Call for papers

Call Deadline: 15^th May 2012

Notifications: 15^th June 2012

The comparative method was tested on phonology and morphology rather than syntax and, even though excellent syntactic studies were performed in the research tradition of Neogrammarians and Structuralists (cf. Delbrück 1871; 1877; 1878; 1879; 1888; 1893-1900, Grimm 1870-1898, Miklosich 1874, Speyer 1886; 1896, Hirt 1921-1937, Brugmann 1925, Wackernagel 1926-1928, Schwyzer 1950, Hofmann und Szantyr 1965), problems of syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction have often been neglected in traditional historical linguistics. In the last years, a series of interesting studies have addressed questions of diachronic syntax from different empirical and theoretical perspectives (cf. Harris & Campbell 1995; Crespo & García Ramón 1997; Hewson & Bubenik 2006; Longobardi 2003; Lightfoot 2006; Luraghi 2010; Ferraresi & Goldbach 2008; Ferraresi & Lühr 2010; Barðdal & Eythórsson in press, etc.). However, many issues in syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction are still controversial. In order to take part in this new dialogue on historical syntax, we invite papers that may either address general problems of methodology for syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction or also examine particular instances of them. Papers may discuss (but are by no means limited to) the following questions:

• which principles can be identified behind a syntactic change (e.g. analogy, reanalysis, extension, grammaticalization, contact), and to what extent do such mechanisms vary according to different constructions and possibly to different languages?
• how do socio-historical issues interact with the inborn capacities of the human mind in the emergence and development of syntactic structures?
• which similarities and differences in principles or directionality may be identified between syntactic change and other types of change in phonology, morphology, and semantics?

There are no constraints on the choice of the theoretical framework or of the investigated languages, as long as they are accessible to non-specialists through interlinear glosses and cross-theoretical openness. Highly welcome are papers devoted to syntactic phenomena in the ancient Indo-European languages, which, however, must be diachronically oriented rather than present synchronic analyses of data from old languages.

Abstracts are invited for a 20-minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of discussion.

They should be sent in anonymous form (at most 2 pages long, excluding references) to the email-address syntax@klphs.uzh.ch no later than 15^th May 2012. Name and affiliation of the author(s) and title of the abstract should be included in the body of the email. Notifications will be sent by 15^th June. Papers accepted for presentation will be also published in the proceedings of the conference.

Barðdal, J. & Th. Eythórsson (2010) “Reconstructing Syntax: Construction Grammar and the Comparative Method”, to appear in H. Boas & I. Sag (eds.) Sign-Based Construction Grammar. Stanford, CSLI Publications, http://org.uib.no/iecastp/barddal/

Brugmann, K. (1925) Die Syntax des einfachen Satzes im Indogermanischen, Berlin & Leipzig, de Gruyter.

Crespo, E. & J.-L. García Ramón (1997) (eds.) Berthold Delbrück y la sintaxis indoeuropea hoy (Actas del Coloquio de la Indogermanische Gesellschaft; Madrid, 21-24 de septiembre de 1994), Madrid & Wiesbaden, Reichert.

Delbrück, B. (1871) Der Gebrauch des Konjunktivs und Optativs im Sanskrit und Griechischen (= Syntaktische Forschungen 1), Halle, Buchhandlung des Weisenhauses.

Delbrück, B. (1877) Altindische Tempuslehre (= Syntaktische Forschungen 2), Halle, Buchhandlung des Weisenhauses.

Delbrück, B. (1878) Die altindische Wortfolge aus dem Śatapathabrāhmaṇa dargestellt (= Syntaktische Forschungen 3), Halle, Buchhandlung des Weisenhauses.

Delbrück, B. (1879) Die Grundlagen der griechischen Syntax (= Syntaktische Forschungen 4), Halle, Buchhandlung des Weisenhauses.

Delbrück B. (1888) Altindische Syntax (= Syntaktische Forschungen 5), Halle, Buchhandlung des Weisenhauses.

Delbrück, B. (1893-1900) Vergleichende Syntax der indogermanischen Sprachen, Strassburg, Trübner.

Ferraresi, G. & M. Goldbach (2008) (eds.) Principles of Syntactic Reconstruction, Amsterdam, Benjamins.

Ferraresi, G. & R. Lühr (2010) (eds.) Diachronic Studies on Information Structure. Language Acquisition and Change, Berlin, de Gruyter.

Grimm, J. (1870-1898)² Deutsche Grammatik, Göttingen, Dieterich.

Harris, A. & L. Campbell (1995) Historical syntax in cross-linguistic perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Hewson, J. & V. Bubenik (2006) From case to adposition: the development of configurational syntax in Indo-European languages, Amsterdam, Benjamins.

Hirt, H. (1921-1937) Indogermanische Grammatik, Heidelberg, Winter.

Hofmann, J. & A. Szantyr (1965) Lateinische Syntax und Stilistik, München, Beck.

Lightfoot, D. (2006) How New Languages Emerge. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Longobardi, G. (2003) “On parameters and parameter theory”, in E. Stark & U. Wandrusza (eds.) Syntaxtheorien: Modelle, Methoden, Motive, Tübingen, Narr, 273-290.

Luraghi, S. (2010) “The rise (and possible downfall) of configurationality”, in V. Bubenik & S. Luraghi (Hgg.), A Companion to Historical Linguistics, London & New York, Continuum, 212-229.

Miklosich, F. (1874) Vergleichende Syntax der slavischen Sprachen (Band 4. der Vergleichenden Grammatik der slavischen Sprachen), Wien, Braumüller.

Schwyzer, E. (1950) Griechische Grammatik, 2. Band, Syntax und syntaktische Stilistik, München, Beck.

Speyer, J. (1886) Sanskrit Syntax, Leyden.

Speyer, J. (1896) Vedische und Sanskrit Syntax, Strassburg, Trübner.

Wackernagel, J. (1926-1928)² Vorlesungen über Syntax, Basel, Birkhäuser