18.2909, Calls: General Ling/Belgium; General Ling/Norway

Fri Oct 5 20:55:45 UTC 2007

LINGUIST List: Vol-18-2909. Fri Oct 05 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.2909, Calls: General Ling/Belgium; General Ling/Norway

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1)
Date: 04-Oct-2007
From: Bart Defrancq < bart.defrancq at hogent.be >
Subject: Between Discourse and Grammar 

2)
Date: 04-Oct-2007
From: Wiebke Ramm < wiebke.ramm at ilos.uio.no >
Subject: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:52:19
From: Bart Defrancq [bart.defrancq at hogent.be]
Subject: Between Discourse and Grammar
E-mail this message to a friend:
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Full Title: Between Discourse and Grammar 
Short Title: DG2008 

Date: 23-May-2008 - 24-May-2008
Location: Ghent, Belgium 
Contact Person: Bart Defrancq
Meeting Email: bart.defrancq at hogent.be
Web Site: http://members.chello.be/gert.desutter1/ 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 01-Nov-2007 

Meeting Description

The issue which this conference wishes to address is the grammatical, pragmatic
and semantic status of less prominent states of affairs in discourse and complex
sentence structure and more in particular the interaction between grammatical
properties of subordination, speech act properties and clausal information
structure. 

Illocutionary force, information structure and subordination between discourse
and grammar

(French version: http://users.telenet.be/gert.desutter1/enfrancais/index.htm)

Invited Speakers

C. Lehmann, Universität Erfurt, Germany
J.C. Verstraete, KULeuven, Belgium

Since Matthiessen & Thompson (1988), it has been widely assumed that discourse
structure and complex sentence structure have much in common and that the latter
is a more grammaticalised way of representing relationships between states of
affairs than the former. Both structures consist of a network of relationships
between what we could call, avoiding too strong a terminological bias, more and
less prominent states of affairs (background/foreground; nucleus/satellite;
salient/non-salient; etc.). The issue which this conference wishes to address is
the grammatical, pragmatic and semantic status of less prominent states of
affairs in discourse and complex sentence structure and more in particular the
interaction between grammatical properties of subordination, speech act
properties and clausal information structure. In complex sentence structure,
less prominent states of affairs are expressed in subordinate clauses, which are
widely, but not unanimously, assumed to lack both speech act properties and
information structure (cf. Lambrecht 1994; Cristofaro 2003). There are, however,
some notable exceptions, viz. clauses which seem to have the grammatical
properties of subordinate clauses, but are prominent in the sense that they
provide the core of information of the sentence as a whole (Biber 1988). On the
other hand, less prominent states of affairs operating as independent clauses in
discourse structure, are not usually thought of as being deprived of speech act
properties or information structure. It remains to be seen whether this is a
tenable position.

Conference papers are expected to address one or more of the following questions
or another topic within the realm of the conference theme:
- Is discourse structure best analysed as binary (salient/non-salient;
foreground/background) or as a continuum and what are the criteria?
- Is it feasible to describe the relationship between discourse structure and
complex sentence structure as iconic?
- Is it either necessary or feasible to distinguish between different types of
less prominent information (Brandt 1996) such as subsidiary information
(Nebeninformation) vs. background information (Hintergrundinformation)? Do we
perhaps need to distinguish more types than these?
- What is the exact distribution of illocutionary force in discourse? Are less
prominent but independent states of affairs endowed with illocutionary force?
- What is the role of discourse particles and connective devices in the
organisation of the discourse in more and less prominent states of affairs?
- Is clausal information structure a property specific to independent clauses?
- Should information structure be viewed as a single partition of information
within a given utterance? According to some authors, complex sentence structures
have only one information structure partition (cf. Mathesius 1975, Komagata
2003), whereas others assume that certain complex sentence types have more than
one (Brandt 1996).
- If clausal information structure is absent from subordinate clauses, why do
syntactic manifestations of information structure (dislocation, clefting)
sometimes appear in subordinate clauses?
- How can the interaction between clausal information structure and discourse
information structure (cf. the difference between clausal topic and discourse
topic) be described in a more comprehensive way?
- Is there historical evidence of the ''loss'' of speech act properties or
information structure? Can this be linked to a diachronic development from
independent to dependent clauses, and if so, is it indeed feasible to describe
this process as grammaticalisation (cf. Fischer 2007)?

Comparative papers focussing on European languages are particularly welcome and
will be favoured during the review process.

Anonymous abstracts should be max. 2 pages long and be sent as a Word (.rtf)
file to:

bart.defrancq at hogent.be

before 1 November 2007. Abstract and paper should be in English or French.
Information about the author(s) should be given in the e-mail the abstract is
attached to.

Notification of acceptance is scheduled to 1 January 2008. 

Registration Fee: 75 Euro

More information via: http://users.telenet.be/gert.desutter1/

Programme Committee (provisional):
Christelle Cosme (University of Louvain, UCL)
Hubert Cuyckens (University of Leuven, KULeuven)
Bart Defrancq (University College Ghent)
Liesbeth Degand (University of Louvain, UCL)
Gert De Sutter (University College Ghent)
Pascale Hadermann (Ghent University)
Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen (Ghent University)
Els Tobback (Ghent University)
Dominique Willems (Ghent University)

Organising Committee (provisional):
Joost Buysschaert (University College Ghent)
Hubert Cuyckens (University of Leuven, KULeuven)
Bart Defrancq (University College Ghent)
Liesbeth Degand (University of Louvain, UCL)
Gert De Sutter (University College Ghent)
Gudrun Rawoens (University of Louvain, UCL/Ghent University)
Els Tobback (Ghent University)
Dominique Willems (Ghent University)

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:52:27
From: Wiebke Ramm [wiebke.ramm at ilos.uio.no]
Subject: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008
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Full Title: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008 
Short Title: MAD 08 

Date: 20-Feb-2008 - 23-Feb-2008
Location: Oslo, Norway 
Contact Person: Wiebke Ramm
Meeting Email: mad-08 at ilos.uio.no
Web Site: http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/forskning/konferanser/mad08/ 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 26-Oct-2007 

Meeting Description

Multidisciplinary Approaches to Discourse 2008 (MAD 08) is the seventh in a
series of small-scale, high-quality workshops that have been organised 
(approx.) every second year since 1995. Its aim is to bring together
researchers from different linguistic disciplines to exchange information
and learn from each other on a common topic of investigation. The theme of
MAD 08 is 'Linearisation and Segmentation in Discourse'. 

