Non-overt subjects in a cross-linguistic perspective
- Ort: Salzburg, Österreich
- Beginn: 22.11.13
- Ende: 24.11.13
- Disziplinen: Sprachwissenschaft
- Sprachen: Französisch, Italienisch, Portugiesisch, Spanisch, Weitere romanische Sprachen, Sprachenübergreifend
- Frist: 15.09.13
Non-overt subjects have always been a puzzle for the description and analysis of natural languages. Their adequate treatment has become an issue of long-running debates within different theoretical frameworks of linguistics.
There are different kinds of non-overt subjects. Apart from subjects which are omitted owing to their topical status, the most obvious case is the phenomenon of pro-drop which has attracted a great deal of attention particularly in generative research. Then, there are constructions which apparently lack a “real” subject NP, traditionally labelled as “impersonal” or “subjectless constructions”. At least some of them also have been analyzed as comprising a zero subject. However, these cases are less clear-cut, since the constructions in question often allow for alternative descriptions, like possessing a non-canonical subject or being a genuine subjectless structure. Naturally, the actual analysis of a given construction depends on the definition of subject, the theoretical framework and the grammatical features of the respective language.
The aim of the workshop is to discuss the diachronic and systematic relations between the different types of non-overt subjects from various theoretical and empirical angles.
We invite abstracts including the following topics:
– Loss of non-overt subjects
– Emergence of non-overt subjects
– Evidence from pidgins and creoles
– Non-overt subjects and language contact
– Diachronic relation between null subjects resulting from pro-drop and other non-overt subjects
– Diachronic relation between non-overt subjects and other grammatical phenomena (changes in verbal morphology, voice, word order etc.)
– Historical evidence for typological implications concerning non-overt subjects
Any theoretical approach, formal or functional, is welcome. Please send your abstract (in English or German; no more than 300 words) by email to
Prof. Dr. Imke Mendoza
Fachbereich Slawistik
Universität Salzburg
Imke.Mendoza@sbg.ac.at
or
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Pöll
Fachbereich Romanistik
Universität Salzburg
Bernhard.Poell@sbg.ac.at
Deadline for the submission of abstracts: September 15, 2013. Notification of acceptance will be given not later than October 7, 2013.
Publiziert von: cf