Full Title: The diachrony of word class peripheries (DGfS 2022)

Date: 23-Feb-2022 – 25-Feb-2022
Location: Tübingen, Germany
Contact Person: Tanja Ackermann

From: Tanja Ackermann <tanja.ackermann(at)fu-berlin.de>
Meeting Email: < click here to access email >

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics; Morphology; Syntax

Call Deadline: 01-Sep-2021

Meeting Description:

Workshop at the 44th Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS)

Workshop organisers: Tanja Ackermann, Linnéa C. Weitkamp & Christian Zimmer (Freie Universität Berlin)
Invited speakers: Antje Dammel (WWU Münster), Hendrik De Smet (KU Leuven)

Word classes of a language are usually not homogeneous groups of lexemes that share the same morphological and syntactic properties completely. Rather, lexemes are usually grouped together that have some basic commonalities but may differ in detail, e.g., regarding their inflectional behaviour. In many cases, one can identify within a word class a large number of lexemes that conform to a certain morphological or syntactic pattern (often referred to as  »core members ») whilst there is only a comparatively small number of deviants ( »peripheral members »). Examples abound: borrowings (in several word classes) may differ grammatically from native words, some complex verbs evade certain syntactic slots (such as verb-second position in German), mass and proper nouns differ grammatically from (other) nouns, the existence of small inflection classes, etc. Some such phenomena have already been studied in depth from a synchronic perspective (see, e.g., Döring & Geilfuß-Wolfgang 2017). Moreover, there is an ongoing debate on whether to assume more or less separate systems (core grammar vs. periphery) or one comprehensive system per language (see, e.g., Simon & Wiese 2011, Boas & Ziem 2018).

In this workshop, we focus on the diachrony of such phenomena assuming that the study of change and stability can be particularly helpful in furthering our understanding of the diversity within word classes concerning, for example, the motivation for divergent grammatical properties.

Call for Papers:

Our aim is to bring together researchers with different theoretical backgrounds to study morphological and/or syntactic properties of peripheral word class members (in a single language or contrastively) from a diachronic perspective. Studies on recent/ongoing change and apparent-time phenomena are welcome, as are studies with a long-term perspective.

Questions to be addressed include (but are not limited to) the following:
– Which factors support the stability of a deviant pattern?
– What counts as peripheral from a diachronic perspective, and do we need this concept at all?
– Can specific paths in the convergence towards the core be identified (e.g.: which paradigmatic slots lead the change?)?
– How do morphology and syntax interact and which role do semantics and phonology play?
– Etc.

We invite abstracts for 20-minute talks (+ 10 minutes discussion). Abstracts should be anonymous and approximately 400 words in length, plus references. Please send your abstracts to histling(at)zedat.fu-berlin.de, and include your name, affiliation, and the title of the abstract in the body of the e-mail.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 01 September 2021
Notification of acceptance: 30 September 2021

For further information please contact: histling(at)zedat.fu-berlin.de

References:
Boas, Hans C. & Alexander Ziem. 2018. Approaching German syntax from a constructionist perspective. In Hans C. Boas & Alexander Ziem (eds.), Constructional Approaches to Argument Structure in German, 1−44. Berlin & Boston: Mouton de Gruyter.
Döring, Sandra & Jochen Geilfuß-Wolfgang (eds.). 2017. Probleme der syntaktischen Kategorisierung. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.
Simon, Horst J. & Heike Wiese (eds.). 2011. Expecting the Unexpected: Exceptions in Grammar. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.