21.3858, Calls: Historical Ling/Japan

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LINGUIST List: Vol-21-3858. Sat Oct 02 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.3858, Calls: Historical Ling/Japan

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1)
Date: 01-Oct-2010
From: Evie Coussé < evie.cousse at ugent.be >
Subject: Usage-Based Approaches to Language Change
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2010 22:25:07
From: Evie Coussé [evie.cousse at ugent.be]
Subject: Usage-Based Approaches to Language Change

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Full Title: Usage-Based Approaches to Language Change 

Date: 25-Jul-2011 - 30-Jul-2011
Location: Osaka, Japan 
Contact Person: Evie Coussé
Meeting Email: evie.cousse at ugent.be

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 13-Oct-2010 

Meeting Description:

Most approaches to language (change) have principally in common that 
they locate the main explanandum of language in the human mind and that 
they operate with categories. Change is, implicitly or explicitly, seen as a 
shift of a linguistic form from one category to another - whether across 
discrete or fuzzy boundaries. A well-know example of this view is the 
importance of reanalysis in explaining language change in mainstream 
historical linguistics. Reanalysis is considered to be the underlying 
mechanism that motivates changing patterns in usage such as contextual 
extension and increasing generalization / abstraction in meaning.

However, alternative views have also been expressed, in which linguistic 
structure is seen as subject to constant negotiation in communication. 
Hopper's (1998) Emergent Grammar or Keller's (1994) Invisible Hand are 
prominent examples. Without denying the share that cognition has in the 
production of utterances and the usefulness of categories for linguistic 
description, structure is seen as epiphenomenal in these approaches. 
Structure is in a constant flux across time, area and social strata and, 
therefore, language use or actual communication are the loci of structure 
formation and hence of change.

In line with this usage-based perspective of language and language 
change, an alternative for reanalysis has been proposed in which 
(changing) discourse patterns are directly related to meaning without 
referring to changes in abstract structures (e.g. Bybee e.a 1994, 
Haspelmath 1998, De Smet 2009). However, a larger coherent vision of the 
relation between language usage and language change is still largely 
missing.

The workshop aims at discussing possibilities for such a usage-based 
framework on language change. We wish to combine case studies with 
theoretical contributions that help setting up a comprehensive model on 
language change, in which language use is in the focus and in which the 
core properties of language are seen in its dynamics rather than in its 
states.

References

Bybee, J., R. Perkins & W. Pagliuca (1994) The evolution of grammar. 
Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: 
University of Chicago Press.

De Smet, H. (2009) Analysing reanalysis. In: Lingua 119, 1728-1755.

Haspelmath, M. (1998) Does grammaticalization need reanalysis? In: 
Studies in Language 22, 315-351.

Hopper, P.J. (1998) Emergent grammar. In: M. Tomasello (ed.) The new 
psychology of grammar: cognitive and functional approaches to language 
structure. Mahwah: Erlbaum: 155-176.

Keller, R. (1994) On language change. The invisible hand in language. 
London: Routlegde. 

Call For Papers

At present, the workshop needs to be approved and accepted by the 
conference organizers of ICHL 2011. Deadline for submission of the 
workshop proposal is 15 October 2010. We invite interested speakers to 
send us before that deadline their interest for participation and a preliminary 
title of their potential contribution, that will be submitted along with the 
workshop proposal. Please, mail evie.cousse at ugent.be or f.vm at fu-
berlin.de with your preliminary title.

Upon notification of acceptance of the workshop by the ICHL organizers 
(expected shortly after 15 October 2010), we will launch the definitive call 
for papers as soon as possible. Submission of paper abstracts will go via 
the ICHL conference website http://www.ichl2011.com. Deadline for paper 
abstracts is set by the organizers on 15 January 2011.





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