26.186, Calls: Syntax/Italy

Wed Jan 14 04:48:03 UTC 2015

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-186. Tue Jan 13 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.186, Calls: Syntax/Italy

Moderators: Damir Cavar, Indiana U <damir at linguistlist.org>
            Malgorzata E. Cavar, Indiana U <gosia at linguistlist.org>

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Helen Aristar-Dry <hdry at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 23:47:53
From: Theresa Biberauer [mtb23 at cam.ac.uk]
Subject: Diachronic Syntax and (Modern) Parametric Theory

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Full Title: Diachronic Syntax and (Modern) Parametric Theory 

Date: 31-Jul-2015 - 31-Jul-2015
Location: Naples, Italy 
Contact Person: Theresa Biberauer
Meeting Email: mtb23 at cam.ac.uk
Web Site: http://www.ichl22.unina.it/materiali/workshop/WS-Diachronic-syntax.pdf 

Linguistic Field(s): Syntax 

Call Deadline: 30-Jan-2015 

Meeting Description:

The central idea in generative approaches to diachronic syntax is that change results from children’s reanalysis of their parents’ grammar, G1: as they have only indirect access to G1, via its output, their grammar, G2, may differ from G1, causing syntactic changes to emerge inter-generationally. The advent of the Principles and Parameters era in the late 1970s led to the specific expectation in the diachronic context that at least some syntactic changes might be parametric, entailing parameter resetting. From the outset, however, the challenges facing a parametric approach to syntactic change were apparent. In the current generative context, opinion is divided as to the feasibility of a “post-GB” parametric approach to the understanding of syntactic variation: on the one hand, the empirical failures of GB parameters and/or the conceptual reorientation of the Minimalist Program are taken to argue against pursuing further parametric work; on the other, there is the argument that GB parameters should be viewed as “first-pass” parameters, with empirical and theoretical advances since the late 1970s and, particularly, in the minimalist context, pointing towards the kinds of modifications that could lead to a genuinely explanatory theory of parametric variation. 

The purpose of this workshop is to evaluate the future of parametric explanation in the domain of diachronic syntax. Explicit consideration of the way in which parameters are operative in diachronic changes has decreased steadily during the minimalist era, and our objective here is to bring together established and emerging scholars, working on an unusually wide variety of languages, to determine whether this is the (accidental) consequence of the uncertainty surrounding the notion of ‘minimalist parameter(s)’ or whether it is in fact symptomatic of genuine incompatibilities between our current understanding of diachronic change and the possibilities predicted within a parametric framework.

Call for Papers:

Abstracts are invited for 20-minute talks (plus 10 min. discussion).
They should be no longer than 2 pages, including examples and references (1 inch margin all around, font 12pt). 
Please send Word/Open Office/Word Perfect files and use Unicode fonts to: infoichl22 at unina.it

See http://www.ichl22.unina.it/materiali/workshop/WS-Diachronic-syntax.pdf for full details of the kinds of topics we're hoping to be able to discuss.

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LINGUIST List: Vol-26-186	
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