35.2840, Calls: SLE Workshop - Indeterminacy in Grammar: Drawing the Boundaries

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-35-2840. Tue Oct 15 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.2840, Calls: SLE Workshop - Indeterminacy in Grammar: Drawing the Boundaries

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================================================================


Date: 11-Oct-2024
From: Sophie Ellsäßer [sophie.ellsaesser at uni-osnabrueck.de]
Subject: SLE Workshop - Indeterminacy in Grammar: Drawing the Boundaries


Full Title: SLE Workshop - Indeterminacy in Grammar: Drawing the
Boundaries

Date: 26-Aug-2025 - 29-Aug-2025
Location: Bordeaux, France
Contact Person: Natascha Raue
Meeting Email: nraue at uni-osnabrueck.de
Web Site: https://societaslinguistica.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/SL
E_Workshop-proposal_Indeterminacy-in-grammar.pdf

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Morphology; Syntax;
Text/Corpus Linguistics

Call Deadline: 10-Nov-2024

Meeting Description:

Keywords: ambiguity; vagueness; indeterminacy; grammar; empirical data

Indeterminacy, a notion that encompasses ambiguity, vagueness,
polysemy and underspecification, is a frequently employed phenomenon
across all linguistic levels that represents a central mechanism in
grammatical change (cf. Ágel 2009, Espinal & Villalba 2015). Research
into grammaticalization theory (e.g., Diewald 2002, Heine 2002,
Traugott 2010) assigns a central role to ambiguity in the development
of grammatical structures. The concept of underdetermination is also
described in grammaticalization theory (e.g., Ferraresi 2005). The
multifunctionality of parts of speech and their subdifferentiation
also play a central role in research that addresses the classification
of parts of speech (e.g., Vogel 2005, Wasow 2015, Zifonun 2017).
Grammatical indeterminacy is characterized as involving
morphosyntactic and lexical elements that allow for (at least) two
possible readings, i.e., two distinct grammatical classifications (cf.
Pinkal 1985, Ellsäßer 2024), as illustrated for German in (1).

(1)     Sie hat am Wochenende viel Staub gewischt.
        (‘She did a lot of dusting over the weekend.’/ ‘She dusted a
lot over the weekend.’)

In this example, the expression viel (‘a lot’) in German can either
function as a determiner of the noun Staub (‘dust’) [viel Staub]NP
(‘lots of dust’) or as an adverb modifying the action of dusting
[vielADV[Staub]NP (‘a lot of dusting’). This structural ambiguity
leads to different grammatical analyses depending on whether viel is
classified as a determiner or adverb. The preferred reading of the
sentence is typically, though not necessarily, clarified by context.
Further examples of indeterminacy include quantifiers, ellipsis,
anaphora, irony, and scare quotes, as illustrated in (2a-e) below.

(2)     a.      Few students read every book.
        b.      James invited Sarah to the concert, but I don’t know
who else.
        c.      Sarah told Julia that she would win the award.
        d.      What a great evening!
        e.      John is a real 'genius' when it comes to fixing cars.

These phenomena can serve as a testing ground for grammar-based
approaches to indeterminacy. While philosophical approaches (see e.g.,
Frege 1884, Chomsky 2002) have laid the groundwork for understanding
indeterminacy phenomena, with a substantial amount of research on
ambiguity resolution, key terminology in empirical studies of
indeterminacy is often inconsistently defined and empirical research
lacks a unified theoretical framework. Further, limited attention has
been on integrating grammatical theorizing in empirical studies and
there is no widely accepted empirical operationalization within
grammatical frameworks.

Call for Papers:

In our workshop, we aim to bridge the gap between grammatical theories
and empirical research, addressing the need for exploring how
theoretical grammar can be used to systematically classify and
investigate indeterminacy (cf. Winkler 2015). The following research
questions will be discussed in our workshop:
 • Which phenomena of indeterminacy (ambiguity, vagueness and
polysemy) can be found in grammar? On which linguistic levels (word
types, sentence structure, morphological structures) are they located?
 • To what extent is grammatical indeterminacy disambiguated (e.g., by
context)?
 • How can phenomena of indeterminacy and their disambiguation be
investigated empirically?

We particularly invite theoretical approaches and case studies on
various phenomena in different languages. By fostering collaboration
between theoretical and empirical researchers, this workshop seeks to
develop a more integrated and comprehensive framework for studying
indeterminacy in grammar.

The full workshop proposal as well as the references are available on
the SLE website at the link below.

Abstract submission:

The proposed workshop for the 58th Annual Meeting of the Societas
Linguistica Europaea, to be held from 26-29 August 2025 in Bordeaux,
will focus on the topic of indeterminacy in grammar. We invite
abstracts in English (300 words excluding references) that present
theoretical and empirical research on phenomena of indeterminacy in
language. Please submit your abstract to Natascha Raue
(nraue at uni-osnabrueck.de) by 10 November 2024. We will send
notifications for abstract submissions by the end of November, and a
500-word abstract will be required in case the workshop is accepted
for the SLE 2025.



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