Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics

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Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics Societas Linguistica Europaea SLE 39th Annual Meeting Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics 30 August-2 September 2006 Universität Bremen Organised by the Department of Linguistics and the Institute of General and Applied Linguistics (IAAS) at the University of Bremen Chief Organizer Secretary and Webmaster Prof. Dr. Thomas Stolz Prof. Dr. Karl Heinz Wagner Fachbereich 10: Linguistik Fachbereich 10: CIP-Labor Bibliothekstraße Bibliothekstraße Universität Bremen Universität Bremen Postfach 33 04 40 Postfach 33 04 40 D-28334 Bremen D-28334 Bremen Tel.: ++49(0)421/218-4993 Tel.: ++49(0)421/218-309 Fax: ++49(0)421/218-4283 E-Mail: [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] Table of Contents SLE 2006 in Bremen - welcome! 1 Organization 2 Programme Overview 3 Sections 7 Section A: Language Contact 9 Section B: Relativism vs. Universalism 21 Section C: Grammaticalization and Language Change 37 Section D: Pronouns 49 Section E: Word Order 57 Section F: Phonology 67 Section G: Verbal Categories (aspect and sundry distinctions) 75 Section H: Syntax 83 Section I: Morphology 95 Section J: Semantics / Cognition 105 Section K: Theory - Methodology 115 Section L: Discourse 121 Workshops 123 Workshop 1 (Abr): Cross-linguistic aspect/Aktionsart-modality links 125 Workshop 2 (Anc): Universalism and relativism in face-saving: Focus on postcolonial contexts 147 Workshop 3 (Cor): The encoding of evidentiality in European written and spoken discourse 157 Workshop 4 (Fer): Multilingualism and Universal Principles of Linguistic Change 167 Workshop 5 (Gro): Universalist Perspectives on Relative Properties: Features vs. Constructions of the Clausal Left Periphery 173 Workshop 6 (Had): La scalarité, concept éclaté ou outil explicatif performant? 183 Workshop 7 (Ron): Irregularity in inflectional and derivational morphology 191 Index 199 SLE 2006 in Bremen - welcome! On behalf of the organising team, I welcome all participants of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea in Bremen. The Institut für Allgemeine und Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft (IAAS) [= Institute for General and Applied Linguistics] and the Studiengang Linguistik feel honoured by the fact that this year’s meeting has been allotted to our department. Moreover, we also hope that the interest the international linguistic circles take in this event in Bremen will help our institute to overcome the politico-economic turmoil which has put the survival of linguistics in Bremen at stake. However, the present state of the humanities not only in Bremen or in Germany, but in general requires that we make the general public understand that what we are doing professionally is important and not a negligible hobby-horse. The general topic of the meeting is “Relativism and Universalism in Linguistics”. This dichotomy of science-philosophical viewpoints is something that will also appeal to the interested laymen and thus, may attract people from outside academia to attend. In this way, the public awareness of the importance of linguistic research can be strengthened. We hope to achieve a similar effect by large-scale media coverage for our meeting. With a view to setting the scene, I take the liberty to repeat what I have said in the conference description published on the internet: Throughout the history of linguistics, two opposing views on linguistic facts have been competing with each other. Simplifying, a crude version of relativism takes the structural diversity of human languages to be evidence of the differential determination of language structures by non-linguistic factors (most prominently, culture-dependent world-views, etc.). An equally crude universalism, on the other hand, denounces the very same facts as secondary and thus largely unimportant phenomena behind which the “real” language is hidden. This supposed real language, then, is organised in such a way that it obeys universally valid rules (which may be innate). The program of SLE 2006 comprises six plenary lectures which are devoted to the problem of Relativism vs. Universalism. Furthermore, the largest section of our conference, section B (with 16 talks), shares its title with the general one of the meeting. In addition, several of the workshops focus on aspects of Relativism and/or Universalism within a special branch of linguistics. Of course, many of the talks which are on the program of other sections and workshops also touch upon the major topic of SLE 2006. Thus, we expect that the 39th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea will give a new impetus to the above debate. Thomas Stolz (Local organiser) Organization Local Organizing Committee Scientific Committee Thomas Stolz (President) Thomas Stolz Christopher Beedham (St. Andrews) John Charles Smith (SLE) Christel Stolz Livio Gaeta (Naples) Karl Heinz Wagner (Webmaster) Elisabeth Verhoeven Salvador Pons (Valencia) Martina Behrens (Accountant) Local Organizers