36.587, Calls: Grammatical indeterminacy in empirical research (Workshop) / Germany

Thu Feb 13 05:05:05 UTC 2025

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-587. Thu Feb 13 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.587, Calls: Grammatical indeterminacy in empirical research (Workshop) / Germany

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Date: 13-Feb-2025
From: Sophie Ellsäßer [sophie.ellsaesser at uni-osnabrueck.de]
Subject: Grammatical indeterminacy in empirical research (Workshop)

Full Title: Grammatical indeterminacy in empirical research (Workshop)

Date: 29-Sep-2025 - 30-Sep-2025
Location: Osnabrück, Germany
Contact Person: Natascha Raue
Meeting Email: nraue at uni-osnabrueck.de

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

Call Deadline: 20-Feb-2025

Workshop description:
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 in-determinacy. 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.
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?
2nd Call for Papers:
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 workshop is part of our Fritz Thyssen
project on “Grammatical indeterminacy. Empirical differentiation of
ambiguity, vagueness and polysemy”.
Abstract submission (extended deadline):
The workshop will take place on September 29-30 2025 at Osnabrück
University. 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 20 February 2025.

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