Call for Papers (3rd call - extended deadline: October 26)

Language as well as other forms of communication are inseparably tied to some
kind of linear-sequential form of presentation, due to the linear-sequential
nature of the media on which they operate. Linearisation in its turn presupposes
segmentation, i.e. decisions concerning the size and type of units to be brought
into a sequential order at various levels. In written and spoken language, for
example, it has to be decided whether a piece of information can and should be
realised as a word, a phrase, a clause, a (complex) sentence or even as a
sentence sequence or paragraph. And the relevant units have to be arranged in a
certain order that is determined - in part, at least - by the rules of grammar
but also - at higher levels of discourse - by other principles. We are
interested in identifying and defining such principles. What principles govern
the segmentation of the information to be (explicitly) conveyed? What do the
minimal discourse units look like, which kinds of complex structure do they
build and how are these structures separated from each other?

The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers from different
linguistic disciplines (e.g., psycholinguistics, contrastive
linguistics/translation studies, computational linguistics, discourse studies),
and, if possible, also from other disciplines in which the linearisation and
segmentation of 'content' or information is constitutive (e.g., in music or
film). We invite contributions on topics and questions such as the following
(the list may be extended):

- Discourse units and segmentation:

Which are the (minimal) units of discourse, and how are they marked and
separated from each other? For example, which role does punctuation play in
written discourse, and pauses and intonation in spoken language?

- Linearisation and its relation to nonlinear linguistic and conceptual structures:

How are linear sequences of discourse units mapped onto complex (potentially
hierarchical) conceptual structures? (Perception perspective)

How are complex (potentially hierarchical) conceptual structures mapped onto
linear sequences of discourse units? (Production perspective)

How do notions like salience, discourse prominence,
foreground(ing)/background(ing) etc. relate to linearity?

Cohesion / coherence and linearity

- Perspective and linearisation:

Perspective and subjectivity in discourse: How is information presented and what
is the role of relations ''in the world'' relative to the order of presentation
by the speaker?

How do the linguistic notions of perspective relate to perspective in other media?

- Linearisation and segmentation across languages:

To what extend do (the grammars of) different languages impose different
constraints on linearisation and segmentation?

What are the implications for multilingual activities such as translation or
multilingual text generation?

- Linearisation and segmentation in different media:

in electronic media such as e-mail and chat

in media combining language and pictures, e.g., film, cartoons

in music (with and without language)

Keynote Speakers

- Thomas Pechmann (Univ. of Leipzig) on ''Linearisation and segmentation in
music (and language)'' (preliminary title)
- Russell S. Tomlin (Univ. of Oregon) on ''Attention and time: temporal phasing
in event representations and language production'' (preliminary title)
- Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen (Univ. of Oslo) on ''Segmentation and linearization
from a cross-linguistic perspective'' (preliminary title)

Workshop Location

The workshop and lodging will be at Lysebu, a conference center in the middle of
one of Oslo's major skiing areas (for cross-country as well as down-hill) which
is accessible by public transport.

Attendance

Following the tradition of the earlier workshops, the total number of
participants will be limited to (approx.) 30 persons. Speakers of accepted
papers are automatically granted a place; the remaining ones are assigned on a
first-come-first-serve basis.

Abstract Submission

We invite extended abstracts in PDF, RTF or Word format. Papers must not be
longer than ten pages (including figures and references), using 12 pt font, 1.5
line spacing, with 2.5 cm margins on all sides. Please include your name,
affiliation and e-mail address at the top of the page, directly below the title.
All abstracts will be reviewed by members of the program committee. For final
versions of accepted papers, precise formatting instructions (for Word) will be
issued.

Send your submission by October 26 2007 (extended deadline) to mad-08 at ilos.uio.no

With previous workshops in the series, selected papers have later been published
in special issues of journals or as an edited volume in a relevant series (e.g.,
for the 2005 workshop: M. Grabski et al. (eds.) ''Salience. Multidisciplinary
perspectives on its function in discourse'', to appear in the Mouton-de Gruyter
series 'Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs' [TiLSM]). We are planning
on following this approach for MAD 08 as well.

Programme Committee

Bergljot Behrens (University of Oslo, Norway)
Liesbeth Degand (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen (University of Oslo, Norway)
Alistair Knott (University of Otago)
Wiebke Ramm (University of Oslo, Norway)
Ted Sanders (University of Utrecht)
Manfred Stede (University of Potsdam, Germany)

Important Dates

Submission deadline: October 26, 2007 (extended deadline!)

Notification of acceptance: November 15, 2007

Final versions of papers due: December 15, 2007

Deadline for registration: December 28, 2007

MAD 08 workshop: February 20-23, 2008

Organizers

Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen, University of Oslo
Wiebke Ramm, University of Oslo
Manfred Stede, University of Potsdam, Germany

Workshop URL

http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/forskning/konferanser/mad08/

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