Martin Haspelmath (eds.) (2013), *The World Atlas of
Language Structures Online*, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology (available online: http://wals.info).

Epps, Patience (2010), “Linguistic typology and language documentation”.
In: Song, Jae J. (ed.), *The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology. *Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 634-649.

Grandi, Nicola (2018), “Sulla penetrazione di tratti neo-standard
nell’italiano degli studenti universitari. Primi risultati di un’indagine
empirica. In: *Griseldaonline* (sez. *Dibattiti*).

Grandi, Nicola (2019), “Che tipo, l’italiano neostandard!”. In: Moretti,
Bruno, Aline Kunz, Silvia Natale & Etna Krakenberger (eds.), *Le tendenze
dell’italiano contemporaneo rivisitate. Atti del 52esimo Congresso
Internazionale di Studi della Società di Linguistica Italiana,* Berna, 6-8
settembre 2018, Officinaventuno: Milano, 59-74.

Kortmann, Bernd (ed.) (2004), *Dialectology Meets Typology: Dialect Grammar
from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective*, Berlin-New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Kortmann, Benrnd & Kerstin Lunkenheimer (eds.) (2013), *The Electronic
World Atlas of Varieties of English 2.0*, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology (available online: http://ewave-atlas.org).

Levshina, Natalia (2017), “Communicative efficiency and syntactic
predictability: A cross- linguistic study based on the Universal
Dependencies corpora”. In: de Marneffe, Marie-Catherine, Joakim Nivre &
Sebastian Schuster (eds.), *Proceedings of the NoDaLiDa 2017 Workshop on
Universal Dependencies, 22 May, Gothenburg Sweden.* (available online:
http://www.ep.liu.se/ecp/contents.asp?issue=135).

Moretti, Bruno (2004), “Il ‘ciclo di avere’. Costanti e variazioni dal
latino all’italiano moderno”. In: *Rivista italiana di linguistica e
dialettologia, *VI: 141-160.

Murelli, Adriano & Bernd Kortmann (2011), “Non-standard varieties in the
areal typology of Europe”. In: Kortmann, Bernd & van der Auwera, Joan
(eds.), *The Languages and Linguistics of Europe. A Comprehensive Guide*,
Berlin – New York: de Gruyter, 525-544.

Seiler, Guido (2019), “Non-Standard Average European”. In: Nievergelt,
Andreas & Ludwig Rübekeil (eds.), *‘athe in palice, athe in anderu
sumeuuelicheru stedi’. Raum und Sprache. Festschrift für Elvira Glaser zum
65 Geburtstag*, Heidelberg: Winter, 541-554.

Trudgill, Peter (2011), *Sociolinguistic typology*, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

-- 
Silvia Ballarè
Postdoctoral researcher
Università degli Studi di Torino - Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici
Via Sant'Ottavio 50, Torino

http://www.studium.unito.it/persone/silvia.ballare
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