[Lingtyp] CfP: Workshop "Subordination in Creole languages" (Paris, 9-11 September 2024)

Thu Jan 4 20:24:29 UTC 2024

CfP: Workshop at the LLcD Conference (Langues et langage à la croisée 
des disciplines), 9-11 September 2024 (Sorbonne Université, Paris)

Conference URL: https://llcd2024.sciencesconf.org/ 
<https://llcd2024.sciencesconf.org/>

Workshop title: Subordination in Creole languages

Workshop organizers:

Stefano Manfredi (SeDyL, UMR 8202, CNRS, IRD, INALCO)
Susanne Maria Michaelis (Leipzig University & MPI-EVA, Leipzig)
Sibylle Kriegel (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPL, Aix-en-Provence, France)
Nicolas Quint (LLACAN, UMR 8135, CNRS/EPHE/INALCO)

Workshop description:

While many studies have explored and compared the morphosyntactic and 
semantic aspects of subordination in various linguistic areas and 
language families (Frajzyngier 1996; Kortmann 1996; van der Auwera 1998; 
Caron 2008), research on subordinated clauses in Creole languages 
remains limited.

The conceptualization of subordinate clauses as semantically 
hierarchical structures (Van Valin & LaPolla 1997; Nordström 2010; 
Cristofaro 2003) entails the definition of other grammatical notions, 
such as ‘finiteness’, ‘dependency’, ‘embeddedness, ‘hypo-/parataxis’ 
and, more generally, raises the question of how we define ‘syntactic 
complexity’ cross-linguistically. Furthermore, the comparative validity 
of the previously mentioned notions varies according to the adoption of 
different theoretical frameworks (e.g., functional grammar vs. 
generative grammar) as well as to language-dependent factors (Comrie 
2008, Haspelmath 2010).

This workshop aims at gathering researchers working on Creole languages 
with different lexifiers (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic) 
and featuring diverse substrate/adstrate languages (e.g. Niger-Congo, 
Oceanic, Nilo-Saharan) in order to contribute to the debate on the 
definition of semantic and morphosyntactic parameters for comparing 
subordinate clauses cross-linguistically. Indeed, because of the 
particular historical dynamics of their emergence and the role played by 
language contact in their linguistic development, Creole languages raise 
a number of questions related to the grammaticalization of adverbial, 
complement, and relative clauses as well as to the formal parameters to 
be used for defining subordinate clauses (e.g., presence/absence of 
subordinating devices, TAM marking, presence/absence of pronominal 
arguments). In this context, the increasing availability of 
corpus-driven descriptions (see Vieira Semedo 2021, Duzerol forth.) and 
linguistic databases (Manfredi and Quint forth.) of subordination 
constructions in Creole languages open new descriptive and comparative 
perspectives on this highly variable syntactic domain.

In the light of the above, submissions to the workshop may include 
in-depth case studies of the syntax of subordinate clauses in individual 
Creole languages as well as presentations with a more comparative focus. 
We welcome both synchronically and diachronically-oriented studies of 
subordinate clauses in Creole languages. More generally, the workshop 
seeks to answer a range of questions related to the following domains of 
research:

- Morphosyntactic comparison of subordinated clauses: How can we better 
compare the morphosyntactic encoding of adverbial, complement, and 
relative subordinating relations across Creole languages? Are 
‘finiteness’ and ‘embeddedness’ valuable morphosyntactic notions for the 
comparison of subordination in Creole languages (cf. Mufwene and 
Dijkhoff 1989; Cristofaro 2003; Nikolaeva 2007)?

- Grammaticalization of subordinating devices (subordinators, 
complementizers, and relators): Do subordinating devices present shared 
grammaticalization paths across Creole languages? To what extent is the 
grammaticalization of subordinating devices in Creole languages affected 
by the semantics and typological profile of their 
substrate/adstrate/superstrate languages (cf. Michaelis and Haspelmath 
2020) ? To what extent does the ‘overlay function’ of subordinators (cf. 
Kortmann 1997) affect their grammaticalization in Creole languages?

- Mood, modality, and subordination: What is the diachronic link between 
the grammatical expression of mood and modality and the morphosyntactic 
encoding of subordinating relations (cf. Frajzyngier 1996; Nordström 
2010) in one or more Creole languages? How do Creole languages 
grammaticalize and convey equivalents of a subjunctive mood in 
subordinated clauses?

- Morphosyntactic variation of subordinated clauses: What are the main 
sociolinguistic variables producing morphosyntactic variation of 
subordinated clauses in one or more Creole Languages (cf. Deuber 2005 
for Nigerian Pidgin)? What are the main grammatical factors producing 
language-dependent variation of subordinated clauses in one or more 
Creole Languages?

