Call for Papers "Linguistic Foundations of Narration in Spoken and Sign Languages"

[Steinbach, Dr. Markus]

Full Title: DGfS Workshop: Linguistic Foundations of Narration in Spoken and Sign Languages
Location: Potsdam, Germany
Start Date: 13-Mar-2013 - 15-Mar-2013
Contact: Annika Hübl, Markus Steinbach
Meeting Email: annika.huebl at phil.uni-goettingen.de<mailto:annika.huebl at phil.uni-goettingen.de>
Meeting URL: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/364026.html<http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/dgfs-2013-ag-linguistic-foundations-of-narration-in-spoken-and-sign-languages/364026.html>

Meeting Description
For a considerable time, linguists have not only investigated sentences as largest relevant unit of language, but have begun to analyze the structure of whole texts. Recently, these efforts have produced power­ful frameworks, such as (S)DRT, Centering Theory, Accessibility Theory and studies concerning the QUD/Quaestio to name but a few. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of studies that apply these frameworks to fictional narrative texts. Even so, there are a number of elaborated studies within theoretical linguistics that deal with typical narrative phenomena (see, for instance, the discussion on free indirect discourse in the works of Schlenker 2004, Eckardt 2011, and Maier 2012 among others). More­over, there are more and more experimental studies investigating text phenomena in general and literary texts in particular (see e.g. Bortolussi/Dixon 2003, Burkhardt 2006). Another important aspect in this field is the fact that narrative structures in sign languages are incre
 asingly investigated on a formally high level. E.g. work on role shift and constructed action – which are the strategies of presenting some­body’s speech, thought and action in sign languages – has yielded interesting parallels with free indirect discourse and mixed quotation in spoken languages (see Quer 2005, 2011 and Herrmann/Steinbach 2012 among others). Hence, linguistics can contribute to the study of narratives in at least four ways:

- in drawing on well-elaborated formal frameworks to analyze literary texts and determine partly vague intuitions about narratological concepts.
- in applying empirical and experimental methods to narratives in order to establish a valid empirical basis that can be used to verify or falsify theoretical assumptions.
-  in investigating narratives from a typological broader perspective including strategies and structures used in different (non-western) languages.
-  in analyzing texts from a cross-modal perspective and relating sign language data to theoretical and empirical findings in spoken languages.
In this workshop, we will bring together scholars interested in the linguistic structures underlying narratives in spoken and sign languages. For this, the workshop is attractive to theoretical linguists and psycholinguists, as is for typologists and sign language linguists. Particularly welcome are empirical, theoretical, and experimental contributions to speech and thought representation, focalization, information structure, suspense and text time as well as work on role shift and constructed action.

Workshop Organizers
Annika Hübl & Markus Steinbach (Göttingen)

Invited Speakers
Philippe Schlenker (Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris/New York University)
Christiane von Stutterheim (University of Heidelberg)

CfP
Call Deadline: 1-Sept-2012
We invite submissions dealing with – but not limited to – linguistic aspects of the following topics:
-  speech and thought representation
-  focalization
-  information structure
-  suspense
-  story time and text time
-  role shift and constructed action
Particularly welcome are theoretical, empirical, and experimental contributions as well as contributions addressing questions of typology, acquisition and diachrony.

Submission Details
We invite submissions for 30 (20+10) or 60 minute (45+15) talks. Abstracts should be anonymous and not exceed one page including examples and references (12pt, 1.5 spacing, PDF or Word format). Please send your abstract to annika.huebl at phil.uni-goettingen.de<mailto:annika.huebl at phil.uni-goettingen.de>, and include your name, affiliation and the title of the abstract in the body of the email.

Important Dates

September 1, 2012: Deadline of abstract submission
September 15, 2012: Notification of acceptance
December 15, 2012: Provisional program
March 13-15, 2013: 35th Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS) in Potsdam