[Lingtyp] SLE2021 Workshop "Investigating language isolates: typological and diachronic perspectives"

Tue Oct 6 07:33:16 UTC 2020

(Apologies for cross-posting)

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

54th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea

31 August – 3 September 2021

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

*Workshop "Investigating language isolates: typological and diachronic
perspectives"*

*Convenors:*
Iker Salaberri, Dorota Krajewska, Urtzi Reguero and Eneko Zuloaga
(University of the Basque Country)
With the collaboration of Maitena Duhalde (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle -
Paris 3), Borja Ariztimuño, Oxel Uribe-Etxebarria, Sergio Monforte, Koldo
Ulibarri (University of the Basque Country) and Ekaitz Santazilia (Public
University of Navarre)

*Description:*

Keywords: language isolates; typology; language history; comparative
linguistics; language documentation and filiation

Recent years have witnessed advances in the study of language isolates
(lis) (Campbell (ed.) 2017). However, and despite the fact that lis
represent nearly 40% of the world’s language families (Campbell 2017a: xi),
they are still underrepresented in part of typological and comparative
literature: see, for example, the objections by Miestamo et al. (2016)
concerning sampling procedures in Voegelin & Voegelin (1977) and Bybee et
al. (1994). In addition, little is known about the histories of most of
these languages (Hombert & Philippson 2009).

This state of affairs is due to many reasons: in line with current
world-wide tendencies, many lis are becoming extinct even before they get
the chance to be documented (Harrison 2007), and the lack of comprehensive
information hinders a correct genetic affiliation of these languages, which
often precludes their being treated as isolates (Blench 2017: 162). The
lack of research on lis from specific perspectives, for instance
diachronic-historical linguistics, is also influenced by preconceived ideas
including the view that isolates do not have a history: Meillet (1925:
11-12), for example, claims that “if a language is isolate, it is deprived
of history”.

As a result of this data situation, it is unclear whether lis are, from a
typological and diachronic perspective, similar or different in comparison
to non-isolates: whereas some authors contend that “language isolates are
not very different from language families composed of multiple members”
(Campbell 2017b: 1), other recent studies point in the opposite direction.
The latter signal an overrepresentation —or at least presence— of
typologically unusual features in isolates, such as the contrast between
plain and post-aspirate nasals in Nasa Yuwe (Jung 2000: 141-142), verbal
allocutivity in Basque, Nambikwara and Pumé (Antonov 2015: 80-81), the lack
of an unambiguous standard negative system in Kusunda (Donohue et al. 2014)
and a twenty-four-way system of numeral series according to the type of
counted objects in Nivkh (Georg 2017: 148-149). Far less is known regarding
the diachronic facet of lis, despite the fact that a few languages such as
Basque, Elamite, Mapudungun and Sumerian, among others, have sufficient
textual evidence stretching over relatively long periods of time so as to
allow for comprehensive historical and philological research (Hayes 1990,
Khačikjan 1998, Zúñiga 2006, Campbell 2011, Ulibarri 2013).

This workshop is meant to delve deeper into the questions concerning the
typological features and histories of lis from different theoretical
perspectives. It is also interested in exploring and discussing recent
findings with respect to the documentation and filiation of endangered and
poorly described lis. We welcome contributions that address, among others,
the following topics:

- what similarities and differences are there concerning the typological
features of language isolates vs. non-isolates?
- how can we advance our knowledge of the history of language isolates?
- what similarities and differences are there concerning the historical
changes of language isolates vs. non-isolates?
- how does linguistic contact affect language isolates?
- how much documentation, and of what kind, is necessary to determine the
isolate status of languages?

Contributions that address these questions could be oriented in the
following manner:

- comparative typological and/or historical studies on isolates and non-
isolates;
- corpus studies on the historical development of language isolates;
- studies which attempt internal reconstruction of language isolates;
- studies on the documentation of little-described or previously
undescribed language isolates;
- studies that discuss attempts to establish the genetic filiation of
language isolates and/or unclassified languages.

We *welcome abstracts of no more than 300 words* (including references) in
.odt, .docx or .pdf format. Please send abstracts to:
ikersalaberri at gmail.com

The *deadline for submission* of the short abstract is November 1st, 2020.

If the workshop proposal is accepted, you will be asked to submit a long
abstract (500 words) for review by the SLE. The deadline for submission of
long abstracts is January 15th, 2021.

References

Antonov, Anton. 2015. Verbal allocutivity in a crosslinguistic perspective.
Linguistic Typology 19(1). 55-85.
Blench, Roger. 2017. African language isolates. In Lyle Campbell (ed.),
Language isolates, 162-192. London/New York: Routledge.
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of
grammar: Tense, aspect and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago:
Chicago University Press.
Campbell, Lyle R. 2011. La investigación histórica de las lenguas aisladas,
o ¿es raro el vasco? In Joseba A. Lakarra, Joaquín Gorrochategui & Blanca
Urgell (eds.), 2nd Conference of the Luis Michelena Chair, 23-40.
Vitoria-Gasteiz: University of the Basque Country Editorial Service.
Campbell, Lyle R. (ed.). 2017. Language isolates. London/New York:
Routledge.
Campbell, Lyle R. 2017a. Introduction. In Lyle Campbell (ed.), Language
isolates, xi-xiv. London/New York: Routledge.
Campbell, Lyle R. 2017b. Language isolates and their history. In Lyle
Campbell (ed.), Language isolates, 1-18. London/New York: Routledge.
Donohue, Mark, Bhojraj Gautam & Madhav Pokharel. 2014. Negation and
nominalization in Kusunda. Language 90(3). 737-745.
Georg, Stefan. 2017. Other isolated languages of Asia. In Lyle Campbell
(ed.), Language isolates, 139-161. London/New York: Routledge.
Harrison, K. David. 2007. When languages die: The extinction of the world’s
languages and the erosion of human knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Hayes, John L. 1990. A manual of Sumerian grammar and texts (2nd edition).
Malibu: Undena Publications.
Hombert, Jean-Marie & Gérard Philippson. 2009. The linguistic importance of
language isolates: The African case. In Peter K. Austin, Oliver Bond, Monik
Charette, David Nathan & Peter Sells (eds.), Proceedings of Conference on
Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory 2. London: School of Oriental
and African Studies.
Jung, Ingrid. 2000. El páez: Breve descripción. In María S. González de
Pérez & María L. Rodríguez de Montes (eds.), Lenguas indígenas de Colombia:
Una visión descriptiva, 139-154. Santafé de Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo.
Khačikjan, Margaret. 1998. The Elamite language. Rome: Consiglio nazionale
delle ricerche.
Meillet, André. 1925. La méthode comparative en linguistique historique.
Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard)
Miestamo, Matti, Dik Bakker & Antti Arppe. 2016. Sampling for variety.
Linguistic Typology 20(2). 233-296.
Ulibarri, Koldo. 2013. External history: Sources for historical research.
In Mikel Martínez-Areta (ed.), Basque and Proto-Basque: Language-internal
and typological approaches to linguistic reconstruction, 89-117. Frankfurt
am Main: Peter Lang.
Voegelin, Charles F. & Florence M. Voegelin. 1977. Classification and index
of the world’s languages. New York: Elsevier.
Zúñiga, Fernando. 2006. Mapudungun: El habla mapuche. Santiago de Chile:
Centro de Estudios Públicos.
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