31.53, Confs: Gen Ling, Ling Theories, Morphology, Semantics, Syntax/Germany

LINGUIST List: Vol-31-53. Sat Jan 04 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.53, Confs: Gen Ling, Ling Theories, Morphology, Semantics, Syntax/Germany

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Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2020 00:28:37
From: Doreen Georgi [[email protected]]
Subject: Structural Asymmetries in African Languages

 
Structural Asymmetries in African Languages 
Short Title: SAIAL 

Date: 27-Apr-2020 - 28-Apr-2020 
Location: Potsdam, Germany 
Contact: Doreen Georgi 
Contact Email: [email protected] 
Meeting URL: https://sites.google.com/view/saial-2020/startseite 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax 

Meeting Description: 

The study of asymmetries in grammatical systems has played a central role in
grammar-theoretical approaches to human language. For instance,
extraction-asymmetries between subjects and non-subjects have played an
important role in the development of generative models of grammar from the
early beginnings in Chomsky (1965). The same holds, for instance, for
reorderings to the left or to the right, or for the question of whether
external arguments (subjects) stand in a fundamentally different structural,
and hence semantic relation to the verbal predicate than internal arguments
(objects). Often, theoretical approaches differ precisely in whether or not
they assume such asymmetries in human language. For instance, the framework of
Categorial Grammar allows for the local composition of subjects and verbs,
whereas many other syntactic frameworks assume strict configurationality in
the VP, and hence do not.

The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers from different
frameworks working on the structural aspects of grammar in African languages,
and in particular on structural asymmetries. Apart from contributing novel
data to the discussion, we are particularly interested in the consequences of
the empirical observations for our understanding of the grammar of human
language: Do the data support or falsify existing theoretical approaches to
structural asymmetries? Do the data make the existence of asymmetries in the
grammatical architecture of languages mandatory, or do they allow for less
restricted approaches? Do they allow us to refine less well understood aspects
of previous approaches? What can we learn about the cause of the observed
asymmetries? What do the findings tell us about the overall architecture of
grammar and the interfaces between (morpho)syntax, phonology/phonetics and
semantics/pragmatics? 
We are thus especially interested in papers that present new empirical data,
also from understudied languages, and which discuss their implications for
formal theories of structural aspects of the grammar of human language. 

Phenomena of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

- extraction asymmetries (subjects vs. non-subjects, arguments vs. adjuncts,
referential vs. non-referential elements) e.g. concerning the distribution of
resumptive pronouns vs. gaps, cross-referencing of arguments (case,
agreement), that-trace effects, ...

- reordering asymmetries (left- vs (no) right-disclocation, subject inversion,
...)

- asymmetries between matrix and embedded questions (e.g. the lack of embedded
questions with relative clauses being used instead; choice of operator
elements, differences in tense-aspect-mood,  ...)

- asymmetries in clausal complementation (infinitival vs finite; differences
in tense-aspect-mood; selection asymmetries (Y/N-questions, wh-questions,
declaratives, DPs) with different embedding predicates, ...)  

- structurally different types of serial verb constructions / clefts / copula
clauses /  ...

- asymmetries in focus marking (position: in situ / ex situ focus & wh,
category-based: predicate focus vs argument focus)

- asymmetries between the vP- and TP-periphery

- asymmetries between DPs (D-elements in the extended nominal projection) and
clausal determiners (D-elements attached to clauses)

- asymmetries in tense-aspect-mood marking (e.g. structural realization of
future vs non-future; tense vs. aspect-marking)

Invited speakers:
Jenneke van der Wal (LUCL, Leiden) & Enoch Oladé Aboh (UvA, Amsterdam)

Organizers:
Doreen Georgi (University of Potsdam), Katharina Hartmann (Goethe University
Frankfurt), Malte Zimmermann (University of Potsdam)
 






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