Chicago Linguistic Society

Call For  Papers

 

CLS 40: Looking over and the overlooked

 

In celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Chicago Linguistic Society, this year’s meeting will focus both on the progress which the field of linguistics has made, and on the need for unification within the field. To that end, the Main Session will highlight our past as an organization and a discipline, while our Panel Sessions will address areas of the field that are underrepresented.  In addition to these scheduled sessions, there will also be special readings of classic CLS papers from the past four decades.

 

Invited Speakers for the Main Session and the Panel Sessions will be announced shortly. 

 

           The Conference will be held on April 15, 16 and 17,  2004. 

 

Panels:

 

I. Afro-Asiatic: Its Implications for theory

The Afro-Asiatic language phylum is one of the best-known language groupings in the world and has one of the longest written histories.  Yet despite much study, many current synchronic theories of linguistics sit ill at ease with virtually all aspects of the syntax, morphology and phonology of Afro-Asiatic languages.  This panel will look at the

ways in which Afro-Asiatic languages pose difficulties for current synchronic linguistic theories, as well as how their relationships  to one another diachronically are currently understood.  Contributions on languages from the five less well studied branches -- Berber, Chadic,  Cushitic, Egyptian and Omotic -- are especially encouraged.

 

II. Linguistic Theory and Its Applications

Though many fields of study require an understanding of language, few researchers in language-related fields make use of linguistic theory beyond its most basic concepts.   This panel aims to explore the complex and varied links between linguistics and related disciplines.  The scope includes any subfields of computational linguistics and areas of applied linguistics that involve major formal linguistic theories.  Example topics include:

·        Application of linguistic theory to concrete problems in related fields.

  • Research exposing gaps in areas of linguistic theory. (Do the current major theories fail to address language-related data you have seen?)

Papers should be explicit in explaining the ways in which theory and application interact, and should support arguments with concrete research findings.

 

III. 'What we talk about when we talk about nothing':  The experience of absence in linguistics

 

This panel will collect papers dealing with the issues surrounding elements that are claimed to be present at some level of representation but are not overt. From the syntax and semantics of anaphora, to underlying representations, to downstep phenomena in the analysis of tone, 'absence' is postulated to be everywhere.  The goal of this panel is in part to make the linguist’s own assumptions explicit by convening a discussion addressing whether or not, and to what extent, missing material can be said to exist.  Therefore, separate from research-internal goals, the author should explicitly state how s/he conceives of the missing/deleted/implicit material. Issues of interest include:

 

·        How can our various models, irrespective of a particular framework, better represent both a theoretical and practical understanding of these ubiquitous and puzzling phenomena?

·        What role, if any, does awareness of these forms play in helping speakers  resolve comprehension problems?

 

This panel is open to papers on any side of this contentious debate, in any linguistic sub-field,with an eye toward getting various perspectives on what isn't there.

 

IV. Dispensing with Derivation: Monostratal Theories of Grammar

 

This panel will collect papers addressing current problems in syntax/semantics, employing monstratal frameworks such as Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar,  Emergent Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Autolexical Grammar, etc. Approaches to this topic will include:

  • Alternate approaches to thorny problems which have resisted explanation within derivational accounts.
  • Advantages of monostratal theories in addressing issues of processing (i.e. consideration of the production bias of derivational theories), including research on pragmatics and discourse analysis.
  • Languages or Language Families which pose particular problems for derivational accounts.
  •  Psycholinguistic research which supports the use of monostratal frameworks, including research on language acquisition (e.g. semantic/syntactic bootstrapping accounts vs. construction-based accounts).

 

       Abstracts, in pdf format only, may be submitted to cls@diderot.uchicago.edu

 

Further information will shortly  be available at http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/cls/

 

                                      Abstracts are due by January 24, 2004

Please specify if you are submitting to the Main Session or to one of the Panel Sessions.