Appel à contributions : “(De)verbal discourse markers: a comparative French/English/Spanish approach”, Amiens, Nov. 2024

Date: 18-Nov-2024 – 18-Nov-2024
Location: Amiens (University of Picardie Jules Verne), France
Contact Person: Laure Lansari
Meeting Email: laure.lansari@u-picardie.fr

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics; Semantics
Subject Language(s): English (eng)
French (fra)
Spanish (spa)

Call Deadline: 15-Jul-2024

Meeting Description:

This one-day conference will be focusing on the so-called “deverbal” discourse markers (Schneider 2020), i.e. discourse markers of verbal origin. The literature uses various labels for these markers : the term “parenthetical”, adopted in English-speaking literature since Urmson (1952); “rection faible” in the French-speaking tradition (Blanche-Benveniste 1989) – two terms that emphasize their particular syntactic function -; “comment clause”; or the more descriptive “propositional marker” (Andersen 2007). Such terminological diversity in different linguistic traditions highlights the difficulty researchers face when it comes to classifying and analyzing these units, and justifies the topic investigated.

The aim of this day is to shed light on the wide variety of this type of marker, and on the common trends and divergences in the usage ot these units in the three languages under study, by examining:
– the different linguistic traditions and labels in the three languages, in order to compare and contrast the perspectives adopted in the analyses of this type of marker;
– the verbs or verb types (cognition, speech, perception, etc.) that are likely to appear in these units (think in I think, valer in vale, dire in c’est-à-dire, etc.);
– the different syntactic configurations that occur: finite or non-finite form of the verb, type of subject, type of sentence (assertive, interrogative, imperative, etc.), possible presence of other markers (modals as in I should think, je veux dire, quiero decir; but also adverbs such as ainsi in pour ainsi dire);
– the different functions or types of regulation they may underpin (reformulation, for example);
– the specific features of (de)verbal markers in comparison with other types of markers, such as discourse markers of nominal origin (cf. genre/kind of/en modo).

Papers may focus on case studies in one or more of these languages, using synchronic, diachronic, diastratic and diatopic approaches, as well as a didactic perspective. They may deal with various textual genres (spontaneous oral interactions, web data, written language, etc.) or experimental protocols, and various linguistic theories (enunciation, pragmatics, Construction Grammar, etc.).
Particular attention will be paid to papers likely to shed light on the similarities and differences between English, Spanish and French in the study of these markers.

Conference languages : English, Spanish, French
Abstract should be 300 words maximum (excluding references). They must be submitted in English, Spanish or French by July 15th 2024, and sent to:
fabiana.alvarez@u-picardie.fr
valerie.bourdier@u-pec.fr
laure.lansari@u-picardie.fr

Presentations: 30 minutes – 20 minutes presentation followed by 10 minutes discussion