26.4743, Confs: Neuroling, Philosophy of Lang, Psycholing, Syntax/Italy

Mon Oct 26 17:54:48 UTC 2015

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-4743. Mon Oct 26 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.4743, Confs: Neuroling, Philosophy of Lang, Psycholing, Syntax/Italy

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Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2015 13:54:18
From: Ermenegildo Bidese [e.bidese at lett.unitn.it]
Subject: Theory of Language and the Debate on Language Origins

Theory of Language and the Debate on Language Origins 
Short Title: ToLDoLO 

Date: 18-Nov-2015 - 20-Nov-2015 
Location: Trento, Italy 
Contact: Ermenegildo Bidese 
Contact Email: e.bidese at lett.unitn.it 
Meeting URL: http://toldolo.generell.org 

Linguistic Field(s): Neurolinguistics; Philosophy of Language; Psycholinguistics; Syntax 

Meeting Description: 

Theory of language and the Debate on Language Origins

The Universities of Trento (Department of Humanities) and the University Ludwig Maximilian of Munich (Istitut für Deutsche Philologie) are pleased to announce an international workshop on theory of language and language origin. It will be held at the Department of Humanities (aula 007) of the University of Trento, Italy, from Wednesday to Friday, 18-20 November 2015.

There will be no conference fee.

Introduction:

In the last decades, one of the major trends in language theory has focused on determining what constitutes the basic properties of the language faculty (FL) zooming in on its core computational mechanism (Merge) and its connections (interfaces) to both the Sensorimotor (SM) and the Conceptual-Intentional (CI) systems. As a first significant result, the operation Merge has been taken to be the basic, pervasive mechanism of Universal Grammar ''for arranging items (sounds, words, word parts, phrases) into their possible permissible combinations in a language'' (Berwick et al 2013: 89, Glossary). As a second result, a great deal of research has concentrated on the process of externalization shedding light on both surprising analogies and patent differences by comparison with the vocalization systems of other species (cf. Watanabe 2011, Berwick 2011, Schlenker et al 2014, among others) and leading to several proposals also from an evolutionary perspective. However, the process linking th
 e computational mechanism to the CI-system has been poorly investigated and both the neuropsychological and the philosophical issues behind the relationship between language (Merge), brain, mind and thought have mostly been neglected.

On the other hand, meetings and conferences on language origin and evolution usually prefer to take a very wide interdisciplinary view on the question, bringing together fields whose approaches, results and conclusions rarely give rise to a mutually beneficial dialogue.

The workshop's general goal is to contribute to the ongoing debate on language origin, taking an explicitly linguistic viewpoint.

Aim:

The workshop aims to investigate the models of correlation between the computational mechanism of language and the interfaces with (but not limited to) special focus on the Conceptual-Intentional system as well as its connection with other cognitive domains like vision, spatiality and music from an evolutionary perspective. Researchers working on those topics in the areas of Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, History of linguistics and Philosophy of Language as well as in Theoretical Linguistics, who are committed to the question of language origin and evolution, are strongly encouraged to submit an abstract.

Invited Speakers:

Andrea Moro (IUSS, Pavia)
Stefano Cappa (IUSS, Pavia)
Barbara Landau (Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD)
Daniela Sammler (Max-Planck-Institut, Leipzig)
Giorgio Graffi (U Verona)
Elisabeth Leiss (LMU, München)
Caterina Donati (U Paris Diderot - Paris 7)
Denis Delfitto (U Verona) 

Program:

Wednesday, 18 November 

14:30 
Registration 

15:00 
Giorgio Vallortigara (Vice-rector for Research U Trento): Greetings 

15:30 
Andrea Moro (IUSS, Pavia): The boundaries of Babel and beyond 

16:30 Break 

17:00 
Stefano Cappa (IUSS, Pavia)
The contribution of neuroscience to the language evolution debate 

18:00 
Andreas Trotzke (U Konstanz)
Shared intentionality from the perspective of theoretical linguistics 

18:45 Conclusion 

Thursday, 19 November 

09:30 
Daniela Sammler (Max-Planck-Institut, Leipzig)
Music and action – windows into the origins of language? 

10:30 Break 

11:00 
Barbara Landau (U Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD)
The representation of paths in language and cognition: Universal asymmetries and their cause 

12:00 
Joana Rosselló Ximenes (U Barcelona)
Language evolution without interfaces or the power of vocal learning 

12:45 Lunch 

14:30 
Giorgio Graffi (U Verona)
Origin of language and origin of languages 

15:30
 Jacopo D’Alonzo (U Sorbonne-Nouvelle – Paris 3)
Trần Đức Thảo: A Marxist Theory on Origins of Human Language? 

16:15 Break 

16:45 
Werner Abraham (U Wien)
What are the guiding principles in the evolution of morphology: Paradigmatics or syntagmatics? What comes first? 

17:30 
Denis Delfitto (U Verona)
Negation as a window on the non-sequential nature of language interpretation      

Friday, 20 November 

09:00 
Caterina Donati (U Paris Diderot – Paris 7)
Labels in Grammar 

10:00 Break 

10:30 
Guido Seiler (LMU, München)
Duality of Patterning, structural well-formedness, and its relevance for language evolution 

11:15 
Elisabeth Leiss (LMU, München)
Language, memory, and the human mind 

12:15 
Round table chaired by Maria Rita Manzini (U Firenze) 

13:15 Lunch 

Venue: University of Trento, Department of Humanities, Trento, Via Tommaso Gar 41, Aula 007 

Organization and contact: Ermenegildo Bidese (U Trento) (e.bidese at lett.unitn.it) 

Secretariat: Antonella Neri (antonella.neri at unitn.it) 

There will be no conference fee.

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