From June 18th-20th, 2020, the XXXI. International Colloquium of the âStudienkreis âGeschichte der Sprachwissenschaftââ (SGdS) on Language and Language Awareness in the History of Linguistics will take place at the Europa-UniversitĂ€t Flensburg. The choice of topics may range from antiquity to the present. Since antiquity, there has been a lively debate on questions dealing with language and language awareness. One only needs to think of Platoâs reflections on the role of language as an instrument of knowledge and of Truth Seeking in his Cratylus or on the factional dispute between the Anomalists and Analogists.
Over the centuries, Read more ›
Cfp: XXXI. International Colloquium of the âStudienkreis âGeschichte der Sprachwissenschaftââ (SGdS) on Language and Language Awareness in the History of Linguistics (Flensburg, 18.-20.06.2020)
Posted in Conferences and workshops, Uncategorized
Une bonne langue pour chanter ? Réflexions sur les caractéristiques phonétiques des langues et sur le chant baroque
Claudia Schweitzer
Histoire des Théories Linguistiques, CNRS, Université de Paris
Dans sa Lettre sur la musique française (1753 : 91), Rousseau dĂ©clare « quâil nây a ni mesure ni mĂ©lodie dans la Musique Française, parce que la langue nâen est pas susceptible ». Par consĂ©quent, son « chant nâest quâun aboyement continuel, insupportable Ă toute oreille non prĂ©venue ». Le français est une langue inadaptĂ©e pour chanter, ainsi lâopinion souvent exprimĂ©e (comme ici chez Rousseau), et ceci jusquâĂ aujourdâhui. La prĂ©fĂ©rence est gĂ©nĂ©ralement donnĂ©e Ă la langue italienne dont Giambattista Mancini (1776 : 199) fait lâĂ©loge ici : « Toutes les nations sont obligĂ©es, bon grĂ© ou malgrĂ© [sic !], de convenir que la langue italienne est, de toutes les langues, la plus harmonieuse, la plus douce, la plus suave, la plus propre, en un mot, Ă ĂȘtre adaptĂ©e Ă une bonne musique. »
Si lâon compare ces constats avec celui de Hermann Finck (1556Â : livre 5) au milieu du Read more ›
Language in and out of society: Converging critiques of the Labovian paradigm
Johannes Woschitz
University of Edinburgh
The following text is based on and is, where appropriate, an elaboration of Woschitz (2019), a paper I have recently published and which is the centrepiece of my PhD thesis. A different title could have been: the structuralist heritage in sociolinguistics. Yet another title could have been: the ongoing clarification of the register concept within sociolinguistics.
Consider the following phenomenon: All throughout North America, a range of sound changes â more specifically, phonological changes â have been reported (Labov, Ash, & Boberg, 2006). Speakers of the Inland North are undergoing the so-called Northern Cities Vowel Shift, Canadians are undergoing the Canadian Vowel Shift, the West merges CAUGHT with COT, Philadelphians show fronting of back vowels, and so on. Similar changes have been studied across the Atlantic Ocean. In Danish spoken in Denmark, for instance, vigorous sound changes have been reported to have happened in the 20th century, which is why Swedes find it increasingly hard to understand their neighbours (see Gregersen, 2003, p. 145).
In their analysis of such phenomena, linguists are faced with at least three challenges. Read more ›
Henry Sweet Society Colloquium 2020, London
The 2020 annual colloquium of the Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas will be held on Thursday 30 April at the University of Westminster, London. Papers are invited on any topic in the History of Linguistics and Linguistic Ideas. We also welcome proposals for panels of papers on a specific topic. Read more ›
Posted in Announcements, Conferences and workshops
SHLP VII Conference, 2020, Canberra
Due to the situation with coronavirus and uncertainties regarding international travel in the next few months the SHLP 2020 committee has regretfully decided that the best course of action is to postpone the conference. This decision is also partly influenced by the decision at ANU to postpone their 60+ years celebration. At this point in time it does not make sense to suggest an alternative time for the conference. Once the situation regarding the virus is clear, we will discuss the options, and post a notice on this website.
Australian National University, Canberra
3â4 August 2020
Organisers: Bill McGregor, Clara Stockigt & David Moore
Posted in Announcements, Conferences and workshops
The journal WORD and the structural heritage of usage-based linguistics: Three functional tenets and an overarching principle
Enrico Torre
UniversitĂ degli Studi di Genova
The first issue of WORD was launched in 1945, announced on its front cover as âthe journal of the Linguistic Circle of New York, devoted to the study of linguistic science in all its aspects.â At the time, the only other general linguistics journal published in the United States was Language, the organ of the Linguistic Society of America, which â at least according to the received view â was firmly in the hands of mechanist post-Bloomfieldians. Indeed, under Bernard Blochâs (1907â1965) editorship, most contributions accepted in Language were either papers on historical linguistics or strictly formal descriptions of linguistic phenomena. As scholars of the mechanist orientation were increasingly perceived as becoming elitist and the field seemed to be narrowing, a sense of discontent began to spread among fellow linguists who did not recognize themselves in that approach (Householder 1978). Read more ›
Program SeptemberâDecember 2019
As new posts are published, they will be added here.
| 18 September | The journal Word and the structural heritage of usage-based linguistics: Three functional tenets and an overarching principle. Enrico Torre University of Genoa |
| 6 November | Language in and out of society: Converging critiques of the Labovian paradigm Johannes Woschitz University of Edinburgh |
| 19 November | Une bonne langue pour chanter ? Réflexions sur les caractéristiques phonétiques des langues et sur le chant baroque Claudia Schweitzer Histoire des Théories Linguistiques, CNRS, Université de Paris |
Posted in Programs
History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences 