36.2286, Confs: International Workshop on Adverbial Clauses and Prosody (Germany)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2286. Wed Jul 30 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2286, Confs: International Workshop on Adverbial Clauses and Prosody (Germany)

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Date: 29-Jul-2025
From: Łukasz Jędrzejowski [lukasz.jedrzejowski at uia.no]
Subject: International Workshop on Adverbial Clauses and Prosody


International Workshop on Adverbial Clauses and Prosody

Date: 12-Mar-2026 - 13-Mar-2026
Location: Potsdam, Germany
Contact: Łukasz Jędrzejowski
Contact Email: lukasz.jedrzejowski at uia.no
Meeting URL: http://www.lukasz-jedrzejowski.eu/adverbial-clauses-2/

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Phonology; Semantics; Syntax

Submission Deadline: 30-Oct-2025

Meeting Description:
Since Downing's (1970) seminal work on English intonational phrases
(IPs), a growing body of literature has shown that selected types of
subordinate clauses can clearly form their own IPs. As for English, it
has been generally observed that adverbial clauses are prosodically
integrated into the matrix clause when they appear in their base
position or attach to a position that is in the scope of the main
verb. For example, Downing (1970: 82) observes that temporal
"while"-clauses do not form a separate IP, whereas adversative
"while"-clauses do. This is in accordance with Haegeman's (2003)
typology of adverbial clauses, according to which temporal
"while"-clauses are analyzed as syntactically embedded clauses,
whereas their adversative counterparts are taken to be base-generated
within the CP domain of the matrix clause and to be more independent.
Selkirk (2005: 22–28) makes a similar observation about
"because"-clauses occurring to the right of the matrix clause. When
they are VP modifiers, there is no IP break required at the adjunction
point. But when, on the other hand, "because"-clauses are used as
higher adjuncts, they usually require their own IPs. However, it is
everything but obvious that when adverbial clauses attach higher in
the clause structure – either to the right or to the left – they form
an IP of their own (cf. Hamlaoui 2023 and Hamlaoui & Szendrői 2025 for
a recent overview of typological data). Furthermore, Frey (2011:
49–51) points out that peripheral adverbial clauses can have the same
options of prosodic realization as central adverbial clauses. The
current state of affairs on adverbial clauses and their prosody calls
therefore for new studies and novel insights.
The main aim of the workshop is to fill this gap by bringing together
recent theoretical and experimental investigations on prosody of
adverbial clauses. Furthermore, we hope to gain novel theoretical
insights into how adverbial subordinate dependency relationships work
and, through synergy effects, to provide a deeper understanding of how
prosody is used in subordinate contexts.
The international workshop on "Adverbial clauses and prosody" is
organized as part of the scientific network "Adverbial clauses and
subordinate dependency relationships" funded by German Science
Foundation granted to Łukasz Jędrzejowski (grant number 455700544) and
led by Andreas Pankau. The workshop will be hosted by the Institute
for Romance Studies at the University of Potsdam, on March 12-13,
2026, and is organized by Jan Fliessbach and Łukasz Jędrzejowski.
Invited Speakers (all confirmed):
Timo Buchholz (University of Cologne)
Emily Elfner (York University)
Fatima Hamlaoui (University of Toronto)
Michael Wagner (McGill University)
Call for Papers:
Topics for the workshop include, but are not limited to, the following
questions:
– What is the relation between adverbial clauses and phonological
structure? How to best account for the relationship between adverbial
subordination and phonological structure within and across languages?
Do adverbial clauses map onto their own intonational phrase? What are
cross-linguistic valid generalizations regarding the prosodic phrasing
of different types of adverbial clauses?
– How does the Match Theory (Selkirk 2009, 2011) or the Flexible
Approach (Hamlaoui & Szendrői 2017) capture the precise correspondence
between syntactic and prosodic structure of adverbial clauses?
– What role do prosodic well-formedness constraints (e.g. size
constraints), information-structural constraints (e.g. STRESSFOCUS) or
processing play in determining the integration status of an adverbial
clause?
– Adverbial clauses have been analyzed as central, peripheral or
non-integrated adjuncts, depending on how deeply they are integrated
into the host clause (cf. Takami 1988, Haegeman 2003, Frey 2020, among
many others). Do their integration status correlate with their
prosodic properties? What patterns and correlations are to be
observed?
– Different types of syntactically non-integrated adverbial clauses
have been postulated in the literature (cf. Schönenberger & Haegeman
2023 and Frey 2023). Do they also exhibit different prosodic
properties? If not, how do they differ? Do all types of non-integrated
adverbial clauses introduce their own intonational phrase boundaries?
– Adverbial clauses can also attach as dislocated adjuncts and involve
a resumptive or an expletive-like element in front of the matrix
clause (cf. e.g. "If Pete runs for President, then the Republicans
will lose" taken from Iatridou 1994). What are prosodic properties of
such dislocated adverbial clauses? How does prosodic (dis)integration
correlate with syntactic (dis)integration (cf. Myrberg 2013)?
– Ebert et al. (2014) developed a unified analysis of conditional
clauses as topics. How is it linked to Feldhausen's (2010)
ALIGN-TOPIC, R, according to which constituents that are topical form
their own IPs? Does it encompass all types of conditional clauses,
regardless of their syntactic integration status and of their
position?
The workshop seeks to offer an interdisciplinary perspective on
prosody of adverbial clauses and will be preceded by an international
closing conference on adverbial clauses at the Free University of
Berlin (9-10 March, 2026).
We invite submission of abstracts for 40-minute oral presentations
(with additional 20 minutes for questions) on topics that address
prosody of adverbial clauses. These may include case studies as well
as formal theories of particular adverbial clause types. We also
welcome research at the interfaces with syntax and other areas, as
long as the research makes a contribution to the area of prosody of
adverbial clauses.
Abstracts should be submitted in PDF format to
jan.fliessbach at uni-potsdam.de and to lukasz.jedrzejowski at uia.no, with
all non-standard fonts embedded. Abstracts should not exceed 2 pages,
which includes the data. An additional third page may be used for
references. Abstracts must be submitted in letter or A4 format with 1
inch or 2.5cm margins on all sides, single-spaced, and in a font no
smaller than 11pt. Abstracts should be anonymous. Please make sure
that PDF files do not have any identifying metadata. Submissions are
limited to one individual and one joint abstract per author (or two
joint abstracts per author).
Please submit abstracts to jan.fliessbach at uni-potsdam.de and to
lukasz.jedrzejowski at uia.no no later than October 30, 2025.
Notification: 14 November 2025
For inquiries, please send an e-mail to jan.fliessbach at uni-potsdam.de
and to lukasz.jedrzejowski at uia.no
For full list of references, please see the meeting's website.
The workshop is funded by a German Research Foundation grant to Łukasz
Jędrzejowski (grant number 455700544).



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