30.3608, Confs: Anthropological Linguistics/France

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-3608. Tue Sep 24 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.3608, Confs: Anthropological Linguistics/France

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Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2019 23:55:02
From: Elise Mignot [Elise.Mignot at sorbonne-universite.fr]
Subject: Arbitrariness and Motivation

 
Arbitrariness and Motivation 

Date: 10-Oct-2019 - 12-Oct-2019 
Location: Paris, France 
Contact: Elise Mignot 
Contact Email: Elise.Mignot at sorbonne-universite.fr 

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics 

Meeting Description: 

Organized by Sorbonne Université (CeLiSo), Université Grenoble Alpes
(LIDILEM), Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (ALTER),  Université de
Perpignan Via Domitia (CRESEM), with the financial support of ALAES
(Association des linguistes anglicistes de l’enseignement supérieur), École
doctorale V (Concepts et Langages) of Sorbonne Université, the Faculty of
Letters of Sorbonne Université, and the resarch teams ALTER (Université de Pau
et des Pays de l’Adour), CeLiSo (Sorbonne Université), CRESEM (Université de
Perpignan Via Domitia), LIDILEM (Université Grenoble Alpes).

The conference aims to examine the related notions of arbitrariness and
motivation in language. There is no consensus in the linguistic community on
these issues, which are rarely at the forefront of discussions.

Motivation can initially be defined as the situation where a linguistic form
resembles what it refers to (Cratylus's position on the relationship between
words and things in Plato's eponymous dialogue). More generally, beyond the
case of iconicity, ''motivation'' is synonymous with ''non-arbitrary
relationship''.

After Saussure, the arbitrary nature of the sign started to be thought of as
the norm. No motivated links are seen between language productions and the
extra-linguistic reality. It seems that nowadays the prevailing view is that
arbitrariness is the rule.

However, Saussure himself mentions a ''relative arbitrariness'', i.e. a
certain motivation, within a linguistic system:

Only some of the signs are absolutely arbitrary; in others there is a
phenomenon that makes it possible to recognize degrees of arbitrariness,
without removing it: a sign can be relatively motivated. (Saussure 1967:
180-181).

For example, the noun ''apple tree'' certainly does not resemble the thing
denoted, but is nevertheless motivated (as opposed to arbitrary), in that we
understand the reason behind the denomination (i.e. the relationship with the
noun ''apple''). This paves the way to taking into account the construction of
meaning, at least at the word level.

How do we talk about motivation today? Are there any forms of motivation other
than those mentioned above? Some researchers explore the possibly motivated
relationship between meaning and form (looking at e.g. the order of
constituents, the motivation of lexical classes, the relationship between
grammatical categories and the conceptualization of the world). Positing these
kinds of motivation does not necessarily involve identifying universals; on
the contrary, it allows for the specificity of languages.

Questions to be addressed may include but are not limited to:

- What are the theoretical positions of the various linguistics schools on
these issues?
- Are there syntactic constructions, grammatical or lexical categories, that
are motivated?
- Are all syntactic constructions, as well as grammatical and lexical
categories, motivated?
- What are the types of motivation? (Similarity? Traces of the construction of
meaning? Others?)
- In a seemingly paradoxical way, could we argue that arbitrariness itself is
motivated, in the sense that it is necessary in linguistic systems? What is
arbitrariness?

All languages can be studied and compared.
The languages of the conference will be French and English.

Keynote Speakers:
John Haiman, Macalester College, USA
Bencie Woll, University College London, UK
 

Program:

Vendredi / Friday 11 Oct., Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, 75006
Paris, salle / room D035 (Georges Molinié)

CAFÉ / COFFEE 09:15-09:40

09:45-10:15:
Ouverture du colloque / Opening of the conference

10:15-11:00:
Pierre Cotte (Sorbonne Université), “La motivation et l’évolution des pronoms
personnels de troisième personne dans l’histoire de l’anglais”

11:00-11:30: 
Laure Gardelle (Université Grenoble Alpes), “Motivation and arbitrariness in
English pronominal gender: why is a weakly grammaticalised, meaning-based,
system not transparent?”