- Typological considerations: Do Creole languages typologically differ 
from non-creole languages in the domain of subordination (cf. Van der 
Auwera 1998; Bakker et al. 2011; McWhorter 2018)? To what extent does 
first/second language acquisition affect the grammaticalization of 
subordinated clauses in Creole languages (cf. Diessel 2004; Veenstra 2015)?

- Linguistic databases and corpora: How can we ensure cross-linguistic 
comparability of subordinated clauses while giving information about 
language-dependent syntactic variation by means of linguistic databases 
(cf. Michaelis et al. 2013; Manfredi and Quint forth.)? How can 
corpus-driven analyses of subordination contribute to the broader 
typological comparison of subordinate clauses?

Submission guidelines

We are inviting abstracts for 20-minute presentations (French or 
English) that address essential aspects of subordination in Creole 
languages, both from a descriptive and comparative perspective. To 
participate, please submit preliminary abstracts (300 words, in docx 
format, including your affiliation) to the workshop organizers by *20 
January 2024*, at one of the following email addresses: 
stefano.manfredi at cnrs.fr or susanne.michaelis at uni-leipzig.de.

This workshop proposal has not yet been accepted by the conference 
organizers. We will submit it together with your preliminary abstracts 
by the end of January 2024.

References

Bakker, P., A. Daval-Markussen, M. Parkvall and I. Plag. 2011. Creoles 
are typologically distinct from non-creoles. Journal of Pidgin and 
Creole Languages 26: 5-42.
Caron, B. (ed.). 2008. Subordination, dépendance et parataxe dans les 
langues africaines. Louvain: Peeters.
Comrie, B. 2008. Subordination, coordination: Form, semantics, 
pragmatics. In: E. Vajda (ed.), Subordination and Coordination 
Strategies in North Asian Languages. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, 
pp. 1-16.
Cristofaro, S. 2003. Subordination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Deuber, D. 2005. Nigerian Pidgin in Lagos: Language contact, variation 
and change in an African urban setting.
Diessel, H. 2004. The Acquisition of Complex Sentences. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press.
Duzerol, M. forthcoming. La complémentation et la relativisation en 
martiniquais (créole, Martinique) : une étude de corpus [PhD 
dissertation]. Lyon: Université Louis Lumière.
Frajzyngier, Z. 1996. Grammaticalization of Complex Sentence : A Case 
Study in Chadic. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Hapelmath, M. 2010. Comparative Concepts and Descriptive Categories in 
Cross-Linguistic Studies. Language 86, pp. 663-687
Kortmann, B. 1996. Adverbial Subordination: A Typology and History of 
Adverbial Subordinators Based on European Languages. Berlin: Mouton de 
Gruyter.
Manfredi, S. and N. Quint (eds.), forth. SCrolL – The database of 
Subordination in Creole Languages. CNRS, HumaNum.
McWhorter, J. 2018. The Creole Debate. Cambridge University Press.
Michaelis, S. M., P. Maurer, M. Haspelmath and M. Huber (eds.) 2013. 
Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max 
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Michaelis, S. M. and M. Haspelmath. 2020. Grammaticalization in creole 
languages: Accelerated functionalization and semantic imitation. In W. 
Bisang and A. Malchukov (eds.), Volume 2 Grammaticalization Scenarios 
from Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter 
Mouton, 2020, pp. 1109-1128.
Mufwene, S. and M. Dijkhoff. 1989. On the so-called « infinitive » in 
Atlantic Creoles. Lingua 77
Nikolaeva, I. (ed.). 2007. Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical 
Foundations. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Noonan, M. 1985. Complementation. In: T. Shopen (ed.), Language Typology 
and Syntactic Description. Cambridge University Press, pp. 42-140.
Nordström, J. 2010. Modality and Subordinators. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: 
John Benjamins.
van der Auwera, J. (ed.) 1998. Adverbial Constructions in Languages of 
Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Van Valin, R. and R. LaPolla 1997. Syntax: Structure, Meaning, and 
Function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Veenstra, T. 2015. The development of subordination. In A. Trotzke and 
J. Bayer (eds.), Syntactic Complexity across Interfaces. Boston: De 
Gruyter Mouton, pp. 137-162.
Vieira Semedo, E. 2021. Frase complexa em cabo-verdiano (variedade de 
Santiago) : um estudo da integração entre cláusulas) [PhD dissertation]. 
Paris: INALCO.

-- 
Susanne Maria Michaelis

DFG-AHRC Project CrossMoGram
Leipzig University
Institute for Romance Studies
Beethovenstraße 15
04107 Leipzig

https://www.philol.uni-leipzig.de/en/institut-fuer-romanistik/institut/profil/romanische-sprachwissenschaft-mit-den-schwerpunkten-hispanistik-und-lusitanistik/crossmogram#c782122

Guest
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig

https://www.eva.mpg.de/linguistic-and-cultural-evolution/staff/susanne-michaelis/

Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures:http://apics-online.info/
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