Christel Stolz Sonja Kettler Cornelia Stroh Elisabeth Verhoeven Aina Urdze Tamar Khizanishvili Nataliya Levkovych Karl Heinz Wagner Contact Conference fees by after Fachbereich 10: Linguistik May 30, 2006 May 30, 2006 Universität Bremen Bibliothekstraße Members € 70 € 100 Postfach 33 04 40 Non-members1 € 100 € 130 D-28334 Bremen Participants Tel.: ++49(0)421/218-4993 from Eastern € 60 € 90 Fax: ++49(0)421/218-4283 Europe2 E-Mail: [email protected] PhD students € 70 € 100 Students € 30 € 60 1. The annual membership fee for SLE is 30 Euro 2. In this context the term Eastern Europe includes the following countries (in alphabetical order): Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan Bank account details Please use the following details for bank transfer: Recipient: Universität Bremen Account number: 1070 500 022 German bank code (BLZ): 290 500 00 Name of bank: Bremer Landesbank Domshof 26 D-28195 Bremen Transfer description: EK 50010100, Fonds 4100 0037 SLE2006 For foreign bank transfers: International Bank Account No. (IBAN): DE20 2905 0000 1070 5000 22 Bank Identifier Code (BIC): BRLADE22 Programme Overview Wednesday, August 30, 2006 08:30–09:00 On site registration 09:00–10:00 Plenary talk I: Lehmann, Christian (Erfurt) Linguistic competence, proficiency and aptitude 10:00–11:00 Sections Workshops • B: Sessions 1 – 2 • Fer: Session 1 • G: Sessions 1 – 2 • Had: Session 1 • I: Sessions 1 – 2 Coffee break 11:30–13:00 Sections Workshops • B: Sessions 3 – 5 • Fer: Sessions 2 – 3 • D: Sessions 1 – 3 • Had: Sessions 2 – 3 • G: Session 3 – 5 • I: Sessions 3 – 5 Lunch break 14:00–15:00 Plenary talk II: Werlen, Iwar (Bern) Humboldt, das tagalische Verb und die sprachliche Relativität 15:00–16:30 Sections Workshops • A: Sessions 1 – 3 • Fer: Sessions 4 – 5 • B: Sessions 6 – 8 • Had: Sessions 4 - 5 • D: Sessions 4 – 6 • E: Sessions 1 – 3 Coffee break 17:00–18:30 Workshops • Had: Session 6 20:00– Reception 4 Programme Overview Thursday, August 31, 2006 08:30–09:00 On site registration 09:00–10:00 Plenary talk III: Dahl, Östen (Stockholm) Relativism and Universalism from the perspective of areal typology and grammaticalization theory 10:00–11:00 Sections Workshops • A: Sessions 4 – 5 • Cor: Sessions 1 – 2 • G: Sessions 6 – 7 • Fer: Session 6 • I: Sessions 6 – 7 • Ron: Session 1 Coffee break 11:30–13:00 Sections Workshops • A: Sessions 6 – 8 • Cor: Sessions 3 – 5 • G: Sessions 8 – 9 • Fer: Sessions 7 – 8 • I: Session 8 • Ron: Sessions 2 – 3 Lunch break 14:00–15:00 Plenary talk IV: Creissels, Denis (Lyon) Direct and indirect explanations of typological regularities the case of alignment variations 15:00–16:30 Sections Workshops • A: Sessions 9 – 11 • Abr: Sessions 1 – 2 • B: Sessions 9 – 11 • Cor: Sessions 6 – 8 • E: Sessions 5 – 6 • Ron: Sessions 4 – 5 Coffee break 17:00–18:30 Sections Workshops • B: Sessions 12 – 13 • Abr: Sessions 3 – 4 • E: Sessions 7 – 8 • Cor: Sessions 9 – 11 5 Friday, September 1, 2006 08:30–09:00 On site registration 09:00–10:00 Plenary talk V: Dressler, Wolfgang U. (Vienna) Universal, typological and language-specific morphological properties: converging and diverging evidences 10:00–11:00 Sections Workshops • B: Sessions 14 – 15 • Abr: Session 5 • H: Sessions 1 – 2 • Anc: Session 1 • Gro: Session 1 • Ron: Session 6 Coffee break 11:30–13:00 Sections Workshops • B: Session 16 • Abr: Sessions 6 – 7 • F: Sessions 1 – 3 • Anc: Sessions 2 – 3 • H: Sessions 3 – 5 • Gro: Sessions 2 – 3 • L: Sessions 1 – 2 • Ron: Sessions 7 – 8 Lunch break 14:00–16:30 Sections Workshops • C: Sessions 1 – 5 • Abr: Sessions 8 – 10 • F: Sessions 4 – 6 • Anc: Sessions 4 – 6 • J: Sessions 1 – 3 • Gro: Sessions 4 – 6 • K: Sessions 1 – 5 Coffee break 17:00–19:00 SLE business meeting 20:00– Conference dinner 6 Programme Overview Saturday, September 2, 2006 09:00–10:00 Plenary talk VI: Mithun, Marianne (Santa Barbara) Rhetorical prosody and polysynthesis 10:00–11:00 Sections Workshops • C: Sessions 6 – 7 • Abr: Session 11 • J: Sessions 4 – 5 • Anc: Session 7 • Gro: Session 7 Coffee break 11:30–13:00 Sections Workshops • C: Sessions 8 – 10 • Abr: Sessions 12 – 13 • J: Sessions 6 – 8 • Anc: Sessions 8 – 9 • Gro: Sessions 8 – 9 Lunch break 14:00–16:30 Sections Workshops • C: Sessions 11 – 12 • Abr: Sessions 14 – 16 • H: Sessions 6 – 10 • Anc: Session 10 • J: Sessions 9 – 10 • Gro: Sessions 10 – 12 Sections Section A: Language Contact Conference room: GW1 B0080 Wednesday, August 30, 2006 15:00–15:30 Bakker, Dik (University of Amsterdam) / Hekking, Ewald (Universidad de Querétaro) Anything goes, but within limits 15:30–16:00 Bucheli Berger, Claudia (Universität Zürich) Africanism or universalism? Serial verbs in French-based Creoles. 16:00–16:30 Carrió, Mª Luisa (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia) The variations of technical English texts: native writers vs. non-native writers Thursday, August 31, 2006 10:00–10:30 Franco, Jon (University of Deusto-Bilbao) / Landa, Alazne (University of the Basque Country) The Negative Split in Romance: Focus on Spanish Contact Varieties 10:30–11:00 González-Vilbazo, Kay E.
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