28.3763, Calls: Ling Theories, Morphology, Phonology, Syntax/Germany

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3763. Wed Sep 13 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.3763, Calls: Ling Theories, Morphology, Phonology, Syntax/Germany

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Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2017 15:22:32
From: Eva Zimmermann [Eva.Zimmermann at uni-leipzig.de]
Subject: Strength in Grammar

 
Full Title: Strength in Grammar 

Date: 10-Nov-2017 - 11-Nov-2017
Location: Leipzig, Germany 
Contact Person: Eva Zimmermann
Meeting Email: Eva.Zimmermann at uni-leipzig.de
Web Site: http://research.uni-leipzig.de/featuralaffixes/StrengthWS.html 

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Phonology; Syntax 

Call Deadline: 11-Oct-2017 

Meeting Description:

Strength of elements is a recurrent notion in grammatical theory, especially
in analyses for exceptional behaviour of morphemes or phonological segments.
This workshop aims to discuss the arguments for and against different concepts
of strength in grammar.

Invited Speakers:

- Anthi Revithiadou (University of Thessaloniki)
- Caitlin Smith (University of Southern California)
- Paul Smolensky (Johns Hopkins)
- Alexandre Vaxmann (University of Connecticut)


Call for Papers:

Strength of elements is a recurrent notion in grammatical theory, especially
in analyses for exceptional behaviour of morphemes or phonological segments.
Yet there is no agreement about the concrete nature of ‘strength’: Several
recent proposals assume that it is an irreducible property of certain elements
in underlying phonological or morphological representations (Vaxman, 2016a,b;
Smolensky and Goldrick, 2016; Rosen, 2016) whereas others argue that strength
should be derivable from the structural position of an element (Beckman, 1998;
Revithiadou, 1999; Nasukawa and Backley, 2009) or from notions like
contrastiveness or stability of context (Rhodes, 2012; Inkelas, 2015).

Strength is employed to explain various empirical phenomena: The choice
between lexically listed allomorphs follows, for example, from a preference-
or strength-hierarchy of allomorphs in a language (Mascaró, 2007; Bonet et
al., 2007) or the asymmetrical behaviour that only some phonological elements
are triggers and/or targets for phonological assimilation processes follows
from assuming that they are stronger than surface-similar elements (Rhodes,
2012; Inkelas, 2015).
Whereas proponents of some concept of strength in grammar thus argue that it
allows representational accounts for apparently exceptional behaviour in
different parts of the grammar and hence makes morpheme-specific grammatical
mechanisms or sub-grammars unnecessary (Pater, 2000, 2006, 2009; Inkelas et
al., 2004; Inkelas 2007), doubts have been raised that such a notion enriches
the grammar with too much predictive power. This workshop aims to discuss the
arguments for and against different concepts of strength in grammar and answer
questions like:

- Are there arguments for a formal notion of ‘strength’ in grammar or does it
fall out as an epiphenomenon from indepently motivated structural di erences
like underspecification?
- Is strength an idiosyncratic property of certain elements in the lexicon or
is it an epiphenomenon derived from structural positions?
- What other (grammar-external) factors like frequency or context-stability
can predict strength?
- In which empirical areas do we observe strength or competition between
elements that are otherwise surface-identical or -similar?
- Most accounts that employ strength are phonological: Does strength play a
role in morphology outside of allomorph selection? Does it play any role in
syntactic accounts?

Abstract Submission

- At most one page, an optional second page is permitted for data and
references.
- 12 pt Times New Roman font (or similar).
- Abstracts must be anonymous.
- Submissions are limited to one individual and one joint abstract per author,
or two joint abstracts per author.
- Deadline: October 11, 2017

The abstract should be submitted as a PDF attachment (all fonts embedded) to
the following e-mail address: Eva.Zimmermann at uni-leipzig.de

Please use `Abstract' as the Subject header and include the information in (1)
- (4), which should constitute the body of the message. 
(1) Name(s) of author(s)
(2) Title of talk
(3) Affiliation(s)
(4) E-mail address(es)




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