WAASAP: second call

Tue Feb 7 11:10:30 UTC 2012

Meeting Title: Workshop on Aspect and Argument Structure of Adjectives and Participles (WAASAP!)

Dates: 22-23 June 2012

Venue: University of Greenwich, London (UK)

Organizers: María J. Arche, Antonio Fábregas, Rafael Marín.

Contact Person: María J. Arche

Meeting Email: waasap2012 at gre.ac.uk

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics, Syntax, Typology

Language Family(ies): all

Call Deadline: 18 February 2012

Invited speakers:

·         Professor Timothy Stowell (University of California Los Angeles).

·        Dr Andrew Koontz-Garboden (University of Manchester).

In the past few years there has been an important body of literature about the relationship between Aspect and Argument Structure (Borer 2005; Ramchand 2008; Ritter&Rosen 2000, 2005; Rothstein 2008). The vast majority of studies have concentrated on verbs and also, in a minor degree, on (deverbal) nouns. However, much less is known in this respect about adjectives and participles. In this workshop we want to fill this gap by gathering researchers working on different aspects of Argument Structure and Aspect of adjectives and participles. Our aim is to bring together researchers from different approaches to discuss the articulation of the syntax, semantics and morphology of this part of the grammar in order to identify points of consensus and new venues for research.

Issues and questions we are interested in exploring within this workshop include (bur are not limited to) the following:

A)   Aspectual characterization of adjectives. In the spirit of recent lines of research (Bennis 2004; Borer 2005), some authors have argued that the argument structure of adjectives is directly related to the aspectual structure they embody (Arche 2006) and defend that (non deverbal) adjectives can be part of stative and non-stative structures. This view challenges the widespread tenet that adjectives yield stative predications only and raises new questions concerning the elements that can be considered as the stem of the particular aspectual characterization. Are adjectives to be associated with an aspectual characterization in the lexicon, or does this happen in the syntax? Are constructionist approaches more fit to discuss aspectual alternations? What is the role, if any, played by the Individual Level/Stage Level alternation in this regard? Are there other distinctions relevant for the analysis of adjectives? Is there any interaction between scalar (Kennedy & McNally 2005) and aspectual properties in the adjectival domain?

B)   Argument Structure in adjectives. The interpretation of arguments in non-deverbal categories has increasingly become the focus of attention in the recent years. In this regard, the work developed around the interpretation of nominals in adjectives referring to mental properties (e.g. cruel) is an example (Stowell 1991; Kertz 2006; Arche 2006, 2010; Landau 2009; Marín 2010). However consensus concerning the number of entries of this kind of adjectives in the mental lexicon as well as the precise characterization of their argument structure (e.g. what can be considered an argument vs. adjunct and how the arguments are linked to the predicate) still needs to be found, and rises some other questions. What is the relationship between the argument structure of adjectives and their syntactic behavior? What are the crucial argument structure alternations allowed by adjectives? What are the thematic roles possible for adjectives? Are there any thematic roles which cannot appear with adjectival predicates and, if so, why?

C)   Aspect and argument structure in participles. As deverbal forms, participles are assumed to convey the same properties than base verbs in principle. Yet, how can this be conciliated with the fact that they have their own aspectual features as, for example, result(ant) states? What are the relations with the base root verb and how and where is this articulated (e.g. in the syntax or in the lexicon?) How much of the argument structure of participles depends on the heritage from the verb? How exactly is the theta grid constrained by the participle's aspectual condition?

Scientific committee:

Prof. David Adger (Queen Mary, University of London),

Prof. Artemis Alexiadou (Universität Stuttgart)

Dr. Boban Arsenijevic (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Prof. Hagit Borer (University of Southern California)

Dr. Patricia Cabredo (CNRS – Université Paris 8)

Dr. Pavel Caha (CASTL, Tromsø)

Dr. Angel Gallego (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Dr. Berit Gehrke (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Dr. Gianina Iordachioaia (Universität Stuttgart)

Dr. Fabienne Martin (Universität Stuttgart)

Prof. Louise McNally (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Prof. Claudia Maienborn (Universität Tübingen)

Dr. Andrew Nevins (University College London)

Dr. Isabelle Roy (Université Paris 8)

Dr. Florian Schäfer (Universität Stuttgart)

Dr. Elena Soare (Université Paris 8)

Prof. Peter Svenonius (CASTL, Tromsø)

Call for Papers

We welcome abstracts for 20-minute papers (plus 10 minutes for discussion) which address one or more issues relating to the syntax and semantics of adjectives and participles and its morphological expression, as described in (but not confined to) the leading questions in the workshop description. The language of the workshop is English. Abstracts exclusively containing the title of the presentation should be submitted to the conference address at waasap2012 at gre.ac.uk in pdf format. Abstracts should be no longer than two pages, including examples and references, with 2.5 cm margins in 12-point Times, single-spaced.

For registration and further practical information: please go to www.gre.ac.uk/waasap or contact us at waasap2012 at gre.ac.uk.

Important dates:

Deadline for submissions: 18 February, 2012.

Notification of acceptance: 21 March, 2012.

Registration opens: 21 March, 2012

Conference dates: 22-23 June 2012.

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