26.4980, Calls: Ling Theories, Socioling/Belgium

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LINGUIST List: Vol-26-4980. Mon Nov 09 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.4980, Calls: Ling Theories, Socioling/Belgium

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Date: Mon, 09 Nov 2015 11:56:24
From: Benedikt Szmrecsanyi [benszm at kuleuven.be]
Subject: Probabilistic Variation Across Dialects and Varieties

 
Full Title: Probabilistic Variation Across Dialects and Varieties 

Date: 04-Apr-2016 - 05-Apr-2016
Location: Leuven, Belgium 
Contact Person: Jason Grafmiller
Meeting Email: jason.grafmiller at kuleuven.be
Web Site: http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/qlvl/ProbGrammarWorkshop.html 

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Sociolinguistics 

Call Deadline: 15-Dec-2015 

Meeting Description:

This two-day workshop to be held at the KU Leuven seeks to bring together quantitative 
variation analysts who share an interest in exploring, evaluating, and comparing variation 
patterns in a comparative perspective.

Call for Papers:

The meeting is organized in the context of a five-year project based at the KU Leuven 
entitled “Exploring probabilistic grammar(s) in varieties of English around the world” (see 
http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/qlvl/ProbGrammarEnglish.html). Situated at the crossroads 
of research on English as a World Language, usage-based theoretical linguistics, 
variationist linguistics, and cognitive sociolinguistics, the project marries the spirit of the 
Probabilistic Grammar framework (which posits that grammatical knowledge is experience-
based and partially probabilistic) to research along the lines of the English world-wide 
paradigm (which is concerned with the dialectology and sociolinguistics of post-colonial 
English-speaking communities around the world). Questions of interest include the 
following: (1) What is the extent to which varieties of English share a probabilistic grammar 
that predicts variation patterns across different varieties? (2) Which probabilistic constraints 
are universal and stable, and which are culturally malleable? (3) Are some variation 
phenomena/alternations (e.g., the English dative alternation, the genitive alternation, 
particle placement ...) more stable across varieties/speech communities than others? (4) 
How do we evaluate overall probabilistic similarity between varieties? (5) Are cross-varietal 
differences in syntactic variation better explained in terms of rule-based or memory 
(exemplar) based models/theories?

The workshop is intended as a rather informal, round table-style meeting to inspire cross-
fertilization among researchers with broadly similar research agendas. Invited speakers 
include Joan Bresnan, Lars Hinrichs, Anette Rosenbach, and Sali Tagliamonte. We invite 
additional contributions which broadly address one or more of the above questions, thus 
showcasing approaches to the quantitative analysis of linguistic variation across dialects, 
varieties, and speech communities (English-speaking or not). 

Presentations will be 20 minutes plus time for discussion. 1-page abstracts (including 
references) should be sent to jason.grafmiller at kuleuven.be. The deadline for the 
submission of abstracts is December 15.




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