27.4564, Calls: Disc Analysis, Pragmatics, Semantics, Text/Corpus Ling, Typology/Switzerland

[The LINGUIST List via LINGUIST]

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-4564. Tue Nov 08 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.4564, Calls: Disc Analysis, Pragmatics, Semantics, Text/Corpus Ling, Typology/Switzerland

Moderators: linguist at linguistlist.org (Damir Cavar, Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté,
                                   Michael Czerniakowski)
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
                       Fund Drive 2016
                   25 years of LINGUIST List!
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Kenneth Steimel <ken at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2016 15:37:54
From: Pavel Ozerov [pavel.ozerov1 at gmail.com]
Subject: Beyond Information Structure

 
Full Title: Beyond Information Structure 

Date: 10-Sep-2017 - 13-Sep-2017
Location: Zurich, Switzerland 
Contact Person: Pavel Ozerov
Meeting Email: pavel.ozerov1 at gmail.com

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics; Semantics; Text/Corpus Linguistics; Typology 

Call Deadline: 21-Nov-2016 

Meeting Description:

Organisers:

Dejan Matić
Pavel Ozerov

In the last years, growing cross-linguistic evidence suggests a shift in the
study of Information Structure (IS), along the theoretical lines that recently
re-shaped the field of linguistic typology. Traditionally, approaches to IS
define a set of pragmatic-semantic categories, and study how these are
expressed cross-linguistically. Yet, a growing number of empirical studies
attempting to analyse presumable IS-marking devices discover instead their
different primitive functions, which have no direct relationship to IS. In
addition to giving a better account of the basic function and distribution of
these devices, this research sheds light on the actual origin of “information
structural” phenomena. It shows how diverse primitive functions can interact
with the context, rendering interpretations related to such concepts as
aboutness, contrast etc., used to characterise IS notions.

Matić and Wedgwood's (2013) argumentation for this shift demonstrates a number
of case studies of such re-analysis of presumable IS markers. For instance,
the Quechua particle mi had previously been analysed as a marker of narrow
focus (Sanchez 2010). However, although this characterisation is applicable
within the limited set of IS tests, it fails to address the full span of
functions of the particle. Its analysis along the lines of evidentiality
(Faller 2002) or as an “interactional device [of] persuasive intention”
(Behrens 2012) allows both to give a unified account for its functions, and
trace the actual source of the occasional “focal” effect. 

It is repeatedly found that IS accounts of presumable IS devices are
insufficient. IS analysis alone does not explain the full function of
apparently relevant markers. Moreover, it does not predict the idiosyncratic
list of precise IS features, pertinent to each marker. Coherent full-scale
analyses show that primitive functions of these markers lie beyond IS, while
IS-interpretations turn out to be particular usages of their primitive
functions.

If so, cross-linguistic study of relevant language-specific categories
promises to shed light on the way IS-interpretations appear as a result of the
interaction of a basic function of diverse devices with the context. It will
describe and explain how interactional categories, stance, inter-subjective
alignment, particular discourse structuring and lexical devices produce
dynamic structuring of information in the course of communication. Moreover,
this research strongly appeals to the identification and analysis of currently
poorly understood categories from the field of interaction.


Call for Papers:

We invite abstracts that deal with the above mentioned topics, such as:

- Studies of particular IS-like devices that investigate their overall
function, and the nature and origin of their IS-usage
- Theoretical and empirical studies that investigate the relation between IS
and fields of interaction, cognition, discourse-structure
- Comparative studies of IS-related devices with accounts of their precise
functional similarities and differences
- Theoretical studies that critically discuss the proposed framework and its
relation to currently established theories
- Theoretical studies of broader IS-like phenomena (“emphasis”, “aboutness”)
in discourse and their marking
- Empirical studies of particular strategies, functions and marking employed
in discourse in the contexts of “IS-tests”, e.g. answers to content questions,
corrections, frame-setting etc.

Submissions should be sent to the conference organiser's email
(pavel.ozerov1 at gmail.com) by November 21 2016.

Abstracts should be 300 words or less.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
                       Fund Drive 2016
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
            http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

        Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST!
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-27-4564	
----------------------------------------------------------
Visit LL's Multitree project for over 1000 trees dynamically generated
from scholarly hypotheses about language relationships:
          http://multitree.org/