28.3581, Confs: Gen Ling, Ling Theories, Syntax/USA

Thu Aug 31 15:40:25 UTC 2017

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3581. Thu Aug 31 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.3581, Confs: Gen Ling, Ling Theories, Syntax/USA

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Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2017 11:40:14
From: Anna Maria Di Sciullo [di_sciullo.anne-marie at uqam.ca]
Subject: Biolinguistic Conference on Interface Asymmetries

Biolinguistic Conference on Interface Asymmetries 

Date: 10-Nov-2017 - 12-Nov-2017 
Location: New York City/NY, USA 
Contact: Anna Maria Di Sciullo 
Contact Email: di_sciullo.anne-marie at uqam.ca 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Syntax 

Meeting Description: 

November 10-12, 2017 
New York University

According to the Strong Minimalist Thesis (Chomsky 2001 et seq.), language is
an optimal solution to interface conditions, in that language is an optimal
way to link sound and meaning. There is a significant asymmetry between the
semantic interface, the system of thought, and the sensorimotor interface
externalizing it, the first having primacy. This conference targets the
asymmetry between these two interfaces, both generated by a binary syntactic
combinatorial operation. 

In addition to the main program, a workshop on Unpronounced elements at the
interfaces will be held within the conference. 

Recent work has shown that empty elements are pervasive in natural language
syntax. In addition to well-known phenomena of movement copies, ellipsis and
null pronouns, lexical and functional categories such as prepositions,
articles and verbs are often unpronounced. For example, in English there are
strong reasons to believe that (1a) should be analyzed in terms of a null
preposition as shown in (1b):

(1) 
a. John went there.
b. John went TO there.

This workshop targets the implications of these empty elements for the
interfaces. What role do they play in morphology? What determines whether some
word or morpheme is pronounced? What role do they play in the semantic
interpretation? What do they tell us about human cognition?

The conference will also host a roundtable on Variation in functional
categories, targeting a deeper understanding of language variation in the
structure and the pronunciation of their constitutive elements.

Invited Speakers:

Gennaro Chierchia (Harvard U.)
Chris Collins (NYU)
Dany Fox (MIT)
Richard Kayne (NYU)
Richard Larson (Stony Brook)
Tom Leu (UQAM)
Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini (U. of Arizona)
Roberta D’Alessandro (U. of Leiden)
Ivona Kucerova (U. of Manitoba) 
Anna Szabolcsi (NYU)
Anna Maria Di Sciullo (UQAM/NYU)

Program: 

Friday, November 10, 2017:  

13:30-14:00:
Registration

14:00-14:10:
Welcome and opening remarks
Anna Maria Di Sciullo

Biolinguistics:

 14:10-14:50:
*Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini (U. of Arizona)
“Normal language in abnormal brains”  

14:50-15:30:
*Wolfram Hinzen (U. of Durham)
“Language disintegration under conditions of formal thought disorder”  

15:30-15:45: Break

15:45-16:10:
Dana McDaniel (U. of Southern Maine)
“The production system's shaping of externalization”        

16:10-16:35:
Aleria Lage, Aniela Improta França, Mayara de Sá Pinto, Nathacia Lucena
Ribeiro (Federal U. of Rio de Janeiro)
“The embedding advantage in language acquisition: a study of PPs in Brazilian
Portuguese” 

Saturday, November 11, 2017:  

Syntax-semantics:  

9:00-9:40: 
*Gennaro Chierchia (Harvard U.)
''Null operators vs type shifting: the case of 'bare' arguments''  

9:40-10:20: 
*Dany Fox (MIT)
“Exhaustification and the nature of conversational maxims”  

10:20-10:30: Break

10:30-10:55:
George Tsoulas (University of York)
“Before-clauses. comparison, presupposition, and the syntax-semantics
interface” 

10:55-11:35:
*Friederike Moltmann (CNRS & NYU)
''Natural language ontology and its relation to syntax''  

11:35-12:00:
Shoichi Takahashi (Aoyama Gakuin U.)
“An identity of vacuities”

12:00-14:00: Lunch break

Syntax

14:00-14:40: 
*Richard Larson (Stony Brook)
“Rethinking cartography”  

14:40-15:20: 
*Anna Szabolcsi (NYU)
''Disembodied or phonetically null operators''  

15:20-15:30: Break

15:30-15:55:
Manuela Ambar (U. of Lisboa)
“On the syntactic licensing of subjunctive: obviation and left periphery. A
cross-linguistic puzzle”

15:55-16:20:
Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (KU Leuven/CRISSP)
“A double interface asymmetry: Expletive doubling in Dutch dialects”

16:20-16:45:
Yasuyuki Fukutomi (Fukushima U.)
“Juxtaposed interrogative clauses” 

16:45-17:10:
Pritha Chandra (Indian Institute of Technology)
“Realizing gender”

Sunday, November 12, 2017:

Round table on variation in functional categories 

9:00-9:40: 
*Tom Leu (UQAM)
“Debating morphemes, silence, and lack thereof”  

9:40-10:20: 
*Roberta D’Alessandro (Utrecht University)
''When variation is built in the system''  

10:20-10:30: Break

10:30-11:10:
*Ivona Kucerova (McMaster U.)
“Phi-features at the syntax-semantics interface: Toward Distributed
Semantics.''

11:10-11:30:
Discussion

11:30-13:00: Lunch break

Workshop on Unpronounced elements at the interfaces: 

13:00-13:40:
*Richard Kayne (NYU)
''The why of silence, the how of inalienable possession, and the
(non-)ambiguity of book''

13:40-14:20:
*Chris Collins (NYU)
TBA

14:20-14:30: Break

14:30-15:10:
*Anna Maria Di Sciullo (UQAM & NYU)
“Asymmetry and externalization”

15:10-15:30:
Discussion

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