21.4193, Calls: Discourse Analysis, Semantics, Syntax/Spain

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LINGUIST List: Vol-21-4193. Thu Oct 21 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.4193, Calls: Discourse Analysis, Semantics, Syntax/Spain

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1)
Date: 20-Oct-2010
From: Karen Lahousse [karen.lahousse at arts.kuleuven.be]
Subject: New Forays in to Root Phenomena
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 14:21:41
From: Karen Lahousse [karen.lahousse at arts.kuleuven.be]
Subject: New Forays in to Root Phenomena

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Full Title: New Forays in to Root Phenomena 

Date: 08-Sep-2011 - 11-Sep-2011
Location: Logroño (La Rioja), Spain 
Contact Person: Karen Lahousse
Meeting Email: karen.lahousse at arts.kuleuven.be

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; Semantics; Syntax 

Call Deadline: 11-Nov-2010 

Meeting Description:

Workshop organizers:
Cécile De Cat (University of Leeds, U.K.)
Karen Lahousse (University of Leuven, Belgium)

Root phenomena (or main clause phenomena) typically occur in matrix 
clauses and in a restricted set of embedded ('root-like') clauses (Heycock 
2005).  Classic examples for English include subject auxiliary inversion 
(including negative inversion), argument fronting (both topicalisation and 
focalisation), VP preposing, preposing around be, locative inversion, left 
dislocation, tag formation, subject omission and imperatives.  
Since Emonds (1970), many have attempted to capture root phenomena as 
a syntactic property of clauses. Recent instantiations of the syntactic 
approach include the Cartographic analysis (Haegeman 2006), in which 
root properties are entirely dependent on the presence of a dedicated 
functional projection in the CP field, and the Movement analysis (Haegeman 
2010, to appear), in which root phenomena are allowed by default, but 
blocked in clauses derived by movement to the CP field of an epistemic 
operator, over which further movement is impossible because of 
intervention effects.  In their influential paper, Hooper & Thompson (1973) 
put forward a pragmatic analysis and argue that root phenomena are 
possible in clauses that are asserted, but not those that are presupposed. 
Peripheral adverbial clauses (such as because clauses) display a surprising 
behaviour in that respect.  When sentence-initial (1), they are presupposed, 
and hence unable to host  root phenomena. When sentence-final (2), they 
are asserted, and hence able to host such phenomena. 
(1) *Because her son, he owns stocks in Xerox, Mildred drives a Mercedes.
(2)   Mildred drives a Mercedes because her son, he owns stocks in Xerox.
(Examples from Larson & Sawada 2010.)
As recently pointed out by Larson & Sawada (2010), this contrast is 
particularly challenging for strictly syntactic approaches: can we postulate 
different structures depending on the position of the adverbial clause? 
Larson & Sawada propose to capture the contrast in (1-2) as a 
consequence of event quantification.  This suggests that the interpretive 
component is involved in the licensing of Root Phenomena, at least in 
adverbial clauses. 

Call For Papers

The aim of this workshop is double. 
First, we would like to investigate the extent to which Root Phenomena 
require the involvement of the interpretive component, and its nature: is it 
Pragmatics, Semantics, Information Structure? A combination of these?  
Questions to be addressed under this theme include the following:
(i) What is the division of labour between syntax and the interpretive 
component in capturing root phenomena?
(ii) Which root phenomena display information structural or semantic 
effects? 
(iii) Can a semantic characterisation of clauses account for the restrictions 
on all Root Phenomena?
Second, we would like to extend the field of investigation to include not only
'standard' Root Phenomena (i.e. those that are strictly (?) impossible in
non-root contexts, such as VP preposing, locative inversion, exclamatory
inversion, etc. in English) but also phenomena that are not excluded from
non-root contexts but nonetheless sensitive to the +/- root distinction.  In
French, these include verb-subject inversion (Lahousse 2010) and Clitic 
Left Dislocation (De Cat 2007, 2010).  These have been shown to be 
subject to different constraints depending on the host clause: CLLD is fully 
acceptable in main clauses and 'embedded roots' such as peripheral 
adverbial clauses, but much degraded in central adverbial clauses, which 
have been shown not to allow root phenomena (see e.g. Haegeman 2006, 
2009, 2010); verb-subject inversion in French is limited by heavy constraints 
in main clauses and peripheral adverbial clauses, but not in central 
adverbial clauses. Questions to be addressed under this theme include the 
following:
(i) Which phenomena are sensitive to the +/- root distinction, across 
languages?
(ii) What can these phenomena tell us about the properties of the clauses
hosting them?
(iii) Is their sensitivity to the +/- root distinction of a similar nature to
that operating in 'standard' Root Phenomena?

Guidelines for abstract submission

- Abstracts are invited for 20-minute presentations plus 10 minutes for 
discussion. 
- The abstract should be anonymous and contain no more than 500 words, 
exclusive of examples and references.
- Send the anonymous abstract to BOTH c.decat at leeds.ac.uk AND
karen.lahousse at arts.kuleuven.be, mention your name, address and title of 
the abstract in the body of your e-mail.
- Deadline for submission = 11 November 2010

We need to submit the workshop proposal by the 15th of November to the 
SLE Scientific Committee for evaluation. Notification of acceptance will be 
given by 15 December 2010. If the workshop proposal is accepted, you will 
be invited to submit your full abstracts by 15 January 2011.





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