11:30-12:00: 
Chris A. Smith (Université de Caen Normandie), “Exploring historical evidence
of analogical remotivation in the lexicon. Tracking sw- monomorphemes in the
OED3 (swat, switch, swindle)”

12:00-12:30: 
Fanny Colas (Université Bourgogne – Franche-Comté), “Lien entre iconicité et
sensorialité dans un corpus de verbes monosyllabiques français”

DÉJEUNER / LUNCH 12:30-13:55

14:00-14:45: 
John Haiman (Macalester College), “Pur et Dur: Aesthetic motivation for
symmetrical compounds in Khmer”
 
14:45-15:15: 
Romain Delhem (Université Clermont Auvergne), “Arbitrariness and motivation in
verb complementation”

15:15-15:45: 
Bogusław Bierwiaczonek (Uniwersytet im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie), “On
metonymic motivation of lexical polysemy and grammatical constructions” 

15:45-16:15:  
Alexandra Besedina (Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University), “Cross-
linguistic sound-meaning mappings”

PAUSE CAFÉ / COFFEE BREAK 16:15-16:40

16:45-17:15: 
Jingting Ye (Universität Leipzig), “Cross-linguistic evidence for
non-arbitrariness: a semantic map of property words”

17:15-17:45: 
Cécile Mathieu (Université de Picardie Jules Verne), “Arbitraire, motivation
et sexuisemblance : une alliance impensable ?”

17:45-18:15: 
Marie Turlais (Sorbonne Université) , “Semantic impact of the metaphor in the
motivation of lexicalised sequences of the chief executive type”

18:15-18:45: 
Antoine Tholly (Sorbonne Université), “La figuration prosodique du lexique au
regard de sa structuration sémique”

DÎNER DU COLLOQUE / CONFERENCE DINNER

Samedi / Saturday Oct.12, Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, 75006
Paris, salle / room D035 (Georges Molinié)

09:15-10:00: 
Bencie Woll (University College London), “What sign language can tell us about
notions of iconicity and arbitrariness in human language”

10:00-10:30: 
Dominique Boutet, Léa Chevrefils & Chloé Thomas (Université de Rouen
Normandie), “Iconicité dans les langues des signes au niveau phonologique”

PAUSE CAFÉ / COFFEE BREAK 10:30-10:55

11:00-11:30: 
Emmanuelle Prak-Derrington (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon), “La
re-motivation en discours: le geste vocal de la réduplication”

11:30-12:00:
Daisuke Suzuki & Takashi Fujiwara (Setsunan University), “Modal adverbs and
iconicity” 

12:00-12:30:
Cameron Morin (Université de Paris), “Motivated modal syntax in English
multiple constructions”

DÉJEUNER / LUNCH 12:30-13:40

13:45-14:30: 
Claude Delmas & Geneviève Girard-Gillet (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle),
“Pronoms, syntaxe, sémantique, arbitraire et motivation” 

14:30-15:00: 
Emmanuelle Roussel (Université de Caen Normandie), “Each other et one another,
entre motivation et cognition”

15:00-15:30: 
Pauline Beaupoil-Hourdel (Sorbonne Université) “Is iconicity a necessary step
in children's language development? Action-gesture relationships in language
acquisition”

15:30-16:00: 
Agnès Leroux (Université Paris-Nanterre) & Hélène Josse (Université Sorbonne
Nouvelle), “I like your hairs. They are so shiny. S'appuyer sur la tension
arbitraire / iconicité pour enseigner le fonctionnement des noms en anglais”

PAUSE CAFÉ / COFFEE BREAK 16:00-16:25

16:30-17:00: 
Maarten Lemmens & Robin Vallery (Université de Lille), “Emotional
non-arbitrariness in swear words of English and French”

17:00-17:30: 
Francisco Ocampo & Alicia Ocampo (University of Minnesota), “Balance between
semantic complexity of verbs and given/new status of referents in
two-constituent constructions: A case of cognitive-communicative motivation in
spoken Spanish”

FIN DU COLLOQUE / END OF CONFERENCE





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