[Langues d'héritage] Colloque Heritage Language Syntax 3

Heritage Language Syntax is a workshop initiated at the University of Utrecht by Roberta D’Alessandro within the ERC Microcontact, with the aim of investigating the syntactic properties of heritage grammars.

This third (and first in-presence) edition of Heritage Language Syntax was organised in Paris within the IRN Heritage Languages in Europe (coordinator Elena Soare, U Paris 8 & CNRS).

Invited speakers:
Maria Polinsky (University of Maryland, College Park)
Silvina Montrul (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Greg Scontras (University of California, Irvine)
Esther Rinke (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)
Terje Lohndal (UiT The Arctic University of Norway)

Le colloque a eu lieu en hybride

• à l'Inalco - Bulac, rue des Grands Moulins, salle 4.23 / 4.24.
• via zoom.

Call for papers

Submission deadline 31 July 2022

In this edition, we seek to investigate the issue of complexity in the syntax of heritage languages. It is often assumed that these grammars are “simplified”, or even incomplete, but there is good evidence that in certain conditions heritage speakers prefer complex or more marked constructions to simpler ones.

The interest in the study of Heritage Languages has been increasing over two decades (starting in the United States and progressively developing more recently in Europe). This is due, among other things, to the fact that they provide a unique window into the mechanisms of language change and the functioning of the bilingual brain in specific conditions. Among the existing studies, some have focused on the structural properties of heritage grammars.

Heritage Language Syntax is a workshop initiated at the University of Utrecht by Roberta D’Alessandro within the ERC Microcontact (https://microcontact.sites.uu.nl/hls-2/), with the aim of investigating the syntactic properties of heritage grammars.

This third (and first in-presence) edition of Heritage Language Syntax will be organized in Paris within the IRN Heritage Languages in Europe (coordinator Elena Soare, University of Paris 8 & CNRS): https://www.sfl.cnrs.fr/les-langues-dheritage-en-france

In this edition, we seek to investigate the issue of complexity in the syntax of heritage languages. It is often assumed that these grammars are “simplified”, or even incomplete, but there is good evidence that in certain conditions heritage speakers prefer complex or more marked constructions to simpler ones.

We encourage contributions that address the following questions (but not only):

• how can we define and measure complexity in heritage languages?
• what does it mean for a grammar to be “simple” or “incomplete”?
• under what conditions are complex structures avoided by heritage speakers? under what conditions are complex structures preferred by heritage speakers?
• what are the properties of reduced/tenseless domains (infinitives, gerunds, simple roots) in heritage grammars?
• how do heritage grammars inform linguistic theory on categorization?
• what can be said about the interplay between syntactic complexity and processing costs?

Submission guidelines:
- Abstracts should be anonymous
- No longer than two A4 pages, including references and examples
- Margins of at least 2.5 cm, font size 12, single-spaced
- Submissions are limited to a maximum of one individual and one joint abstract per author.
- All abstracts should be submitted in PDF format via Easychair at: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hls2022
- Please submit no later than July 31, 2022

Notification of acceptance will be given by September 1st, 2022
Presentations will be 30 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion
All questions about submissions should be emailed to the conference email.
Dates:

Deadline for submissions – July 31, 2022

Notification – September 1st, 2022

Conference – Oct 20-21, 2022

Organizing committee:
Elena Soare (U. Paris 8 & CNRS), Alexandru Mardale (Inalco & CNRS), Gabriela Bîlbîie (Universitatea din Bucuresti & CNRS), Larisa Avram (Universitatea din Bucuresti), Oana Lungu (Nantes Université & CNRS), Timothée Premat (SFL), Daniel Gavris (SFL)

Sponsor and partners:
This workshop is part of the IRN Heritage Languages in Europe, funded by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and hosted by the research group  Structures Formelles du Langage & Université Paris 8.